M
B
441764

ARTES
1837
VERITAS
LIBRARY
SCIENTIA
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SPURIOUS CRUM 3
TUEBOR
SI-QUÆRIS-PENINSULAM-AMŒNAM
CIRCUMSPICE
EN LA ROSE JE FLEURIS.
Two Volumes 8vo, with numerous Illustrations, price 36s.
TRAVELS
IN
LYCIA, MILYAS; AND THE CIBYRATIS,
IN COMPANY WITH THE LATE REV. E. T. DANIELL.
BY LIEUTENANT SPRATT, R.N.,
AND
PROFESSOR EDWARD FORBES.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS,
INCLUDING
VIEWS OF THE SCENERY;
PLANS OF ANCIENT CITIES AND BUILDINGS;
PLATES OF COINS AND INSCRIPTIONS;
CUTS OF ROCK-TOMBS, FOSSILS, AND GEOLOGICAL SECTIONS;
AND
AN ORIGINAL MAP OF LYCIA.
JOHN VAN VOORST, 1 PATERNOSTER ROW.
DF
901
.c8
577

NE
Hanhart lith
J.Schranz del, from a sketch by T.A.B.S.
My Ida..
Mt luka.
THE TOWN
OF
CANDIA.
TRAVELS AND RESEARCHES
IN
CRETE.
Um
·
CAPTAIN Thomas
A bei
rimage
BY
B. SPRATT, R.N., C.B., F.R.S.,
HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ARCHEOLOGICAL INSTITUTES AT BERLIN AND ROME.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCLXV.
k
1 - 2 2 - 3 5
07-31T20
ΤΟ
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
PRINCE ALFRED, K.G., K.T.
THESE VOLUMES
ARE, BY GRACIOUS PERMISSION,
DEDICATED,
WITH THE MOST PROFOUND AND DUTIFUL RESPECT,
BY
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS'S
VERY HUMBLE SERVANT,
337689
THE AUTHOR.
*
•
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
CHAPTER I.
Mount Ida.-Ascent to the summit.-Its flora.-Its geological
structure.-Devonshire Chough.-The Ibex.-A moving
mountain.-Sunset view from the summit.-Comfortless
night.-Stormy morning.-Return to the shepherds' cave.
CHAPTER II.
·
Descent from Ida.-Zones of vegetation.-Village of Vorus.-
Native conferences.-Pashley's Travels'; its deficiencies.
-Reflections on the Revolution for Independence.
CHAPTER III.
Gnossus and Gortyna.-Candia founded by the Saracens-
enlarged by the Venetians.-Its fortifications.-The great
Siege of Candia by the Turks.--Gallant defence and sur-
render. Reflections on the siege.-Khania supplants
Candia as the present capital of Crete.
CHAPTER IV.
Dapper's Plan of the Siege.-The Cemetery.-St. George's
Gate.-Lepers at ditto.-Youthful leper.-Married lepers
and child.-Neglect of the lepers.-Lepers' village.-
Reflections.-Duc de Beaufort.-Pasha's tomb.-Turkish
superstitions.—Sculptured sarcophagus at the St. George's
Gate.....
PAGE
5
20
26
37
vi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
Mahomedans of Crete.-Greek the common language.-Close
association of the creeds-its natural effects.-An en-
lightened pasha, intrigue against him.-Over-estimate of
the Greek population.-Greek rising, and persecution of
the Mahomedans.-The Sfakians-their dialect-its Hel-
lenic connexion shown by the late Col. Leake
CHAPTER VI.
Gnossus its site-its few remains at present-cause of this.-
The Labyrinth.-Plutarch's account of the Minotaur and
Labyrinth.-Ancient tombs at Gnossus-its ancient ports
of Amnisus and Heracleion...
CHAPTER VII.
Gnossus an early seat of Art and Learning before Greece.-
Sculpture by Dædalus. Subsequent celebrity of Cretan
art.—Its coins remarkable for art and for their imperfect
surface and form.-Eminent Cretan sculptors.-A Cretan
Venus.-A Cretan head of Zeus.-Leonardo da Vinci's
picture...
•
PAGE
47
58
68
CHAPTER VIII.
Mount Iuktas, the burial-place of Zeus; route to it.-Turkish
Monastery. Three dervishes.-View from Mount Iuktas.
-Rhaucus.-Valley of Arkhanes-its hospitable inhabi-
tants.-Tranquil nights; their treachery to the traveller.
CHAPTER IX.
Ancient cities of Lyttus and Lycastus.-Position of the latter
at Astritzi.-Thenæ.-Plain of Pediada; ascent to the
site of Lyttus from it.-The description of the site and
its remains its inscription-its coins.
77
89
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER X.
The Plain of Lasethe-its fertility and salubrity-it contained
no ancient City, and therefore belonged to Lyttus.—
Descent to Khersoneso.-Ruins of an ancient aqueduct
and road from Lyttus to Khersoneso.-Nummulitic fos-
sils.-Ruins of Khersoneso.-Vestiges of a church or
cathedral.-Tessellated fountain at the port.—Ancient
theatre.-A Freshwater deposit..
CHAPTER XI.
vii
PAGE
100
The Mirabella district and uplands.-The Carob- or Locust-
tree flourishes in this district.-The nutritious properties
of its fruit.-The food of St. John in the wilderness.—
Malia Bay and village.—Ancient site on the coast of
the bay. Discovery of scales of gold.-Probable site of a
temple to Britomartis.-Site of Miletus.-Extensive ca-
vern near it.—The harbour and fortress of Spina Longa.. 109
CHAPTER XII.
The ruins of an early Cretan city upon the Isthmus of Spina
Longa, and of Naxos over it.-The identity of the former
with Olontion.-Its ruins.-Its ancient port at Kaloky-
thia. The ruins and whetstone-quarries of Naxos.-The
quarries of Elunta.-The ancient Bishopric of Allyngus
recognized here
121
CHAPTER XIII.
The routes between Mirabella and Spina Longa, and also to
Kritza. The upland basin of Lakonia.-A remarkable
site over it. The very early character of the ruins.-
Identity with Olus and Olerus.-The Olerian Minerva,
her celebrated temple and festival.-Wooden statue to
Britomartis, by Dædalus.-Kritza the present capital of
the Mirabella.-Its fine situation.-The site of Minoa
identified at the head of the Gulf of Mirabella.-The few-
!
viii
+
CONTENTS.
ness of its remains explained by a recent submergence of
the eastern half of Crete.
PAGE
130
CHAPTER XIV.
The ancient port of Olus at St. Nikolo, not Minoa.-Ruins of
a Venetian castle, and of the ancient town of Camara, at
St. Nikolo.-A deep pool adjacent to its old port.—A co-
pious source at Almyro, and legends connected with it.-
The two other Cretan almyros, or brackish sources.-
The singularity of their situations, and of the mountain-
features over them, a result of uniform geological condi-
tions..
142
CHAPTER XV.
The Gulf of Mirabella, and the isthmus at its head.—Charac-
teristic features, their influence upon the earliest inhabi-
tants.-The Eteo-Cretes and Mount Dicte.--The northern
route into the Sitia. The ruins at Leopetra.-The ruined
Venetian town and bay of Sitia.—The probable site of
Etea
CHAPTER XVI.
Journey up the Valley of Sitia to Præsus.-The site a fine one,
but vestiges few upon it.-Its ancient name still-retained.
-Dicte shown by Strabo to have been proximate to it.-
Its site at Kopra Kephalo-Ancient cisterns and ruins.-
Faithless wives in the Sitia, and easy divorce.-Cretan
marriage ceremonies
152
163
CHAPTER XVII.
The upland plain and village of Kataleone.-Hospitality of
a Turkish family. The plain and village of Khadra.-
Rebuilding a church.-A hospitable Greek couple.-De-
scription of their habitation; its furniture, comforts, and
condition. The little tormentors of travellers.-Leave
Khadra.-A Venetian villa.-Return to Sitia Bay
174
·
་
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVIII.
The north-east extremity of Crete.-The Yanisades Islands.—
Cape Salmone, doubtful application of the name. The
Topler Monastery.-Eremopoli the ancient Etera.-Its
description.-Probably also called Arsinoe.-Its conve-
nient situation for Alexandrian traders.—Relics of a præ-
ptolemaic age. Numerous inscriptions.-Copper coins..
CHAPTER XIX.
Corruption of ancient Cretan names.-The modern name of
Lasethe derived from Lyttus, as Sidero from Etera.—The
Necropolis of Etera.-Sepulchral vases.—Ancient tombs
and tombstones.-Volcanic protrusions.-Palaio Kastron.
-Middle-age stronghold.-Vestiges of a city at the time
of Minos.-The ancient name not determined.-Inscrip-
tion at the Topler Monastery.-A cairn.-Local winds..
CHAPTER XX.
Sponge-divers on the coast of Crete.-Aristotle's knowledge
of sponges derived from the ancient sponge-divers.-The
temperature of the Mediterranean deeps. The large
adulteration of the sponge with fine sand.-Practice of
diving by the young children of sponge-divers.-A fleet
of sponge-fishers at work, their mode of operation.-The
inconveniences and accidents they are subject to.—The
shark's occasional appearance.-Account of a large shark
near a sponge-bank
ix
PAGE
188
215
CHAPTER XXI.
The east coast of Crete.-Gorge of Karouba.-Zakro Bay.—
Cyclopean remains. The ancient Itanus.-Destruction
of it and Præsus by the Hierapytnians.-The ancient
name still applied to a neighbouring village.-The coins
of Itanus.—The appropriate emblems upon them.-Site
of the small town of Ampelus. Routes to return to
Ierapetra
•
232
X
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXII.
The Kouphonisi Islands.-Roman ruins.~Ancient statue.-
The Island of Ophiusa.-Cretan pirates in early times.-
Roman and Rhodian war against them.-The haunt of
Algerine pirates.-An English traveller taken by one.-
Captain Manias.-His piratical deeds as a Sfakiot chief-
tain.-His death in my service.-A character, but not a
type of the race.-A patriot's grave
•
CHAPTER XXIII.
Return to Ierapetra.-Its situation and natural facilities for
forming a good port.-Its importance in early Cretan
times. Its three theatres.-its three harbours.-An in-
scription with the name of the city.-A lepers' village.-
Visit to the village. The neglect of the lepers by the
Cretans.-The Chapel of the Holy Cross upon a Moun-
tain.--Misdirection of mind and means.--Constant resort
of the sick to the ships for medical aid.-Their wants
and wounds attended to by the doctor.-The good phy-
sician's pleasures
PAGE
241
253
CHAPTER XXIV.
Discovery of two sarcophagi.—Their purchase and removal to
the British Museum.-A ghost story.-Description of the
larger sarcophagus.-The situation in which the sarco-
phagi were found, not in situ.-Conjectures upon their
origin and original sites
CHAPTER XXV.
The village of Anatoli.-Valley of Myrto.-Village of Malia
within it. Tournefort's "simpling" journey to it.-
Route from Girapetra to Arvi.-A giant's tomb.-Pash-
ley's learned description of the conflict of Otos and
274
CONTENTS.
Ephialtes, sons of a giant, against the god Ares.-Pro-
trusion of porphyritic trap.-Site of the temple of Jupiter
Arbius.-Cleft mountain over it.—The probable origin of
the temple at its base.-Geological notice of the adjacent
coast deposits.-Keraton Rock and Bay.-Vast number of
olive-trees.-Route to Viano.-Viano the ancient Biennus.
-Route towards the Messara.-Roman aqueduct.—A
fighting Turk.-Tchifoot Kastelli
CHAPTER XXVI.
Tchifoot Kastelli.-The supposed site of Arkadia.-Pashley's
erroneous views regarding its position.-Pliny's descrip-
tion of its fountains.-Tchifoot Kastelli proves to be only
a middle-age fortress.-Probable origin of the name.—
Return to the tent.-Information of other ruins.-Pro-
ceed to them.-Identify them as Arkadia.-Their de-
scription
•
xi
PAGE
289
310
CHAPTER XXVII.
The Messara plain.-Its two rivers.-Proceed to Panagia.-
Mussulman hospitality.-The effects of the Greek move-
ment against the Turks during the past year.-Disap-
pointing visit to reported ruins over Panagia.-Search
for the Homeric Rhytion.-Discover ruins at Rotas.-
Identify the site as Rhytion.-Kastelli the ancient Stelæ.
-Sudsuro the ancient Priansus.-Its situation.-Sud-
suro Bay-Rock chapel
•
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Rock grotto and chapel of Niketas.-Barbary corsair.-Mira-
culous escape of some Cretans from the pirates.-The
flight of a Cretan virgin.—The river Sudsuro.—A water-
fall.—The city of Lebena.-Temple of Æsculapius.-The
ruins of the city
327
343
xii
CONTENTS.
APPENDIX I.
On Cretan and modern Greek. (By Viscount Strangford.)
PAGE
355
APPENDIX II.
The capture of a Protestant divine by an Algerine corsair, in
the seventeenth century.
•
384
77
1
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME I.
Page
VIEW OF THE TOWN OF CANDIA
Frontispiece.
COIN OF GNOSSUS.
5
VIEW FROM MOUNT IDA, LOOKING WEST
SCULPTURED DRAMATIC SCENE ON A SARCOPHAGUS AT CANDIA
to face
16
46
A CRETAN VENUS
VIEW OF KHERSONESO
to face
72
106
""
VIEW OF THE SITE OF OLUNTION
128
""
PLAN OF GOOLAS, THE ANCIENT OLUS
129
CYCLOPEAN HOUSE AT GOOLAS
(woodcut) 141
VIEW OF EREMOPOLI, THE ANCIENT ETERA
193
VIEW OF PALATO KASTRON
208
SPONGE-DIVERS AT WORK
•
to face 222
VIEW OF IERAPETRA
254
""
SCULPTURED SARCOPHAGUS-THE DISCOVERY OF ACHILLES
279
AT THE COURT OF LYCOMEDES.
•
ACHILLES LAMENTING THE LOSS OF PATROCLUS
281
PLAN OF SARCOPHAGUS-CHAMBER
(woodcut) 282
295
CLEFT MOUNTAIN OF ARVI .
GROUND-PLAN OF ARKADIA
VIEW OF LEBENA
MAP- EASTERN PART OF CRETE
•
•
to face 321
351
at the end.
INTRODUCTION.
HAVING in May 1851, been appointed to succeed my
lamented Commander, the late Captain Graves, in the
direction of the Mediterranean Survey, I took com-
mand of the 'Spitfire,' a paddle steamer, and pro-
ceeded in her first to Crete, to complete its general
survey, which had been previously commenced by him.
I was joined by all the surveying-staff of Captain
Graves, and by Lieutenant (now Commander) G.
Johnstone as the executive officer, my former com-
panions in the Survey; and by their able assistance
the survey of Crete would have been brought to
a conclusion in the end of the year 1853, but for its
sudden interruption in the middle of the season, by
my recall to prosecute surveys, which the prospective
Russian war rendered more immediately necessary, in
the waters of approach to Constantinople and the
Black Sea. The Cretan charts were in consequence
necessarily put aside until after the Crimean war, and
VOL. I.
B
2
INTRODUCTION.
until other surveys that resulted from that war, viz.
at the Danube, &c., had been completed and published.
Several journeys were made by me through Crete,
during the progress of its survey, in company with
some of the officers or alone, either with the view to
co-operate in parts of its detail, or to collect reliable
information regarding the local names, population,
and ancient cities, many of them being as yet undis
covered or undescribed, and in consequence having an
important connexion with the completion of its geo-
graphical and topographical description. The results
of the journeys are briefly thrown together in the
following chapters.
The most gratifying part of an important work or
task is when the director and responsible head of it
has it in his power to do full justice to the zeal and
ability of those whom he has had the good fortune to
have under his command during its progress.
But the value of these detailed surveys will speak
for themselves, and for the several officers whose
names are now attached to them. And to the harmony
that existed must be attributed, without doubt, a large
share of those good results that followed.
For in such a special service, as in every expedition
of enterprise and research, where the zeal, talent, and
interest of every officer is required to be enlisted and
maintained, under various trying circumstances that
are incident to such services alone, the maintenance
INTRODUCTION.
3
of accord and good-fellowship is the key to their
endurance and perseverance, and the consequent har-
mony and perfection of the work.
Labour, under such conditions and circumstances,
becomes light and pleasant; and men then need no
other stimulus than the sense of duty to urge them
to the fullest energy and exertion. For then the
higher feelings, emanating from a conviction of the
important and enduring value of such labours to the
general navigator and for the advancement of general
knowledge and science, become better developed and
more operative in all.
My acknowledgments are therefore here heartily
given to all. But it is my special pleasure to refer
to the labours of my old coadjutor and companion,
Lieutenant (now Commander) Mansell, of the 'Firefly,'
and also to Lieutenant Wilkinson, of H.M.S. ‘Medina,'
by both of whom the greater part of the coast-line and
topographical detail has been obtained; and no less
to Mr. (now Staff Commander) Stokes, the able master
and observer, who has been also associated with me
in the Levant Survey for many years; and to Lieu-
tenant Brooker likewise, for his assistance in the
surveys of Crete. And as all have now their names
attached, in their appropriate places, to the several
plans and charts of it to which they have contri-
buted, that official recognition must be as gratifying
to them, as it is to me thus prominently to mark, in
B 2
1
4
INTRODUCTION.
this Introduction to a general description of the
Island of Crete, my individual appreciation of their
responsible labours.
But a work of purely local and limited research, with
the aim of preserving a few topographical and anti-
quarian facts, and without dashing adventure or
touching incidents, cannot be expected to excite
much general interest. Yet as some few, perhaps, of
the next generation as well as the present may find
these records and facts of use to them as travellers
or universal students, I am induced to give them
for their advantage and appreciation, which is the
most flattering result I can hope from my labours.
The map is a reduction of the Admiralty Charts of
Crete, published from our Surveys.
To Viscount Strangford I am specially indebted for
the translation of the modern Greek and Cretan voca-
bulary given in the Appendix, and published at Athens
by M. Chourmouzes Byzantios in 1842.
To the Rev. Churchill Babington, of St. John's
College, Cambridge, also, I am indebted for a learned
Appendix upon the several new inscriptions that were
found in the island.
I have to lament much delay both in the time of
commencing and the completion of this book, through
press of other duties; and its publication has been
further deferred, through a long indisposition, and my
absence from England.

I
NT
FUN N
COIN OF GNOSSUS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
CHAPTER I.
M
MOUNT IDA-ASCENT TO THE SUMMIT-ITS FLORA-ITS GEOLO-
GICAL STRUCTURE
MOVING MOUNTAIN ·
DEVONSHIRE CHOUGH—THE IBEX—A
SUNSET VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT
COMFORTLESS NIGHT-STORMY MORNING-RETURN TO THE
SHEPHERDS' cave.
Ir is now some few years ago that, on the last day of
May, I found myself standing upon the summit of
the Cretan Ida. The enthusiastic scholar will per-
haps envy me this privilege, entertaining a sentiment
of veneration for a spot so sacred in classical antiquity
as the birthplace of Jupiter, according to the writings
of some ancient authors who have treated of the my-
thology and traditions of the heroic ages.
The view from its summit, at 8200 feet above the
6
MOUNT IDA.
sea, over a great part of the length and breadth of
this fine island is a magnificent one certainly; but I
must undeceive the reader at once, by assuring him
that it was no classical enthusiasm that carried me at
this season to its snow-capped summit; I was there
in furtherance of a scientific object only, viz. the ob-
taining the observations that were required for a
complete triangulation over the southern islands of
the Greek archipelago, and for the survey of Crete
itself, in connexion with them.
To say that I felt no enthusiasm on the occasion
would not be true. But mine unfortunately arose
from no learned interest in the mythological features
and faith of the men of the time of Minos. It had
little to do with those who fed its fabled history with
the story of the Minotaur, and the conquest of the
beast by the Athenian Theseus.
The object of my mission had sufficient interest in
itself to excite a feeling of enthusiasm, from an anti-
cipation of its future utility, from the opportunity
afforded me of studying some of the grander features
of nature, and from the varied interests connected
with the examination and exploration of a new field.
Besides, who has ever gained the region of snow, at a
level of 8000 feet, with the sea, laving the shore, lying
almost at his feet, or has attained any great elevation
after great toil, without feeling the extreme pleasure
of having his fatigue and exertion rewarded by the
ASCENT TO THE SUMMIT.
7
magnificence of the bird's-eye view obtained by his
labours? Or who can prevent the mind from then
soaring, like the eagle that hovers over the summit he
is upon, as he first beholds the diminutive and now
silent, but yet busy, world below, and thus feels the
buoyant freedom of a temporary release from its vani-
ties, intrigues, and bustle?
Enthusiasm is, however, hardly the appropriate term
for one's feelings on such an occasion; for it is mixed
with awe, with admiration, or with gratitude as the
eye first reposes on the plunging descent beneath,
upon the vast expanse and beautiful scene around, or
reflectively peers into the ethereal space above.
We had halted, the previous night, at an upland
plain more than 2500 feet below the summit, and four
or five miles to the eastward of it, and a little below
the margin of the now fast-receding snow, as the sun
was nearly in the solstice.
The ascent from this upland basin or plain had oc-
cupied four hours and a half, following, as near as we
could trace it, the brow of the main ridge leading to
the summit, so as to avoid the depth of the snow in
the hollows on either side, now sometimes treacherous
from the sun's melting influence.
The quaint but celebrated French botanist and tra-
veller, Tournefort, ascended the mountain a century
and a half ago, in search of rare plants, but was not
rewarded in accordance with his expectation, finding
:
8
FLORA OF THE MOUNTAIN.
the mountain then comparatively bare and without
flowers. The old mountain, however, is not barren of
plants both rare and beautiful; for it has its alpine as
well as its peculiar vegetation, like all isolated and all
such greatly elevated mountains. The indefatigable
botanist, however, was a month too late in the time of
ascent, its flowering season having passed. At the time
of our visit, on every bare patch of soil from which
the snow had disappeared but a few days, and indeed
I may say hours, there sprung up many beautiful vari-
eties of bulbous plants, that flowered almost as soon as
the snow disappeared from over them: one of these-a
white-flowered variety of Fritillaria tulipifolia-not
then in flower, I had afterwards the pleasure of seeing
in bloom under the care of Mr. N. Ward, to whom seve-
ral of the bulbs, which I had forwarded to my lamented
friend Forbes, had been given, as well as to Sir William
Hooker at Kew, where it also flowered. It was as white
as a snowdrop and as delicate as a wax plant. The
rest of the plants gathered on Ida were, as was to be ex-
pected, similar to those we had found on the summits
of the Lycian Taurus about the same time of the year.
Dr. Pococke also ascended Mount Ida in the last cen-
tury, and about thirty years later than Tournefort; but
the learned Doctor's visit was in the month of August,
when the vegetation was also gone from it. Both these
celebrated travellers also ascended from the Monastery
of Arkadia, at the north-west base of the mountain.
**
FLORA OF THE MOUNTAIN.
9
The upland basin in which we had bivouacked, and
from which we now ascended on foot, was nearly two
miles long, and from half a mile to a mile broad, with
lesser plains at the same level in connexion with it.
The natives called it Nida, Nidha, or Netha, which is
evidently a corruption of the ancient name of the
mountain, Ida, according to the modern Greek pro-
nunciation. But the actual summit has for ages been
called Psiloriti or Ypsiloriti (Ynλopeítiov).
This upland basin, in which we had halted as the
highest point to which our sure-footed mules could
carry us, was just now also green as the meadow, from
the fresh spring grass and herbage upon its surface-
the snow having been absorbed by its soil but a few
days previous, under the warmth of the mid-May sun.
Our arrival, in fact, was with the earliest return of
the shepherds and flocks that resort to its pasturage
as the lowlands become parched by the heats of har-
vest-time, now in progress in the valleys below.
The verdant upland basin was as refreshing to the eye
as the fine bracing air of so elevated a region was to the
feelings; and its carpet of verdure was bespangled with
patches of wild flowers, amongst which we were de-
lighted to find the Buttercup of our own English mea-
dows, or a species closely allied to it, that in some parts
mellowed the verdure with its intermixed tints of gold*.
* A pretty little Clausilia gathered here was recognized by Dr.
Pfeiffer to be a new land-shell, and named by him Clausilia Idæa.
10
GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.
The pasturage of Ida, according to ancient fable,
had the peculiar property of gilding the teeth of the
sheep that fed upon it; and I am told that the juices
of its herbs or the pollen of its flowers certainly tinges
them a little yellow at this season; hence may be seen
the solution of the fable-that is, if the scholar can be
reconciled to such a matter-of-fact explanation.
Mount Ida stands almost in the centre of Crete, and
is insulated from the lesser ridges lying east and west
of it. In one point of view-that is, from the north-
west and west-it has a striking appearance, from its
fine conical form and towering elevation; and on this
account, as much as from its being the highest in the
island by a few feet, it owed perhaps its repute amongst
the ancients, and the fiction and fable which history
and tradition have associated with it.
But when seen from the north and north-east, its
long diameter is brought in view, and then it has not
so noble and grand an aspect, having a long and
undulating crest rising gradually, from its eastern
extreme, towards the summit, which lies nearer its
western. The south and south-west faces of the moun-
tain are very steep, being the upraised side; and the
uplifting agent, which was a mass of serpentine, has
protruded or forced itself out there, forming a respect-
able mountain, but in comparison to Ida a mere hill
at its foot; whilst on the north and north-east the
face descends in a series of ridges and terraces, like so
GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.
11
many steps between the summit and base, and repre-
senting probably so many faults, dislocations, and up-
liftings of its strata. The substratum is mainly a mass
of stratified limestone, with occasional interspersed
beds of shale, which altogether attains a thickness of
at least 5000 or 6000 feet. Between the serpentine
at the south base and the upper limestones there also
crops out a series of older or altered shales and lime-
stone of probably 1000 feet in thickness. The precise
geological age of this has not yet been demonstrated
by fossil evidences; for although an English traveller
in the island, of the last century, Dr. Varyard, de-
scribes some fossils found by him at the foot of Ida
which would seem to correspond with Belemnites, and
indeed calls them so, we did not in our ascent or de-
scent find any fossils.
The summit is formed of thinly stratified grey lime-
stone, which easily splits into large slabs, the whole dip-
ping to the north-east at a small angle. With these
slabs a small hovel, called a church, and dedicated to
the Holy Cross (Agios Stauros), has been erected upon
the summit, at the instigation of an old priest of My-
lopotamo, in consequence of a command he is said to
have received to that effect in a dream. But the only
indication of its sacred character was our finding, within
a small hole at its east end, a fragment of some earthen
vessel, with a few pieces of charcoal and incense.
In my ascent to it I was accompanied by Colonel
12
THE DEVONSHIRE CHOUGH.
Drummond Hay, late of the 42nd Regiment, who was
then on leave and a guest of Captain Graves. He was
a keen sportsman and a patient and earnest ornitholo-
gist; and his enthusiasm and interest in his favourite
pursuit was brought to the highest pitch of delight on
the evening of our arrival in the plain of Netha, by
unexpectedly finding there a few of the true Devon-
shire Jackdaw or Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus), of
the skin of which he was deficient in his fine collection
of British birds, owing to its peculiar limited location
to the south-west of England, and whose list of birds
observed by him in Crete is given in the Appendix to
the 2nd volume. It was singular to find it here,
when it had been so often sought for elsewhere by the
indefatigable ornithologist. But, in selecting Crete
for a location, it had instinctively resorted for breed-
ing to an elevation of the mountain that possessed
climatal conditions adapted to its nature.
When we reached the summit, the snow had melted
from off the Chapel, as well as for several hundred
yards along the crest of the peak on either side of
it. Several bulbs were in flower upon these bare
patches, which, with a few scattered tufts of a closely
matted and prickly plant, that grew in the form of a
sponge, and seldom larger than one, were all the vege-
tation that was capable of growing upon the bleak
crest of Ida; and when we first sighted it, a group of
Agrimia, a species of Ibex, that had been browsing
THE IBEX.
13
upon the scanty pasture, were standing motionless
upon its pinnacle. We had seen several others in
the ascent, some forty in all; but they were too wary
of any approach of man. They were not to be taken
even by a Highland deer-stalker and keen sportsman
like my friend and companion Drummond, but
bounded away, as soon as we were perceived, over
snow and steep, crag and precipice, until they had
gained another commanding peak far out of reach of
gun and rifle, and there again they watchfully grouped
themselves with their ponderous and sabre-shaped
horns curved in relief against the western sky. Crete
and the uninhabited islet of Anti-Milo are the only
islands of the archipelago in which the Ibex is found;
and their introduction into the latter island must have
been from Crete.
Several Hares were seen also during the ascent, all
of which were started from their forms on the open
snow-a spot their instinct seems to lead them to
prefer during the day, from the bad lie of their scent
upon it; and they seemed to be a smaller species
than the Hare of the lowlands.
The summit of the mountain gained, the necessary
observations for the distant triangulation were imme-
diately commenced, but were only partially completed
after several hours' trial at the theodolite, through the
unfortunate and unexpected rising of a mist around us,
or an occasional settling of a cloud upon the distant
14
peaks.
►
AN UNFORTUNATE MIST.
The important angles to the more distant
islands usually visible from Ida could not, therefore, be
taken satisfactorily; and it was so necessary and desir-
able to obtain them, if possible, after the time, labour,
and expense incurred in ascending to the summit of
the mountain with our instruments, that I felt it ne-
cessary to remain the night, hoping that at sunset or
sunrise, as we had often experienced before, the clouds
would temporarily descend or lift from the mountain-
top and also from the summits of the distant islands.
One of the three muleteers who had accompanied
us volunteered to remain, under the temptation of a
sovereign offered as a reward to either, but not until
much persuasion had been previously used by himself
and the rest (one of whom was a shepherd from the
plain of Netha) to induce me to return to the
bivouack, as I was lightly clad and without food.
But I gave no heed to their advice, as the day was
calm and fine, although hazy, and the night could
not be very severe, I thought, especially if my object
was accomplished by my sunset view and observations.
When my other companions had left me, Marko
and myself beguiled the time during which the mists
intercepted the view, in gathering up by the roots a
heap of the moist sandy tufts of shrub that grew
around the hovel, hoping to raise a fire from them
within it, should the night prove cold.
As the sun declined towards the west, I watched
A MOVING MOUNTAIN.
15
anxiously for the appearing of the distant mountains
and islands; and as usual, as I had hoped, the clouds
lifted from some of them, and thus a few of the more
important were then observed. But the haze hung
heavy upon the horizon in some directions, fore-
boding, with the white fleecy clouds, a coming Meltem,
or northerly gale of summer.
And whilst scanning the horizon in all directions
as the sun was low, I was surprised by the sudden
appearance in the east of what seemed to be a well-
defined mountain-top of some island in that direction,
although no land was known to exist there. The phe-
nomenon for a time puzzled me; for as plain as eye
could see, and theodolite could observe, there was, to
all appearance, far, far in the east a well-outlined and
clearly defined conical mountain, that peered through
the dark leaden haze hanging over the horizon there.
After a little pause, however, the theodolite was
again directed to its well-marked summit; but on
reading off the angle, it was seen to have changed
positions. A moving mountain! The mystery was
greater, until a little reflexion at once solved it:
the phantom island was the actual shadow of the
mountain I was standing upon, the haze being so
dense in that direction as actually to receive a strong
imprint of the outline of Mount Ida upon it; for
when I turned the theodolite round 180° to the oppo-
site quarter, it pointed directly to the sun, and the
16
SUNSET VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT.
explanation was complete. I have never before or
since observed a similar effect; and it will be seen,
on consideration, that it can only occur upon a very
high mountain, with a certain atmosphere, and only
just before sunset or after sunrise, when the sun is of
a sufficient height above the horizon to have light
and strength enough to produce an opposing shadow
upon an atmosphere or haze sufficiently dense, but
yet not more intense in tint than the shadow itself.
The effect of this haze and windy-looking atmo-
sphere upon the landscape, was also most gorgeous
and attractive; and I sat watching its play of pink,
purple, and golden hues, tinting the mountain-tops
or lower landscape as the light faded, with intense
admiration and pleasure, until, by the sudden disap-
pearance of the orb behind its fiery screen in the
west, the bright tints vanished, and all was grey.
The day had declined; it had run its course; and
the sober tint of age had fitly succeeded the brighter
aspect of its glory, before darkness closed upon it, and
night asserted its power.
I was captivated by this brilliant effect, and
sketched the panoramic view of hill and dale, coast-
line and bays, of this western half of Crete, as seen
from my aërial position on Ida, which I here give to
aid the reader's comprehension of my partial and im-
perfect attempt to describe it.
The chill of the evening, however, soon struck sen-

J. Schranz del from a
sketeh by T.A.B.S.
Veni
Retimo.
Hanhart lith
CMaleka
VIEW FROM MT IDA.
་
A COMFORTLESS NIGHT.
17
sibly upon my nerves, and from my reverie I hastily
retreated to the chapel or hovel, but then only to be
made truly sensible of its dull, cheerless reality and
shelter, and the comfortless night before me. But
I had had my cup of enjoyment; and that never
comes, in any shape, without some alloy in payment,
either of toil, of anxiety, or of privation.
The wind rose as the night advanced; and as the
hovel was built of loose stones, without mortar or
soil, it blew through the apertures between, in a
thousand little jets of cold piercing blasts that pene-
trated to the marrow of one's bones. It was in
vain that Marko and myself tried to produce some
warmth and blaze from the damp sponge-like tufts
of shrub we had gathered. With his tobacco-pipe
as blower, we puffed and puffed alternately for hours;
but it only produced a smouldering smoke, and half
suffocated us in the effort: they were too green, and
too much saturated with the snow that had only
recently been melted from them.
It was in vain, too, that we tried to quench thirst,
by melting some lumps of snow we had stored for
the purpose, upon large slabs of stone placed at an
inclination over, or upon, the smouldering tufts; for
what little did melt, and run off into the cup of my
pocket-flask, was converted into gall for bitterness,
by the smoke that had penetrated the snow during
the process of heating and melting.
VOL. I.
C
18
A STORMY MORNING.
The night, however, passed in due time, as all nights
of suffering and misery do-the sluggish hours as they
pass away only appearing some ten times as long as they
need or were wont, but when passed being soon forgot;
for the birth of the new day brings its new pleasures
and occupations of mind and body: and thus its
dawn gladly found us moving to restore circulation
and warmth. As soon as restored, therefore, and day
had come, the eye was anxiously peering through the
instrument towards some mountain or island whose
angular direction I had hoped to observe.
This, also, was labour in vain, as the wind ren-
dered the instrument too unsteady for correct vision
or observation during the brief interval there was an
opportunity of attempting it; for there soon ascended,
from the valleys below, a white but dense vapour,
whose playful masses curled, rolled, and mingled as it
arose, like a turbulent and foaming sea. Some patches
of fleeting mist, too, now and then shot up from it, as
messengers of its approach; and rushed over the brow
of the mountain, like steam from an engine in motion;
and ere long, ere a few minutes more of watchful-
ness of its marvellous appearance and motions had
passed, the whole cloud had come up, although to us
it appeared as if we sank into it as into an abyss or
ocean; and we were immediately enveloped in its
gloom and mist.
I was too familiar with the meaning of a cloud upon
THE SHEPHERDS' CAVE.
19
Ida at this hour and season, not to know that further
observation would be hopeless, probably for several
days. There was no alternative but to return, and be
satisfied with what we had effected. Marko therefore
shouldered the instruments, and I my books and the
plants and wild flowers I had collected, and we worked
our way back, bidding adieu to its bleak aspect with
no reluctance, following, as often as we could, our foot-
prints on the snow of the previous day, where our
track had necessarily led across it. We frequently,
however, lost them and followed the wrong ridge in the
search, and had to retrace our steps, as we were often
unable to see more than fifty yards before us. The
cheering voices of our shepherd guides were at length
heard when about halfway down-messengers of com-
fort, coming to our aid with clothing, food, and milk.
Not long after noon, we had the satisfaction of reach-
ing our bivouac in the Shepherds' Cave at Netha;
and, in grateful remembrance of the comfortable
night which followed in it, I here notice it, that the
future traveller making the ascent of Mount Ida may
know how well he can get lodged at this elevation,
and how comfortable he can make himself with his
rug and saddle-bags-provided, however, he previously
sweeps and smokes out the manure and vermin from
its interior.
c 2
20
CHAPTER II
DESCENT FROM IDA-ZONES OF VEGETATION—VILLAGE OF VORUS
-NATIVE CONFERENCES-PASHLEY'S 'TRAVELS'
TRAVELS'; ITS DEFI-
CIENCIES-REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION FOR INDE-
PENDENCE.
Ar early dawn of the following day we were astir to
prepare for the descent, under the escort of our famed
Sfakiot guide and chief, Captain Manias, of whom I
shall have further occasion to speak. As we returned
by the road we ascended, I shall therefore here briefly
notice the features we passed on our descent to the
village of Vorus, on the southern flank of the moun-
tain, as it will be of use to a traveller making the
ascent from the same place.
After leaving the plain of Netha, Nidha, or Neda,
by a short pass through a gap in the edge of the south
face of this mountain-basin, we descend by an execrable
road, for twenty minutes, over a bared and almost
soilless part of the mountain-face, which during six
months of the year is covered with snow. We then
reach the skirts of a forest of ilex and maple, which at
this zone of elevation (viz. about 5000 feet above the
sea) belts the southern face of the mountain like a
dark girdle, and occupies a breadth of nearly 1000 feet
THE VILLAGE OF VORUS.
21
of altitude. The forest is dense in some parts, and is
thus, from climatal influence, a vegetable zone peculiar
to itself-forming a markedly distinct band between
the alpine vegetation above, and the shrubs and plants
of the lower regions and valleys, which next succeed
it: sparingly at first, but afterwards, at 3500 feet above
the sea (that is, about 2000 feet below the pass), we
had around us the ordinary shrubs of the island,
although somewhat stunted and sparse; and soon the
wild olive took its place amongst them.
The descent to the village of Vorus occupied about
two hours and a half, whilst the ascent required more
than three hours and a half, and is, for the most part,
a zigzag rocky track, a great portion of which is not
practicable, or at least not advisable, to ride over, ex-
cept upon the quietest and strongest mules of Crete.
The Cretan mule is, however, generally a well-bred,
surefooted, docile although somewhat shy animal; and
the best are bred in the west part of the island, by
the Sfakiots.
Tournefort ascended the mountain by its north-west
face, and therefore did not visit the upland basin of
Netha. There is a road to it also up the north side
of the mountain, and from the large Greek village of
Anoya, in the upper part of the Mylopotamo district-
the inhabitants of Anoya being large sheep-farmers
and shepherds, whose flocks pasture on the mountain.
It is very probable, however, that travellers will
22
NATIVE CONFERENCES.
The
not often, or at the present time especially, find guides
to take them to the top of Ida by the way of the
plain of Netha; for, in times of internal trouble,
it has always been a place of retreat for many of
the Christian inhabitants of the adjacent villages
below. It is a mountain fortress given to them by
nature; and before we had procured a guide to it
from Vorus, a consultation seemed to be held re-
garding the propriety of showing us one of the ways
to their mountain magazine and stronghold.
influence of Captain Manias's local repute and bland
tongue, however, prevailed against the scruples of the
villagers who assembled in council regarding it-but
not until after two and a half hours' detention before
the guide was procured, and our necessary stock of
provisions was obtained. The conference was held
under some olive-trees just at the outskirts of the
village, which is situated at the head of a long valley
that leads from the plains or Valley of Gortyna to the
narrow gap or col separating the hill of serpentine
from the frizzled and distorted dark shales, schists,
and semicrystalline limestone which underlie the great
mass of grey horizontal strata of unfossiliferous lime-
stone that rises from it to the crests of Ida.
These suburban conferences and open-air parlia-
ments are often held amongst the mountain Cretans,
either for some plan to evade the tax-gatherer or
resist the authorities, or to settle some feud with a
C
PASHLEY'S TRAVELS.'
23
neighbouring village for blood-money or a victim;
and they are characteristic of what the mountain
Cretan always has been and still is, evidences of his
high spirit and independent feelings. A knot of these
Cretans in consultation, especially if composed of the
Sfakiots or Therissots of the western part, presents a
fine and interesting picture, from their tall, manly
figure and carriage, and noble and generally hand-
some expression of features.
Thus, as my first introduction to the Island of Crete
was by an early visit to the summit of Ida, I have
thought that my introduction of the reader to the
features and facts I have in the subsequent chapter
attempted to depict, of localities left undescribed by
Pashley, should also be with my bird's-eye view from
its most elevated and classic mountain, so as to
awaken at once such feelings and impressions as his
previous readings and studies are capable of effecting
within him, and to make amends for my deficiencies.
The erudite but incomplete book of travels by Pash-
ley, will no doubt do that much better with the classic
traveller and scholar; and although we tread different
paths in this respect, some may find my volume useful
to them in the parts I shall dwell upon and describe,
as a simple guide-book to an interesting island, and to
a little-known, though interesting people.
I propose, then, to give a general description of the
eastern half of Crete, as the part left unfinished by
24
REFLECTIONS ON THE
Pashley; and to add a chapter or two on the western
part, where discoveries of interest have been made
by myself or the officers employed with me during
the progress of the survey of Crete, either when con-
ducted under the direction of the late Captain Graves
or myself.
I have brought the reader, therefore, from the airy
summit of Ida, down to the denser regions of ordinary
life, and dissolved the spell or charm which its ele-
vation, solitude, and grandeur of scene had cast upon
the mind.
We shall in future, therefore, wade through a
heavier atmosphere, and amidst the commoner scenes
of life and strife, or amongst the humbler and less
striking features of nature. But still man is present
there in prosperity, in misery, or in activity-and,
in consequence, will give interest, sympathy, or life to
the scene.
Sometimes, too, we shall be amidst the relics which
tell of the power, wealth, and civilization of the past
—of the cultivated race of Cretans twenty and thirty
centuries ago and sometimes amidst vestiges which
too truly tell of a modern desolation, of a brutal
strife, and of a barbarism that existed amongst the
inhabitants of only a quarter of a century ago, the
effects of which are still deeply visible and felt, keep-
ing local civilization lagging far, far behind, through
a spirit of hatred and of revenge, which some restless
REVOLUTION FOR INDEPENDENCE.
25
and violent spirits, and the memory of the past, too
easily awaken.
Begun, no doubt, for a noble cause-for freedom,
for liberty, but without being prepared for it, and
without knowing freedom's best weapon and power-
it was commenced, continued, and ended with need-
less and heedless barbarity and cruelty, both on the
part of oppressed and oppressor. It became, in con-
sequence, a war of retaliation between religions and
races, and, by sword, famine, and diseases, half-de-
populated the island, planting misery and sorrow in
every feeling heart, and disease and poverty in almost
every Cretan family, and thereby threw it back fully
half a century in prosperity, in wealth, and civiliza-
tion.
M
ว
26
CHAPTER III.
GNOSSUS AND GORTYNA.—CANDIA FOUNDED BY THE SARACENS—
ENLARGED BY THE VENETIANS-ITS FORTIFICATIONS.THE
GREAT SIEGE OF CANDIA BY THE TURKS-GALLANT DEFENCE,
AND SURRENDER-REFLECTIONS ON THE SIEGE.-KHANIA SUP-
PLANTS CANDIA AS THE PRESENT CAPITAL OF CRETE.
CRETE is divided by Mount Ida into two notable divi-
sions, the eastern and the western. The roots and
main branches of the mountain extend to the north
and south coasts, and thus form a natural barrier
across the island. Towards the north, an extended
root projects the coast a little, along the Ægean shore,
for an extent of several miles, and terminates abruptly
over it-this branch or root enclosing within its bend
the whole of the fine district and valley of Mylopo-
tamo. To the south, the roots terminate more abruptly,
and touch the Libyan Sea at the north-east angle of
Messara Bay.
Gnossus, the famed capital of Crete in the time of
its early and wise king Minos, stood amidst low ridges
at a few miles from the north-east base of Mount Ida,
and near the north coast, having its port of Amnisus
on the Ægean shore. And Gortyna, its rival and the
subsequent capital in the time of the Romans, ten
centuries afterwards, stood at the south-east base of the
CANDIA FOUNDED BY THE SARACENS.
27
mountain, on the margin of the extensive valley and
plain of the Messara, which, from its fertility, was
anciently called the granary of Crete, and had its
ports of Metallus and Leben on the shores of the
Libyan Sea.
After the conquest of Crete by the Saracens, about
A.D. 820, the capital again returned to the north shore.
They founded Candia on the site of Heraclea, the
second and later seaport of Gnossus; and this town,
until within a few years, has remained the capital of
the island, and is still its largest city.
The Saracens retained possession of Crete for about
140 years, in spite of several efforts on the part of the
Byzantine emperors to recover it from them. They
were, however, eventually driven out by Nicephorus
Phocas in 961.
At the division of the Eastern Empire by the Franks,
Crete appears to have been given to Boniface, Duke
of Montserrat, by Baldwin, in or about A.D. 1190,
under the Genoese; and from him it passed by pur-
chase to the Republic of Venice, on August 12th,
1204.
Candia, the name of the capital, became afterwards
applied to the whole island by the European naviga-
tors and geographers, just as London is, amongst the
mass of the Oriental population, now commonly un-
derstood by them to mean England, from being its
principal place of trade and the principal place spoken
5
28
CANDIA ENLARGED BY THE VENETIANS.
of amongst past navigators and merchants. The Vene-
tians too adopted it.
But, with the natives of Crete, the ancient name of
the island has never been lost or changed; for Crete
has been its local name since the days of Minos, by
its entire population; and even the Turkish tongue
has produced no other modification of it than Krit
or Kirit, its natural pronunciation by a Turk, when
written in the characters of their language.
The origin of the name of Candia is said by some
authors to have been derived from the Arabic word
Khandak (a trench), because the Saracens first en-
trenched themselves there after landing. It is a word
now commonly applied, by the Greeks, to a stagnant
canal, natural or artificial, and may have been locally
applied to the then choked and stagnant port of
Heracleon.
Recently it was commonly spoken of as the Megalo
Kastron (the great fortress, or chief city); now the
ancient name has been revived, and it is generally
called Heracleon by the Greeks.
When Crete came into the hands of the Venetians,
the town of Candia was about one-third of its present
size, the inner wall of its fortifications of the time of
the Genoese being still in parts traceable; and its old
land gateway (which led to the south) was, until
recently, the town-prison and guardhouse, and stood
in the centre of the main street of the present city.
THE FORTIFICATIONS.
29
The Venetians not only greatly extended the limits
of the town, but embellished it with eight large
churches, several fountains, and some fine public
buildings, of which latter the Armoury, in the main
street, is still a handsome relic, of two stories, com-
bining the Doric and Corinthian orders. And the
large ruined church of St. Titus, over the eastern part
of the fortifications, was, for such a town, of cathedral
proportions and style of architecture: a handsome
entrance and circular window over, and part of an
elegant baptistry attached to it, are still standing.
But the wide and noble ditch surrounding the for-
tifications (and excavated out of the solid rock) which
encompass three parts of the city, the fine bastions
and high curtains connecting them, as also the several
outworks constructed around the extended lines by
the Venetians, are still monuments of their wealth,
power, and skill.
Candia was consequently the best-fortified and finest
city of its time in the Levant. Retiring from the
shore upon gently rising land, it has a fine although
not an imposing appearance from the sea,-few of its
buildings or fortifications, except those near the sea-
defences, being very conspicuous; for the houses of
the upper part of the town, which the Venetians
called New Candia, are mostly now, as in their time,
of a single story.
On the east, the fortifications are flanked by a de-
30
SIEGE OF CANDIA.
tached outwork, or fortified bourg, called St. Demetri,
which is founded upon high ground, and partly exca-
vated out of the natural rock.
The town-wall has seven bastions, named by the
Venetians successively (beginning from the north-east
bastion at the sandy bay near the port) Sabionera, Vit-
tori, Giesu, Martinengo, Bethelem, Panigra, and St.
Andrea at the north-west extreme and sea-shore; be-
sides which there was a well-built castle upon the
molehead that defended the port; ravelins and horn-
works also fronted the angles of the counterscarp, and
cavaliers surmounted the principal bastions.
The extent of these works was their greatest source
of defect and weakness.
In April 1667, Candia was laid siege to by the
Turks, under the Vizier Achmet, and was surrendered
by the Venetians on September 18th, 1669, after a
gallant defence of two years, three months, and
twenty-seven days' duration. Its loss to Christendom
at that time was deeply lamented throughout Catholic
Europe. Succour was sent to it: but it came too late.
At the eleventh hour, France, stirred by the call of
the Pope for European aid, responded to the sum-
mons, and sent the Duc de Beaufort, with a gallant
band of volunteers and soldiers, in nearly 100 ships,
for its support. The Duc arrived off Candia on the
19th of June, and, heading a gallant sortie made a few
days afterwards from the St. George's Gate, upon the
GALLANT DEFENCE.
31
Turks' entrenchments between the Sabionera Bastion
and Fort St. Demetri, was unfortunately killed; and
the attack failed through a panic created amongst the
new troops he had led forth, caused, it is said, by the
explosion of one of the magazines they had taken
from the Turks.
The gallant French admiral and duke, it is sup-
posed, was blown to pieces by the explosion; for the
body was never recovered.
The western face of the city, more particularly oppo-
site the Bastion St. Andrea, was where the Turkish
efforts and approaches, by numerous mines and en-
trenchments, were most vigorously pressed and most
successful. A breach was consequently effected in the
St. Andrea Bastion; and to prevent an assault upon it
being successful, a sortie was made by the French
and Italians in this quarter, at the same time that the
Duc de Beaufort's party issued from the eastern gate.
It was the last hope of the Venetians; and it failing
from the cause above assigned, Crete, with the fall of
its capital, Candia, passed entirely into the possession
of the Turks.
Thus fell the jewel of the Venetian Republic, in
spite of its noble defence and the European sympathy
for its preservation, and in spite of the succour which,
by the instrumentality of the Pope, had been sent for
its relief. The city, however, was surrendered a mere
heap of ruins-and only when surrounded by a laby-
32
SURRENDER.
rinth of sappings, trenches, mines, and countermines
that rendered it no longer tenable, and has made its
siege, and gallant defence, one of the most memorable
in modern history, and which the following parti-
culars of the loss on both sides, and the expenditure
by the Venetians, will more fully indicate the nature
of, considering the time.
The Venetians had 30,000 killed and wounded; and
the Turkish loss was 120,000. The Venetians ex-
ploded 1163 mines, and the Turks 462. The Vene-
tians expended 50,000 tons of powder, and threw
48,170 bombs of all sizes, from 50 to 120 pounds
weight, besides 100,960 grenades of brass and iron
and 84,870 of glass, firing also 276,743 cannon-balls
of different sizes.
Of the Turkish expenditure there is no knowledge;
but against the Sabionera and St. Andrea Bastions
they had erected batteries mounting 59 guns, capable
of throwing shot from 50 to 100 pounds weight. In
all, there were fifty-six assaults by the Turks, and the
Venetians made eighty-six sorties.
The gallant defenders, under the Captain-General
Fran. Morosini (who succeeded the noble Cornaro in
the spring of 1669, after his death from the bursting
of a shell), retired to their ships and country with
honour; and the good faith observed by the Vizier
Achmet during the twelve days granted for their em-
barkation, and the attention and respect shown by
REFLECTIONS ON THE SIEGE.
33
him towards Morosini at his departure, were equally
honourable to the infidel victor.
Reflecting upon the circumstances of this memorable
siege not quite two centuries ago, with that of Sevas-
topol so fresh in our memory, we see that the two were
in direct contrast; for in the former it was the Turk
besieging a Christian town which was supported by
Christian Europe, in the latter it was Christian Europe
besieging a Christian city in support of the Turk. Yet
the principle of that war was right and just, and its
result was the production of a great good; for the
civilization of the East has been greatly advanced by
it: moreover it was a war which no diplomacy could
have averted. It was an event, evidently, ordered and
devised for the drying up of the wide waters that
flowed from the fountain of Mahomet; for the main
spring, the vital source, of all that originated and sup-
ports Mahomedanism was thus checked when its fol-
lowers from all parts-from Europe, Asia, Egypt, and
Africa-willingly became banded with the Christian,
in a common cause, in belligerent brotherhood. The
follower of Islam then forgot his fanaticism under his
enthusiasm, and the barriers which had previously
confined the one, and kept out the other, gave way;
and thus the flood of prejudice peculiar to the creed
of fate is becoming slowly shallowed and absorbed,
to the great benefit of the Mussulman themselves and
the civilized world.
VOL. I.
D
34
REFLECTIONS ON THE SIEGE.
At Candia, too, the besieging were not masters of
the sea, as at Sevastopol; and consequently their invest-
ment was entirely confined to the land, whilst the be-
sieged maintained their communications and support
entirely by sea.
The plan of the Turks, at the siege of Candia, was
evidently that of directing their main and patient
attack, and approach, against the Sabionera and St.
Andrea Bastions, at the north-east and north-west
angles of the city, so as to cut off the besieged from
their port, and from the sea; and therefore, as soon
as Morosini saw this was imminent, and all hope
of further succour gone, he wisely capitulated, to
save the remnant that were left, and the defenceless
city also from being sacked and burnt by an infuriated
enemy. And when it was surrendered to the lieutenant
of Achmet at the end of the time granted, he exclaimed
with indignation and disgust, on viewing the heap of
ruins he was to receive the charge of from Morosini,
"Why, we have waited twelve days for a place that
might have been taken in as many hours."
The Turks, on gaining possession of the city, took
immediate steps to restore its defences and repair its
breaches, and also its public buildings and churches,
all of which were, excepting the Greek, converted into
mosques. But their usual apathy and neglect during
recent times, combined with occasional earthquakes
(more particularly the severe one of 1856, which was
THE BAYS OF STANDIA.
35
felt throughout the East), have greatly damaged
both fortifications and churches, seriously injuring
also the public buildings as well as many of the
habitations. The principal minarets were at the same
time thrown down, and several of the galley-arches
within the port fell in, so great were the shocks felt
in Candia.
The piers enclosing the port are for the most part
old moles, that formed the later seaport of Gnossus
(Heracleon). It was, however, always too limited and
too shallow to admit the larger and principal trading-
vessels of the Venetians, which in consequence an-
chored within one of the two eastern bays that indent
the southern shore of the Island of Standia, lying
opposite to it. The bays of Standia were therefore
the emporium or principal trading-port of Crete
during its occupation by the Saracens and Vene-
tians, as also during the Turkish occupation; and
Candia remained its capital.
The rising of Greece against her oppressors, in
1821, aroused the patriots of Crete at the same time,
who maintained the struggle, with varied fortune,
against the forces of the Sultan and of Mehemet Ali,
until the battle of Navarino liberated Greece, in 1828,
when Crete was ceded to the powerful Viceroy of
Egypt, for the part he had taken against it, and the
governorship of the island was given to his able
Albanian General Mustapha Pacha, who retained it
D 2
36
KHANIA THE PRESENT CAPITAL.
for twenty years, and who deepened the old port of
Candia by dredging, and rendered it available for
trade.
But when the island passed back from Mehemet
Ali to the Sultan again in 1841, after the fall of
Acre, Khania was chosen as the seat of government,
from its proximity to the Bay of Suda, and from pos-
sessing also a more capacious and convenient port
within it, combined with the other cogent reasons-
of policy, and local tranquillity.
The town of Candia is now therefore only the second
city of Crete, although the largest, the most populous,
and the most healthy. It is, however, a separate
Sanjak under the Governor-general, who resides at
Khania; and the subordinate Pashalic of Candia in-
cludes the whole of the division of the island lying
eastward of the natural limits formed by Mount Ida.
It contains about 13,000 inhabitants, Turks and
Greeks, the former being the majority.
37
CHAPTER IV.
DAPPER'S PLAN OF THE SIEGE-THE CEMETERY-ST. GEORGE'S
M
YOUTHFUL LEPER
GATE LEPERS AT DITTO
MARRIED
LEPERS AND CHILD-NEGLECT OF THE LEPERS-LEPERS' VIL-
LAGE-REFLECTIONS-DUC DE BEAUFORT-PASHA'S TOMB—
TURKISH SUPERSTITIONS-SCULPTURED SARCOPHAGUS AT THE
ST. GEORGE'S GATE.
THE interest connected with the great siege of Candia
and its defence will induce the traveller, no doubt, to
visit the exterior as well as the interior of the town.
Dapper gives, in his great work published thirty-three
years after the siege, a very correct, elaborate, and in-
teresting plan of the city, its fortifications and de-
fences, as well as of the approaches of the Turks.
This must have been derived from authentic Venetian
documents and sources; and on inspecting the ground
on the east as well as west sides of the city, its in-
equalities which yet remain, notwithstanding the sub-
sequent cultivation of parts of it, induce one to trace
in some of them the vestiges of these works, and thus
mark the exact spots where many bloody contests oc-
curred.
To the south of the city lies a large Turkish ceme-
tery, which, unlike Turkish graveyards in general, is
without a single cypress tree; it is, in consequence, a
•
38
ST. GEORGE'S GATE.
mere forest of tombstones, of interest only from con-
taining many that fell in the great siege, and for the
ancient fragments that may be found in it.
The eastern approach perhaps possesses the greater
interest to the stranger, from its being here that the
Duc de Beaufort fell. St. George's Gate, which leads
to it from near the centre of the lines, was both
strongly constructed and well defended; it opens from
the parade-ground near the Turkish barracks. This
gate being much higher than the ditch and valley
lying close under it upon this side of the city, the
covered way and approach has a considerable descent,
and is thus well commanded by the lines above. After
passing through this gate, the traveller is sure to en-
counter a group of miserable-looking objects lying by
the wayside and imploring the charity of every passer-
by. They are lepers-and in all stages of this terrible
disease: on the opposite side of the valley is their
village the location to which all the lepers of the
district are driven, and where they pass the rest of
their days after the disease has been pronounced to
exist upon them.
This day there were eleven lepers waiting at the
St. George's Gate for the charity of passengers; and
as they were an interesting group, I stopped to make
some inquiries of them, which they freely answered.
Ten of the group were ranged on the ground, under
the angle of the high bastion, just without the gate-
THE LEPERS.
39
way; the other, the eleventh, was apart from them,
and an object of great commiseration from his dis-
figured condition and age, being nearly sixty. He
had only been twelve years a leper, however; but his
disease had been so rapid, that he was perfectly blind,
and dreadfully swollen and disfigured in limbs and
face, and hid his hands and feet in filthy bags of old
rags, to hide their sores and deformities from the
public, whose charity he solicited. He was seated in
a small shed on the opposite side of the way, apart
from his companions, from an apparent consciousness
that he was almost too hideous to meet the eye of his
fellow-man; and sad and singular it was to learn, that
he had only been joined by his daughter about ten
days previous. She, at the age of eighteen, and
leaving a mother behind, had then, at the age of hope
and promise, been driven from her village-home for
ever, to be an outcast from friends and relations, in
companionship, and with the stigma, of a leper! but
yet just in time to become a comfort to her long
outcast, and now helpless father, during his fast de-
clining hours of misery. On first seeing her, although
seated with the unmistakeable lepers, I could not
believe she was one of them, being neatly dressed, of
considerable beauty, though pale, and by no means
overcast with melancholy, or indicating feelings of
mental grief and depression at her new position and
miserable prospects. I was induced therefore to ask
40
THE YOUTHFUL LEPER.
her if she really was a leper; and she immediately
showed me her hands, still delicate and fair, but with
two of her fingers slightly bent and stiff. These un-
mistakeable symptoms, to those who know the early
appearance of the disease, had only appeared on her
about six months previously, when she was imme-
diately placed under the surveillance of the matrons
of the village, who then jealously watch any suspicious
spots, from a general belief in its contagious nature.
The signs of the foul spot or malady becoming more
developed and evident during this time, together with
the fact of her father being also a leper, were consi-
dered decisive. She was consequently now driven
from her home, to become for ever the companion of
corruption and misery; and, even on the tenth day
of her exile, here she sat, compelled to seek alms on
the public approach to a large city, and to meet the
cold gaze and indifference of the passers-by. The
healthy mind shudders, naturally, at the sight and
contemplation of such a condition and future for
one so young and attractive.
But perhaps even this change of scene was a relief
from the sickening sights of the lepers' village; or
perhaps she was buoyed up in spirit by the support
and comfort she could now give to her helpless and
dying parent. I could account for her apparent apathy
from no other cause. "God tempers the wind to the
shorn lamb❞—a truth we so often realize; and surely
MARRIED LEPERS AND CHILD.
41
these poor objects need that the sensibilities of the
mind should be tempered under the helpless condi-
tion of advancing disease and corruption, and, what is
worse, the cold neglect of their fellow-creatures. "To
be put under the ground would be better than life,"
was, however, the feeling reply of one poor woman,
with whom I had exchanged a few words at another
gate.
By the side of the girl on the right hand were
seated two lepers, man and wife, who had had a child,
now six or seven months old, and lying in the arms of
the latter, and which had been born to them after
being married and residents in the lepers' village
eight years! I learn from them that about seventy
families compose this village, of which thirty-two are
Turks, numbering in all 111 persons. What a life
and reflections await these poor children on becoming
conscious of their condition-burthens to society from
their birth! for no employment can be sought for by
them, as nothing from their tainted hands would ob-
tain a sale, even if their stiffened fingers could be
turned to hard work or handicraft.
It is with satisfaction, then, that I learn that the
Turkish Government has recently shown some thought
for these afflicted members of the community, by or-
dering half an oke of bread per diem to be given to
every leper. This tardy charity is to them a great
boon, and relieves the local government of this island
42
THE LEPERS' VILLAGE.
from a great blot, and was given during the govern-
ment of Vely Pacha.
Let us now, then, look at their village; for it is
close at hand. And what are their habitations there?
Why, they are chiefly the walled-up caves and tombs
of the ancient Cretans-or the excavations made by
the Turks, during the great siege, into the side of a
ravine in the low ridge which bounds the valley east
of the city, either for their magazines or for winter-
quarters.
The lepers' village being only a distance of fifteen
or twenty minutes' walk, it is therefore deserving of
a visit, if it be only to learn a small lesson of the state
of social feeling in this island at the present time, and
to feel the sympathy that must be awakened at be-
holding such a community of outcasts, who are thus
living in social degradation, purely because they are
the neglected victims of a loathsome and erroneously
supposed incurable disease. Yet, thus abandoned by
the world and by friends, and doomed to a slow decay
and corruption of body that eats away both the ex-
tremities and features, rendering them also helpless
as well as disgusting from their disfigurement, they
nevertheless intermarry in this state, and some of
them even have children. For youth, and beauty too,
as we have seen, are not spared: girls of great per-
sonal attractions are often driven from their village-
homes and friends, to this community of sickening
PASHA'S TOMB.
43
corruption, on the unclean spot appearing on them as
an hereditary taint or sudden development of the
disease (for which no good reason can be given, but
that it is the result of unwholesome food and un-
cleanliness of person).
To suppress, then, some of the feelings which the
sight of this scene has produced, let us return by the
sandy shore at the mouth of the St. Demetri Valley,
and, for a moment, enjoy the beauty of the blue
Ægean Sea, and, in passing under the Sabionera
Bastion on the way back, try to revive also some of
the events of the great siege: for here the Turkish
approaches had reached to the very foot of the works
when the Venetians surrendered the place; and here
also many severe contests between besiegers and be-
sieged must have occurred, especially during the last
sortie under the gallant Duc de Beaufort. But al-
though there is no monument there, or tradition, to
mark the spot where he fell, there is a white marble
tomb close in front of the bastion, and of some in-
terest in connexion with the siege, since it marks the
grave of one Hassan Pasha, a general of the Turkish
troops, who was killed there; and at a few feet from
it, also, there is a rude unhewn black stone, apparently
foreign to the island, that is said to mark the grave of
a faithful Arab or Negro slave, who fell by his side
in defending his master. Monuments to the faithful
and brave have always an exciting interest-vibrating
44
TURKISH SUPERSTITIONS.
a chord of the heart that leaves salutary impressions
and feelings, with all minds who love noble characters
and deeds.
The superstitions amongst the lower class of Turks
who now inhabit Candia seem, however, to have
canonized the spirit of the Pasha and made him a
Mahomedan saint; and the tomb, as well as the
lantern which is always suspended over it, is deco-
rated with votive ribbons and rags, for the cure of
diseases or the salvation of the soul.
The bust of a Roman statue, at a fountain within
the town, that is figured in Pashley, and which, ac-
cording to Antonio Belli, a Venetian writer on Crete,
came from Hierapetra, is similarly decorated and paid
reverence to by some Turkish devotees every Friday
(the Mussulman's sabbath), besides having a lamp
with oil or incense set before it also. This is the
only indication of image-worship which I have ever
observed amongst Mahomedans; and I was informed
that it is due to a belief amongst the superstitious,
that it is the petrified remnant of the body of a
sainted Ethiopian Mussulman who was killed in the
war, and whose head and lower members were cut off
by the Christians, but who is destined to rise to life
when the Ghiaour are to be exterminated from the
island.
This statue, and a sarcophagus just without the
St. George's Gate, where it is used as a drinking-
SCULPTURED SARCOPHAGUS.
45
trough for cattle, are the only sculptured relics of
the ancient Cretans that deserve notice in the town
of Candia, although there are numerous fragments of
columns, capitals, and architectural remains scattered
amongst the buildings of the city. These, no doubt,
were chiefly brought from Gnossus.
This sarcophagus has a curious group of four figures
sculptured upon it, which have apparently a mytholo-
gical or funereal association, and are, perhaps, a
dramatic representation, which the antiquary may be
able to explain: the tomb was therefore probably
that of an author or actor of local celebrity. They
are of fair execution, although much mutilated and
very small in size; but being almost covered by the
moss and slime that has formed by the stream of waste
water flowing over the face of the sarcophagus, the
sculpture is not easily observed, and will require to be
well scrubbed and cleaned before more than the gene-
ral form of the figures, can be seen by the passer-by.
The first to the left seems to be a naked faun playing
upon a pipe, and standing behind a robed and dig-
nified sage, who seems addressing an emaciated figure
or skeleton (probably intended to represent Death),
next to which is a large tripod or stand supporting
a shallow vessel containing various fruits, with a mys-
tical box between the legs beneath it; on the other
side of it stands a naked youth, apparently with an
offering,—the whole having a kind of stage-screen of
46
ARCHITECTURAL FANCY.
some drapery festooned behind them; the letters
ПОAY occur on the floor of the stage.
The old Venetian galley-arches at the port are also
worth a visit as relics of Venice's naval glory and
power in the east, although for the most part in ruins,
several of them having fallen-in during the earth-
quake of 1856, which did such serious damage to
the buildings within the city. In one of the vaults
that remain standing, there is a singular fancy of the
architect who built it, viz. an inverted arch over one
of the side entrances. But the arch bears little of the
superstructure, so to test the strength and durability
of the idea-being beneath a well-made archway-
and was therefore a mere fancy, as an architectural
deviation from ordinary rules.


of ur -
•
47
CHAPTER V.
MAHOMEDANS OF CRETE-GREEK THE COMMON LANGUAGE-CLOSE
ASSOCIATION OF THE CREEDS-ITS NATURAL EFFECTS-AN
ENLIGHTENED PASHA-INTRIGUE AGAINST HIM-OVER-ESTI-
MATE OF THE GREEK POPULATION-GREEK RISING, AND PER-
SECUTION OF THE MAHOMEDANS-THE SFAKIANS-THEIR
DIALECT-ITS HELLENIC CONNEXION SHOWN BY THE LATE
COL. LEAKE.
THE Mahomedan population of Crete amounts now to
about one-third of the whole, and may be thus reckoned
at between sixty and seventy thousand. Many of them
are descended from Christian parents, whose forefa-
thers, under intimidation, or interest, changed their
religion in preference to their location and personal
prospects, but not their language. Thus Greek is the
universal tongue of Crete still.
Under these circumstances, and from the use of a
common language, social communication between the
Cretan Christians and Mahomedans is consequently
more close than in any other part of the Turkish em-
pire, intermarriage being not infrequent, in spite of
the diversity of creed and the prejudices peculiar to
the habits of each. The Cretans of both creeds, too,
dress so much alike that the distinction is often not
recognized by residents of long standing, or by Greeks
of the neighbouring islands. High leather boots,
48 CLOSE ASSOCIATION OF THE TWO CREEDS.
brown or red, and often highly embroidered and laced,
are the characteristic part of the dress of a Cretan,
serving for buskin and hose, stockings being in general
a useless article of dress to a Cretan peasant. A well-
dressed Cretan, in the costume worn on a festa, with
his tight-fitting long boots of bright scarlet, and neatly
embroidered jacket, is a picturesque figure; and much
dandyism is sometimes displayed in the dress of the
youthful and wealthy Cretan of the interior, but in the
cities the European dress is fast supplanting it.
This close association of the two creeds, in Crete,
was fast dissolving away the antipathies that had pre-
viously existed between them as a result of former
oppression and the long desolating war which occurred
between 1820 and 1828; but the revolutionary de-
monstration of the Greeks in 1859 has greatly inter-
rupted it, and supplanted growing confidence by mis-
trust and hatred; and it is always found far more easy
to pass from the former state to the latter, than to re-
turn to a state of mutual confidence and friendship.
The evil and injury that resulted to the whole com-
munity, from this revolutionary movement, has been
very great, by loss of trade, by loss of property, and
by some loss of life through sickness, fright, and vio-
lence. It was begun without a justifiable cause, under
the auspices of some foreign agents not interested in
Turkish regeneration, mainly for the purpose of rid-
ding the island of an enlightened native governor.
AN ENLIGHTENED PASHA.
49
For, Greek being the common language of the
island, Vely Pacha (who governed it at the end of the
Crimean war, and was the son of its old ruler Mus-
tapha Pacha) was induced by his enlightened views
and local interest, amongst other improvements con-
templated by him for the benefit of the whole com-
munity, to suggest the establishment of a public
school for the instruction of the Turkish and Greek
youths in general; and the building intended for it
was completed nearly to its roof, when local opposition
excited this demonstration throughout the island under
false pretences. No doubt it was done under a feeling
of mistaken and misguided patriotism; but it suc-
ceeded in putting an end to this liberal and enlight-
ened project, and to the government of Vely Pacha
also; and it has created a lasting spirit of intolerant
prejudice against any improvements that may emanate
from a Turkish governor.
That there has been and still is misgovernment to
complain of here, as elsewhere throughout the Turkish
empire, is patent; yet on the whole there are few
people in the Levant at the present time more free
and independent, or less taxed and oppressed, than the
Greek community of Crete. But this misguided pre-
judice and infatuation, caused by pressure from with-
out and party spirit within, easily led them into a
mistaken view of their true interests, and brought to
a standstill also several other social and civilizing
VOL. I.
E
50
OVER-ESTIMATE OF
improvements contemplated by Vely Pacha-such as
the general introduction of mixed education, the con-
struction of good roads, and the extension of the cure
and sanitary treatment of the sick. They were blinded
to the fact that the more the local resources and in-
telligence were developed by liberal cultivation, the
more the patriotic hopes and interests of the Cretans
must be advanced.
The population of Crete, from the best and most
reliable information I could obtain, for the most part
derived from local information and observation during
the progress of the survey, I consider to be about
210,000, of whom one-third are Mussulman.
The total is estimated from the following data, viz.
that there are in all about 800 villages only in which
the number of families is more than five in each; in
these the average, deduced from returns supplied by
reliable local authority, and confirmed by my own per-
sonal observations over a great part of the island, is
not more than about forty families for each village.
This is rather above than under the average; and,
reckoning each family at five persons, this will give
160,000 as the rural population.
The remaining 50,000 is made by reckoning the
towns of Candia, Khania, and Retimo at 35,000, and
the population scattered in monasteries, hamlets, and
farms, as well as shepherds, at 15,000 more.
The population has, however, been estimated, in a
THE GREEK POPULATION.
51
work recently published at Athens by a Greek author,
as over 300,000. This has been done by enumerating
the villages at 1046, and averaging them all at fifty
families each. But this exact number of villages has
evidently been copied from a work more than a cen-
tury and a half old, and is not derived from modern
sources. A list of the names of all the villages is also
given, to establish an apparent authority in the esti-
mate and calculation. But I am enabled to state
positively, from actual observation, that many of these
villages no longer exist; and others are reduced to
mere farms or hamlets, having only one or two families
to represent them; yet they are included in the ave-
rage of fifty families each!
Pashley made the population in 1834 about 130,000;
and his opportunities and means of ascertaining the
necessary information were very good, as it was done
at a time when there were no motives for exaggerating
or diminishing the real numbers of either religion or
community.
The increase in the quarter of a century since has
therefore been, according to our results, about one-
third; but by the Greek authority it would be three-
fifths or two-thirds, which is obviously an exaggeration,
independent of the sources of error already pointed
out.
The consequent enumeration of the Greek element
at four-fifths and the Turks at only one-fifth of the
E 2
52
THE GREEK RISING, AND
entire population, by this Athenian work, is a misstate-
ment of the facts, tending to the prejudice of both
parties, by exciting the one to false hopes and fruitless
demonstrations, and possibly the other to resort to
harsher measures in support of authority; for a mi-
nority which is led to believe in, or is conscious of, its
weakness will often, amongst uncivilized nations, resort
to intimidation and terror, in order to maintain its
authority against local disaffection.
The demonstration of 1859 against Vely Pacha,
under Sfakian guidance and influence, thus suddenly
put a check to the social fellowship between the Chris-
tians and Mahomedans that had previously existed;
for it caused a great part of the Turkish community,
under intimidation, to fly from their villages into their
fortified towns just as their crops were ripening, being
in consequence obliged to abandon them, as well as
most of their stock, just at the beginning of harvest-
time; and Vely Pacha was induced in consequence to
call in the remainder, to prevent the revolutionary
uprising being consummated by actual rupture and
bloodshed.
Thus crowded within the fortresses and fortified
towns at the hottest season, and many of the Turks
being without sufficient food and resources for their
families, sickness and want spread amongst them; and,
becoming more and more irritated day by day under
the growing misery of their starving wives and children,
PERSECUTION OF THE MAHOMEDANS.
53
whilst their crops were spoiling through no fault of
their own, it was with difficulty that open violence was
prevented and order maintained in Candia-alarms or
panics frequently occurring. Much credit is said to
be due for this to our late highly respected Viceconsul,
Signor Ittar, for his influence, exertions, and charity
on that occasion, his house having also been filled in
all parts with refugees for several weeks. For, in
Candia, many Greeks had also fled to the towns with
the Turks. Many, if not most, of the lowland Greek
peasantry felt little interest in the uprising, well
knowing that they would only suffer through it, by
the loss of their trade and their property. It was the
upland, the mountain patriots who originated and or-
ganized the demonstration, and who, for about two
months, were in possession of the whole of the low-
lands. They fed their beasts or themselves, for this
time, upon the abandoned stock and crops of the Ma-
homedan, and afterwards upon that of their compa-
triots of the lowland villages, upon whom they quar-
tered themselves. Mutual confidence was consequently
destroyed, and the prosperity of the island seriously
checked.
And thus has Cretan energy been too often misdi-
rected under the guidance of mistaken patriotism on
the part of its mountain-inhabitants and their chiefs,
who, having less to lose, or being comparatively secure
from losses and molestation within their mountain
*
54
THE SFAKIANS.
fastnesses, influence the lowlanders by the prestige of
their name and the terror of their lawless deeds. The
name of the Sfakiot is, in consequence, a by-word
amongst the lowland Cretans, for talents perverted,
and for unscrupulous intrigue, theft, and cruelty.
Athletic and active, he stalks about the island from
one extreme to the other, either as an itinerant mer-
chant or pedlar, or political disturber, and is feared,
but not respected. In stature, in activity, and hardi-
hood, he is the counterpart of our Scotch Highlander,
and in past days might have resembled him in other
respects; but now, in respect to character and prin-
ciples, he is the very reverse.
The blood of the Sfakians is undoubtedly the purest
of all the Cretan race, its purity having been preserved
by their mountain location and jealous clanship, that
has maintained amongst them exclusive habits and
manners, and a dialect, some of the peculiarities of
which may have descended from the days of Minos,
and probably prevented a close admixture with either
Roman or Saracen, Italian or Turk, who have severally
conquered them. Not so, however, with the lowland
Cretans, who are naturally a mixed race, as may be seen
by their features, their stature, and sometimes by their
names, more particularly in the eastern part of the
island, where the Venetians left a large sprinkling
of colonists and Italian blood, to replace the original
race, exhausted by plague or war in their time.
THE SFAKIAN DIALECT.
55
The learned seem to trace in the Sfakian dialect an
affinity with the Doric; and it was the Dorians who,
supplanting the early Cretans, colonized the western
part of Crete. This dialect is more or less common
also, among the peasantry, throughout the interior of
the island; and as a native Cretan, M. Chourmouzes
Byzantios, some years ago, in a brief notice of some
parts of the island, published a vocabulary of the
dialect of Crete, I have given it in the Appendix, for
the benefit of the scholar and traveller.
Pashley says, in reference to the Sfakian dialect, "I
cannot help again noticing the peculiarities of dialect
which characterize all the Sfakians, especially the
women, and some of which may be considered as traces
of the old Cretan Doric" (vol. ii. p. 109).
"The frequent substitution of p for A, and the for-
mation with of a greater number of aorists than is
found elsewhere, are the most striking of these pecu-
liarities, and are likewise the most interesting, since
they are obviously derived from the old language of
the island.
"Others will be observed, such as the frequent ad-
dition of the final at the end of past tenses and
words, which are used by the Sfakians alone" (p. 192).
But there is a peculiarity in the provincial tongue
of Crete that resembles the Tzaconic corruptions-
viz. the frequent use of ts or tz as a prefix to the name
of a place, or of an ancient city, and which was not
56 COL. LEAKE ON THE PECULIARITY OF
recognized by me until I had heard it applied in the
White Mountains over Khania, where, by a harsh
pronunciation and fusion of the article with the sub-
stantive, kampo, a plain, and embela, a vineyard, be-
came consequently tzekampo and tsembela in the
mouth of a Therissot or any villager of that part of
Crete. Hence I finally discovered that, as the name
of Lakonia in the Morea has apparently been cor-
rupted to Tzaconia by the vulgar tongue of its modern
inhabitants, as shown by Colonel Leake, so the names
of some of the ancient cities of Crete, more particu-
larly those in the eastern part, have become changed
in a similar manner-as Hierapytna to Tzerapetra
(although it was written Gerapetra by the Venetians),
and as Itanus into Tzetana, Tsitana, or even Si-
tana, &c.
The learned and lamented scholar Colonel Leake
had pointed out, and given examples of, the peculiarity
or purity of the Cretan dialect as compared with the
other dialects of Greece, as early as 1814, in his
'Researches in Greece' (p. 64), wherein he says,
"The Cretan dialect seems to have adopted much
fewer of its forms or phrases from the Italian than
might have been expected, considering its long con-
nexion with Venice. With the exception of some
provincial words, it seems to be genuine Hellenic in a
state of extreme corruption; or more nearly formed
into a systematic modern language, bearing the same
THE CRETAN DIALECT.
57
relationship to Hellenic that Italian bears to Latin,
than any of the other dialects of Greece."
Pashley's university studies, subsequently to this re-
mark of the Colonel, must therefore have prepared
him for the dialect and its Hellenic or Cretan Doric
traces, although he seems surprised at its discovery
by him in the Sfakian Mountains, and expresses
astonishment that no one else has noticed it! whereas
the Colonel had, long before, noticed that it was in
Crete where the ancient dialect was supposed to be
least corrupt, although it had been so long under the
Venetians. This record of the fact is therefore due
to the late Colonel Leake, that most amiable scholar
and remarkable observer and traveller, whose loss I
deplore as a sincere friend, but whose memory I revere
as a great and good man, and whose reputation stands
established with the learned, for the rare combination
of modest pretensions with profound research.
}
58
GNOSSUS
CHAPTER VI.
ITS SITE ITS FEW REMAINS AT PRESENT
CAUSE
OF THIS THE LABYRINTH—PLUTARCH'S ACCOUNT OF THE
MINOTAUR AND LABYRINTH-ANCIENT TOMBS AT GNOSSUS-
ITS ANCIENT PORTS OF AMNISUS AND HERACLEION.
GNOSSUS, the capital of Crete under Minos, was situ-
ated about two and a half miles to the south-east of
the town of Candia.
Cramer writes of it as follows:-" Gnossus, the royal
city of Crete, was first called Cæratus, as we learn from
Strabo, which name attached also to the small river
which flowed beneath its walls" (vol. iii. p. 476).
Hesychius reports that this town bore likewise the
appellation of Tritta; but it is to Minos that it was
really indebted for its early importance and splendour.
That monarch is said to have divided the island into
three parts, in each of which he formed a large city;
and fixing his residence at Gnossus, it became the
capital of the kingdom. It was here that Dædalus cul-
tivated his art, and planned the celebrated Labyrinth
that contained the Minotaur, but of which no traces
remained in the time of Diodorus.
It occupied no remarkable site; the spot was not
characteristic for its strength, nor of striking appear-
SITE OF GNOSSUS.
59
ance like the positions of the earliest Greek cities in
general: it stood, for the most part, upon a low undu-
lating plain between two parallel ravines, but termi-
nating in two rather abrupt eminences on the south
and west, one of which has still vestiges of the walls
of a tower upon it, and gives its Italianized name to
the small village of Fortezza lying over it, and appa-
rently indicating the position of one of the exterior
defences or towers of the city walls, but of a later time.
On the north the site of the city was terminated by a
lower and smooth-featured eminence,-the city having
altogether a circuit of fully six miles in extent. It is
bounded on the east by a narrow and rocky ravine,
with a rivulet that intersects the white tertiary free-
stone and marls constituting the chief part of the un-
dulating ridges lying southward of the town of
Candia.
The hamlet of Makri Teikos, or Long Wall, is situ-
ated within the limits of the ancient city, by the side
of the rivulet; and although the identity of the site is
not to be disputed, as being that of the capital of
Minos, which was also a fine city even in the time of
Strabo, who, too, for a time resided in it, yet the only
vestiges of Gnossus at the present time are some
scattered foundations and a few detached masses of
masonry of the Roman time. The entire surface is
almost wholly cultivated and unfenced, but throughout
indicates the remains of a dense city, from the vast
60
CAUSE OF THE FEW REMAINS.
quantity of stones and fragments of pottery that are
intermixed with the soil.
This is all that at present remains of Gnossus. But
in the time of the Venetians, Belli shows that there
was still existing the remains of a curiously constructed
theatre or circus; the plan of it, however, was not
sufficiently distinct, to Belli, to be given in the manu-
script, the relics of which have been recently published
by Mr. Falkener in the 'Museum of Classical Antiqui-
ties.' The site of it is now recognizable in the centre
of the tract; and the detached masses of masonry be-
fore noticed seem to be the very remains of the but-
tresses of its arches or yaults.
The cause of this great demolition and disappear-
ance of its buildings and fragments is doubtless due to
the recent rising up of so large and so well fortified a
town as Candia near it; and within its fortifications,
therefore, lie the chief relics of Gnossus. The old site
is still resorted to, and dug over, for material for the
construction or repair of any important building within
Candia that may require it, extensive excavations being
sometimes made in search of the foundations of its old
walls or buildings in consequence.
Gnossus was celebrated for two monuments:-
namely, the celebrated Labyrinth of Dædalus, which
Diodorus the Sicilian says was built for the confine-
ment of the fabled Minotaur; and, according to the
same author, the Tomb of Idomeneus, the leader of
THE LABYRINTH AND MINOTAUR.
61
The
the Cretan heroes who went to the Trojan war.
latter monument is not described, however; but I shall
have to refer to it hereafter. And in regard to the
former (the Labyrinth), it might seem to merit, to
some minds, the same notice and the same credit that
is due to many of the myths told of the ancients by
the credulous Sicilian historian, in his recondite
dissertations, from the mythology of the heroic
times.
The Labyrinth of Crete is, however, now a house-
hold word with every scholar, having been noticed by
most of the ancient authors who have treated of the
fabled history of the Minotaur or of Crete. Homer
is, however, silent upon it, unless the passage in the
Iliad, book II., has reference to it, as some think.
The early coins of Gnossus, indeed, represent it; but
they cannot date further back than the 6th or 7th
century B.C., if so early, and were consequently struck
when only the tradition existed of such a labyrinth;
and how vague even then was the idea of this laby-
rinth is shown by the varied representations of it upon
these Cretan coins-some representing its passages in
circular convolutions, others square, and also differ-
ent in coins of different times:
But Plutarch, in his Life of Theseus, gives a more
natural explanation of the object of the Labyrinth
than the story of the mythical Minotaur, and says
it was a prison for the tributary youths of Athens;
62
PLUTARCH'S ACCOUNT OF THE
and he gives also a common-sense view of the true
origin of the fable of the Minotaur, in the story of the
victory of Theseus over a general of Minos, named
Taurus, but of whom he was jealous from his influ-
ence, and in consequence desirous of getting rid of.
This notice of the site of Gnossus and its Labyrinth in
these pages would be incomplete without giving the
whole of the extract from Plutarch bearing upon it,
since it has been overlooked, but particularly as it is
derived from earlier authors, whom he quotes. It is
as follows:-
•
"Not long after, there came the third time from
Crete the collectors of the tribute, exacted on the fol-
lowing occasion. Androgeus being treacherously slain
in Attica, a very fatal war was carried on against that
country by Minos; and Divine vengeance laid it waste :
for it was visited by famine and pestilence; and want
of water increased their misery. The remedy that
Apollo proposed was, that they should appease Minos
and be reconciled to him, whereupon the wrath of
Heaven would cease, and their calamities come to a
period. In consequence of this, they sent ambassadors
with their submission, and, as most writers agree, en-
gaged themselves by treaty to send every ninth year a
tribute of seven young men and as many virgins.
When these were brought into Crete, the fabulous
account informs us that they were destroyed by the
Minotaur in the Labyrinth, or that, lost in its mazes.
MINOTAUR AND LABYRINTH.
63
and unable to find the way out, they perished there.
The Minotaur was, Euripides tells us,
'A mingled form, prodigious to behold-
Half bull, half man!'
But Philochorus says, the Cretans deny this and will
not allow the Labyrinth to have been anything but a
prison which had no other inconvenience than this,
that those who were confined there could not escape;
and Minos having instituted games in honour of An-
drogeus, the prize for the victors was those youths who
had been kept till that time in the Labyrinth. He
that first won the prizes in the games was a person of
great authority in the court of Minos, and general of
his armies, named Taurus, who, being unmerciful and
savage in his nature, treated the Athenian youths with
great insolence and cruelty. And it is plain that Aris-
totle himself, in his account of the Bottiæan govern-
ment, does not suppose that the young men were put
to death by Minos, but that they lived, some of them
to old age, in servile employment in Crete.
"But Hellanicus says that the youths and virgins
which the city furnished were not chosen by lot, but
that Minos came in person and selected them, and
Theseus before the rest, upon these conditions, that
the Athenians should furnish a vessel, and the young
men embark and sail along with him, but carry no
arms, and that, if they could kill the Minotaur, there
should be an end of the tribute.
.*
64
PLUTARCH'S ACCOUNT.
"When Theseus arrived in Crete, according to most
historians and authors, Ariadne, falling in love with
him, gave him a clue of thread, and instructed him
how to pass with it through the intricacies of the
Labyrinth. Thus assisted, he killed the Minotaur
and then set sail, carrying off Ariadne, together with
the young men. Pherecydes says that Theseus broke
up the keels of the Cretan ships, to prevent their
pursuit. But, as Demon has it, he killed Taurus,
Minos's commander, who engaged him in the harbour
just as he was ready to sail out. Again, according
to Philochorus, when Minos celebrated the games in
honour of his son, it was believed that Taurus would
bear away the prizes in them as formerly; and every
one grudged him that honour, for his excessive power
and haughty behaviour were intolerable; and besides,
he was accused of too great a familiarity with Pa-
siphaë: therefore, when Theseus desired the combat,
Minos permitted it. In Crete it was the custom of
the women, as well as the men, to see the games; and
Ariadne, being present, was struck with the person of
Theseus, and with his superior vigour and address in
the wrestling-ring. Minos too was greatly delighted,
especially when he saw Taurus vanquished and dis-
graced; and this induced him to give up the young
men to Theseus, and to remit the tribute." (Life of
Theseus.)
That there was, therefore, something of a labyrinth,
ANCIENT TOMBS AT GNOSSUS.
65
which might serve as a foundation for that which was
attributed to the great master of art, Dædalus, is thus
more than simply probable. "What, then, do we find
in Crete to explain it? Is there a labyrinth of any
kind?" is the natural inquiry. There is; yet not at
Gnossus, but at Gortyna; and not a building, but a
subterranean excavation resembling a quarry, or more
properly the galleries of a mine, and penetrating ho-
rizontally, in labyrinthine courses, no one knows how
far, into one of the roots of Mount Ida lying behind
Gortyna, and in which I myself spent nearly two
hours in tracing some of its courses, as far as they are
now penetrable; for the Cretans have long since
walled or stopped up its inner and unknown extremes,
so as not to be lost in its inner intricacies.
66
And as this is not the Labyrinth of Gnossus, I shall
defer a more detailed description of it until I come to
speak of the City of Gortyna. Where, then, was
the Labyrinth of Gnossus?" will be the natural
question still, as well as "Was there also one there
in confirmation of the traditions?" And my answer
is, that probably there was, and still exists, a similar
subterranean quarry or labyrinth in the heart of the
adjacent hills that surround the site of the capital of
Minos; for the nature of the rock and disposition of
the strata are somewhat similar to that in which the
labyrinthic quarry of Gortyna is situated, being of the
same geological formation, and the strata nearly hori-
VOL. I.
F
66
THE ANCIENT PORTS OF
zontal also. And there is, in fact, an excavation in
the side of the ridge overlooking the site of Gnossus,
on the east side of the Makri Teikion rivulet, that is
said by the natives to be the entrance to extensive
catacombs, which, however, have become choked up
by the falling in of its sides, and cannot be explored.
The sides of the cavernous excavation have, indeed,
several votive niches and tombs, and were first noticed,
in Walpole's work, by Mr. Cockerel.
This entrance to the supposed Labyrinth or Cata-
combs of Gnossus has the same character as that of
the entrance to the Labyrinth of Gortyna, excepting
that the Gnossian excavations have been used as se-
pulchres, but whether originally or subsequently to
Minos cannot be determined so as to identify it as the
true Labyrinth, of which the tradition only has existed
for twenty-five centuries.
Gnossus had two ports, viz. Amnisus and Hera-
cleion. The former, a haven in the time of Minos,
was said to have been situated opposite Dia (Cramer,
vol. iii. p. 369). This undoubtedly points out its site
at the mouth of the Kartero, to the north-west of the
city, where a rocky point still affords some shelter
against the prevailing north-west wind and sea, and
where the river is also still deep within its natural
bar, and would admit the craft of those days to be
easily hauled into it. The bay, too, must have been
somewhat deeper, and thus afforded more shelter, in
AMNISUS AND HERACLEION.
67
the time of Minos than now, since it has been en-
croached upon by the alluvial plain, and shore, from
the débris brought down by the river.
Pliny says that a city called Matium, as well as
the river Amnisus, were both situated opposite Dia;
and the site of a small town exists upon an eminence
on the eastern side of the bay and plain. The vestiges
of the city upon the eminence are now, however, in-
significant, and chiefly of late date. Nevertheless this
must have been the site of Matium, instead of its
having been at Candia as Pashley argues with his
usual learning; and as Matium as well as the port of
Amnisus were also said by Pliny (whom he quotes in
the discussion) to be opposite Dia, I do not hesitate
to say that this fact defeats his reasoning; for it is
only as thus identified in the river Kartero and the
hill of Palaio Kastro, within the same bay, that the
river Amnisus, as well as Matium, can be recognized
as being both opposite to Dia. The other haven of
Gnossus, viz. Heracleion, must therefore have been at
Candia, where the vestiges of its old moles, upon
which the Venetians formed the present port, clearly
identify it; and therefore it cannot be Matium as
Pashley supposes. Besides, Matium is not noticed as
a port as well as city by any author.
F 2
68
CHAPTER VII.
•
GNOSSUS AN EARLY SEAT OF ART AND LEARNING BEFORE GREECE—
SCULPTURE BY DÆDALUS-SUBSEQUENT CELEBRITY OF CRETAN
ART-ITS COINS REMARKABLE FOR ART AND FOR THEIR IM-
PERFECT SURFACE AND FORM-EMINENT CRETAN SCULPTORS-
A CRETAN VENUS—A CRETAN HEAD OF ZEUS-LEONARDO DA
VINCI'S PICTURE.
HAVING in the previous chapters dwelt sufficiently
upon what remains of Gnossus and its ancient ports,
I am induced briefly to refer to its power under Minos,
the wise founder of the city, and its influence also
towards the development of art and social improve-
ment in Greece, before I proceed with a brief de-
scription of its neighbouring cities and country. For
at Gnossus, as the capital of the island, commerce,
education, art, and social law seem to have attained a
comparatively high state of advancement under its
wise lawgiver and king, from the respect with which
they were referred to by the earlier authors, who tell
us that the Cretans under Minos were early trained
to arms and hardships, and had to learn their letters,
as well as certain pieces of music, as a necessary part
of their education.
The laws of Crete, by Minos, were thus considered
AN EARLY SEAT OF ART.
69
to be the model of the more celebrated laws of Ly-
curgus. It was from Dædalus and his successors in
Crete that Greece improved her art and taste; and
even several centuries afterwards (B.c. 596) we find
that the Athenians sent to Gnossus for its poet and
sage, Epimenides, to purify their city, that, by his
skill in the mystic rites and the learning peculiar to
the age, he might free them from the plague they
then suffered from, and which, they had learnt from
the oracle they consulted, would not cease until it
had been so purified.
Crete was thus apparently a school of art and
learning in later times, as it had been in that of
Minos; and in spite of its intestine troubles amongst
rival republics into which it became divided after the
Trojan war, and the bad character given of the Cretans
at this time by Epimenides for lying and levity, Crete
seems to have been still an early cradle for the arts
and learning, forming the stepping-stone or link be-
tween the conventional condition of art in Egypt and
its extension and purer cultivation and development
in Greece, as the natural result of its situation, its
naval power, and its command of the commerce of
these seas at that time. For at the Trojan war it
numbered nearly as many ships as the fleet brought
by Agamemnon himself; and we are told that when
Battus was ordered, by the oracle of Delphi, to colo-
nize Cyrene with Greeks, he went first to Crete for a
70
SCULPTURE BY DEDALUS.
pilot for that dreaded coast of Libya, and obtained
one from Itanus.
To Dædalus, the father of Cretan art under Minos,
has also been attributed the origination of the first
departure from the mummy-like, conventional, still-
life form generally given to figures previous to his
time, by separating their legs, and the consequent
introduction of motion and action to the figure; and
whether Dædalus was a man or a myth, as some as-
sume, it was at Gnossus, according to the writings of
all, that the school of art, under the mythical name,
was planted and flourished. And it was even asserted
that to his nephew and pupil, Talos, is due the in-
vention of the saw, the plough, and potter's wheel
(but that Dædalus slew him out of jealousy of the
superior talent thus shown by his sister's son), and
that his own son Icarus, on his attempted flight from
Crete with wings that were attached only by wax,
soaring too high, too near the sun, fell into the
Icarian sea in consequence-as the poetic indication
of the end of undue ambition and weakness. And
as even a masterly picture is the more appreciated
by the effect of the gilded frame that contains it,
so does fiction in which there is some fragment
of fact as well as moral give an appreciating in-
terest to every tale, and to every scene connected
with it.
The fact, then, that Gnossus was one of the earlier
REMARKABLE COINS.
71
seats for the development and cultivation of art,
science, and education, and of social laws on the basis
of liberty and equality of rights, will give its due in-
terest to the locality and neighbourhood, without a
compromise of any one's political opinions and creed
in feeling it. For the art thus early planted in Crete
was evidently retained long in the island, as we see
by its coins; and from them we find that its school
was peculiarly its own, both for excellence and taste;
for there exists such a remarkably high style of pic-
torial art in the representations of animals, figures,
and nature upon some of those coins that were struck
by several of the cities of this part of Crete, as to be
highly admired by all numismatists, although they
are singularly deficient of the care and knowledge of
form and surface necessary for the proper display of
the high taste and school of art which they show to
have existed in Crete down to a late period. But the
following names have been noted by ancient authors,
as eminent for sculpture in Crete :-viz., Chirisophus
for a gilt statue of Apollo, time unknown; Chersi-
phron of Gnossus, B.C. 777; Diponus and Scyllis, B.C.
570: eminent sculptors in marble-Acestor of Gnos-
sus, B.C. 450; Amphion of Gnossus, B.C. 430.
The general estimation of Cretan art by the an-
cients, and the many names of eminent sculptors that
Crete has produced from the days of Dædalus, induce
a feeling of regret, therefore, that no particular monu-
+
72
A CRETAN VENUS.
ment or statue has been mentioned by any author as
worthy of special admiration. But this is nevertheless
no criterion that it did not possess many fine works
of art; for in the neighbouring island of Milo, be-
tween which and Crete there was doubtless anciently
a close communication and family connexion, as now,
there has been discovered within the last half-century
that most justly celebrated statue the "Venus of
Milo," undoubtedly the finest of the many representa-
tions of the goddess; but yet of the existence of this
masterpiece nothing was known until it was acci-
dentally found; and this little isle was the last to
be suspected to be possessed of such a relic of ancient
Greek art. The sculptor is consequently unknown,
except from conjecture; but from its close proximity
to Crete there is a possibility that, if it did not come
from there, its design and style may have been derived
from the Cretan school.
The Venus represented here is from Crete. It was
found at Gnossus some few years ago, and came into
my possession soon after.
It was discovered without the head, which was for-
tunately found afterwards some 200 yards from it;
and the figure, when found, was so encrusted with a
thick coating of carbonate of lime, as hard as the
marble itself, that the merit of the little statuette was
not fully seen. It is about 2 feet in height; but the
top of the head was sliced off obliquely on the back

Drawn by Sing J.Schranz
from a Sketch by Cap Spratt
A VENUS.
from Crete
M. & N.Hanhart.img.
A CRETAN VENUS.
73
part, and evidently done subsequently to its finish, so
as to make it fit into some niche or recess. By long,
patient labour the incrustation was at length cleared
off, and the polished surface of the figure restored with-
out injury, except where previously worn; and then
its great beauty, as a probable copy of some admired
work of a great master, was made apparent.
As a nude Venus of exquisite delicacy and taste,
some might be induced to consider it to be a copy of
some unknown work of Praxiteles, of which he was
said to have made many besides the celebrated Venus
of Cnidus, the exact design and position of the hands
of which, it seems, is not known with certainty; but
one of its characteristics was the high finish of the
back of the figure, so that it was placed in the centre
of an open temple that it might be viewed all round:
and such is also the characteristic of this little sta-
tuette; the back is strikingly beautiful.
There are apparently several bronze copies of it in
the British and other Museums, which show that
there existed somewhere a much-admired original as
a statue or statuette of some great master. Although
these copies differ in a slight degree, according to the
ignorance or fancy of the local artist, the common
attitude of all identifies them as intended for some
reputed original somewhere. A copy in marble, but
headless and of very inferior art, was also found
amongst the Cyrene marbles.
1
74
A CRETAN VENUS.
In this statuette, the goddess is represented as
having just come out of her bath, and in the act of
tying up the sandal of her left foot; and although a
very difficult attitude to represent, from the necessarily
half-turned and bent position of the body and yet
with the head erect, it is marvellously wrought not-
withstanding*.
The style is of the attenuated school of figure pecu-
liar to a certain early period of Greek art and taste.
The perfect grace and easy pose, the modest and beau-
tiful expression, and the different position given to the
arm and hand, to that usual with all nude figures of
Venus known to us, will naturally strike the admira-
tion, and greatly enhance its appreciation as a work of
the most chaste and delicate conception and beauty,
and of the purest taste for the representation of so
difficult a subject as that of the Creator's most perfect
work, the human figure.
In contemplating any fine work of art from a
master mind, we are led into various trains of re-
flection; and one naturally first desires to learn the
name of the genius, and his history and birth, and
then to dwell upon the labour of thought and time
devoted to the conception of the subject, and its pa-
tient manipulation by the masterly brush or chisel
* The left arm of the Venus is wanting. It was thrown back
to rest upon the pedestal the figure is leaning against, and, in conse-
quence, is not missed in a front view.
HEAD OF ZEUS.
75
until complete. And how often is it that, when so
completed, the mind that has wrought it into perfec-
tion dwells least upon the beauty and excellence of
his work, and, with the last dash of his poetic pen or
brush, or the final touch of his chisel, casts aside the
long labour of love, and sighs for a new conception,
whilst we are never tired of admiring the great work
and the genius of the man that made it.
It is more than possible that master minds will
often have the same conception of design, with the
same idea and aim. Thus the sculptor and painter
may sometimes both produce the same expression
of features, and design of form, for the same ideal
subject.
There is no more common representation of Greek
masterly conception than that of the head of Zeus,
either upon ancient coins or of statues and statuettes,
all of which are, no doubt, copies of the great statue of
the god by Phidias.
Zeus was, however, of special veneration in Crete,
which, as the isle of his birth, in ancient mythology,
must have had many statues and statuettes of the god.
One little head of Zeus, which I obtained in Crete,
always impressed me with admiration, from the ma-
jesty, benignity, and serenity of its expression; and
when contemplating it, I was struck with the im-
pression that in it I recognized a striking similarity
with the celebrated head of our Lord in Leonardo da
ཟླ་
76
DA VINCI'S PICTURE.
Vinci's "Last Supper," but with this difference, that
his was a youthful representation of the Greek concep-
tion of the features of their God of gods, Zeus.
It is thus probable that to some admired head of
the god, seen by him, Da Vinci owed the conception of
that beautiful countenance-intended for the Saviour,
and celebrated as the masterpiece of his almost pe-
rished picture at Milan.
It is, however, quite possible that the great painter's
head was a conception of his own; yet I cannot but
repeat that, from a study of the face and expression of
this little head, it seems to me probable that Da
Vinci's is a copy of that of the Greek Zeus as con-
ceived in youth, or rather the commencement of man-
hood; whilst the Greek heads of Zeus naturally repre-
sent him in its maturity and strength, with a profuse
beard to indicate it.
77
CHAPTER VIII.
MOUNT IUKTAS, THE BURIAL-PLACE OF ZEUS; ROUTE TO IT-
THREE DERVISHES
VIEW FROM
TURKISH MONASTERY
MOUNT IUKTAS RHAUCUS -VALLEY OF ARKHANES ITS
HOSPITABLE INHABITANTS-TRANQUIL NIGHTS; THEIR TREA-
CHERY TO THE TRAVELLER.
THERE will be a natural desire, with those who have
been able to follow my reasonings and narrative thus
far, to know something of the features of the locality,
which favoured its selection by Minos. And the idea
which a glance at the map naturally gives of the rea-
son is, the convenience of its central position. But
that does not appear to me to be its only or its chief
reason; for nature had otherwise favoured this central
position of Crete, by its many fertile valleys and
plains, its richness of soil, and its comparatively mo-
derate elevation—thus combining facility of communi-
cation and a salubrity of atmosphere rarely found over
so large a district in any other island.
This central part of Crete, which comprised several
other cities of Minos, viz. Lyttus, Lycastus, Gortyna,
and Phæstus, and has an area of twenty miles, is a
hilly but low district that lies between the bases of
the two central mountains of Crete, Ida and Lasethe
78
MOUNT IUKTAS.
or Lassete, which mountains are respectively over
8000 and 7000 feet in elevation, whilst this depressed
or lower district intermediate between them is not
more than 2500 feet in any part except one, namely,
a conspicuous conical mount that rises nearly in its
centre, at about six miles south of Candia, and called
by the natives Iuktas.
Iuktas is traditionally supposed to have been a
mountain that was held in great sanctity by the an-
cient Cretans, and even long after the Christian era;
for it seems to have been regarded as the burial-
place of the "God of men," of Jupiter himself; and
the myths and mysteries of that superstition and
religion, which Christianity finally swept away, long
held this spot in special veneration. And although
it is a mere hill, as compared with the lofty Ida that
directly overlooks it, its form and its isolation amidst
lower land give it a striking appearance from all
sides, especially in the approach to Candia by sea,
as will be seen in the view given in the frontis-
piece.
Pashley visited this mountain in 1838; and as I
now thus tread upon the footsteps of a scholar who
has described it and the few remains that he found
there, and who regarded it as the site of the sepulchre,
or rather states that it was anciently so regarded and
venerated, I shall quote his enthusiastic words. "I
now stand," says Pashley, "upon the spot on which
THE BURIAL-PLACE OF ZEUS.
79
Zeus is supposed to be at rest from all celestial and
terrestrial cares, and which was so celebrated for so
many ages. The testimony of a long series of ancient
and ecclesiastical authors proves fully and distinctly
that the tomb remained an object of curiosity and
veneration to the Cretans from an early period until
after the age of Constantine."
The spot thus spoken of by the above traveller has
some few Cyclopean foundations, at a small cavern
situated upon the northern brow of the mountain,
which has two summits, lying nearly north and south
of each other, and nearly of equal elevation. They
are distant about a mile apart; so that from the sea
they appear as one sharp peak, but from east and
west the hill has a saddle-backed form, bare, rugged,
and grey (the characteristic colour of all cliffy and
naked rocks of limestone), especially on its east and
west faces. The hill is an insular mass of hippuritic
limestone rising out of the surrounding strata of
tertiary marls and whitish-yellow limestone.
As a spot, then, that seems to have been regarded
by the Pagan worshippers, of a late as well as an early
period, with something of the reverence that Mecca is
held in by the Mahomedan, and Jerusalem by the
Christian, I am induced to dwell upon the way to it, re-
commending a visit to the mountain by every traveller
to this part of Crete, from its easy accessibility from
the town of Candia, and the command of view he
80
ROUTE TO MOUNT IUKTAS.
will obtain over the surrounding country, more than
from the interest he perhaps will feel in the few old
stones to be seen there, either of the supposed tomb
of Jupiter or of the habitations for the priests that
guarded its sanctity.
The way to the mountain, after leaving Candia, is
through the half Turkish and half Greek village of
Phortetsa, over Gnossus, whence can again be obtained
a glance down upon the undulating ground under it
to the east-the site of this once important and inter-
esting old city. But now how different the aspect, to
what it was then!—either green with the luxuriant
crops of corn that year by year grow from the fertile
soil that has accumulated upon its remains, or brown
from the débris of stones and rubbish that form its
surface when the crop is removed and the summer's
sun has baked it. The remains of an old rough-
paved Venetian road are occasionally met with as we
ascend the brow of the ridge from Phortetsa, which
our sagacious mules generally avoid by following a
deep, well-trodden rut they have worn by its sides,
to avoid its slipperiness and shock to their feet; for
every stone seems turned the wrong side upwards.
In about an hour and three-quarters' ride from the
town, we reach the foot of Mount Iuktas; but as it
is not accessible from this point, our muleteer tells
us we must proceed to the south extreme, and ascend
to it from over the village of Arkhanes or Arkhanais;
DERVISHES.
81
to do which we turn towards a narrow valley that
runs parallel to the eastern base of the mountain.
But, before reaching this valley, we passed near a
somewhat substantial but solitary building upon the
ridge-brow leading up to Iuktas from Phortetsa, and
which my guides pointed out as being a Turkish
monastery for a certain sect of dervishes, accompany-
ing the communication with a muttering of some word
of contempt, and with a curse upon the race. In
turning off the road into a path that leads to the
monastery, which, in spite of my guides' disinclina-
tion, I was desirous of approaching, we came suddenly
upon three young dervishes, who were seated in a se-
cluded position under a rock, and apparently where
they could receive the full force of the sun's rays upon
their features during a devotional reverie,-the prin-
cipal object of which, however, seemed to be to enable
them to obtain that tanning of their features and skin
for which the mendicant dervish of the East is remark-
able. It thus was apparently a part of their training
or education for the obtaining a complexion of the
skin, as a professional requisite to the exercise of
their craft and calling; and I frequently observed
afterwards, during my stay in Crete, one of the three so
sitting at the hottest time of the day, under the
hottest wall, in the hottest part of the town, with
breast and face bared to the sun's bronzing influence,
and with composed features, indicative of the most
VOL. I.
G
1
82 CONSERVATION OF ANCIENT SUPERSTITIONS.
perfect absorption, and the most enthusiastic devotion
of mind and aim; nothing distracted him. "Allah
is great, and Mahomet is His prophet, and I am his
devout disciple," seemed to be the all-absorbing sen-
timent on these occasions. And thus as the three
young dervishes faced the mountain that had been
so venerated in the days of Paganism, as well as the
midday sun, the idea could hardly help arising in my
mind, that the situation of the monastery might have
been chosen from some tradition of its sacredness
relative to the tomb of the God of gods.
Places of religious sanctity, of any time and people,
always retain a certain special interest attached to
them; and thus it is natural that the superstition of
one creed should in some degree become absorbed in
the superstitions of another that succeeds it, especially
such as those of some of the sects of Mahomedan
dervishes. Hence some are disposed to recognize
in their religious dance a relic of the "Pyrrhic
dance" of the Greeks. And this reminds me that
the Pyrrhic dance was called the Cretan dance. So
also the worship of Zeus and other deities has fre-
quently been changed, in those localities, to that of
the prophets or saints of the Greek church; and thus
the chapel replaces the shrine, or the church the
temple. And it appears from Pashley's researches in
reference to the Tomb of Zeus, that it continued to
be venerated in Crete until the Theodosian perse-
VIEW FROM MOUNT IUKTAS.
83
cution of the heathens, in the fourth century, put a
stop to the worship of the old deities by the Cretans.
Quitting then the Turkish monastery, we enter the
narrow and stony ravine that leads to the open valley
of Apano, or the upper Arkhanais, at the southern
base of Mount Iuktas, pitching my tent near a small
cottage, amidst the flourishing vineyards for which the
Arkhanais district is somewhat noted from the quality
of the wine they produce. The vines extend over
the upper part of two valleys, called the upper and
lower Arkhanais, and contain within them two scat-
tered villages of the same name, their inhabitants
being nearly all Christian, and amounting to nearly
300 families. The Venetians conveyed water to
Candia from here by an aqueduct; and the fountain
whence it came has an inscription to commemorate
this public benefit to the town, by Morosini, its last
proconsul, and defender, before its surrender to the
Turks.
Mount Iuktas is easiest ascended from the head of
the Arkhanais valley: for the southern summit of the
mount has a Greek chapel upon it; and a mule-track,
zigzag and steep, in consequence leads to it from the
valley. We ascend the mount therefore by it, and
enjoy the fine view its summit commands, more than
having our curiosity gratified in seeing the old foun-
dations and stones upon its northern brow which
Pashley recognizes as the site of the sacred Tomb of
G 2
84
RHAUCUS.
Zeus. But if a contrary opinion may be allowed to
be entertained by any one, I should be disposed to
think that the venerated spot was more probably
where the chapel now stands, since it is the most
commanding as well as highest point; and the sanctity
which is still attached to it being derived from the
pre-existence of an older chapel (the present being a
recently restored one), seems to favour this view;
while local tradition is as much in support of the
latter site, instead of the Cyclopean remains on the
slope of the northern summit; and some ancient
fragments that belong to an early Greek building
seem to indicate that it had a temple or tomb upon it.
The view the hill commands will be of interest to
the antiquarian traveller also, since it overlooks the
territories and sites of the two early Cretan cities of
Rhaucus and Lycastus; the former of which I am
induced to recognize in two remarkable craggy peaks
which he will see about two miles to the south-west
of Iuktas, called Khani Kastelli, as also Rocca. The
abruptness of the rise surrounding these two peaks,
with the connecting plateau between them, gives to
the spot considerable natural strength and conve-
nience for a city. The remains now upon it are
mainly those of the middle-age Fortress of Temenos,
which was built by the Greek emperor Nicephorus
Phocas, in 961, after he had expelled the first Ma-
homedan settlers, the Saracens, from Crete.
VALLEY OF ARKHANAIS.
85
Pashley, however, supposes Khani Kastelli to have
been the small city of Thenæ; and that Rhouca was
situated at or near Agios Myro, on the ridge near the
foot of Ida.
I am induced, however, to believe that the name
Rocca, sometimes applied to it, is a relic of its ancient
name, and not simply an indication of its rocky cha-
racter, as Pashley presumes. Local tradition also
confirms my opinion, as does also the name of the
neighbouring village of Roucani, as that has a still
nearer resemblance to Rhaucus,-Roucani Kastelli
(now abbreviated into Khani-Kastelli) meaning the
Castle of Roucani, or of Rhaucus.
Rhaucus was at one time a city of some importance
as a republic, since we find that the Gortynians gave
to it the territory of the Lyctians after their destruc-
tion of that city by a surprise (Cramer, iii. 390). But
it is curious to find upon its coins the emblems of a
coast-city, which no author has supposed it to have
been; for the trident and Poseidon are the legends
upon the obverse and reverse of its coins: and these
exist in silver and copper, and are large in size, but
not numerous; indeed they are rather rare than com-
mon.
With this brief notice of Rhaucus, in support of its
identification at Khani Kastelli, I will return to
Arkhanais, and take Lycastus, the other city founded
by Minos in this neighbourhood, in journeying east-
86
HOSPITABLE INHABITANTS.
ward towards the more important city of Lyttus, or
Lyctus, as sometimes written.
Arkhanais is one of those upland valleys or basins
that nature has scattered here and there, as an oasis of
fertility and richness, throughout the island. Possess-
ing the charm of seclusion and of luxuriance, an
imagined tranquillity and repose to all who live within
them is the feeling that first strikes a stranger on
beholding these retreats; more especially if he be
wearied from his journey and the heat of a southern
sun. For, the body wanting repose, as soon as it
can obtain it, the mind of man often sympathizes
in unison, and then lights his fancy with an imagined
heaven of peace with all around him-but which, his
experience of the world at other moments will teach
him, is but vanity, and which, a closer association with
the fifty or sixty families that chance to occupy the
place shows him, will be sought for in vain. For little
minds and large jealousies, little faults as well as large
misrepresentations, will be found to have destroyed the
existence of that supposed tranquillity where nature
seems to have placed so many advantages to pro-
mote it.
We pitched our tent near a small Greek cottage
upon one of these, at the invitation of the family who
inhabited it, who deemed themselves honoured by our
doing so, and by our accepting their hospitality in do-
nations of fruit and eggs. A serene summer's evening
TRANQUIL NIGHT.
87
Some
brought many neighbours around our tent.
smoked; some played with beads; and all talked-
some in reference to the prospective crops, and others
of the blight amongst the vineyards; but there was
still a strong feeling and thought with all, that occa-
sionally would break forth from the minds of the most
earnest or the least discreet: it was that which ever
rankles in the heart of a Cretan Greek, viz. the hope
that they would be some day freed from the govern-
ment of their present masters.
But, as I could not tell them a word regarding such
a hope, silence was my best policy, although my sym-
pathy in their naturally patriotic wish might have
been strongly with them. A fair damsel, too, would
sometimes lend her voice to the hope-that is, if she
were married and her husband present; but even her
efforts at feminine eloquence and persuasion, necessa-
rily, failed to extort any such hope or opinion from me;
and thus one by one the party stole away to their own
domiciles, and we were at length alone in ours and to
the stillness of the night that succeeded. For all
nature was soon hushed in slumber and silence,
excepting the melancholy and monotonous too, and
the occasional coo-coo-vaie of the little Athenian Owl,
that was perched upon a neighbouring olive-tree and
thus repeating in the latter sounds, as the Cuckoo does
with us, the very name he is commonly known by
amongst the modern Greeks. How quiet is the
88
BANEFUL SERENITY.
serenity of a calm Levantine night in such a mountain
retreat! and how enjoyable is this serenity! For the
air then reigns still as death, and all nature seems
hushed into repose and peace-not a breath moving a
leaf to produce a rustle, and not a cloud in motion, or
even visible, to obscure the tiniest little star to be seen
by the naked eye. Such is its usual serenity in such
a secluded valley.
The refreshing coolness of the atmosphere, too, after
a hot day, adds to the enjoyment of such a night of
serenity; and its enjoyableness must be experienced to
be properly appreciated. But, alas! there is too often
treachery in such enjoyment of an oriental night; for
poison is too often generated during its stillness:
malaria then rises from the reeking soil, but only to
float a few feet above it; for, as it cannot be dissipated,
it remains to displace the purer air there, as chloroform
and some gases do when confined in a vessel, as
Faraday and Brande have proved to us by the simple
experiment of pouring some into a common teapot
and putting a candle to its spout. The traveller's pre-
caution, therefore, is this, not to allow himself to sleep,
under such stillness, on the outside of his tent or
lodging, on any account; for the germs of a malignant
fever, or its modified type, ague, steal through such
serenity and seclusion of scenery in the East, as the
penalty of his enjoyment of it, through ignorance or
neglect.
89
CHAPTER IX.
ANCIENT CITIES OF LYTTUS AND LYCASTUS-POSITION OF THE
LATTER AT ASTRITZI-THEN E-PLAIN OF PEDIADA; ASCENT
TO THE SITE OF LYTTUS FROM IT-THE DESCRIPTION OF THE
SITE AND ITS REMAINS-ITS INSCRIPTION-ITS COINS.
THE city next in importance to Gnossus and Gortyna,
in this part of the island, was that of Lyctus or Lyttus.
It was of very great antiquity, and is noticed in the
Iliad, B. 647, along with Gnossus, Gortyna, Mylato,
and Lycastos. "It subsequently received a Lacede-
monian colony. At a still later period it was in fre-
quent hostilities with the Gnossians, who, taking ad-
vantage of the absence of the Lyctians on a distant
expedition, surprised Lyctus and destroyed it. The
Lyctians were so disheartened by this calamity that
they abandoned at once their ancient locality, and
withdrew to Lampe, where they were kindly and hos-
pitably received. Polybius on this occasion bears
testimony to the great antiquity of Lyctus, and the
superiority of the inhabitants in regard to moral cha-
racter above the Cretans. It would appear from the
same historian, that they afterwards recovered their
city, with the aid of the Gortynians." (Cramer, vol. iii.
p. 389.)
90
LYCASTUS IDENTIFIED
6
In the couplet from the Iliad before referred to,
regarding the early notice of Lyctus, there is mention
also of a city of Lycastus, with Gnossus, Lyctus, and
Gortyna, which city of Lycastus must in consequence
be looked for in their neighbourhood. Strabo states
that it was destroyed by the Gnossians, as Lyttus or
Lyctus had been, and that it had entirely disappeared
(vol. x. p. 479). But another author quoted by Cramer
(Polybius) states that Lycastus was afterwards taken
from the Gnossians by the Gortynians, who gave it to
the neighbouring town of Rhaucus (vol. iii. p. 370).
This association enables us to identify its site more
clearly now that Rhaucus has been identified (as I
believe it indisputably to be) at Khani Kastelli; for
the situation and territory of Lycastus must have been
somewhere adjacent to the three cities of Gnossus,
Lyttus, and Rhaucus: and to be so, it must have stood
somewhere between them, or within the triangle
formed by these three cities; for the sites of Gnossus
and Lyttus have been long identified.
Thus Lycastus is identified by me at the ruins of a
city now called Kastritzi or Astritzi, near the head of
the Kartero valley, and near the western border of
the upland plain of Pediada, which plain probably,
in the Homeric time, in part belonged to it, since
Lycastus was then evidently an important city of
Crete. The modern name, too, of Astritzi or Kas-
tritzi, although a diminutive of Kastron, the common
AT KASTRITZI.
91
name of a fort, may also be derived from Lycastus.
And another point, indicative of the proximity of these
three cities, is in the fact that Lyctus and Lycastus
are family names in connexion with Minos, and were
thus naturally given by him to the cities next in
importance or proximate to Gnossus, his capital of
Crete.
The route to Kastritzi, from our last tenting-ground
at the foot of Mount Iuktas, lies to the south-east,
across several low ridges and valleys, in each of which
villages and hamlets are studded throughout, and
indicate a district of some fertility and populousness.
A flat spur or ridge rises rather commandingly, at
the head of the most eastern of these valleys, at about
two hours' ride from the foot of Iuktas, and, although
not very high, is naturally strong and inviting for the
situation of an ancient city of the Homeric times.
Some few portions of its walls still remain, which
are a mixture of Cyclopean and Hellenic, with square
towers from 12 to 15 feet high, and very solid; and
the foundations of almost the entire circuit can be
traced round the margin of the hill for a distance of
nearly a mile and a half. Within them are some
foundations as vestiges of the habitations of the
city, of both an early and middle-age character, and
remains of terraces that supported them. Strabo,
however, observes that Lycastus had disappeared in
his time; and the passage may be used as an argu-
92
THENA.
ment against the identity of these ancient walls with
those of Lycastus. Yet I cannot but believe that it
was the true position of this Homeric city, from the
facts related, and in opposition to Pashley,—who
placed it, as also Arcadia, on the east side of the
Lasethe Mountains, and consequently far removed
from the Rhaucian and Gnossian territory-which Ly-
castus evidently could not have been, to have become
transferred to the inhabitants of the former by the
Gortynians, as Polybius relates. Pashley is undoubt-
edly in error in respect to these two important cities
of Lycastus and Arcadia, and especially, as I shall
more fully show in a future chapter, in regard to the
latter, as he is also in respect to Rhaucus, Matium,
and Heracleion.
From Astritzi we proceed to Lyttus, across the large
upland plain of the Pediada or Pethiada, lying directly
between Lycastus and Lyttus. An hour's journey from
Astritzi brings us to the small conical hill at the
northern margin of the plain, upon which are well-
preserved walls of an ancient fortress, called Saba or
Sapa, and which I have presumed to be a small place
called Thenæ, that was said to have stood near the Om-
phalian Plain, thus, also, recognizing this plain as the
Pediadan Plain extending in front of it. There is
mention of a temple of Thenæ, and also of the river
Triton near it. At the village of Smavi, near Saba, the
inscription No. 2, Plate I. of Inscriptions was procured,
PLAIN OF PEDIADA.
93
being a memorial tablet, by her parents, to Agatha-
meris, who, from the objects represented upon it (a
comb, plaited hair, and perfuming-vessel or soap-dish),
seems to have been a lady hair-dresser. The Jews still
show the trade of their deceased in a similar manner.
Its walls are purely Hellenic, and not Cyclopean,
and are also in better preservation than those at
Kastritzi; and this better preservation seems even
more incompatible with Strabo's statement, of the
total disappearance of Lycastus in his time, than the
preservation of the walls of Kastritzi, identified as
Lycastus, if it be conjectured that Lycastus might
have been at Sapa. Strabo may, however, have only
used the expression in reference to its habitations, or
to its existence then as a habitable spot. Yet, as
Strabo resided some time at Gnossus with his mother's
relatives, who governed it, his words may seem on
that account to deserve the more deferential con-
sideration. I have, however, frequently observed
elsewhere, at the sites of ancient cities which Strabo
had mentioned as having been destroyed and no
longer existing in his time, many remains and vestiges
that enable them to be identified, although not exist-
ing as towns or habitable spots at the present time.
The upland plain of the Pediada is about four miles
in diameter, and nearly 200 feet above the sea. It
is bounded by gently rising hills on all sides but on
the east, where they rise abruptly into the Lasethe
:
94
ASCENT FROM THE PEDIADA
Mountains to a height of 7000 feet above the sea; and
its northern part is naked and bleak, which seems to
be caused by the force of the squalls that strike upon
its surface from the north winds that prevail at cer-
tain seasons. The plain is, in consequence, compara-
tively treeless and naked near its north margin: and
vegetation is stunted also upon the surface of the
bordering hills from the same cause; and so much
is its influence seen and felt here, that although I
pitched my tent once at the foot of these hills, near
the village of Apostoli, and near a few scrubby olives,
we could not collect wood enough from the hills or
plain to boil our tea-kettle, but were obliged to use,
in lieu of wood, the sun-dried cow-dung collected
from the bare plain adjacent.
This part of the Pediada Plain is in consequence
left for the tillage of grain only, whilst the southern
and central parts have fine vineyards and fruit-orchards
near the villages situated there.
This fine upland of the Pediada must have been the
principal territory of the Lyctians, or Lyttians, in the
time of Minos; for the remains of this very ancient
city exist upon the summit of a narrow but tortuous
ridge, overlooking the plain upon its eastern margin,
and just over the village of Xidhia or Xidhi, as it
is variously pronounced by the native peasantry. The
hill is an outlying and lower spur of the Lasethe,
composed chiefly of friable shales and schists of a
TO THE SITE OF LYTTUS.
95
dark-brown, blue, and grey colour, that have a high
inclination, dipping nearly vertically to the north-
west, and appear to belong to the upper series of num-
mulite rocks existing in Crete.
In the ascent to the village of Xidhia from the
eastern margin of the plain, we meet with several very
large Ilex oaks, growing upon the slopes of the ridge
or in the sheltered ravines that descend it, the girths
of some of which exceed any I had hitherto seen in
Crete. It is not the Valonea oak, but a small and
prickly-leafed kind, and with a small acorn like the
acorns of the British oak, although with a much
smaller leaf; and these acorns are gathered only to
feed the village swine, their cups having apparently
no commercial value for tanning, like those from the
true Valonea.
The ascent to the village of Xidhia, from the Pe-
diada Plain, occupied nearly three quarters of an hour,
and we found the inhabitants all busy at their wine-
presses; and the narrow, filthy lanes of approach to
their several habitations were in consequence ren-
dered more than usually filthy by the stream of refuse
dregs of wine that ran from them like blood, and
from the village pigs that wallowed in it. The ga-
thering of the grapes is here fully a fortnight behind
the time of the vintage in the plain of the Pediada,
and also fully three weeks later than in the vine-
yards of the plains and valleys upon the coast.
•
96
LYTTIAN REMAINS.
Thus situated upon the summit of a western shoulder
of the Lasethe, the city of Lyctus or Lyttus occupied
a very commanding position; yet the hill has no
striking form of outline or feature. The site is, how-
ever, a remarkable one; for it is at the point of
junction or branching-off of numerous narrow ridges
that descend from it to the south, west, and north,
the sides of all of which are very abrupt, and their
crests nowhere more than a few yards across; so that
nearly every house and street required a terrace built
to support it; and it was therefore a very difficult one
to enclose within walls of a substantial and durable
character, from the many ravines and ridges they had
to cross, and from the steep and friable nature of the
rock they had to be built upon. And the city being
built upon the sides of these several ridges, its parts
thus originally faced all points of the compass.
The fragments of the buildings of the old city have,
in consequence of the abruptness of the site and the
instability of their foundations, for the most part fallen
into the valleys or ravines beneath, and become buried
with débris, and soil accumulated upon them; no-
thing, consequently, remains standing or in situ, ex-
cepting a few facings of these old terraces, which are
not very massive.
Amongst some accumulated fragments of the recent
terracings to support the ground for the tillage of
narrow patches of corn, there are scattered here and
HEADLESS STATUES.
97
there several sculptured marbles and monumental
bases or pedestals, some of which are inscribed, and
supported statues of Roman emperors; and there are
also several marble and even granite columns dispersed
with them,—all indicative of the ruins of a city that
was once rich and populous; for these granite co-
lumns are foreign to the island, most probably from
Egypt, and thus have been transported from the coast
a distance of seven or eight miles into the interior
of Crete, and to embellish a city that was nearly 2500
feet above the sea.
On the summit of the ruins there lie also two marble
statues near the small chapel. These are the chief
relics of interest visible at Lyttus; for there are no
vestiges of buildings in situ, nor any appearance of
the great theatre which, according to Antonio Belli,
existed at Lyttus in the time of the Venetian occu-
pation of Crete. Several spots were suggestive of
the possibility of a theatre having existed there; but
the absence of remains, as also the greater diameter
of the curve, at the heads of the several ravines is
opposed to its probability, if any of them, from their
forms suggesting it, be selected as the supposed site
of this theatre.
The two statues here noticed are headless-one
being a recently discovered statue of a draped female,
the other the lower half of a colossal statue of Jupiter,
known by an eagle sculptured behind the feet of the
VOL. I.
H
98
COINS OF LYTTUS.
figure. Both are in white marble, but the latter ap-
pears the finest as a work of art.
There was also found, near the northern extremity
of the city, a small square marble altar, upon two
faces of which was sculptured a naked youth, or Cupid,
having a torch in one hand, and a hare suspended by
its hind legs in the other; rams' heads and festoons of
grapes and leaves ornamented the other two sides and
corner-pieces. The top of the altar-piece had a shallow
hollow, like a baptismal font. The relief of the sculp-
ture is low, but of fair art.
As some of the inscriptions copied from this site
appear not to have been published, they are given in
an appendix by the Rev. Churchill Babington. One
of these, which I copied from over the door of a house
in the village of Xidhia, is of great interest (although
not readable), being probably one of the most early of
all the inscriptions found in Crete. A duplicate copy
by any future traveller, in correction of my own, would
be very desirable, since a copy made at a different time
of the day, and under a different light, might give a
better chance for deciphering and reading it, and help
the scholar in his puzzle.
The coins of Lyttus are not uncommon, and some-
times represent a bird, a prow, or a wild boar's head
on the two faces, at others have the head of Pallas
on the obverse, and AYT to denote the city on the
other side,—thus giving the true mode of spelling it
CC
CONFIGURATION OF THE SITE,
99
as Lyttus" in later times, instead of "Lyctus" as
written by some of the early authors.
The coins of the Cretan city of Khersonesos-the
seaport of Lyttus, and which evidently became the
more important city of the two after the destruction
of Lyttus-have also the same emblems, but with the
letters KEP upon them, or combined thus in the mo-
nogram, so as to indicate for which city they were
specially struck, and they show the close connexion as
well as the once flourishing condition of both of these
cities.
The hill upon which the city of Lyttus stood re-
sembles, from its numerous branching ridges, the
fibres that shoot off from the extremity of a great root
-that root being represented by the single narrow
ridge which springs out behind the city, and connects
it with the bolder face of the Lasethe Mountain above
it as the trunk or stem. This connecting ridge or
neck divides the watershed or ravines that lead to the
north and south coasts of Crete, by the Aposoleme
Valley, the Pediada Plain, and the Valley of Ene; and
there are the remains of an aqueduct upon this col or
neck, that led from some distant part of the mountains
of the Lasethe to Lyttus in its ancient and flourishing
days.
H 2
: 100
ཝཱ
CHAPTER X.
THE PLAIN OF LASETHE-ITS FERTILITY AND SALUBRITY-IT CON-
TAINED NO ANCIENT CITY, AND THEREFORE BELONGED TO
LYTTUS-DESCENT TO KHERSONESO-RUINS OF AN ANCIENT
AQUEDUCT AND ROAD FROM LYTTUS TO KHERSONESO-NUM-
MULITIC FOSSILS-RUINS OF KHERSONESO-VESTIGES OF A
CHURCH OR CATHEDRAL-TESSELLATED FOUNTAIN AT THE
PORT—ANCIENT THEATRE-A FRESHWATER DEPOSIT.
I HAVE noticed in the last chapter, that to the south-
east of this ancient city of Lyttus there rise the
Lasethe Mountains, the third in height in Crete, at-
taining an elevation of about 7000 feet, and therefore
only 1000 feet less than Mount Ida.
Immediately under the summit, and due east of
Lyttus, lies another very large mountain basin, also
called Lasethe, which is at an elevation of about 3000
feet above the sea. It encloses a beautiful plain, which
is extensively cultivated, and even populous, although
sc elevated, having no less than fifteen villages, besides
several hamlets or farms, within it, the inhabitants of
which enjoy a very temperate clime as compared with
the rest of Crete, and great salubrity in consequence:
the population at present is between 3000 and 4000
souls.
PLAIN OF LASETHE.
101
The ascent to the Lasethe Plain is by the coll or
neck behind Lyttus, and thence by a zigzag road up
the steep mountain-face out of which it springs. This
remarkable upland basin has no outlet, being perfectly
enclosed by mountains, and thus in appearance some-
what resembles a huge crater when viewed from the
encircling summits above it.
Its rivers and torrents, consequently, have no visible
connexion with the lower coast-streams, but, after
uniting in one torrent-bed, the waters fall into a large
cavern at the west extreme of the plain, and thus
escape to the sea through the bowels of the mountains
by what the Greeks call a katavothron, but to re-
appear, according to the native opinion, as the Aposo-
leme River, to the north-west, some seven or eight
miles distant.
The villages of the Lasethe basin lie dotted around
its margin upon small eminences and spurs that extend
from the enclosing heights; and the habitations are
for the most part surrounded by clusters of fruit-trees
and some vines, the fruits being chiefly pears and
apples, such as are natural to a very temperate region
like Northern Europe; for the olive does not grow in
it, from its elevation and aspect.
The impression which the view of this deeply em-
bosomed plain must recall to the traveller, on first be-
holding it, is that of the "Happy Valley" of Rasselas ;
for a wall of mountains completely encloses it, and, on
102
LASETHE BELONGED TO LYTTUS.
all sides, access to it is gained only by winding rugged
paths. It thus forms a perfect oasis amidst the stern
sterile hills that embosom it; and, enjoying a tempered
climate more resembling that of Switzerland than of
the populated parts of Crete in general, it is as salu-
brious as it is tranquil, and therefore an inviting
retreat during summer from the great heats then ex-
isting in the lower valleys.
Thus the fruits of Europe, combined with the vine
alone, flourish in this happy valley; for neither the
olive nor the carob-tree can flourish in it, although
indigenous and most productive in all the lower parts
of this mountain. The inhabitants consequently have
large flocks; but these are obliged to descend to the
lowlands for pasturage in the winter season, when
some of the inhabitants of its villages follow also, to
avoid the severity of the winter.
The length of the valley of the Lasethe is about
five miles, and its breadth about half its length. Its
inhabitants are all Christians, having no Turkish resi-
dent but the Aga and his guard.
In early Cretan days the Lasethe, no doubt, formed
part of the territory of Lyttus, as it possesses no an-
cient site of importance within it; for the whole plain
has been examined and the topographical features
surveyed by Lieut. Mansell, who found only some
slight vestiges of a small fortress. It formed, there-
fore, the upland territory of Lyttus, whilst the lower
ANCIENT AQUEDUCT AND ROAD.
103
plain of the Pediada under and to the west of it was
its lowland territory, the city itself commanding the
communication by the connecting ridge and the only
accessible route between them.
This explains the reason of the selection of so un-
usual and so inconvenient a position for an early Greek
city as that of Lyttus-upon the crest or backbone of
a tortuous and narrow ridge composed of crumbling
slaty rock, and with its sides so steep that it was
difficult to find room for a single street or habitation
without terracing it.
Descending from Lyttus, I proceeded by the valley
of the Potamies to Khersoneso. At the point of junc-
tion of this valley with that leading direct from Lyttus,
are some vestiges of an ancient aqueduct that spanned
the valley at a high elevation, and must have been
formed here of several lofty arches. It was built of
small stones, bricks, and mortar, but faced with small
blocks of limestone that were roughly squared and
smoothed, and probably dates after the Roman con-
quest of Crete. But it was, from its height and ex-
tent, a great work.
As the aqueduct led to Khersoneso, it was neces-
sary to be conducted at a high elevation, so as to cross
the high intervening ridge just over Khersoneso itself.
At the spot where the aqueduct crossed the Potamies
rivulet the valley was very narrow; but the elevation
of the aqueduct appears to have been here at least
ཏྠཾ--
104
NUMMULITIC FOSSILS.
200 feet above it, and some indications of buttresses
and arches remain upon the sides of the valley,
though not sufficient to show the number of tiers of
arches which composed it, or of what date they pro-
bably were.
The road descending this valley is very bad, like
most Cretan roads, from their rocky character; but
the sure-footedness and strength of their fine breed of
mules compensate in some degree for the absence of
any artificial roads. There are, however, evidences
here and there of a very broad paved road having
once connected Lyttus with its emporium Khersoneso,
and which followed nearly the same level as the aque-
duct; and as the distance between them in a straight
line is fully seven miles, and perhaps ten by its wind-
ings round the practicable ridges, these works of
the aqueduct and ancient road are indicative of a
period of great populousness, prosperity, and advanced
civilization.
In the deep bed of the valley below the junction
of the Lyttus and Potamies streamlets, I had an oppor-
tunity of examining some of the strata and fossils of
the downcast series of rocks lying to the north-west
of Lyttus, where beds of grey limestone are inter-
stratified with dark shales, and contain two or three
species of nummulitic fossils. Their dip here is much
less than at Lyttus, although in the same direction.
The limestones, however, are not uniform in thick-
KHERSONESO.
105
ness and continuous, but thin out, becoming replaced
shales and schistose strata of varying colour and
compactness.
On reaching the pass which leads to Khersoneso,
just over the modern village of the same name, we
have a fine view of the Bay of Khersoneso, and of the
ancient port of the city that stood upon the west
shore of the bay. It is formed by a small peninsula
and ancient mole that extended from it. Close
under the cape forming the bay I beheld my ship
awaiting my return; and in the little port there were
two or three caiques, with their crew of Symiot
sponge-divers lounging on shore, awaiting the abate-
ment of a fresh north wind then blowing, for the con-
tinuance of their marvellous occupation in the depths
of the sea,—some of whom dive to the depth of thirty
fathoms, and upwards, for these luxurious and neces-
sary articles of the toilet and hospital, and something
of whose life and labours I shall hereafter describe.
Khersoneso attained such importance in early
Christian times as to have been the see of a bishop,
and therefore must have had a suitable church; conse-
quently we find, upon the summit of the small point
or peninsula by which the port is in part formed, the
foundations of a large church, 112 feet long and 52
feet broad, with several columns that supported its
roof lying upon the spot; and just under it, on the
south side of the point, there is a small cave that is
106
TESSELLATED FOUNTAIN.
still used as a chapel, and dedicated to Hagia Para-
skevi, or Holy Friday.
The site occupied by the city was low, sloping
gently towards the port, and intersected by two or
three shallow ravines. It is for the most part culti-
vated at present, and has few vestiges remaining
visible but scattered fragments. There are the remains
of a large cistern near the western entrance of the
city, with an aqueduct leading from it; and near the
port, there are the remains of a tessellated fountain in
the shape of a shallow cone, so as to present four tri-
angular sides of tessellated surface, each representing
various figures, chiefly aquatic birds and fish, and
fishing-scenes, such as naked fishermen with rod and
line, a boat with two fishermen in it, one of whom
has caught a fish, or a large eight-armed sepia or
cuttlefish, which was no doubt as great a delicacy
with the ancients as it is now with the modern Greeks.
The figures are rudely done, and in violation of
every principle of perspective, although the border-
ing around each face of the font was elaborate and
in good taste. As the waters of the fountain must
have flowed over it originally, by being thus kept wet
the colours of the varied marble were rendered bright
and fresh, and better developed the scene repre-
sented.
The architects of our ornamental garden- or park-
fountains might perhaps derive a hint from this

M&N.Hanhart.mp
J. Schranz del from a sketch by TAB.S.
Malia Bay
PORT AND SITE OF KHERSONESOS
ANCIENT THEATRE.
107
rudely tessellated fountain of Khersoneso, to produce
pictorial effect and variety in designs for the same
object.
The only other ruin deserving notice at Khersoneso
is that of a small theatre, 156 feet in diameter by
my measurement: judging from its present form, it
seems to have been a purely Roman theatre. But in
the time of the Venetians it must have been in a
much better state of preservation; for in the manu-
script of Belli, published by Mr. Falkener, there is a
very detailed plan of this theatre. Now, however,
the foundation of the proscenium and a part of the
wings and back alone remain; and the theatre appears
to have been wholly built of small stones and mortar.
Pashley made a hasty visit to Khersoneso, but does
not describe its remains. Dr. Pococke only heard of
the ruins, but did not visit them. The above details
are consequently the only description hitherto given
of Khersoneso, a city which, by the traces now
visible, had a circuit of between two and three miles.
Strabo speaks of a temple to Britomartis there, of
the site of which there is now no indication nor any
vestiges. The accompanying view will better convey
an idea of the situation of the city, and suffice for the
general reader.
The district behind Khersoneso I found to be, pro-
bably, the most interesting for its geology in Crete.
For the hills lying westward, and towards the point
108
FRESHWATER DEPOSIT.
of Khersoneso, I found to be composed of both fresh-
water and marine deposits the former lying in a sort
of bay or hollow, between a portion of the marine ter-
tiary and the limestones of the Hippurite or Num-
mulite series, and also overlying parts of the marine
tertiary, so as to show its more recent origin.
6
Its position corresponds somewhat to that of the
freshwater deposits at the east end of the island of
Cos, and described in the Appendix to my Travels in
Lycia,'—that is, lying within and upon a strip of the
older marine tertiary strata so prevalent throughout
the northern part of Crete. The Cos deposits contain
numerous Pectens, oysters, and corals. The fresh-
water fossils of Khersoneso are identical with some of
those found in Cos and Rhodes, and consist of Unios,
Lymnæ, Paludinæ, and Planorbes, and thus contribute
another fragment to the evidence for the existence of
a freshwater lake over the Greek archipelago during
the late Miocene or early Pleiocene age. (See Geolo-
gical Appendix.)
109
CHAPTER XI.
THE MIRABELLA DISTRICT
AND
UPLANDS THE CAROB- OR
LOCUST-TREE FLOURISHES IN THIS DISTRICT-THE NUTRI-
TIOUS PROPERTIES OF ITS FRUIT THE FOOD OF ST. JOHN
IN THE WILDERNESS MALIA BAY AND VILLAGE-ANCIENT
SITE ON THE COAST OF THE BAY-DISCOVERY OF SCALES
OF GOLD-PROBABLE SITE OF A TEMPLE TO BRITOMARTIS-
SITE OF MILETUS-EXTENSIVE CAVERN NEAR IT-THE HAR-
BOUR AND FORTRESS OF SPINA LONGA.
THE district of the Mirabella, lying east of Lasethe,
consists of a series of rugged ranges enclosing several
upland plains and narrow depressed basins, like the
great Lasethe Plain, but in miniature. All these
valleys diminish in elevation as they approach the
Gulf of Mirabella to the north-east, forming so many
steps of ascent from it to the greater western basin
and plain of the Lasethe, and, like it, are entirely en-
closed. The principal of these is Khenurio Khorio,
from a large village of that name within it.
Between the plains of Fournes and Mirabella, upon
a high peak of the ridge dividing them, are vestiges
of a small fortress, but which does not appear to
belong to very early times, and seems to have been
some middle-age stronghold, rather than either Roman
or Greek.
110
THE FOOD OF ST. JOHN
In these lower valleys of the Mirabella district the
olive flourishes, with the mulberry and other fruits.
But the carob- or locust-tree is the tree that charac-
terizes, and is the chief product of, the Mirabella,
more particularly on the lower slopes of its moun-
tains and valleys which border the coast. It, how-
ever, is not planted, as the olive, but cultivated where
nature has accidentally reared it near the habitations
or tilled ground, and it forms the principal wild shrub
on these mountains. The carob is consequently the
chief produce of the Mirabella, the fruit being also
large and good.
The nutritious quality of the carob-pods, which are,
singularly, produced in clusters from the gnarled and
knotty parts of the stems of this stunted and slow-
growing tree, is well known in South Europe; and they
are a most valuable food for horses and cattle, as they
contain a large quantity of saccharine matter. In
some parts of the Levant they are, in consequence, even
sold as a sweetmeat for children, who masticate the
dry but raw pod with great gusto; and in Italy and
Malta the sweet juice is expressed from the carob-
pod to flavour the caramelli, instead of sugar, being
preferred on account of the peculiar flavour it imparts
to this confection.
It can be thus well understood how the sweet pulp
of the pod of the carob and wild honey together
could have afforded subsistence to St. John in the
IN THE WILDERNESS.
111
desert; and although true locust insects themselves
have been supposed to have been the food upon
which John subsisted, and no doubt are sometimes
eaten by the Arabs of certain parts of Africa (for I
myself have seen heaps of baked locusts sold in the
market-place of Tunis during the time of a flight of
these pests of the East), yet the sweet pulp of the
carob-pod would form a more nutritious and palat-
able substitute for bread, and be also a more pro-
bable food, as the wild product of an uncultivated
mountain or desert, than that of an insect subject to
decay and putrify, which also is only procurable at
one particular season, and to be preserved must be
salted. But, as Biblical commentators have decided
that it was the INSECT that St. John fed upon in the
desert, I am doubtless at fault in showing the plausi-
bility of the more common and vulgar opinion regard-
ing the locust-tree, the mistake having arisen perhaps
from the English name alone; for the word "arbau"
of the Old Testament is translated "akris" (the
insect) in the Septuagint Greek. The contempla-
tion of the question, however, has its special interest
still.
The open and wide bay extending eastward of Cape
Khersoneso is also called Malia, and takes its name
from a village situated upon a narrow slip of stony and
undulating land which skirts the shore at the foot of
the lower chain of the Lasethe mountains; and the
112
MALIA BAY AND VILLAGE.
neighbourhood is noticed for producing carobs of the
finest quality.
The main road, to the eastern harbour of Spina
Longa and the Mirabella uplands lies over this plain,
at no great distance from the coast. At about a mile
to the north-east of the village, and a few hundred
yards from the coast, are some vestiges of an ancient
city which the natives call Sivadhi Hellenico. The site
is upon a rugged piece of rising ground on the east side
of a torrent-bed with a small cove at its mouth, where
small boats could be sheltered when hauled ashore.
The remains consist chiefly of some few foundations
of ancient habitations, portions of cyclopean terraces
or walls, and a massive platform about ninety-five feet
square, formed of large slabs of limestone, which must
have supported or been the approach to a temple.
This latter, until a few years since, lay buried three
or four feet beneath a reddish soil that had accumu-
lated over it, when, a shepherd accidentally discovering
a few thin plates or scales of gold in the surface-soil,
the inhabitants of Malia, hoping that it indicated a
mine of treasure beneath, laboured diligently for
several weeks in excavating the locality, but were
rewarded with a few ounces of the precious metal
only, which was found in the form of scales or thin
plates, that seemed to have covered some statue of
baser material. Perhaps it was a statue to the god-
dess Britomartis (who, as shown by several authors,
HELLENICO SISI.
113
was anciently worshipped in this neighbourhood),
and probably stood upon the platform without a co-
vered building to enclose it.
About a mile to the east of these ruins is a narrow
creek, at the mouth of a rocky gully or watercourse,
which cuts through the stony plain extending from
the foot of the mountains over Malia. As in this
small inlet boats and coasting craft could find some
shelter for trading in the summer season, and also
security when hauled ashore in the winter, it must
have been a port of this unknown site in ancient
times, since it is used now for the exporting of oil
and carobs from the district during fine weather;
and when I visited it, some empty oil-casks were
then lying on the shore, having been left there for
filling, until the return of some coasting trader.
The creek is called Sisi, and at present the only
building standing near it is a Greek chapel; but
there are vestiges of some few other buildings, which
appear, however, to be modern also. The natives,
whom I found cultivating the adjacent ground, called
it Hellenico Sisi, or Seese, implying that it was an
ancient location as a port or fishing-hamlet of the
district. The creek would afford excellent shelter as
a retreat and hiding-place for six or eight row-galleys
of past times.
At two miles further to the east of Seese is an
open bay at the mouth of a valley which descends
VOL. I.
I
114
MELATO.
from the Mirabella, with a steep shingle-beach for
its shore.
A small village, called Melato, stands upon a small
eminence a little way up the valley. The similarity
of the name induced Pashley to presume it to indicate
the site and ruins of Miletus, mentioned by Homer
with Lyttus and Lycastus.
Pashley only alludes to them in a note; but his
map indicates that the ancient ruins he refers to as
Miletus stood to the westward of the modern village
of Melato, where, however, I could hear of none
from the natives whom I met cultivating their fields
at the mouth of the valley; but they pointed to a
conical peak jutting off from the higher hills on the
east side of the bay, and not far from the sea-shore,
as the only true Hellenic site in the neighbourhood.
But the only remains here visible were some old cis-
terns, some ancient terraces ranged round the side of
the peak, and some collected heaps of stones on the
sloping ground extending nearly to the sea from its
base, and which seem to be the remains of ancient
and rude habitations, such as might have been used
by the inhabitants of an early city like that of Miletus.
As Miletus was said to have been destroyed in the
time of Strabo, greater remains can hardly be ex-
pected, perhaps, to identify it. This is probably the
ancient city that Pashley heard of when passing
through the district; for it is not clear from his re-
MELATO VALLEY.
115
mark that he visited the site he marks upon his map,
and where I could hear of none now.
The Melato valley descends from the western basin
of the Mirabella, which doubtless was the upland
territory of Miletus, or this city, whatever was its
ancient name.
But there are some ruins which I have before no-
ticed as capping the summit of the ridge that separates
the western plains of the Mirabella from the eastern
ones. Pashley briefly refers to these ruins, and seems
to have been more guided by the report of the natives
regarding them than by a personal examination, from
the opinion he has formed of their extent and anti-
quity; for he supposes them to represent Lycastus.
But these ruins are purely those of a fortress of the
middle ages or of the Roman times, and are built of
small stones and mortar, and also are not more than
400 to 500 yards in extent.
But I have before ventured to differ from this
learned traveller, by believing the Homeric city
Lycastus to have been at Kastritza, to the west (in-
stead of to the east) of Lyttus; for Lycastus was
clearly in the neighbourhood of Rhoucus and
Gnossos.
The Melato valley is noted for a capacious cavern
that enters into the limestone-ridge bordering it on
the east, and is celebrated in the local events of the
Revolution, from having been made a retreat for a
I 2
116
EXTENSIVE CAVERN.
large number of the inhabitants of the Mirabella
during that civil war in 1822.
Its principal entrance is about half a mile from the
sea; and it is said to have another aperture at the east
end of the bay, thirty or forty feet above the sea; but
I was not able to visit them.
It is related of this cave, that several hundred
Christians, having at one time during the Revolution
retreated to it as usual when alarmed, were so closely
beset by a band of Turks from Spina Longa, that,
after many were killed or starved to death within it,
the rest surrendered and were made slaves.
The natives of Melato, from whom I received this
account, spoke of it with much reluctance in conse-
quence; but when induced to do so, accompanied it
with expressions of revengeful bitterness towards the
Turks of Spina Longa, from the domestic afflictions
which the reference to the subject even now awakened
in their breasts. Of a civil war, especially amongst
uncivilized peoples, such as that which spread over
Crete, fanned more by the antipathies of religious
bigotry and enthusiasm than those of race, it takes
several generations to efface the effect, even under
the most prudent governance of the mind against
dwelling upon its memory or its traditions.
The village of Melato is wholly Christian, and con-
tains about fifty families, who appear to be poor; but
they have land about it, both on the hillside and
HARBOUR OF SPINA LONGA.
117
valley, capable of profitable cultivation, although the
ridges are steep. From it a mountain-road ascends
to the long, narrow, and enclosed upland plain of the
Mirabella, whence there is a fair road to Kritza, the
principal village of the district, and also to Spina
Longa, its principal port.
The port of Spina Longa is situated just within the
cape, or headland, that forms the turning-point to
the deep gulf or bay of Mirabella, the most notable
flexure or indentation of the whole coast of Crete,
and penetrating to the depth of nearly fourteen miles.
The cape turning into it, which is remarkably bold
and wild, is picturesquely crowned by an old and
rent tower or lighthouse of the Venetians; and the
Ægean lashes almost incessantly with its angry surf
and spray the worn rocks beneath, and with unusual
force; for here the north and north-west winds blow
for three parts of the year, and with double violence
as compared with any other part of the neighbour-
hood. The south side of the cape, as far as the
mouth of the inlet of Spina Longa, presents a high
and rather picturesque steep, over which the hissing
squalls descend during these winds like water falling
from a cascade. The entrance to the port is conse-
quently then difficult of access for a sailing vessel, and
is somewhat unsafe also as an anchorage, unless the
vessel anchoring within it moors with two or three
anchors and cables, to secure herself against the force
118
FORTRESS OF SPINA LONGA.
of these torrents of wind, which, both in summer and
winter, rise as suddenly as violently. Moreover this
inlet, although having four fathoms in its upper part,
is barred a little within the entrance by a shallow
bank of twelve feet, that extends directly across it.
Thus in its upper part, where it is more capacious, the
port is available for only small coasting craft, and in
the outer part is very limited at its only anchorage
for larger vessels.
Off the north end of the peninsula of Spina Longa,
and close under the squally heights there rises abruptly
from the sea a small but high and cliffy islet, upon
which the Venetians built a strong fortress, serving
both to defend the entrance to the anchorage behind
it and also to be a secure garrison for the command
and subjection of the natives of the Mirabella; for
the Venetians, in spite of its inconvenience, made this
the chief trading-port of the eastern part of Crete.
The fortress of Spina Longa was several times at-
tacked by the Turks; but, being of the form and
character of Gibraltar on a small scale, and, more-
over, well fortified for the period, and also being
wholly insulated, it remained in the hands of the
Venetians long after the island of Crete had become
subject to the Turks. Its fortifications are at present
much fallen into decay; but it contains about eighty
Turkish families, the town being situated on the
western side of the rock, as the eastern face is quite
COASTING TRADE.
119
precipitous, like that of Gibraltar. Its inhabitants
are chiefly sailors, who carry on some trade in seven or
eight schooners that belong to them, as well as pos-
sessing ten or twelve coasting feluccas, or caiques, for
local trade, or for making summer voyages to the
neighbouring islands for wood, grain, and melons, in
their several seasons; for Crete, although so capable,
does not produce sufficient of either to meet the con-
sumption of its larger towns.
HYERYS BONDYS PR HOC HOS MILM AFVN-
DAMTIS ERE GVBRE D.IOCOBO SORELLO CAR-
PENSI A.M.D.C.XXIX.
The above inscription is over the door of a church
built by the Venetians at the south end of the town,
but which is now used as a mosque; and there are
some large cisterns at the north-east end of the town,
that supply the garrison with water, of detestable
odour and flavour from stagnation and neglect.
It is singular thus to find in Crete a community of
Turks whose occupation is exclusively the sea! and
some of them are excellent sailors. And I am told
that a few years since they had a fine brig also,
which they had the confidence to send with a cargo
to England, as she was commanded by one of their
most enterprising and skilful skippers, whose great
repute and skill as a Levantine navigator had thus in-
duced them to venture her on a voyage to our diffi-
1
120
MAHOMEDAN SAILORS.
cult seas and shores, where, unhappily, fate or fortune
frowned upon their temerity; for both captain and
crew and their fine vessel were lost together.
The trading ambition of the little community thus
received a serious check in this loss, from which it is
perhaps not likely to recover; for they have not ven-
tured to build another to replace her. "Kismit " (i.e.
Fate) settled it; so they are now content to trade at
home, instead of venturing upon distant voyages.
A Mahomedan community of sailors and traders,
on a barren rock adjacent to a fertile island, recalls to
mind the community of Christian sailors and sponge-
divers who inhabit the barren rocks of Castelorizzo,
Symi, and Khalki, as well as others in the Levant.
The reason of such a location or occupation was
perhaps in some degree identical, viz. the preferring
to seek a livelihood from the sea to the risks and dis-
cord of a life in association with their neighbours the
Christians of the Mirabella, and very probably from
their knowing the deep-rooted hatred formerly felt
against them, as participators in the tragic events
connected with the cave of Melato, which rendered a
return to their mountain-villages imprudent, if not
impossible. Besides, they are also the appointed gun-
ners to the island-fortress at the present time.
121
CHAPTER XII.
THE RUINS OF AN EARLY CRETAN CITY UPON THE ISTHMUS OF
SPINA LONGA—AND OF NAXOS OVER IT—THE IDENTITY OF
THE FORMER WITH OLONTION ITS RUINS ITS ANCIENT
PORT AT KALOKYTHIA—THE RUINS AND WHETSTONE-QUAR-
RIES OF NAXOS-THE QUARRIES OF ELUNTA-THE ANCIENT
BISHOPRIC OF ALLYNGUS RECOGNIZED HERE.
THE harbour of Spina Longa is formed by a long
peninsula, connected with Crete by a low and narrow
isthmus at its south extreme, which is in one part
only about 100 yards wide and hardly more than three
feet above the sea. But this isthmus must have been
in ancient times both much higher and much wider;
for the ruins of an early Greek city exist upon it,
and a large part of the city lies submerged beneath
the sea on either side of the isthmus: and the sub-
sidence must have amounted to six or eight feet, per-
haps more, as there are no means of ascertaining the
magnitude of these phenomena with such precision
as that of elevations. The position thus chosen for
an early Greek city, upon the neck of a low isthmus,
is rather singular for the ancients; but still it was a
much better one for the convenience of its local trade
than that chosen by the Venetians upon the small
122
AXOS THE ANCIENT NAXOS.
islet at the stormy entrance of the shallow inlet of
Spina Longa; for the adjacent bay of Kalokythia, on
the east side of the peninsula, and sheltered mainly
by the little island of that name which lies across
the mouth of the bay, forms an excellently sheltered
harbour at all times and seasons, and was its ancient
port.
The identification of this city and the adjacent har-
bour with their ancient name has long been a diffi-
culty with me; for, until recently, I supposed this
city could be no other than Naxos, from its vici-
nity to some quarries for procuring a sharpening-
stone known as the Turkey stone, for the sharpen-
ing of razors and fine tools, because, according to
Dr. Cramer's showing, "there was a place called
Naxos in Crete, celebrated for producing excellent
whetstones;" and the identity seemed to be con-
firmed by the similarity of the names Oxah and Axos,
which are now applied to a fortress upon a high crag
just over the west side of the isthmus, and just over
where the whetstones were anciently quarried although
not so at present.
I have, however, recently come to the conclusion that
these ruins upon the isthmus are those of Olontion
of some authors, and that the latter is also the Solun-
tus mentioned in the anonymous Periplus' as a
coast-town and port somewhere here. Previous com-
mentators had supposed that Olus, Olontion, and Solus
1
ELUNTA OR OLONTION.
123
were meant for the same place; I shall, however, show
that Olus was a distinct city. Soluntus is described
in this document as a promontory and port with good
water, at only sixty stadia from Khersoneso, whereas
the actual distance between the latter place and Spina
Longa is three times that given in the 'Periplus,'
which is evidently an error of the original or some
transcriber, as there is no intermediate promontory
and port that can be mistaken for it but those of Spina
Longa; and it is therefore the Soluntus of the author
of the 'Periplus,' a modification of Olontion.
Its identity with Olontion is supported or confirmed
more fully also from the name of the nearest village
being Elunta, which name, I believe, really represents,
and is only a slight corruption of the name of, the
early Cretan city of Olontion, of which there exists
a beautiful and very rare silver coin; but no record
of its exact place in the island is given by any author.
The cultivated land adjacent to the site belongs
also to the natives of Elunta, and not to the inhabi-
tants of Spina Longa, who, moreover, call the ruins
on the west side of the isthmus Messa Elunta, thus
applying the name of their own village to a part of
the ruins; but those on the east side of the isthmus
are called by them Poro, although they are connected
and part of the same old city, which circumstance
is no doubt indicative of a passage through having
existed since the old city was deserted.
124
RUINS OF OLONTION.
A great part of the city, however, is submerged
beneath the sea, or covered by salt-pans reclaimed
from and on a level with it. These salt-pans are the
revenue or pay of the Aga of Spina Longa.
The remains consist of several foundations of Hel-
lenic habitations interspersed amidst heaps of building-
stones and fragments of marble, which are scattered
over the rising ground on either side of the low
sandy neck forming the isthmus; and the city was
defended on the east side by a massive Hellenic
wall, which crossed from the shore of the inlet of
Spina Longa to the cliffy coast over the Bay of Poro,
this wall having five or six courses still remaining in
some parts.
On the west side of the isthmus, the old boundary-
wall is not recognizable, having been in all probabi-
lity removed by the Venetians to build the fortress of
Spina Longa, with most of the available remains of
the city there. But there are traces of an aqueduct
along the ground to the south of the salt-pans, which,
the natives say, in ancient times went as far as the
upland of Kritza, adding that there are traces of the
aqueduct here and there on the intermediate hills,
but that it was for the most part subterranean. That
part of it now visible near the isthmus really does
disappear in a subterranean cave or vault, which
doubtless gave rise to the native tradition and opinion.
But the fact of such an extent of tunnel ever having
KALOKYTHIA BAY.
125
been made, as would be necessary even to pierce
through the first ridge of mountains to the south of
the ruins, may with reason be doubted; and I am
inclined to believe the cave or vault was an ancient
outlet of some source or spring whence the aque-
duct was supplied, but which failed in later times-
perhaps when the submergence of the part of
the city which I have referred to took place; and
thus, with the failure of this source, the destruction
of part of the city, and the exposure of the inde-
fensible part to pirates, it probably became early
deserted.
I must here notice, however, that the passage in
the 'Stadiasmus' referring to Soluntus is rather ambi-
guous; for there appears to be a word (denoting a cape,
or port, or something) that is wanting, the original
Greek word being in the genitive, which may be
either the island or peninsula upon which the town of
Soluntus in part stood. And as the Bay of Kaloky-
thia, on the east side of the peninsula of Spina Longa,
was no doubt the proper port of the Olontians, and
not the long inlet of Spina Longa itself, this port, or
the lesser islet that formed it, may be the port with
good water alluded to, since it further states in the
passage that this port was 20 stadia distant-meaning,
no doubt, from the city or mainland of Crete-which is
not far from the actual distance of the port of Kalo-
kythia from the ruins; and I found that there are
126
WHETSTONE QUARRIES
some ancient remains, such as ancient cisterns, quar-
ries, and foundations of buildings, here and there ex-
isting upon the sides of the hills overlooking the port,
which help to confirm this view, by showing that this
must have been the principal harbour of the Olon-
tians, and not the great Spina Longa inlet.
The high craggy peak and fortress of Oxah or Axos,
lying to the south-west of the isthmus, seen in the
accompanying view, and before noticed, has a long
narrow summit, surrounded by precipices on every
side, and leaving few places of access. The ruins
upon it consist of two Hellenic towers, situated
one at each end of the summit, and are thus placed,
to serve as watch-towers as well as for defence, at
the two points it was most easy or only practicable
to approach. They were, therefore, not connected
by walls.
On the narrow summit, intermediate between these
towers, there are several ancient cisterns, and founda-
tions of rude habitations, which appear to have been
merely those of the labourers who worked an an-
cient whetstone-quarry in the steep face of the hill,
beneath the ruins,—and hence its evident identity as
"the place Naxos, celebrated for whetstones,” and
simply noticed, without any indication of the part of
Crete in which it was situated. But from the simi-
larity of the names Oxah and Axos now applied to it,
and from this being also the principal place where
AT AXOS AND ELUNTA.
127
whetstones are procured in the island, the identity is
clear.
The trade in these whetstones is still carried on by
the natives of the modern village of Elunta, at a price
of about 4s. the cwt. But they are quarried from a
more convenient spot, just above the village, where
picturesque crags beetle over the narrow stony valley
lying beneath, and continually contribute their rejected
fragments and chippings to the already well-paved
plain under them, that seems to the eye to be almost
without soil in consequence. The natives, however,
cultivate the valley; and when I saw it, on a November
day, the young corn was showing a wonderful crop
out of the apparently soilless pebble-fields within it,
and some of the finest olive-trees and carobs I ever
saw were flourishing in this same bed of stony frag-
ments. The accompanying view will show the pic-
turesque character of the scenery in the neighbour-
hood of Olontus, and whence the whetstones are
procured, as also the nature of the position and the
extent of the old city itself, and of the fortress of
Oxah or Axos over it.
These whetstone-quarries exist in a rather thinly
stratified calcareo-argillaceous rock, that belongs appa-
rently to the Nummulitic series, and contains thin
siliceous bands or strata of a very fine-grained and
compact nature, that form these whetstones.
As there is notice of a bishopric called Allyngus in
128
BISHOPRIC OF ALLYNGUS.
Crete, but without any local record or tradition of its
precise locality, and as I could not learn any tradition
of it elsewhere, I imagined that its name might have
been corrupted by some transcriber from that of this
city of Oluntus, and thus became applied to this
district, as in sound it somewhat approximates to the
modern name Elunta, now applied to the site of
Oluntus. I could learn nothing regarding its position,
however, from the metropolitan of Crete. But on
inquiry of the Bishop of Mirabella, although he said
he had never heard of such a bishopric, and that all
records relative to his see were lost in the revolution,
yet he added there was a tradition with the old men
of the Mirabella that this district, previous to receiving
the name of Mirabella from the Venetians, was called
"Kallinkus" or "Allinkus," a name that immediately
seemed to me to be derived from Allyngus: hence,
probably, this was its locality.
There are two roads leading from Spina Longa to
the Mirabella. One, direct from the village of Elunta,
ascends the steep and rocky ridges immediately over
it; the other, much easier although a little longer,
leads to the southward over the gap directly under
Oxah, and crosses first a small upland basin south of
it, then another to the westward, and leads then di-
rect into the southern part of the Mirabella upland,
where it joins the road to Kritza, and leads through
the small marshy plain of Lakonia, between which and

J Schranz, del.from a sketch by T.A.B.S.
M.&N.Hanhart imp
PORO THE ANCIENT OLONTION

BISHOPRIC OF ALLYNGUS.
129
Kritza, however, there is a singular hill and ruined
city upon it, of great antiquity and in a remarkably
good state of preservation, and which I shall next
describe, as it lies upon the route most convenient for
a traveller to take in exploring the district. More-
over the site is very singular and interesting from its
craterlike form. I made the accompanying sketch of
the ground-plan of its position and character, and refer
the reader to the following chapter for its description.
VOL. I.
Plain of
Lakonia
OA
D
L
Road to Gritza
Causeway
Sketch of
GOOLAS
the Ancient
OLUS.
Scale.
500 Yards
A. Round Tower.
B. Gclopean houses
C. Temple of Minerva
D. Bottom of hollow
E.E.E. Gclopean terraces and houses
round sides of hollow.
K
130
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ROUTES BETWEEN MIRABELLA AND SPINA LONGA, AND ALSO
TO KRITZA -THE UPLAND BASIN OF LAKONIA—A REMARK-
ABLE SITE OVER IT—THE VERY EARLY CHARACTER OF THE
RUINS- IDENTITY WITH OLUS AND OLERUS—THE OLERIAN
MINERVA, HER CELEBRATED TEMPLE AND FESTIVAL-WOODEN
STATUE TO BRITOMARTIS, BY DÆDALUS-KRITZA THE PRE-
SENT CAPITAL OF THE MIRABELLA-ITS FINE SITUATION—
THE SITE OF MINOA IDENTIFIED AT THE HEAD OF THE GULF
OF MIRABELLA-THE FEWNESS OF ITS REMAINS EXPLAINED
BY A RECENT SUBMERGENCE OF THE EASTERN HALF OF
CRETE.
THE little upland plain of Lakonia recently mentioned,
having no outlet or visible katavothron, as in the
Lasethe, the melted snow and winter-rains which flood
it remain spread over a large portion of this basin
throughout the year, so as to prevent its being tilled,
except around the margin, and thus render it marshy
and unhealthy.
I ascended to this plain from the port of Agios
Nikolo, in the Mirabella Gulf, where I had anchored
my ship for the purpose. We entered the plain by a
gap
in the east side of the mountains which enclose
it, after ascending a valley leading from St. Nikolo.
Then passing by two farms and a grove of olive- and
REMARKABLE RUINS.
131
carob-trees on its margin, we reached, at the end of
a mile and a half from the gap, the foot of a rugged
double-crested hill. As we were now approaching it
by the main road to Kritza, our guide pointed up to
the two crags that surmount the hill, and said, to my
surprise, that the old city was there; no vestiges of it,
however, were visible from below.
The main road to Kritza and Ierapetra from the
Mirabella here winds up its western side from the La-
konian plain, by a zigzag path for about a quarter of
an hour, until a higher plateau or valley is reached.
Here our guide, on reaching it, turned suddenly off
the road and led us direct up the hill towards the crags,
although it was steep and pathless. By this short cut
to the goal of our aim, we soon came in sight of some
massive Cyclopean ruins on the hillside; and shortly
afterwards, at a little above them, we reached a gap
between the two peaks that form its summit, and
then discovered near it an ancient road, having a Cyclo-
pean facing to support it, which led to the gap, from
the eastern base of the hill and from the Kritza valley.
Its massive character and breadth at once showed
that we were either upon a roadway leading to
some important city of the earlier Cretan days, or a
much-frequented way to some sacred spot on the
mountain, such as that of a temple or oracle. As
soon as the gap was reached by this road (and we had
scrambled over some ruins of the same ancient cha-
K 2
1
132
REMARKABLE RUINS
racter in getting to it), we were surprised to find our-
selves upon the brink of a crater-like hollow, lying
between the two peaks, and of an oval form, about 500
yards in diameter, and shaped like an amphitheatre,
with a level area nearly 100 feet below the brink.
It was terraced in its descent on all sides, by a series
of half-natural and half-artificial terraces, somewhat
representing also the steps of an amphitheatre, upon
every one of which were the ruins of habitations of
the earliest and rudest Cyclopean style. They were
in some instances in a remarkable state of preserva-
tion, which, in fact, was the result of their massiveness
and long neglect: for many had the large stone pos-
terns to the doorways still erect; and these massive
blocks, which were in single pieces, were the only
stones that had been worked into anything approach-
ing a rectangular form. But the mountain being
composed of a highly stratified blue and grey lime-
stone, the rock was easily split into large slabs, and
thus facilitated the construction of houses and ter-
races in this style, and with some sort of uniformity
also; and it sometimes led to the combination of the
rude Cyclopean with the polygonal style, and also
sometimes even passed into the Hellenic, with hori-
zontal courses of blocks for short intervals, just as
the splitting-up of the rocks seems to have favoured
and suggested.
Only two buildings in the whole ruins (which con-
ABOVE THE BASIN OF LAKONIA.
133
sist of the remains of, I should think, at least 200 ha-
bitations) were formed entirely of close-fitting qua-
drangular blocks, like the pure Hellenic style. The
ruins of a city more purely indicative of the early or
heroic times I have never seen in such a remarkable
state of preservation (nor one more singularly situated
-occupying the hollow of a crater-like basin), where
nearly every house can be traced out in its original
length and breadth, the walls of many being still from
six to ten feet high, and, as I before remarked, with their
doorposts still erect. Some of the houses had two, and
some three compartments, and varied from 10 to 20 feet
in length; but the generality seem to have consisted
of but one room, like the habitations of the poorer pea-
sants of Crete at the present time, the door also often
serving both for light and air to all compartments,
one of which is shown at the end of this chapter.
Many of the houses had cisterns sunk in the solid
rock, the sides of which were cemented by an exceed-
ingly strong mottled concrete, formed of lime, small
angular fragments of the limestone, and broken frag-
ments of red brick or pottery-a very ancient style
of cement for cisterns, as is well known to the anti-
quary: and this is the only indication of any brick,
cement, or mortar being used throughout the entire
city; for no Roman or middle-age remains are to be
seen, to break the harmony of this unique Cretan city
of the heroic times.
134
IDENTITY OF GOOLAS
Pashley could not have visited it, or he would surely
have given some note of its interesting character.
Besides, his track, as laid down on his map, shows he
did not ascend to it, but, hearing of the existence of
ruins in the neighbourhood of Kritza, he concluded
them to be those of Arkadia; and thus he led himself
astray in respect to many other places. But there is
clear evidence, both in its position and characteristics,
to prove that it cannot be that city: for Arkadia can
not be satisfactorily identified unless the springs which
belonged to it, and which were said to have dried up
when it fell into the hands of an enemy, but flowed
again when the city was retaken, are also identified;
and certainly there are no traces whatever of springs
upon this part of the mountain; neither could there
have been any in ancient times, if we may judge
from the labour and care bestowed upon the con-
struction of the many cisterns existing there, and the
somewhat insular position of the peak.
My guide, whose family are the proprietors of the
ruins, tells me it is called Goolas. The name is so
near to Olus that it cannot be doubted that these
ruins are really those of that city-called also Olerus
by a late author, and which city is mentioned as
being noted for a festival celebrated to Minerva in
early Cretan times, who was called in consequence the
Olerian Minerva; and it is stated that it was situated
in the neighbourhood of Hierapytna, and upon a hill
AND OLUS OR OLERUS.
135
(Cramer, p. 391). Thus the mountain position of
Goolas, the great antiquity of its ruins, and its being
also the nearest ruined city to Hierapytna are com-
bined evidences strongly supporting its identity with
Olerus.
Having thus noticed the arguments bearing upon
the verification of the name of this interesting city, I
will further mention some more of its ruins which
deserve notice; for the habitations above-mentioned,
within the crater-like hollow, are but a portion of
the remains of the city. There are many ruins of
houses equally perfect. Indeed some of the finest
specimens in the whole of these Cyclopean habitations
are to be seen extending from the northern summit,
down over the side of the peak for 200 or 300 yards
or more; and this part seems to have been defended
by a wall, and the summit surmounted also by a cir-
cular tower, as it was the most easy of approach by
the connecting ridge which extends eastward.
I found fragments of pottery by no means plentiful
amongst the ruins, indeed scarce. But near some of
the habitations I observed some rude stone vessels,
about a foot in diameter, that were no doubt used
instead of earthenware for various domestic purposes,
and some perhaps for pounding grain in lieu of grind-
ing it.
Having mentioned that Olerus was noted for a
festival to the Olerian Minerva, the question which
136 TEMPLE OF THE OLERIAN MINERVA.
naturally arises in the mind of the reader is, Where
was the temple at which the festival was celebrated, if
this be the city of Olus? I will now, therefore, de-
scribe what seems to me very probably the remains of
this temple; for in a city so situated, and of so early a
date and style, no building of very marked and finished
architecture is necessary to identify it. On a long
and broad terrace, of about 100 yards in length, which
is a little above the level of the gap by which the
city is entered, and within the hollow, there exist
the ruins of a small building, that was formed entirely
of large and closely fitting quadrangular blocks of
limestone, and which is, in fact, the only one in the
whole city that was so constructed.
Standing thus somewhat above and apart from the
rest of the buildings of the city, with a well-built
terrace for its support and approach, it certainly
seems very probable that this was the very temple
itself; and as it is also near the Cyclopean roadway
leading up to the city, every circumstance tends to
confirm the conjecture that Olus and its temple are
thus identified; and as this temple, according to
Strabo, had a statue to Britomartis, by Dædalus,
in wood, thus accounting for the building being
in compartments as well as the local celebrity of
this early relic of the Cretan master and of the old
city itself, the site and ruins are certainly the most
remarkable in the island of Crete, and a traveller
KRITZA.
137
through the island will no doubt find much interest
in its exploration.
•
Leaving the site and descending by the terraced
road leading from the ruins, we follow a narrow
plain running to the south-east, and in half an
hour arrive at Kritza, the largest village of the Mira-
bella, picturesquely situated under some cliffy steeps,
just where the valley begins to expand in its course
towards the head of the Gulf of Mirabella, and
where some fertilizing springs issue from beneath
them.
The valley is well cultivated with olive-trees and
vineyards, and confined by ridges covered with brush-
wood. But high above Kritza a grove of cypress and
wild oak forms a dark line between it and the bald
summits of the Lasethe Mountains, encircling them
as a belt just below the snow-line.
The village of Kroustas is passed lower down, to the
south, on the way to Ierapetra from Kritza; and
another, called Kato Khorio, on the same route, stands
on the boundary between the eparkhia of Mirabella
and Ierapetra, or Gerapetra, and on either side of
another rivulet descending from the Lasethe Moun-
tains the ravine and rivulet dividing the village.
Strabo tells us that the town of Minoa stood imme-
diately opposite to Hierapytna, where the island was
reduced to the breadth of 60 stadia only. Thus the
position of this ancient town cannot be mistaken.
138
ISTRONA, THE ANCIENT MINOA.
Ptolemy seems to be the only other author who men-
tions this eastern Cretan city called Minoa (for there
were evidently two of this name in Crete); and he
also mentions its having a port.
In the south-west angle of the Gulf of Mirabella,
and exactly at the position and distance in respect to
Ierapetra mentioned by Strabo, we consequently find
vestiges of an ancient city upon a small point of land
jutting out from the centre of a sandy bay.
The river from the Kritza valley, south of Olus,
flows into this bay on the west side of the point, and
it contains a running stream all the year; but its
embouchure being barred in summer by a small sand,
the stream percolates through it into the sea.
The modern name of the spot is Istrona, which
the natives state was also the former name of the
village of Kato Khorio, but was changed some few
years since. Onorio Belli, the author of the Vene-
tian manuscript published by Mr. Falkener, mistook
it for an ancient city of the same name, and was thus
induced to place Minoa at Palaio Kastro, near to Cape
Salmone, at the eastern extremity of the island; but
the situation of the Minoa of Strabo is too well de-
fined to be mistaken.
The fewness of the remains now found there is ex-
plained by Belli's statement, " that the city is at pre-
sent entirely submerged by the sea, and that not far
from Castel Mirabella there is another city over-
FEWNESS OF REMAINS.
139
whelmed by the sea in like manner." This latter
remark no doubt applies to the submerged ruins of
Olontion on the isthmus of Spina Longa.
All that remains of Minoa at present, consequently,
are some few scattered heaps of stones, and founda-
tions of ancient habitations, that are traceable near
the low point jutting out from the centre of the plain
of Kato Khorio.
In Belli's time these were more visible than at pre-
sent; and upon the sides of the longer point, more
to the eastward, there seems to have stood a small
but pretty little monument or mausoleum in white
marble. The blocks of which it was built are mas-
sive, and three or four of them remain, although
half-buried in the sand. One of them is about 6 feet
square, having one of its sides deeply carved with
lozenge-shaped panels.
The rest of the city and its port are therefore either
under the sea or more probably under the accumula-
tions of sand and shingle brought into the bay by the
adjacent river during its winter floods.
The three or four other Greek cities to which the
name of Minoa has been given, I have observed, have,
in part or wholly, stood upon peninsulas. This, then,
is an exception according to the present features of
the locality. It is probable, therefore, that the low
point in the centre of the plain, upon which the city
seems to have stood, was a small rocky peninsula
140
FEWNESS OF REMAINS
originally; and although there has been a submergence
of the coast that ought to have rendered the penin-
sular form of the point still more evident, or converted
it into an island, yet that result has no doubt been
overcome by the encroachment of the plain upon the
sea, under the influence of the débris from the Kritza
river-a change of feature precisely such as I many
years since observed at the Minoa near Megara.
Bearing this in mind, it will explain how this
Cretan Minoa could also have had a good port, as it
was said to possess, although now without a trace
remaining of it, from the physical changes resulting
from the double effect of submergence and encroach-
ment having obliterated it.
Over Minoa to the east is a sharp cliffy peak, which
the natives call Palaion Kastron, indicative of some
ancient ruin, and upon which there is now seen the
remains of a circular tower, used no doubt, in the early
times, as a look-out or signal-tower, to announce the
appearance of pirates or a friendly sail; for it is now
used by the local coast-guard for the same purpose,
who lights his signal-fire at sunset when any vessel is
in sight within the gulf, as a signal to the officials of
the adjacent villages to be on the alert against pirates
and smugglers.
Its basement is said to be Hellenic, being composed
of large squared blocks, and doubtless was the watch-
or signal-tower between Minoa Olontia and Olus in
EXPLAINED BY SUBMERGENCE.
141
those early Cretan days when pirates possessed the
seas. There does not appear to have been any other
remains besides the tower, although it bears the name
now of a palaion kastron, or old castle.
The notice of the submergence of these cities on
the eastern part of Crete, by a Venetian author so
long ago as 1586, as an explanation of the poverty of
the remains then visible at the site of Minoa, is of
considerable interest in connexion with the fact of a
much greater movement having also materially affected
the western half of the island, but by an elevation of
the coast, instead of a subsidence: yet the fact and
consequent result was not observed by this author,
although amounting to more than 25 feet in some
parts, and thus raising the old ports there into dry
land-a description of each of which will be given in
their places.

CYCLOPEAN HOUSE AT OLUS.
142
CHAPTER XIV.
THE ANCIENT PORT OF OLUS AT ST. NIKOLO, NOT MINOA-RUINS OF
A VENETIAN CASTLE, AND OF THE ANCIENT TOWN OF CAMARA,
AT ST. NIKOLO-A DEEP POOL ADJACENT TO ITS OLD PORT-A
COPIOUS SOURCE AT ALMYRO, AND LEGENDS CONNECTED WITH
IT-THE TWO OTHER CRETAN ALMYROS, OR BRACKISH SOURCES
-THE SINGULARITY OF THEIR SITUATIONS, AND OF THE MOUN-
TAIN-FEATURES OVER THEM, A RESULT OF UNIFORM GEOLO-
GICAL CONDITIONS.
MINOA, although situated at the mouth of the valley
descending from Olus, could not have been its proper
seaport; for there is one much nearer to Olus, which
is formed by the shelter of two islands, and known as
Port Agio Nikolo: it lies immediately to the east of
Olus, between Minoa and Spina Longa.
St. Nikolo is at present the place of export for the
chief produce of the Mirabella, from the convenience
of reaching it by land; but the produce is generally
transported thence to Spina Longa in coasting-craft,
in consequence of the local laws prohibiting its ex-
port in foreign bottoms at any port but the incon-
venient one of Spina Longa. The Venetians used
it also as the chief trading-port of the Mirabella,
Spina Longa being more a military or naval station.
During our employment in this part I preferred the
VENETIAN CASTLE.
143
anchorage of St. Nikolo for my ship to that of
Spina Longa. But the Bay of Poro, off the site of
Olontion, is an anchorage for a fleet, especially as a
shelter from the winter gales from the north-east and
north.
The Venetians had a small town and fortress on
the point which juts out to the south of the port of
St. Nikolo, which they called Castel Mirabella, as in-
dicating its trading importance in connexion with the
province from which it took its name. The remains
of this small castle or tower, and of the town that
surrounds it, still exist; but there are no inhabitants
at present, and the small inlet under it, to the
north of the point, retains the name of Mandragio,
which was no doubt first given it by the Venetians.
But, besides these Venetian remains, there are some
few marble fragments lying amongst these ruins, and
some few remains of Cyclopean walls or terraces over
the sea face of the hill, which give evidence also of
its earlier occupation as a town and port of the dis-
trict: it must therefore have been the port of Olus,
as it is now of Kritza; and hence I am induced to
think that these ruins must be those of Camara, men-
tioned in the 'Stadiasmus' and also by other authors;
for Camara is the next town to Soluntus noticed
in this anonymous Periplus,' and is stated to have
been only fifteen stadia distant: the actual distance
is thirty stadia, or three miles. But as the distances
144
A DEEP BRACKISH POOL.
'
in the 'Periplus' are all much less than the truth on
this coast, and as St. Nikolo is only about thirty stadia
from Elunta (which I conceive to be the Olontion of
early authors, but the Soluntus of the Periplus'), I
conceive Camara to have stood at St. Nikolo; for
there is no other spot on this coast where it could have
stood, to accord in sequence of position, although not
in distance.
And this view is in some degree strengthened by
the statement of Ptolemy, who says Camara lay to
the east of Olus; and besides he mentions it between
Olus and Minoa. Thus, by its situation in reference
to Olus, the supposition of Camara having been at St.
Nikolo helps to reconcile the three, and thus to con-
firm the position I have assigned to Olus.
On the east side of the cove called the Mandragio
of St. Nikolo is a small circular pool of brackish
water, about 150 yards in diameter. It is separated
from the sea by about twenty yards of low ground
only; and yet this pool was found to have a depth of
210 feet in the centre-a depth which is not attained
in the adjacent sea within two or three miles of the
coast. But, in the traditions of the natives of the
locality, it was said to be unfathomable, and to com-
municate with the lower regions of troubled spirits.
The sides of this hollow, beneath the surface of the
pool, must constitute a precipitous funnel-shaped de-
pression. Yet there is no appearance of its being a
BRACKISH SOURCE AT ALMYRO.
145
volcanic vent, or even the result of volcanic action,
by any proximate igneous rocks being visible; and
as it still has a small stream opening out of it into
the sea, I think it was at one time the aperture
of a larger source or subterranean river, which found
its escape here from the heart of the mountains
above; for there exists at Almyro, about a mile
south of St. Nikolo, a copious source of brackish
water that issues from the foot of a hill about half
a mile from the sea, and forms a little river from
its magnitude and strength. It is called Almyro,
or Armyro, from the brackishness of the water;
but it runs in a clear, limpid, and beautiful stream,
turning some water-mills, and abounding with wild
fowl.
The mountains immediately above the Almyro
source are too steep and rocky for cultivation; but
wild shrubs grow luxuriantly upon them.
The
limpid pool thus confined by the old and half-ruined
mill-dam, and sheltered in so enclosed a glen from
every breeze, reflects from its glassy surface, most
distinctly, every form and tint the adjacent features
of shrub, rock, or ruin present; and the stream
when strongest, then cascading from the mill with
a little ripple and foam, causes sometimes a misty
vapour to rise over it, giving a picture of charming
effect in the eye of an artist; but the superstitious
and ignorant natives have created imagined visions
VOL. I.
L
146
THREE ALMYROS, AND THE
out of these reflections and mists, that have given
birth to various legendary tales and fireside marvels,
from the earliest times to the present-one of them
being, that Diana and her nymphs may often be seen
sporting in this pool, as related by Onorio Belli (see
Falkener's Museum of Antiquities').
C
This spring of brackish water so near the sea, and
so copious as to form a deep stream that is navigable
for boats up to the mill, is the third source of the
same character and name on the north coast of the
island; and as they are each similarly situated in
respect to the configuration of the coast and the
groups of mountains from whose base they issue,
there is thus an indication of a like force having
caused them, there being also none such on the south
side of Crete; and this being the last of these, I shall,
from their general interest, here notice them.
The first of the three is at the north-east base of
the White Mountains, near the entrance to Suda,
in the corner of Armyro Bay, and to the westward of
Retimo. The second is the Armyro at the north-east
base of Ida, a few miles westward of Candia, and also
at the corner of the bay. The third is the Almyro
(or Armyro) of Mirabella, at the north-east root of
the Lasethe, and exactly in the same corner of that
gulf also, like the others.
The pent-up waters of the mountain-torrents and
streamlets, which disappear in the upland basins in
SINGULARITY OF THEIR SITUATIONS.
147
katavothra, or through the soil, no doubt, in great
part, find their escape by these great fountains; but
whence their saline character is derived is not so easy
to determine-viz., whether it is derived from the
salt of the rock through which it percolates in some
parts of its course, or whether from the proximate
sea.
The former, however, seems the more probable;
but their uniform position seems to imply a similarity
or uniformity of inclination in the general mass of
the strata composing these mountains, which are all
apparently great masses of Hippurite limestone, with
overlying Nummulite limestones and shales.
The position of the several sources leads to the
conclusion that the mode in which these three moun-
tain-masses were uphove must have been similar in
all, viz. having had the uplifting effort greatest on the
opposite side, because their internal filtering would
naturally follow the general inclination or dip of the
strata.
And it is of interest in a geological point of view,
to perceive how this conclusion is verified on taking a
comprehensive glance at the general character of the
three principal mountains of the island. For on the
opposite side to these three copious sources—that is,
on the south-west or south side of the mountains-
they are more abrupt, and have their higher crests
nearest to the sea-coast on that side in consequence.
L 2
148
SIMILAR GEOLOGICAL CHARACTER
It is instructive also to perceive how remarkably
the upheaving energy has in each mountain directed
itself more generally towards the north-east, by the
prolongation of each mountain into a well-marked pro-
montory in that direction,-as Cape Malaxa, north-
east of the White Mountains; Cape Dia, north-east
of Ida; and Cape St. John, north-east of the Lasethe.
For in each of these directions we find a series of
level plateaux, or depressed basins, formed like a suc-
cession of steps in the scale of ascent, and each
indicating, no doubt, the positions of great faults
transverse to the line of greatest effort.
Thus the Suda Gulf, north-east of the White
Mountains, with its centre sunk so remarkably to the
depth of 120 fathoms, is just one of these basins, but
submerged below the sea-level, within the headland
of Maleka, which headland is the north-east prolon-
gation of the mass of the White Mountains; and this
mountain has also its upland plateau of Malaxa over
the Suda Gulf, and of Theriso on the same side—
besides several others nearer the top, that are above
the line of vegetation.
Next, Mount Ida has its plain of Netha, or Nida,
just below its snow-line of winter, also to the north-
east of its summit, with a series of lesser plateaux
descending to the large basin-like valley of Mylopo-
tamo, which valley really represents the Suda Bay
gulf in position, only being above the sea-level, instead
OF THE THREE ALMYROS.
149
of submerged beneath it like the Suda basin. For
the knotty range of hills confining the Mylopotamo
valley, and terminating to the north-east in the same
manner, by the promontory of Cape Dia, represents
also the Malaxa promontory and the serrated hill over
it, since, if they were to subside a few hundred feet, we
should have in the Mylopotamo Valley a gulf similar
to that of Suda.
In the Lasethe Mountain also, the direction of the
subterranean energy was exactly the same-that is, by
the prolongation of a promontory or cape to the north-
east; but being less powerful, as indicated by the
less elevation of this mountain than of the others
by an amount of upwards of 1000 feet, the promon-
tory terminating it is less distant from the summit,
and, the energy in that direction being also weaker,
is represented by a succession of lower upland plains
and basins, and more proximate to each other.
Finally, the peninsula of Sitia also, which terminates
the island of Crete to the north-east, shows that a
similar, but still diminished, energy operated in the
subterranean efforts that originally raised it; for its
height and its most abrupt parts are all to the south-
west, and the gradually descending peaks and their
greatest prolongation are to the north-east also, and
terminate at Cape Sidero, or Sidaro.
Thus, although the volcanic or upheaving energy
has raised this island from the bed of the ocean by four
150 EFFECTS OF THE ERUPTIVE FORCES.
distinct foci of eruptive efforts, there is a remarkable
similarity of effect in them all; and thus the positions
of the great fountains that spout forth at their bases,
giving vent to the pent-up waters that penetrate the
strata of the mountains from above, are in accordance
with the phenomena presented in these mountain-fea-
tures; and therefore I think the deep pool in the Bay
of Mandragio, in the port of St. Nikolo, to be the result
of one of these fountains, from which the greater
portion of its original stream has been lost at some
time long gone by, and transferred to the springs and
source of the Armyro, not very distant from it. Sir
Charles Lyell gives the following account of a similar
result in Sicily, after an earthquake:-
"During the great earthquake of 1693, in Sicily,
several thousand people were at once entombed in the
ruins of caverns in limestone, at Sortino Vecchia; and
at the same time a large stream, which had issued for
ages from one of the grottos below that town, changed
suddenly its subterranean course, and came out from
the mouth of a cave lower down the valley, where no
water had previously flowed. To this new point the
ancient water-mills were transferred."
The neighbourhood of St. Nikolo affords some in-
terest to the collecting naturalist, independent of the
contemplation of its geological character and effects,
in possessing an exceedingly beautiful and rare land-
shell. It is a Clausilia of more than ordinary size,
A RARE LAND-SHELL.
151
and is ornamented with longitudinal plates or ridges,
equidistant round each spire, but not in connexion as
a continuous keel-like prominence.
Of this peculiar and interesting land-shell, which
has a perfect little door for its narrow aperture,
formed of a free plate of shell, there are several varie-
ties peculiar to Crete, where, in number, size, and
variety, the species seems also to have a maximum
development as compared with neighbouring localities.
The description of the six or seven that have been
already identified as new by Dr. Pfeiffer will be given
with the appendices to the second volume.
152
CHAPTER XV.
THE GULF OF MIRABELLA, AND THE ISTHMUS AT ITS HEAD—CHA-
RACTERISTIC FEATURES, THEIR INFLUENCE UPON THE EARLIEST
INHABITANTS THE ETEO-CRETES AND MOUNT DICTE THE
NORTHERN ROUTE INTO THE SITIA THE RUINS AT LEOPE-
TRA—THE RUINED VENETIAN TOWN AND BAY OF SITIA-THE
PROBABLE SITE OF ETEA.
THE Gulf of Mirabella is enclosed by picturesque
mountains on both sides, being broken up into varied
peaks and ridges, that are, for the most part, abrupt
and bold; but it presents no cultivation that is visible
whilst sailing up the bay, nor a single habitation on
its shore; all looks wild and grand from the sea;
Nature alone seems to reign around it, save and ex-
cept the little speck of a fortress upon the islet of
Spina Longa, near its entrance.
Two islands lie within the gulf-a small one, called
Kumithia, near the head, and a larger one, called
Psyra, near the outer part; but neither has been
noticed by any ancient author, or contains inhabitants.
The isthmus at the head of the gulf is hilly, but
low as compared with the land on either side. The
hills are composed of limestone and shales, overlain
in part by grey and whitish deposits of the tertiary
PENINSULA OF SITIA.
153
period; and these appear to have been deposited be-
tween two great faults running transverse to the isth-
mus from sea to sea, and represented or indicated in
the bold face of the mountains on either side.
But the eastern fault is more strongly indicated by
the abruptness of the mountains which rise upon that
side, forming a sort of natural barrier between the
peninsula of Sitia and the western and larger division
of the island of Crete.
Thus here the usual characteristic features of an
isthmus and peninsula are preserved, viz. an elevated
and bold barrier of mountains rising as a wall im-
mediately over a comparatively narrow and rather
low neck of land, so as to present a double difficulty
to the means of communication from one side to the
other.
For in such there is in general combined a some-
what narrow way of approach, that can in some de-
gree be watched, overlooked, or commanded, with
an abrupt and high chain of mountains, that forms
a natural fortification or barrier that can be easily
defended.
How greatly, in the early period of human history,
such features have tended to separate peoples and to
divide or confine races, I need not dwell upon; for
every continent shows it.
This peninsula of Sitia, which contains an amount
of territory as large as either of the important islands
154
THE ETEO-CRETES.
of Mitylene, Scio, or Rhodes, although constituting
only a fifth part of Crete, presents the very features
and character suitable for enabling a people or race to
retain their original peculiarities longer than the abo-
rigines of any of the other parts of the island, between
which there was a more easy and free intercourse.
And the earlier authors of Cretan history do indeed
refer to a people on the island who were exclusive or
peculiar, under the name of the Eteo-Cretes, but
whose exact location, even in the days of Strabo, was
a point of archæological discussion. Modern com-
mentators have therefore felt the difficulty of fixing
upon its location, excepting that it was not in the
western half of the island.
Strabo, however, says that Præsus was subject to
the Eteo-Cretes, and that the Temple of the Dictæan
Jupiter was there, and not near Ida, and derives the
information from some early author or local tradi-
tions. But Strabo is himself evidently confused in
reference to the exact position of the city of Præsus
which was subject to the Eteo-Cretes; for he states
just previously that Præsus bordered on the Lebena,
a city undoubtedly in the centre of Crete. Hence
by the name of Præsus he here probably intended to
denote a city that existed near Gortyna in his time,
called Priansus, and which may have had both names,
thus giving rise to the confusion. But it is evident
that there was another and more eastern town of the
THE ETEO-CRETES.
155
name of Præsus, and that it was only the one near
Lebena that existed in the time of Strabo-the more
eastern one having been destroyed by the Hierapyt-
nians at an earlier period, and its exact site being
now fully identified within the peninsula of Sitia, as
I shall hereafter show.
Homer also makes the Eteo-Cretes distinct from
the Grecian colonists; and others considered them as
indigenous. Strabo*, however, quotes an author, Sta-
phylus, for placing them on the south side of Crete,
but without giving it as his own opinion; and it is
difficult to find in the south of Crete a territory so
peculiarly adapted to the requirements of an exclusive
and peculiar people, such as the brave Eteo-Cretes
are represented to have been.
Besides, Strabo himself places the earliest mytholo-
gical traditions regarding the Mount Dicte, the sup-
posed birthplace of Jupiter, in this very eastern
peninsula of Sitia, and rejected the more generally
received opinion that Ida, or some hill near it, was
the honoured mountain upon which the king of gods
and men was brought forth.
This view of Strabo, and that of the Eteo-Cretes
being considered as the earliest inhabitants of Crete,
have undoubtedly a connecting link, in spite of his
statement that Præsus was near Lebena-an error
which arose no doubt from his confounding the older
* B. x. c. iv.
156
MOUNT DICTE.
Præsus of the Sitia with the then existing one near
Lebena, but which latter place was undoubtedly the
earlier Priansus.
Then let us enter the sacred peninsula in search
of Mount Dicte-in search of Jupiter's traditional
birthplace within it. To do which, the reader will
return to the road that has been shown to him before
as far as the village of Kato Khorio, near to the an-
cient Minoa; and thence he will be obliged to cross
with us the ridge over it, and descend towards the
south by the valley from Messalare, and passing
several small hamlets and farms, or metokis (as in
Crete all farms are called), he finally enters the olive-
grove which shades the somewhat stony plain of Iera-
petra, or Gerapetra, and sees the small walled town
of that name on the edge of the Libyan Sea before
him, but which town I will not stop to describe now;
and as his back is therefore turned upon it, and he
looks towards the high peninsula whose early history
and interest I have touched upon, he will see the way
to it apparently blocked by high mountains, but espe-
cially by a lofty square-headed but picturesque-sided
peak, rising immediately from the head of the Ierapetra
valley to a height of 4850 feet. This is the Effendi
Vouno of the natives, or the Mountain of Our Lord
(be he Turk or Christian, every one calls it so); and
he will be inclined to think, perhaps, on hearing it so
called, that the name may have arisen from some
ROUTES INTO THE SITIA.
157
tradition of the early dedication of it to Zeus himself.
I will not, however, stop here to inquire if it was
Dicte, but proceed; for we must discuss the question
when upon the site of the true Præsus of the Eteo-
Cretes within the peninsula of Sitia.
The only roads into the Sitia from the isthmus of
Ierapetra are one over the east coast of the Gulf of
Mirabella, and the other from Ierapetra, which passes
over the steep spurs bordering the south coast, and is
considered the best of the two; but both are difficult
and bad, and as defensible as Thermopyla by natives
with Spartan hearts and mothers.
Episcope is a pleasantly situated village, near the
most eastern and lowest part of the connecting ridge
which unites the Sitia mountains with the roots of
Lasethe, and which runs along the northern side of the
isthmus. Its name implies its having been the resi-
dence of the bishop of the province at some past and
most likely early period; and it is noted both for the
salubrity of its position and the fertility which sur-
rounds it, being now enveloped in olive and fruit
trees; so that the early bishops of Hierapetra, or
Hierapytna, showed good taste and judgment in the
selection of a retreat that was both pleasing and
salubrious.
From Vasilike the northern road follows a valley
opening into the Gulf of Mirabella to the north-east,
to Kavousi, whence begins the ascent, and, by a diffi-
*
158
RUINS AT LEOPETRA.
cult and rocky mule-path, the mountain barrier to the
Sitia is surmounted through a pass.
This ridge being crossed, a semicircular basin, like
a theatre, lies to the east and is open to the sea, but
enclosed by high and steep mountains to the south,
west, and east (the back of a branch of the Effendi
Vouno), and intersected by narrow ridges and valleys
descending to the north coast, which are composed of
shales and limestones that are in parts much shattered
and contorted in their strata, apparently by some great
lateral pressure from the higher mountains that en-
close them, and, as would appear, either during the
uprising of the latter or the downcast of the former.
There are several villages in this district. The first
reached is called Lastro, and the last is Mulianah,
of which there are two of the name: each has some
charming spots of fertility and foliage near it; but
the road is bad and tiresome.
No ancient site could be heard of in this district:
but at the termination of the eastern ridge which
confines it there are the remains of a small fortress
and buildings crowning a high precipice over the
coast, and called now Leopetra. The Venetians sup-
posed it to be the ancient Assos-a town, however,
which Pliny places inland, and by no author is it placed
on the coast; I am therefore led to doubt the identity,
and, although I had no opportunity of examining
them myself, Mr. Stokes, the officer who did so,
EPISKO KEPHALO.
159
states his opinion that they are not very ancient, but
rather appear to be of the middle age, and not Hel-
lenic, there being nothing but the foundations of
walls of a fortress built of small unhewn stones and
mortar. Local tradition, however, asserts it to be an
Hellenic city, but on such points it is often in error; at
all events this seems to have been the capital of the
Mulianah district at some early period, prior to the
Venetians, and was a likely site for a city.
The mountain ridge which encloses the Mulianah
district on the east separates it from a fertile but con-
fined valley, called Skope, but which has several other
villages within it besides Skope, each well supplied
with water, and having productive fruit-gardens and
vineyards near them. The fortress or town of Leo-
petra doubtless commanded both these districts at its
period, whether Hellenic or middle-age, when feudal
divisions and foreign enemies or pirates rendered such
a stronghold necessary.
The valley of Sitia, running to the south of the bay
of the same name, joins that of Skope, and is the most
fertile and populous in the peninsula of Sitia.
The village of Episko Kephalo is at the junction
of the two valleys, placed upon a low spur of the
adjacent hills, so as to be some little above the
malaria of the valley, in which, being well watered
and well cultivated with fruit-trees and overhanging
vines, fever is very prevalent in the autumn. Episko
1
160
RUINED VENETIAN TOWN
Kephalo is the residence of the Aga of the province;
and opposite to it is the village of Episkope, or Pis-
kope, which name denotes the seat of the bishopric
of Sitia in former times; now the bishopric is joined
to that of Ierapetra, and the bishop in consequence
generally resides at the latter place.
The Bay of Sitia, into which the valley of Sitia
opens, is partially sheltered against the prevailing gales
from the northward by the small point or promontory
which juts out on the west side of the bay. The
Venetians in consequence had a small fortress or for-
tified city upon the inner part of the point, just over
the corner of the bay, which ranked next after Re-
timo in respect to size and population; but the diffi-
culty of giving the needed support to this fortified
town during the war with the Turks, from its outlying
position, induced the Venetians to abandon it and
demolish its walls soon after the breaking out of the
last war; and it now remains a heap of ruins, almost
as they left it, never having been restored or inha-
bited by the Turks since the island came into their
possession.
Dapper gives a view of it, and shows that it was a
fortress of some consequence, and contained three
churches and a citadel, all of which are now easily
recognizable.
Finding the bay convenient and safe as an anchor-
age at this season, I remained there in my ship for the
BAY OF SITIA.
161
autumn months of one season, up to the beginning of
December, by anchoring her very near the shore, a few
hundred yards to the north-east of the ruins of Sitia; for
the wind very seldom blows to the eastward of north
north-east, and being there under shelter from these
points of the compass, we in consequence rode safely
several gales from the northward during our stay: the
security depends on being anchored within a couple
of cables' length from the shore, where it is deep too.
An English yacht was lost here, however, having
run into the bay during one of these gales and an-
chored too much to the eastward, by which she was
exposed to the northerly swell from the open sea, and
driven ashore in consequence.
Three good streams flow into the Bay of Sitia; and
a deep well in the corner of the bay, adjacent to the
ruined fortress, also yields a good supply of water
close to the shore.
The name of Sitia seems to be identical with that of
the ancient Etea, which stood somewhere in this part of
Crete. There are no indications, however, of an ancient
city having stood upon the same spot as the Venetian
city, or upon this side of the valley; but on the east side
of it, amongst the houses of the Turkish village of Petra,
and on the hill over it, we found some detached re-
mains of massive Cyclopean walls and terraces, that
showed the position of a very early city of Crete, and
which I think must have been then the capital of the
VOL. I.
M
162
PROBABLE SITE OF ETEA.
district; probably it was the capital of Eteo-Crete,
under the name of Eteo or Etea, which name is thus
the origin of Setea in the true English spelling of it,
but with the frequent Cretan prefix of the ts or s to
those names that properly began with a vowel.
The ruins were discovered by accident, in making
an evening's stroll up the valley-as the Greeks
always spoke of a flat-topped hill, called Trapezonda,
more to the east, as the only Hellenic site in the neigh-
bourhood; but this Trapezonda proved to be a middle-
age fortress, occupying one corner of the wide plateau
existing on the summit of this hill; and as Petra was
purely a Mahomedan village, having no Greek inha-
bitants, that fact may account for the ignorance of the
Christians of the neighbourhood regarding the value of
these remains.
The Christian inhabitants of the Sitia district have,
however, at present a large intermixture of Italian
blood in them, and undoubtedly very little of the Eteo-
Cretes; for many of the Venetian soldiers stationed
both here and at Spina Longa were encouraged by the
Venetians to colonize and intermarry with the natives
at the termination of their period of service, so as to in-
crease the population of both Sitia and Mirabella; and
thus the names of some are still retained both in the Mi-
rabella and Sitia; but the present generation are Greeks
in religion, and the family name of the renowned Dan-
dolo still lives in the upper part of the Sitia valley.
163
CHAPTER XVI.
JOURNEY UP THE VALLEY OF SITIA TO PRESUS-THE SITE A FINE
RETAINED
ONE, BUT VESTIGES FEW UPON IT-ITS ANCIENT NAME STILL
DICTE SHOWN BY STRABO TO HAVE BEEN PROXI-
MATE TO IT-ITS SITE AT KOPRA KEPHALO-ANCIENT CISTERNS
AND RUINS-FAITHLESS WIVES IN THE SITIA, AND EASY DI-
VORCE-CRETAN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES.
THE valley of Sitia penetrates towards the south more
than half across this part of the island, and beyond
the village of Episko Kephalo. It is confined between
rocky cliffs of white tertiary strata and little culti-
vation, but overshaded in part by wild olive and
plane trees, under which a pretty, refreshing rivulet
murmurs along in its course, turning now and then
a water-mill of some solitary inhabitant.
Procuring mules from Episko Kephalo, I started on
an examination of the valley; and at a place called
Berate, about two and a half miles up it, we saw
Hellenic foundations near some ruined churches.
Beyond it we were shown a cave in the side of the
cliff, which here narrowly confined the valley, in
which it was said a Turkish Aga of wealth retired
with his family during the civil war for security,
hoping in such a retreat to save them from their
M 2
164
ASCENT FROM SITIA VALLEY.
vigilant enemy; but plague then stalked through the
land upon the heels of warfare, and found them out
in their retreat, although the Greeks were unable to
trace them, and thus the Aga and his family fell
victims to the scourge together, and their bones be-
came mingled with the stalagmite and dust of the
floor of the cave; for there were none to bury them.
Beyond this, the villages and cultivation occupy the
tops of the descending ridges or plateaux overlooking
the valley, which near its head assumes the character
of a gorge, from its abruptness and contraction; and
here it divides into two branches, at a distance of five
miles from the Bay of Sitia: the southern one
approaching a low coll, or neck, which connects
the eastern with the western group of mountains of
the peninsula, the other enters a more lofty-sided
but confined and very picturesque valley towards the
east, and is surrounded by high rocky cliffs near its
summit, as a natural barrier above, and is an inviting
retreat for one tired of the world. A steep spur, ex-
tending from the southern hills, divides the two valleys,
which we ascend; and on arriving near its summit,
which is peaked and naturally terraced, at about 500
feet above the valley we find ourselves upon the old
terraces of an ancient city.
Its principal remains visible are the ancient ter-
races that supported the buildings, and the scattered
heaps of stone and pottery now lying between them,
PRÆSUS.
165
as there is nothing of the early building in situ
remaining. Some of the terraces were supported by
fine walls of polygonal masonry, and on the summit
of the ridge are Hellenic foundations that probably
supported a temple; for upon it are the ruins of a
Christian church. This fine site commands a beau-
tiful view down to the Bay of Sitia. The identity of
the site is, therefore, based upon its still retaining
the ancient name of Præsus nearly, being pronounced
"Prasoos" by the natives.
In an ancient inscription found at Toplu or Topler
Monastery, near Cape Sidero, and given by Pashley,
a reference is made to this city, under the name of
Praision. I procured two silver coins of Præsus at
the village of Vavellos, which is situated just above it.
They were found at the site, and represented the
half-turned head and neck of a bull, with the head
of Ceres on the obverse, but without letters. The
legend, however, is in full upon some of its coins,
and the name is written as in the inscription at the
Topler Monastery.
This, then, was the Præsus of the Eteo-Cretes,
previously referred to. And although Strabo evi-
dently confounds the two distinct cities of Priansus
and Præsus when referring to the true position of
Dicte, as I have before shown, yet he is too precise
to be mistaken in respect to the situation of the
Dictaan Mountain being near the eastern extremity
166
THE DICTÆAN TEMPLE.
of the island, instead of the centre or southern part;
for he says,
"Instead of being near Ida, as Aratus
alleges, Dicte is situated 1000 stadia from Ida,
towards the rising sun, and it is only 100 stadia
from the promontory Sammonium." And he says
also, that the city Præsus, in association with it,
"was distant 60 stadia from the sea between the
promontory Sammonium and the Chersonesus, and
that it was raised by the Hierapytnians," thus
showing that Dicte was 40 stadia further from Sam-
monium, the north-eastern part of Crete, than the
town of Præsus was. Strabo further distinguishes
between the Dictaan and the Dictynnæan temple in
Crete, which latter he places upon Mount Tityrus in
the Cydonian territory, so as to clear up a confusion
which seems to have crept into the writings of some
authors before his time.
That the territory of the Eteo-Cretes and the Dic-
tæan temple were in the eastern peninsula of Crete
was thus the clear opinion of Strabo, although
also brought into connexion with the Lebena, near
Gortyna, by the mention of the Præsii near it.
Being, therefore, now upon the true site of Præsus,
and about the distance from Sammonium at which
Strabo places the Dictaan temple, I was induced to
search for some vestiges of a temple upon some con-
spicuous mountain in the neighbourhood, such as
would answer to that of the Dictaan Jupiter. And
ANCIENT CISTERNS.
167
upon the crest of one of the crags over Prasoos, called
both Agios Elias and Agios Stavro, from a small chapel
upon it dedicated to both the Holy Prophet and
the Cross, I found the foundations of some Hellenic
building, which in all probability was an early
temple of the city, but not the Dictaan; for I could
not reconcile myself to the idea that the position was
so commanding, or the remains there such, as to
identify it as the site of the Dictaan Jupiter's temple.
Although it overlooked a part of the Præsian valley
to the north, its view to the south and east was
limited by higher hills, and therefore it did not suffi-
ciently accord with the idea of the position best
suited; besides, it is nearer Sammonium than Præsus,
which is contrary to Strabo's showing, who places the
Dictæan temple at 100 stadia from Sammonium, and
the city 60 stadia only.
The remains of most interest in this neighbour-
hood, therefore, as corresponding best to the distance
and ideal view of the true position of the Dictaan
temple, are those of two or three very ancient cisterns,
with a few vestiges of buildings near them, which
were found by Mr. Wilkinson upon the top of a moun-
tain three or four miles to the westward of Præsus,
called Kopra Kephalo, and immediately over the vil-
lages of Rhokaka and Mulianah.
This peak is about 3500 feet above the sea, and
has a sharp bare summit, with a narrow backbone
:
168
KOPRA KEPHALO THE SITE
approaching from the east. The mountain is now desti-
tute of vegetation, except of the most stunted nature.
Although it is not the highest peak within the pe-
ninsula, yet it is the most commanding summit, over-
looking the eastern and most cultivable, and there-
fore the most habitable part of the Præsian territory
and Etean peninsula. It overlooks all, and is easily
approachable from all; but towards the west the more
rugged and abrupt character of the continuing but
higher range extending towards Ierapetra, the Effendi
Vouno, shuts out the view of and easy communication
with that city.
A road ascends to Kopra Kephalo from Mulianah;
but the most easy ascent is from Rhokaka, situated in
a small elevated plain on the south side of it, and to
the east of which is another elevated valley and village,
called Daphne, with some others that are passed in
going to it from Præsus; so that it was approachable
on all sides. And thus, from the existence of the an-
cient cisterns on this high and bare summit of Kopra
Kephalo, with the few foundations of buildings near
them, the natural inference is, that it must have been
a spot of some sanctity, to which the inhabitants were
in the habit of resorting at certain times and seasons,
and that the cisterns were consequently made to meet
their greatest requirement, water, after the fatigue of
the ascent, as it was not high enough to retain snow
all the year, and had no natural springs.
+
OF THE DICTÆAN TEMPLE.
169
The Greeks adopt the same plan now in connex-
ion with many of the isolated monasteries or chapels
that are perched upon the crest of some lofty peak,
to which they are obliged to resort upon certain days
in the year: a cistern in connexion with the chapel
is essential.
The identity of the eastern city Præsus so near it,
as shown by its remains and name, thus, I think, puts
the identity of the Kopra Kephalo as the site of the
Dictaan Jupiter's temple almost beyond doubt; and
although some natives called the peak Kopra Kefalo,
others also stated that the general name of the several
peaks of that serrated mountain was Rikte, they thus
retaining a name which almost accords with the very
Dicte we are in search of. Diodorus Siculus men-
tions a town of Dicte as well as a temple, but of which
there existed in his time only a few vestiges; and it
is probable that these upon Kopra Kephalo are the
vestiges he refers to as those indicative of a city as
well as a temple of Dicte.
After exploring the site of Præsus, I proceeded to
the village of Vavellos, the inhabitants of which are
all Turks, except one, viz. a Spetziot, who, having
been wrecked upon the coast some years ago, fell in
love with, and married, an Eteo-Cretan maiden of his
own religion, and settled in the district. The sposa,
however, proved faithless, after the birth of a boy
and a girl, and left him with these two children for
170
FAITHLESS WIVES.
another; and he now managed to gain a scanty living
for them and himself by making cloths and sacks
of goats' hair; and he gave us shelter in the hovel
that contained his loom and habitation. His wife
had since married her paramour, and lives in a neigh-
bouring village. My guide on this occasion, who
was from Piskopee, I afterwards learned was simi-
larly situated, having also been left by his wife with
one child, viz. a fine boy, to provide for. Infidelity
and divorce thus seem to be both common in the
Sitia of Crete, under the absolving powers of an easy
or avaricious bishop. And in the Greek Church gene-
rally the sacred bond of matrimony is not very difficult
to sever, divorces and re-marriages being permitted
up to the fourth time; and where bribery is so large
an element of what is necessary for the acquisition of
church preferments and ecclesiastical privileges, it
must naturally operate powerfully in the rearrange-
ment of these sacred and social ties, under such lati-
tude of episcopal remissions and reunions.
Cretan marriages are decided by the parents; but it
is the part of the bridegroom, nevertheless, to ask for
the bride. When the parents accept, they decide
upon
a day for the betrothing. On that day the bride-
groom goes to the house with his relatives and the
priest of the village, when the future bride makes her
appearance with an offering of fruit and wine, which
she first offers to the priest, next to the eldest of the
CRETAN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES.
171
party, and lastly to her betrothed, accompanied with
a wish for a good and happy life to each. An ex-
change of rings then takes place, and they immediately
separate.
Eight days before the marriage, the bridegroom in-
vites his own relations and friends, and the parents of
the bride their own; and the sponsors are named by
the bridegroom, who are usually his godfathers.
The day before the marriage, the virgins assemble
to garnish the bride's room, who cover the walls with
new linen, and hang up, as a decoration, loaves of
wheaten bread, as well as leaves of orange, lemon,
and myrtle; and upon the pillow of the bed they put
three crowns, formed of thorn, myrtle-, and orange-
leaves, all of which are significant: by the thorn is
signified long life, and endurance under its cares; by
the myrtle- and orange-leaves, that the love of the bride
and bridegroom may be as sweet and lasting as the
evergreens; and by the loaves of bread, plenty and
peace.
The marriage-day arrived, at the appointed hour the
bride and bridegroom proceed to the church, each
held by the hands of their male and female friends,
and the ceremony immediately begins; and when the
priest says, in concluding the service, "Glory and
honour to you who are crowned," they then throw
cotton-seed and the leaves of the myrtle and orange
upon the bride and bridegroom. This concluded, the
172
salutes follow, by the parents of the bride first kissing
the Bible, after that the bridegroom, and then the
bride, putting upon her head, around her neck, or
upon her shoulders handkerchiefs and other presents;
the same is then done by the parents of the bride-
groom, after by the sponsors, and lastly by the guests.
CRETAN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES.
These salutes being over, they then proceed with
the bride to the house of the bridegroom's mother,
and, stopping at the door, ask her what she presents
to her daughter-in-law, when the piece of land,
house, or number of olive-trees is named. The
bride then dips the little finger of her right hand
in a pot of virgin honey, and makes four crosses on
the door with it. After that they present her with a
pomegranate, which she throws down upon the floor
of the house, and thus scatters its ruby-coloured and
gem-like fruit over it, by which is meant that the
bride's house is desired to be filled with as many goods
and chattels as the seed she thus scatters within it;
and by the crosses of honey, that the bride's love is as
holy, sweet, and strong as the symbol of her faith.
After these ceremonies are all finished with great
exactitude, they enter the house, and the bride and
bridegroom take their seat side by side upon the sofa
at the end of the room, around whom sit the young
virgins, singing songs in praise of the happy and ho-
noured pair.
Dancing and feasting are then commenced, and
"GOOD WATER."
173
kept up the whole night, and also several following
days and nights, sometimes for ten or even for twenty
days, according to the wealth of the parties.
Marriage ceremonies in all countries have some in-
teresting peculiarities, and doubtless these in Crete
are in part derived from very early times-combining
the poetic ideas of the primitive minds and races that
early peopled this classic isle, with the stern and
solemn ceremonies that seal the sacred bonds of
matrimony between Christians.
Between Præsus and Rhokaka, upon a small rocky
eminence, are the remains of a small fortress, with
the ruins of a large church within it.
The natives called this fortress Hellenic; but it ap-
peared to Mr. Wilkinson, who visited it, to be only a
very insignificant middle-age ruin, and to have been
used merely as a place of retreat, by the inhabitants
of the neighbouring villages upon the slopes of the
Dicte, when in danger of pirates.
The valley of Daphne passes to the south, and
empties its winter torrents into the Libyan Sea, at a
place called Kalo Nero, but receiving the appella-
tion of "good water" from its medical more than its
potable use.
174
CHAPTER XVII.
THE UPLAND PLAIN AND VILLAGE OF KATALEONE-HOSPITALITY OF
A TURKISH FAMILY-THE PLAIN AND VILLAGE OF KHADRA-
REBUILDING A CHURCH-A HOSPITABLE GREEK COUPLE-DE-
SCRIPTION OF THEIR HABITATION; ITS FURNITURE, COMFORTS,
AND CONDITION-THE LITTLE TORMENTORS OF TRAVELLERS-
LEAVE KHADRA-A VENETIAN VILLA-RETURN TO SITIA BAY.
THE eastern part of Sitia, over Præsus, represents an
elevated tableland, with a number of small plains or
basins sunk within it in every part: some communicate
with each other, but few have visible outlets for the
escape of their winter streams. The largest is Khadra,
the most western; the southern is Xero; and the
northern Kataleone, with many small ones around
and between them. The population within these
plains is divided between Mussulmen and Christians.
I reached Kataleone from Præsus, after making
an examination of the crag of Stavro. I found Kata-
leone a small village upon the upper edge of a naked
plain, with more than half of its habitations in ruins,
and particularly a well-built Venetian one that had
stood adjacent to it. All this desolation was the
result of the first years of the social war which raged
from 1820 to 1826; and the few inhabitants now
TURKISH HOSPITALITY.
175
living here are Turks, the remnant that escaped, and
consist of some six or eight families only.
It was their Sabbath when I arrived (Friday); but
it was charitably presumed by the good wife of one
of them, when she saw us arrive about mid-day, and
who was then near her cottage-door, picking over
some wheat for grinding, that we were wearied and
wanted refreshment. Her husband, who was napping
after his mid-day prayers, was therefore summoned,
and we were speedily invited and welcomed by both,
although all three of us were Christians, viz. mule-
teer, interpreter, and myself; and, without the least
appearance of reserve or embarrassment on her part
regarding her uncovered face, which, however, was
not a very juvenile one, she went cheerfully to work,
and soon set before us a meal of new honey in the
comb, new cheese of delicious flavour, and snow-white
bread, such as I had not seen before in any Cretan
peasant's cottage. I found, on inquiry, that it is a
peculiar wheat, grown only in the district; and it
was said, indeed, that it would not produce so well, if
cultivated in the coast-plains, as on these uplands,
and that it degenerates there by both darkening in
colour and losing flavour. Can this, then, be caused
by the climate, from elevation, or chemically by the
soil? So excellent did I find this wheaten flour, that
I ordered a sack for my own use.
Having thus rested from the heat of the day, and
176 PLAIN AND VILLAGE OF KHADRA.
partaken of the hospitality of this family, I offered a
present of money as payment, but it was refused with-
out any hesitation, so that I at once saw that to press
its acceptance would be hurtful to their feelings.
Here, then, is a specimen of Cretan hospitality from
a Mahomedan family, and such as the traveller will
very often experience in this island.
The termination of the day's labour, in examining
the several plains in the vicinity, brought me to the
village of Khadra, which is situated upon the plain
of that name, with those of Armeno and Pentele-
mona on the other side of it. Vineyards and groves
of pear- and some other fruit-trees, grow in these
uplands; but the olive is a stranger, as in the Lasethe,
although the elevation is 1000 feet less than the La-
sethe basin: this perhaps arises from the very high
mountains which rise immediately over the latter to
the south, and shelter it by checking the force of the
north winds, whilst the plateau of Sitia is proverbially
bleak from the strong northerly breezes that find a
free escape over it.
As I entered Khadra I was soon sensible that it
was almost wholly a Christian village, and, like
Kataleone, half in ruins also; but there was a
bustling activity going on with every male inhabitant
present, twenty or thirty of whom were carrying
stones to a particular building, whose walls were
just rising a few feet above the ground.
It was
REBUILDING A CHURCH.
177
the rebuilding of one of the village churches after
lying for upwards of thirty years in ruins. Old
and young, priest and layman, were for the moment
all builders and masons, under the guidance of a
hired master, and were carrying large stones from
some distant ruin, or bringing the mortar to cement
them in their appropriate places. It was an interest-
ing sight; for this half-hour's earnest individual la-
bour at the close of the day was thus devoted to
religion. Some were evidently past labouring for
their own subsistence, yet they too carried their load,
although with distress under the mere pebble they
could bring; yet it was carried by some of three-
score and ten or more, and was thrown into the
general heap, as the widow cast her mite into the
common receptacle. And who can say it was not
recorded in heaven for good to their account! for the
motive was good, although superstition or erroneous
doctrine may have suddenly prompted it to avert
the imagined displeasure of a St. Demetri or St.
Nikolo. And it is in this way that many of the
churches now found restored in the Cretan villages
have been rebuilt; for in the revolution none es-
caped, and it will require another quarter of a century
or more to restore Crete to its former wealth and
beauty. Yet there are spirits that desire to renew
those terrible scenes of desolation.
I had experienced the noonday hospitality of a
VOL. I.
N
178
A HOSPITABLE GREEK COUPLE.
Turkish family, and now I will do justice to that of
some friendly co-religionists, hospitable Greeks, who
lodged me for the night; they were a young married
couple, whose first child was not yet born, but nigh
unto its birth, judging from the appearance of the
good-looking hostess.. The house was low and large
compared to many others, but irregularly built, and
consisted of two compartments, one for general use,
the other for their mule and cows, with old stores
and stock in one of its corners.
But the part inhabited was a specimen of primitive
contentment:-a mud floor full of pits; a long bench
on the inner side, half mud and half masonry, as the
bedstead or couch; a fireplace in a niche; and a chim-
ney just through the roof, with a broken water-jar as
the chimney-pot; one low door, and a small window
like a scuttle in the innermost part, served for ingress
and light to the dwelling. As the room was low
and wide, its roof was supported along the centre by
two crooked trees ornamented with sacks, seeds, lamps,
and earthen pottery, either stuck upon nails or upon
some branches, but all black together like the roof
above. Yet here was a tolerably well-to-do young
Cretan's house of the eastern uplands; a more com-
fortless hovel one can hardly conceive amongst a race
professing to possess some amount of civilization.
What a contrast to the clean habitation of a Bulgarian
or Wallachian peasant! where, upon a vast expanse
WANT OF CLEANLINESS.
179
of mud and clay, and simply out of that clay, with
chopped straw and cowdung, the cleanest and neatest
cottages are constructed; whilst here, where all is
dry naturally, both soil and climate, and where they
are surrounded by stone for lime, and abundance of
fuel to make it, the peasant takes no pains to render
his habitation much better than that compartment
which is appropriated to his beast.
Is not this one of the many illustrations of the dif-
ferent effects resulting from the force of habit and
example being made permanent by blind prejudice or
indolence? or how can it be accounted for among an
intelligent race such as the Cretans, that their habita-
tions are so inferior to those in the neighbouring
islands of Caso, Carpatho, and Rhodes, where the
interior as well as exterior of the houses has an air of
neatness as well as cleanness, as an evident necessity
in connexion with the domestic requirements? The
idea of order and arrangement of the various utensils
for effect.is also apparent in the latter islands; but in
the Cretan villages it is wholly wanting. No white-
wash is used for cleanness, dirt is hidden by darkness,
and discomfort by apathy.
But, on the other hand, how often is the passion for
cleanliness carried to excess when the mind is allowed
no further expansion, and where the force of example
has established it! He who has had a fidgetty, over-
clean housekeeper, or lodged with an ever-washing
N 2
180
POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS.
Dutch landlady, in a sort of perpetual swamp, will
readily understand the idea.
In the one case it is torturing a habit or necessity
into an inconvenience and nuisance, and in the other
maintaining in perpetuity primitive discomfort and
uncleanliness, simply because natural causes have not
rendered the cleansing processes habitually necessary
for health and comfort, as they have among the inha-
bitants of the swampy flats of Wallachia or the humid
lowlands of Holland; and thus the benefit of a simple
coating of whitewash is not considered or appreciated,
either for cleanness or neatness, although so easily ob-
tained and applied. But natural as well as artificial
life is made up of such strange contrasts.
Moreover the upland Cretan's desire and hope is
ever diverted into another direction than that of the
improvement of his social comfort and condition; he
sighs to shake off the hateful rule of the foreigner.
Alas! he has so sighed and struggled for national
independence ever since it was first lost to the Roman
Martellus, and yet he is not convinced that it is more
likely to be obtained by a development of moral im-
provement and influence, through civilization, than
through petty intrigue, dogged apathy, or premature
war.
But the sword of civilization is daily sharpening
against continual misrule throughout the East, and,
as a great diplomatist lately said, "it is knocking
EVENING IN A CRETAN COTTAGE.
181
loudly at the gate of the Porte." Shall the Cretan,
then, keep himself backward in the race by clinging to
the ways and means that have already proved so fruit-
less, and prematurely fling a firebrand into the heap
of inflammable element that surrounds him? and can
he so soon forget the horrors of such a religious war-
fare as not long since crushed this heaven-blest land,
and desire to renew it still, even before the pains and
sufferings of that generation have passed quite away
from memory-and that, too, where it may be said,
"What Eastern people or nation is there who now
enjoys so much freedom, and is so lightly taxed?”
and, if the truth be spoken in spite of the prompt-
ings of personally interested and false friends and
patriots, the answer will be, "Verily there are few!”
All that my kindly host and hostess of Khadra had
to give was freely offered or given; and when I had
finished my supper of simple bread and tea, which I
carried with me, preferring it to their offered feast of
fowl and eggs, then the villagers, having also by that
time finished their frugal supper of boiled vegetables
and oil, flocked to our habitation, and joined round
the hearth to know my errand, and to draw inferences
from my questions regarding names of places for inser-
tion in the chart we were constructing for their future
advantage, or respecting the way to some mountain,
where observations were necessary from its summit.
Men and women thus, in a dense party, soon assem-
182
THE LITTLE TORMENTORS
bled; for it is a privilege of the East to enter unbidden
any one's house, if curiosity, as on this occasion, fur-
nishes the excuse as well as prompts the desire. And
here I had a good opportunity of observing the very
free intercourse between Turk and Greek families in
this part of the island; for, to my surprise, I found
that for more than an hour I had been sitting with the
wife of a Turk of the village close by my side, who,
with uncovered face, spun her cotton the whole time,
and held a free conversation with men and women, to
the number of between twenty and thirty, thus asso-
ciated. At length they departed; and I arose also to
prepare my bed in my own way, as I had preferred my
own meal; for to work well a man must sleep well,
and to sleep even at all, under the hospitality of a
Cretan village's resident, one must have either a coat
of mail for outside skin, or be buried in a sort of sack,
or slung in a hammock, as partial aids to this require-
ment. I came, therefore, provided with both the
latter, as I brought no tent, the season being ad-
vancing towards winter, and I expected to find it very
cold at this elevation; for to hope for rest and sleep,
unprovided against such companions as a Cretan's
house contains, is out of the question, as I have often
experienced when duty or the pleasure of travel has
thrown me, as it too frequently has, into the company
of legions of those tormentors of the human frame
and mind, the fleas, and, alas! too, of those trou-
OF THE TRAVELLER.
183
bled spirits that haunt the long, long Levantine night,
when they are present, with their trumpeting-a
song that never ceases, but trumpets the louder the
more they are thwarted and disappointed in their
attack-and with snouts also that, in one's dozy,
dreamy state of combat and resistance, the victim is led
to compare to the bill of a snipe or the probe of a vam-
pire which is endeavouring to bore into your flesh.
And then there is that other enemy of the thin-
skinned man, the "B flat" (to use a delicate name
often applied to distinguish it from the first-named, the
"F sharp"), and yet an unmusical fellow, too, who
steals upon you without sound, and generally without
crawl or even touch that can be felt to warn you of
his approach, but from some part of the clothes nearest
you, under or over, as the case may be, probes or
bites with head erect or bent backwards from his
flat body, and with the mouth only just reaching you.
Thus this cunning fellow, then and from there, sends
the unfelt but yet penetrating probe into you, and sucks
his full from the sweet veins he has reached, and, as a
return for the nectar he has drawn, deposits an irritant
something as a memento of his feast, that soon sets
blood and skin in a blaze of fever and of certain tor-
ment for full forty-eight hours afterwards. And even
through sheet or shirt the stealthy and silent "B flat,”
as also his trumpeting companion of the night, the
mosquito, will bite and sting the tender-fleshed novice
184
LEAVE KHADRA.
and traveller. At least they do so in the East, and
Crete is no exception; for they dropped or hopped
into my hammock from the floor and rafters of my
hospitable Cretan's hovel at Khadra in dozens, and in
desperation or delight as disappointment or success .
met their attacks. It is somewhere stated that the
Hindoos, to surpass in charity the Mahomedans, who
never destroy a maimed or sick animal, have esta-
blished hospitals for animals of all kinds, and even for
the creatures I have here named; and thus the poor
native traveller who calls for a lodging or food is
fed at this great house of charity on one condition
only, viz. that he feeds the fleas, &c., in return, by
sleeping for a night in the apartment especially kept
for them. What dilettante repose they must enjoy,
if they can feel! And surely the Levantine has a
kindred charity when he revels in the myriads of
fleas, &c., that are known to abound there. Oh, the
penalty of research and travel in these lands! The
feather-bed reader little knows how dearly the fruits
are sometimes won.
The morning dawn consequently made me wish to
be away from such enemies of rest and repose, my
pellicle not being equal to its continuance or repeti-
tion; so with the rising sun I was off to the top of
an adjacent mountain to rid myself of some of my
friends, and to finish my observations for the topo-
graphy of this part, after heartily thanking my host
VENETIAN VILLA.
185
and hostess for their kindness and hospitality, although
I had paid liberally for them in blood and coin.
A visit to a small Hellenic tower towards the north-
east, and a peep into the enclosed plain of Xero,
brought me by noon near a hamlet called Etea, at
the western outlet of Khadra; and here I halted to
examine a good-looking castellated Venetian villa,
that had been erected by some wealthy, if not noble,
proprietor of these lands. It has a vaulted basement,
like a fortified tower, with well-constructed second
and third stories above, and displays some architec-
tural effect throughout. In the upper part were five
windows in front; and in the lower, one on either
side of a handsome entrance, approached by a flight
of steps ascending from a paved courtyard, around
which were the servants' dwellings and outhouses.
The arms of the proprietor (now, however, defaced)
were sculptured on a large shield over the door, sup-
ported by carved figures and scrolls.
Here, then, was the castle of a Venetian proprietor,
whose wealth was such as to enable him to construct
a dwelling at the approach to his territory in a
manner combining strength, luxury, and taste; and
being situated just at the summit of the road and
pass ascending from the lower ridges and valleys lying
to the west, it was the guard and keep to his moun-
tain retreat.
In the late revolution it was retained for some time
186
RETURN TO
as the stronghold of the Turks, until, on surrender,
they were driven into the towns, or made to leave
the island; but many of the survivors have since re-
turned to their ruined homesteads in these uplands.
As I could hear of no Hellenic ruins in them, I
presume they were all the upland territory or pro-
perty of Præsus, as the Lasethe was that of Lyctus,
being somewhat similarly situated in respect to these
two ancient cities; yet the name of Etea being still
retained in the uplands of this peninsula, is of interest
in connexion with its recognition as the territory of
the Eteo-Cretes, and its modern corruption into Sitia.
Returning to Sitia Bay from Etea by the south-west
side of the valley of Sitia, we fell upon traces of an
ancient paved way soon after leaving Etea; we then
crossed the valley to the elevated and prettily situ-
ated villages of Torlote, Apano Episkope, and Agia
Marina. Each of these has rills of water, orange-,
lemon-, and fig-groves near them; and they have tall
poplars and spreading plane-trees also growing luxu-
riantly, for an abundant supply of water exists there.
And with such fertility of soil it is not surprising
that one of the family of a Dandolo was a proprietor
here for the village of Torlote belongs to the family
that now retains that distinguished name amongst the
present inhabitants.
In descending from this village, we came upon a
stratum of white calcareous sandstone of the miocene
SITIA BAY.
187
tertiary period, which contained abundance of fossils,
viz. Pectens and sea-eggs of large size, intermingled
with masses of the nummulitic shell called the Len-
ticulites complanatus; and these being all Malta
acquaintances also, I was enabled to identify the
indurated tertiary of this valley as being of the same
age as that of the Malta deposits. The strata dip
from the enclosing limestone ridges at an angle of
about 20°, and occur upon both sides of the valley
as a zone flanking the older and higher mountains of
the Hippurite limestone.
188
.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE NORTH-EAST EXTREMITY OF CRETE-THE YANISADES ISLANDS
CAPE SALMONE, DOUBTFUL APPLICATION OF THE NAME
THE TOPLER MONASTERY EREMOPOLI THE ANCIENT ETERA
-ITS DESCRIPTION-PROBABLY ALSO CALLED ARSINOE-ITS
CONVENIENT SITUATION FOR ALEXANDRIAN TRADERS RE-
LICS OF A PRÆPTOLEMAIC AGE-NUMEROUS INSCRIPTIONS
COPPER COINS.
THE north-east extremity of Crete extends towards
the islands of Caso and Carpatho as a narrow pro-
montory, formed of three distinct peninsulas, two of
which are almost islands, and the terminal peninsula
forms the present Cape Sidero or Sidaro.
Five or six miles to the west of Cape Sidero, and
directly opposite the Sitia Bay, but seven miles distant
from the latter, are the Yanisades Islands, four in num-
ber, all high and bold rocks of limestone. A long
narrow channel separates the two southern islands;
and although with too deep water to anchor in it,
the channel is used as a shelter by coasting-craft that
know it, such as the sponge-divers, and was used
by the Barbary and Greek corsairs who frequented
this neighbourhood in very recent times. A small
drip of water exists in a cave there, which is sufficient
for supplying a few men; and this has favoured the
THE YANISADES ISLANDS.
189
use of it as a hidden and favourable position for
pouncing upon the passing trader.
This modern name of Yanisades now applied to
them sufficiently shows that they are the Dionysi-
ades Islands of the author of the 'Stadiasmus' and
others; and both the port and water are actually
mentioned by this anonymous hydrographer of the
latter period of the Roman empire, whose minute
details in regard to small, insignificant ports and
bays, and indifferent water found in them, show
that he was an experienced navigator himself, or
derived the information contained in the "Peri-
plus"
" from very good authority. The errors of tran-
scribers, however, confuse his relative distances very
frequently.
On turning Cape Sidero, to the south a fine bay
opens, with two or three islands off it; and a small
snug cove is also seen entering into the cape itself,
forming an equally convenient retreat for a corsair or
pirate of ancient days. The anonymous coast-de-
scriber evidently calls this headland Cape Salmone,
as he mentions this port, and states that it had a
temple to Minerva, the remains of which are appa-
rently now seen at the head of it; for there is the
basement of a small quadrangular building that is
partly submerged beneath the sea, a single course of
stones only appearing above the water, thus clearly
showing a considerable subsidence of the coast here
}
190
CAPE SALMONE, DOUBTFUL
also, as at the Gulf of Mirabella. It was simply a
square building of small dimensions, and much like
the modern Greek chapel that stands upon the point
over it, dedicated to St. Nikolo, in which there is à
fragment of an inscribed block of limestone that evi-
dently came from the earlier temple.
Pliny also indicates this north-east point as Sal-
mone-stating that it had seven islands surrounding
it, which is the number now to be identified in the
four Yanisades on the north, the Elasa Island and
two Grandes Islands on the south side of it.
But I think it probable, if not evident, that some
authors, and more particularly St. Luke, when, in the
27th chapter of the Acts, he refers to the passing of
Cape Salmone by the ship in which St. Paul was being
sent a prisoner to Rome, must mean the promontory
jutting out towards the east some seven miles to the
south of Cape Sidero, and called Plaka; for Cape
Sidero is, in truth, not the headland or point his ship
would pass nearest to in coming from Cnidus; and this
promontory south of Grandes Bay, called Plaka by the
natives, is indeed now by some Levantine navigators
called Cape Salmone, to distinguish it from Cape
Sidero. There is also a little peak immediately over
this point, that has a name bearing a close connexion
with Sammonium (as the name of the eastern head-
land of Crete was sometimes written by some authors);
for it is called Samothes-a name I received from the
APPLICATION OF THE NAME.
191
Hegumenos of the Topler Monastery in its vicinity,
and therefore authentic.
Strabo, after speaking of Hierapytna, also says that
the shores terminated in the promontory "Sammo-
nium, looking towards Egypt and the isles of the
Rhodians "—that is, Carpatho and Caso; therefore
he must mean to apply the name to the entire eastern
promontory, and not any particular part of it; other-
wise Cape Plaka only, as looking more towards Egypt
and the isles, is the cape most in accordance with his
description. With this indication, therefore, that Cape
Sidero is apparently the Cape Salmone of Pliny and
the 'Stadiasmus,' but not of Strabo and St. Luke, but
that the Salmone of the latter is Cape Plaka south of
Cape Sidero, I leave the solution of the question to
the antiquary and the scholar, who may feel that it de-
serves a learned dissertation or research in connexion
with the voyage of the great Apostle.
Having thus touched upon some points of geogra
phical and Biblical interest connected with this eastern
extreme of Crete, I will invite the traveller or reader
now to a journey with me, first, to the promontory,
from Sitia Bay, along the shore of the latter, as the
direct and only road to it; next to ascend to the pla-
teau over the east extreme of the bay, as far as the
solitary and mean-looking monastery situated upon it,
the name of which is Topler, derived from the Turkish
word Topler, because it once had guns for its defence
192
EREMOPOLI
against pirates; but the Greeks (perhaps, not liking
the derivation of the above name) more generally call
it To-Plu.
And then, if he can endure the torments of certain
little unmentionables I have before alluded to, let
him deposit his baggage with the hospitable Hegu-
menos of the monastery and visit the shores of Grandes
Bay, for the sake of the associations connected with,
and the ancient sites that are upon it; and now de-
scending with me towards Cape Sidero, to the old
site at Eremopoli, over the slopes of the heathery
but treeless plateau which gives pasturage to the many
flocks that this reputedly rich but dirty monastery
possesses, he will soon perceive that all is wild and
neglected over this far outlying land of the Cretans.
The very name given to the site of the ruins we are
approaching-Eremopoli, or "desert city "-too, im-
plies it. And then, if he is fond of settling the an-
cient name of an old city that has not been whispered
for centuries, and loves it for its classical geography,
let him prove me right or wrong in simply suggesting
to him whether these ruins may not be those of Etera,
because it bears some resemblance to the name of the
point of land upon which they are situated, viz. Cape
Sidero, as a corruption from Etera, Eis ten Etera, into
Sitera, and next Sidero; for Etera was the coast-city
mentioned in the 'Stadiasmus' as situated next after
Camerus, the position of which I have before noticed

THE ANCIENT ETERA.
193
in the Gulf of Mirabella; yet it was placed in this
document before, and not after Cape Salmone, which,
therefore, is my stumblingblock in the knotty ques-
tion, if Cape Sidero was really the Cape Salmone of
the author of the Stadiasmus,' as, from the notice
of a port and temple, it would seem to have been;
but if Cape Plaka, then Etera comes before it, and
agrees.
EREMOPOLI, THE ANCIENT ETERA.
Eremopoli is, however, worthy of a brief descrip-
tion, from its inscriptions, old churches, tombs, and
ruins that are still to be stumbled over, amidst a few
stunted palms-the greatest number, too, of this
peculiar tree, that grow in any part of Crete. The
next little valley, to the south of the ruins, is in
VOL. I.
0
194
DESCRIPTION OF THE RUINS
consequence called Vaia or Palm Bay, from their
number; but they are stunted from neglect, and
not stately ornaments of the landscape as they usu-
ally are.
The view of the site given on the preceding page,
in which the ruins are seen to extend over the hills
and slopes which overlook two small bays, will
render a brief description of them sufficient.
Over the southern bay the remains of Cyclopean
walls of some extent are seen ascending the hills there,
and they show the more ancient bounds of the city
in that direction. The little insular hill separating
the two bays, upon which the city stood, is worn
into a precipice on its sea face, and seems to have
been much encroached upon since ancient times;
but its western face descends in artificially and natu-
rally terraced slopes, which were occupied by many
buildings, one having been an early church of some
size, of which the front and the side posterns to its
two doors are still erect.
The building itself was about seventy feet long and
nearly fifty wide; but it was chiefly formed out of
the fragments of some more ancient building; for two
granite columns lie within, that must be of Egyptian
origin; some fragments of a Doric capital in sand-
stone, and a pedestal in Parian marble, are also adja-
cent to it.
These probably came from a neighbouring temple,
AT EREMOPOLI.
195
which may have stood upon the north side of an
isolated rocky eminence seen standing in the plain,
at the west extreme of the city, where there is a fine
specimen of an Hellenic wall, forming the face of a
platform and built of massive blocks of grey lime-
stone, of the third style: seven courses of stones still
remain.
Between these two eminences there is a confusion
of ruins, with fragments of columns of granite, marble,
and sandstone, more or less buried under or lying
amidst fallen masses of stone and mortar masonry
and heaps of stones, the loose stones having been
thus collected to admit of some crops of corn being
raised upon the generally productive débris of an old
city. From the ruins of two or three other Christian
churches that exist, and other characteristic remains,
it seems to have flourished shortly after the Christian
era; but, from an early period in the middle ages
until now, it appears to have remained entirely a de-
serted city.
This fact in some degree favours the view of its
being the Etera of the author of the 'Stadiasmus,'
since it was evidently the only coast-city flourishing
about this time to the east of Camara, and no other
author has mentioned it. The existence of granite
columns, and the many palms growing there, however,
seem to show an Egyptian connexion; and for this
reason it might be Arsinoë also, as Colonel Leake sug-
o 2
196 PORT FOR ALEXANDRIAN TRADERS.
gested-a town assigned by some to Crete, but on
doubtful evidence.
C
Now the time that the Stadiasmus' was written,
although its author is unknown, was, I believe, just
that of the most flourishing period of the Roman do-
minion in the East, and when the southern coast-
cities of Crete, or those nearest to Alexandria, were
the most important of the island also; for then Gnos-
sus and Kydonia, on the north, had given way to
Gortyna and Hierapytna on the south; and this city,
whether Etera or Arsinoë, was most conveniently situ-
ated as a halfway call for the stream of trade then
constant between Alexandria and Constantinople, and
even between Alexandria and Rome, on the coasting
system then only practicable with the navigator—
often adopted now, on account of the prevailing north-
west winds which blow between Egypt and Crete, but
then still more necessary to follow, so that a recognized
chain of headlands or anchorages might be available
as a succession of stations upon the voyage, when the
compass was an unknown guide to the mariner, and
he always anchored at night when practicable.
Thus it was natural that a city of both the Ptole-
maic and Roman times should have flourished at the
eastern extreme of Crete, when Alexandria was the
great mart of the East, and with so commodious and
safe an anchorage as that afforded in Eremopoli Bay
to shelter and invite the navigator during the pre-
PRÆPTOLEMAIC RELICS.
197
valent northerly gales of summer, in which season
alone trade was carried on, viz. between the first
appearance of the Pleiades and their disappearance
in the autumn.
But let me refer to some relics we fortunately found
here, of a city dating from an older time than even
the Ptolemaic, but which these relics show to have
been still flourishing at that era.
The rude inscription No. 20 (Plate I. of inscrip-
tions), of the earliest times, with letters reversed,
and with a fish or dolphin upon an unwrought slab
of limestone, is one of them, which seemed to have
formed a headstone to an ancient tomb, being found
amongst the tombs on the north side of the city.
This is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum of Cambridge.
Another but more modern headstone had pigment
of red paint in the letters, which was still brilliant
when the stone was dug up.
Inscription No. 19, however, is perhaps of most
interest to the scholar; and this I copied from the end
of a large square block of limestone that had formed
part of the flooring of the large Christian church, and
therefore was not in situ. It was only recently dis-
covered, during some excavations there for square
stones to repair the belfry of the Topler Monastery;
and being found too large to be removed, it was
covered again with soil by order of the hegumenos, to
ensure its preservation.
198
NUMEROUS INSCRIPTIONS.
The good people of the monastery were for a long
time unwilling to tell me of this inscription, thinking
it might reveal some hidden treasure which I alone
could profit by. I had received various hints regard-
ing it from the shepherds and priests, but, for a long
time, none would show it to me. At length an in-
telligent young deacon of the monastery, less super-
stitious than the rest, took me to the spot; and on
uncovering a foot or two of the soil with him, I found
it; and as I found it covered, so I again left it, to
show that it was only the inscription, and not the
imagined gold within the stone, that I wanted, re-
questing at the same time that the stone might not
be broken up for the purpose originally intended
by them. Although inscriptions were so numerous
here, coins were rare; at least the ground was too
little worked to yield many; but a shepherd sold me
four copper coins, of a singular type and rudely struck,
but of considerable interest and importance in the
question of the identity of the name, since I have
no doubt that they belong to this city and represent
the type of its ancient currency, and as they are
inedited.
They represent a helmeted head of Pallas, like
those of Itanus, on the obverse, and have a large open-
rayed star on the reverse, the centre of the star being
formed by a circle, in which there is, in all but one, a
mere dot or obliterated letter, from the defect of the
COPPER COINS.
199
die: one of the four has the letter E distinct in the
centre of the star; but this one had evidently been
struck from a different die; it was apparently one of
the first series from a new die, as it had a better
finish as a work of art and was in a better state of
preservation.
200
|
CHAPTER XIX.
CORRUPTION OF ANCIENT CRETAN NAMES-THE MODERN NAME
OF LASETHE DERIVED FROM LYTTUS, AS SIDERO FROM ETERA
THE NECROPOLIS OF ETERA SEPULCHRAL VASES-AN-
CIENT TOMBS AND TOMBSTONES-VOLCANIC PROTRUSIONS-
PALAIO KASTRON-MIDDLE-AGE STRONGHOLD-VESTIGES OF A
CITY OF THE TIME OF MINOS-THE ANCIENT NAME NOT DETER-
MINED-INSCRIPTION AT THE TOPLER MONASTERY—A CAIRN
-LOCAL WINDS.
I AM here induced to refer again to the frequent addi-
tion of the sound ts or s to Cretan proper names
beginning with a vowel (such as Setera, considered
as showing that the name of Sidero was derived
from Etera), now that the coin above described seems
to give additional evidence in favour of this view.
The author of the 'Stadiasmus' seems to indicate
the existence of this corruption of proper names as
existing in his time, by his Soluntus for Oluntus, and
Solus for Olus, as I have before shown. I found the
prefix prevalent also in the upper districts of the White
Mountains above Khania, in the west of Crete, and
amongst the Sfakiots; thus cambo, a plain, is pro-
nounced by them secambo or tsecambo; and embale, a
vineyard, sembale or tsembale, &c. And thus as I have
found it repeated in the eastern part of the island in
•
METAMORPHOSES OF NAMES.
201
the corruption of the names of two of the ancient cities
in this part, viz. Etea as Setea, and Itanus, which is
now undoubtedly represented by a village above it,
called Sitanos or Tsitanos-and Ierapetra is also pro-
nounced in the mouth of the peasant Tserapetra,
although written Girapetra by the Venetians and
others, therefore, for the same reason, it is legiti-
mate to conclude that the name of Cape Sidero iden-
tifies the proximate ruined city of Eremopoli as the
Etera of the time of the 'Stadiasmus,' whatever it
may have been previously-Arsinoë or Sammonium.
And further to extend the proof, I trace in a similar
manner Lasethe, the name of the upland plain and
mountain over Lyttus, to be really a corruption of the
name of this city that stood upon its slope; for al-
though this may at first appear far-fetched, yet it be-
comes more simple and evident by taking up the still
more diverse name of the village which now occupies
the ancient site of Lyttus, viz. Xithia (or Xeethe as
it is pronounced, Xidhi as the scholar would write it).
For that name is really the connecting link between
Lyttus and Lasethe, as on a little reflection I dis-
covered, and in this way :-To Lyttus was first applied
the usual prefix of the s or ts as a vulgar corruption,
by which it became Tselyttus, or Tselytti (the people
of Lyttus), and from that it was changed easily into
Tselethe, which in the vulgar mouth would be pro-
nounced Xelethe, and then was finally abbreviated
、
202 CHANGE OF LYTTUS INTO LASETHE.
into Xeethe, now applied to the modern village
that occupies the ancient site of Lyttus, and which
is therefore its modern representative in name as well
as position.
This, then, seems to me to have been the course of
the vulgar corruption of Lyttus into Xeethe; and thus
far it had no doubt proceeded when the Venetians
came into possession of the island. Now followed the
Venetian or Italian addition of the la to it when ap-
plied to the upland territory and mountain over the
village; hence La Xeethe became Lasethe (as it is
now pronounced and spelt), the modern name of the
upland basin and mountain above the village.
Now, as the site of Lyttus is too well identified, by
its ruins and the inscriptions found upon it, to be dis-
puted, here is a proof of the importance or value to be
sometimes attached, in the identification of the site of
an ancient city, to an apparently far-fetched similarity
of name.
As Ariadne gave the thread to her lover Theseus,
I offer the scholar this clue to guide him through the
maze of difficulty and conjecture in which I found
the ancient geography of Eastern Crete, and still
perhaps leave a large portion of it as a dilettante study
for him in his closet, where his learning and his books
will better enable him to penetrate the labyrinth
and gratify a passing hour thereby; and I wish him
better success with this mental puzzle and amusement.
NECROPOLIS OF ETERA.
203.
And to add to his interest regarding this ancient city
of Etera, I will here detail some facts connected with
the mode of burial of its inhabitants, as revealed
through opening a few tombs and funeral jars found
on the top of the rising ground over the northern
bay, where was situated the sole necropolis of the
city. On one occasion, when strolling over it with
Dr. Willcox, trying to pick up what seemed to be
the broken handle of an ancient jar that appeared on
the surface, we found that it was not a fragment, but
that there was the jar entire, although somewhat
cracked; and it was still more interesting to discover
that it contained the bones of a child. This led to the
discovery of several others near it, two or three being
very large and standing fully four feet high; and in all
of these were found the bones of children. In one of
the larger jars the Doctor found that there were parts
of the jaw and teeth of two children from seven to
eight years of age; and in each jar was an earthen
bottle or cup, of very common light-coloured pottery,
and of very simple form: of these, only one was orna-
mented-a sort of lamp-shaped article, but with a
wider opening in the centre than usual with ancient
lamps; the design was simply rings and dots of a
black pigment.
Besides the pottery, there were found in the jars
about a dozen shells of the genus Cypræa, a Mediter-
ranean species, of about an inch in length; but no
204
SEPULCHRAL VASES
coins were found in any of them. May not these shells,
then, have been the substitute for coin made use of by
the people who in early times inhabited this city? for
the ancients are known to have employed them as
money before metal was stamped for that purpose. As,
therefore, from their number, it seems probable that
they were deposited here as coin, we may reasonably
infer that the tomb and jars in which they were
found belonged to some of the earliest inhabitants.
These jars were found in all cases lying on their
sides, with a flat slab of slate or stone placed against
their mouth; and most of them were within a few
inches of the surface, from the little soil there, and
were partially or wholly crushed in consequence.
They were of all sizes, from that necessary for mere
infants, to that for children of eight or ten years of age.
The tombs for adults were also scattered about
adjacent to where the jars were found, wherever the
surface of the hill could be excavated sufficiently deep
without being obstructed by rock; and they were
regular built graves, yet not more than one or two
feet under the surface anywhere, from the difficulty,
no doubt, of excavating deeply into the native rock
that underlies the thin surface-soil still covering the
ridge.
These graves were either formed of simple rough
slaty slabs of the natural rock, placed erect round the
sides and covering the top, or they were built of
AND ANCIENT TOMBS.
205
square and close-fitting blocks of sandstone; and it
was also observed that these tombs were placed in two
directions, viz. some north and south, and others
east and west. In nearly all some relics of bones
were found, with amphora and very plain pottery.
One had the skeleton still in an almost perfect state,
with an amphora and cup placed between its legs:
and some black matted fibrous substance, like coarse
moss or hair, but much coarser, was found at its feet,
but its nature I have not yet determined; probably
it was a sponge.
This description of an insignificant, out-of-the-way,
but yet interesting city from its evident associations
with Crete's early customs and days, will doubtless
more than suffice the reader or traveller; so I will
now proceed southward to another Palaio Kastron, in
the south part of Grandes Bay, across the brown
slaty or gravelly ridges that intervene between Ere-
mopoli and the valley opening into that bay. A
solitary ride, however, it will be: no inhabitants will
be seen, and no living thing, save fox, hare, and par-
tridge; and they abound, for it has long been aban-
doned as the haunt of corsairs.
Then, if the traveller has any taste for learning
something of the rocks he treads on in the way, or
the origin and cause of the strata being so variously
lifted and tilted, in the several features of mountain
and hill which surround him, into elevated grey
206
VOLCANIC PROTRUSIONS.
crags here, or smooth dark-brown ridges there, he
can divert his mind on the way by contemplating
them. For, in the effort to throw off and uplift
these superficial series of stratified rocks and slaty
beds, nature's hidden caldron within the earth's crust
boiled over, and an igneous jet of trap burst through
the mass, tinging with purple, red, and white the
shales and schists which came in contact with it, and
thus frizzled, contorted, and overturned them as they
were being uplifted or folded by the protruding mass
of molten rock. An instance of this protrusion he will
pass on his left near Vaia Bay, and another at two
miles south of Eremopoli, where a narrow valley has
been cleft through the hills bordering the coast,
through which the torrents that in winter descend
from the slopes and ridges of the Topler-Monastery
plateau find their outlet, and above the mouth of
which there is an interesting display of upturned
strata.
Then, as he crosses the intervening ridge that over-
looks the Bay of Palaio Kastron, where was another
ancient city that will require a few words, he will see
to the south of it a fringe of grey cliffs bounding his
view in that direction, running nearly east and west,
and forming the northern face of the Samothe pla-
teau, upon which is the little peak of that name.
That line of cliff is the face of an old fault made
in these old-looking rocks when so lifted and shook
PALAIO KASTRON.
207
by the volcanic agents we have before noticed. And
if he looks also back upon the hills north of Eremo-
poli (or Palaiopoli, as that desert city is sometimes
called), he will see something of a lesser line of steeps
as a fault that seems to correspond with the southern
one in time of disturbance and elevation.
The intermediate depressed district behind the old
cities of Eremopoli and Palaio Kastron, then being so
much lower, constitutes the part that was subject
under the movement to an amount of lateral pressure
that has, together with the volcanic protrusion here
and there forced through the dark strata, crumpled
and scorched them into various forms and hues, and
in some cases appears to have completely inverted
them, which the geological traveller, if he has time
for a closer examination, will see in the cliffs and
ridge bordering the shore near the before-noticed
valley.
A quarter of an hour's ride will bring us to the
top of the ridge that overlooks Grandes Bay. I
therefore add a sketch (see next page) of the Palaio
Kastron hill and the bay on its first coming in sight,
as it will aid the reader in understanding an imperfect
description.
He sees on the margin of the bay to the south-east
the high conical hill upon which the Palaio Kastron
or old fortress stood; and he sees also behind it the
Grandes islets, and beyond them Cape Plaka-a flat-

208
PALAIO KASTRON.
tish but high point or prominence of the coast, that. I
have before noticed as the probable promontory of
Salmone mentioned in St. Luke's account of the
voyage of St. Paul, previously to his reaching Fair
Havens in Crete (Acts, xxvii.).
PALAIO KASTRON.
I will set the reader down, therefore, to dwell upon
the scene, to contemplate the insular position and
striking form, and speculate on the origin of the hill
of Palaio Kastron; and doubtless, as his mind has just
been dwelling upon volcanic rocks, he will say, "And
here too is another volcanic protrusion, a perfect ba-
saltic or trap-like peak that has recently risen, or that
MIDDLE-AGE STRONGHOLD.
209
subsequent denudation has left thus isolated and di-
vested of its once-enveloping strata." But this will
be only a passing thought, and erroneous, that hill
being a result of a geological operation of another
character, of an origin long subsequent to the previous
—of long duration, nevertheless, both in the progress
of formation and in that of subsequent degradation:
it is a fragment of a marine tertiary, probably of the
miocene period, and consists of nearly horizontal beds
of gravels, sands, and sandstones in its lower parts, but
is surmounted by a crust of limestone as a capping, that
forms the fringe of cliff seen around its crest. Through
the hardness of this upper stratum its level top has been
retained; and this, being spacious enough to hold a
small fortress, invited some middle-age Cretan to make
it his stronghold against the bold corsairs who then
frequented these seas-or perhaps the chief of the
corsairs himself.
But the older Cretans were before him still, and
had an earlier fortress there also, or, at all events, had
a town on the base of the hill and level ground below
it, as well as around the little bay south of it, where
there are remains of rude habitations of the early style
of construction.
In the ride down to visit them, some other remains
will be seen on the bay to the north of the Palaio
Kastron and about a mile from it, consisting of the
walls of another small fortified town, apparently of
VOL. I.
Р
210
VESTIGES OF A CITY OF
an intermediate time, viz. between the rude and early
and the middle age, being formed of squared stones as
in the better Greek period. The foundations of these
walls may be traced for a great part of their circuit
on the west side of a low, flát-topped hill, more in
the middle of the bay, and near the centre of the
view here given. The former city was most probably
one of Homer's hundred cities that composed the
Cretan community under Minos, its early king and
lawgiver, and the latter, perhaps, a later city, when
divided into republics; for the two could hardly have
been contemporary, and so near.
I was shown some ancient tombs that had been
dug out of the side of the Palaio Kastron hill by the
natives of the neighbouring hamlet of Angathe. I
saw the fragments of one that had been recently
opened, which was formed of large and thick slabs of
terra cotta, rudely ornamented; and some other frag-
ments visible seem to indicate that, in this city, entire
coffins or sarcophagi were formed of this material.
A very curious terra-cotta figure was obtained from
one by a lay priest of a neighbouring farm; it seems
to be of Phoenician origin, and to indicate a Phoeni-
cian settlement or a place of call in their trading-
voyages between the eastern and western worlds. The
other remains are insignificant.
There is a fragment of a sitting figure, of colossal
size and very white Parian marble, on the beach under
THE TIME OF MINOS.
211
the Palaio Kastron. The figure was draped; but the
sea having probably washed it for ages, since it fell
down to the shore from the top of a gravel cliff un-
dermined by the waves, the surface of the statue is so
worn as to render it valueless, and its character and
probable age indeterminable.
These remains, however, show that a town of some
note stood here as well as at Eremopoli. Thus there
were three cities at this extremity of Crete, where
now there are but a few cottages and a farming mo-
nastery. But what was the name of this site? for
I have only ventured to suggest it to be Sammonium
or Grammonium in the map of Crete, without a single
argument to offer in proof, except that such names
have been noticed by ancient authors as those of a
Cretan city or Cretan cities in this part.
As, in returning hence to the Topler Monastery,
we shall ascend over some gravel ridges soon after
quitting the cultivation around the hamlet or metoki
of Kuremeno, in the valley behind Palaio Kastron,
we can now conclude our geological view of the dis-
trict by pointing out that the isolated peak of Palaio
Kastron is a fragment of the same tertiary group
of deposits that once filled the whole of the inter-
vening basins and valleys, and covered the lower
part of the slaty ridges which now appear without
them; but, by denudation, when the sea stood at
higher levels than at present, or rather when the
P 2
212
INSCRIPTION AT TOPLER MONASTERY.
land of Crete itself stood at a lower elevation, those
deposits were carried away, and the Palaio Kastron
hill thus insulated.
But there is a relic of more interest still (a mere
remnant, however, of a deposit of a different origin
and time) upon the present shore to the south of
Palaio Kastron, viz. a fragment of a freshwater deposit,
with fossils to identify it as being so, although it is
now just at the sea-level, and overlain apparently by
marine strata that must belong to a later period.
Yet there is sufficient to enable us to state that here,
as on the opposite coast of Rhodes, there exist de-
tached fragments of the bed of the old archipelago
freshwater-lake period, of which those noticed at
Khersoneso are portions; and its position here also
leads to the supposition that it had a wider extent
over the eastern basin of the Mediterranean.
The Topler Monastery has nothing to recommend
it to the attention of the traveller, except a long
inscription on a slab which is let into the floor of a
chapel adjacent to it, and which was noticed by
Pashley, who has given a copy in his work. A more
correct copy was desirable; but, as it consisted of
eighty-three lines of close and small although well-cut
letters, many of which are now not very legible, a
labour of eight or ten hours upon the flat of one's
stomach was necessary to effect it. (See Appendix by
the Rev. Churchill Babington.) The inscription pro-
THE CAIRN OF THE CURSE.
213
bably came from Eremopoli; it is a decree, and is in-
teresting although imperfect, as it mentions the names
of several of the eastern cities of Crete.
A school is attached to this monastery, at which
about thirty lads of the district receive gratuitous
education, which is its best recommendation. Thus
a sprinkling of instruction is being sown broadcast
here and there amongst the peasantry of Crete by
the several monasteries existing through it; but it is
only a sprinkling, as they are often too inconveni-
ently far from the villages to be available.
In returning to Sitia, the traveller will perhaps follow
a road which a short distance from the monastery
brings him to some masses of rock that stand up by
the wayside, to which his attention may be attracted
by a heap of loose stones being piled upon the top of
and against them, and by his muleteer, if a Greek,
picking up one and tossing it on the top of the heap
as he passes it, muttering something as he does so.
Hence the accumulation of this cairn or pile; but
many fall back into the path again from want of
space for lodgment upon the rock, yet only to be
again and again cast up with an anathema for the soul
of a certain Turkish Aga, who in the revolution took
the monastery, polluted it by sword and fire, but after-
wards fell at this spot when compelled to retire before
the superior numbers of the Christian reinforcements.
Thus we have here an instance of a monument raised
214
LOCAL WINDS.
to commemorate a curse, instead of to the honour
of a man, as more frequently occurs.
The east end of Crete is noted for the prevalence
of the north north-west and north-west winds, which
blow there for more than half the year, but with
much less force than at the Cape St. John (or Agios
Johannes) of Spina Longa, and are therefore less in-
convenient for the mariner. They prevail nearly all
the summer, and correspond to the trade or summer
wind which at the same time blows over Egypt and
down the Red Sea. The wind is fresh only during the
day, like a sea-breeze, and generally dies at night; and
whether it blows a regular "meltem" (that is, a north-
erly summer gale) or only an ordinary sea-breeze in the
adjacent part of the archipelago, it has the same direc-
tion here. By its strength, however, and the state of
the atmosphere, the experienced local seaman knows
which, and consequently knows the weather he will
encounter if he ventures to proceed to the northward,
amongst the islands of the archipelago. The former
condition is indicated by a more hazy sky, which is
his warning to remain; with the sea-breeze the air is
more cool, but humid, when a sailing-vessel may pro-
ceed with a prospect of being able to contend against
it and the southerly current then usually found run-
ning through the Caso and Cretan channel from the
archipelago.
215
CHAPTER XX.
SPONGE-DIVERS ON THE COAST OF CRETE-ARISTOTLE'S KNOW-
LEDGE OF SPONGES DERIVED FROM THE ANCIENT SPONGE-
DIVERS- THE TEMPERATURE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN DEEPS
-THE LARGE ADULTERATION OF THE SPONGE WITH FINE
SAND-PRACTICE OF DIVING BY THE YOUNG CHILDREN OF
SPONGE-DIVERS-A FLEET OF SPONGE-FISHERS AT WORK, THEIR
MODE OF OPERATION—THE INCONVENIENCES AND ACCIDENTS
THEY ARE SUBJECT TO THE SHARK'S OCCASIONAL APPEAR-
ANCE-ACCOUNT OF A LARGE SHARK NEAR A SPONGE-BANK.
THE east coast of Crete is noted for the quantity and
very fine quality of the sponges which grow in its
waters, and it is in consequence annually frequented
by from 50 to 100 boats, with seven or eight sponge-
divers in each, who are chiefly from the islands of
Symi, Calymno, or Khalki; and they frequently visited
the north-east coast during our stay there, and excited
much interest among us in their occupation. Of the
many varied ways by which man labours to procure
his bread, there is none perhaps so interesting and
extraordinary as that of the sponge-diver; and when
the luxurious fair use the sponge at their toilet, or
the gentleman at his morning ablutions and bath,
little do they know or think of the hard and peculiar
trials and exertions some fellow-creature has gone
216
SPONGE-DIVERS.
through before he was enabled to procure for their
gratification this valuable and peculiar marine pro-
duction. And as little, perhaps, have they ever
troubled themselves with the discussions that have
arisen among philosophers, since the days of Aris-
totle, as to whether the sponge is an animal or a
vegetable. Its now well-ascertained but fitful circu-
lation of the sea-water through its pores seems at
length to have led many savants of natural history
to conclude that it really is an animal. Yet this fact
is all that can be advanced, viz. that it has a spas-
modic inspiration and rejection of sea-water; and, ex-
cept being covered with a slimy, viscous coating, of a
bluish-black colour above, and dirty white beneath,
the sponge is of the same shape and size when
cleansed and fit for use as when living,-the mode
of cleansing it being simply to squeeze and wash the
sponge two or three times in the sea and dry it in
the sun for a few hours, until all gelatinous matter is
extracted from it.
When a reflective mood comes over a man as he
sits enjoying the sight of his parlour fire, he is apt
to think, then, of the means by which the coal he
sees sparkling in the grate is procured from the re-
cesses of the earth, and he shudders perhaps as he
thinks of the thousands who are at that moment
labouring in the bowels of the earth, from 1000 to
2000 feet below its surface, in the midst of darkness,
SPONGE-DIVERS.
217
dirt, and danger.
sponge that so gratefully moistens his body, he has no
conception of the hardships and dangers that beset
the man that procured it for him from the depths of
the sea, in all probability between 100 and 200 feet
below its surface, and by actually diving for it! Mar-
vellous as it may appear, yet such is the fact, that man's
power of versatility is so great that he can be brought
to endure suspended respiration and to sustain the
pressures experienced during a dive to depths of
twenty or thirty fathoms; nay, I have been assured
that in some few instances he has been known to
reach forty fathoms without the aid of any diving-
apparatus save a flat stone carried in his hands to
facilitate his descent. I have myself known many
instances of divers going down to depths of from
twenty to thirty fathoms; and I knew a family of
three brothers, belonging to the island of Symi, who
were called by their compatriots (and known to all
the sponge-diving fraternity as) the Sarandaki, or the
Forties, from their reputed capability of diving to that
enormous depth. They were known to me more than
twenty years ago, and for several years after; but only
one of the three survives, and he is now employed
in the Arsenal at Constantinople as the government
diver. One of the other two lost his life whilst diving
off the coast of Syria, either by a fit of apoplexy or
by a fish, as the body was never recovered. Now it
But when he handles the soft
218
ARISTOTLE AND THE
is evident that nothing but a most severe training
from a very early age, and the possession of great
powers of endurance as well as courage, could enable
any one to perform feats so extraordinary as this; and
when it is considered that at the depth of twenty
fathoms the pressure of the water upon the body is
50 lbs. to the square inch, and at thirty fathoms 75
lbs., or about that of five atmospheres, and thus at
every dive to those depths the body passes through
these great pressures with inflated lungs, and in
scarcely more than the time that it takes to write the
fact, the full extent of the trial to the lungs, heart,
and mental powers of the diver, to maintain self-
possession and suspended respiration, can be better
appreciated, and the marvellousness of the feat be-
comes the more striking.
I have in many instances timed the diver's stay
under water, and found it to range from 90 to 120
seconds, and have no doubt that the most enduring
diver could stay from 10 to 20 seconds longer; for
when diving in the greater depths, and sponges are
plentiful, they often remain, under the excitement of
work and the prospect of profit, until they feel the
sensations of drowning commence, or, as they express
it, until they feel that they are "falling asleep."
The sponge is known to have been an article of
commerce in the days of Aristotle, and probably
long before; for it was used by the ancients in their
1
ANCIENT SPONGE-DIVERS.
219
helmets and boots as a cushion and absorbent of the
moisture from the head and feet. Thus there must
have been sponge-divers then; for Aristotle relates
that the finest sponges came only from the greater
depths, and accounts for it from the temperature re-
maining more constant there a very interesting evi-
dence of the knowledge of this great philosopher; for
the
range, permanency, and fluctuation of temperature
in the depths of the sea is comparatively a very
modern subject of inquiry; yet this great philosopher
and master mind had in some degree understood it.
And it is, I think, an evidence of the great depth to
which the divers then went for the sponge, as now,
because it was from them that he learned the fact:
they were the thermometers that told it, from the
sensations experienced by their bodies when diving in
those depths.
The temperatures of the Mediterranean basins have
a speciality or peculiarity in their conditions, from the
insulated or detached character of the basins them-
selves. Thus I have found that below 100 fathoms
the temperature is nearly always permanent, and.
stands at about (or perhaps a little above) the aver-
age annual atmospheric temperature of the locality,
namely, from 54° to 58°, according to the part, and
that it is between fifty fathoms and the surface that
the temperature is most variable. This the diver's
experience would enable him to describe, without
*
220
ADULTERATION OF SPONGE.
reference to any comparative quantity or standard
measure; for the length of the diver's stay under
water, and the depths he can go, greatly depend upon
the temperature of the water.
But I am disposed to give a different or another
reason, besides permanency of temperature, for the
deeper waters being the most favourable for the growth
of the finer sponges.
greater tranquillity and clearness of the water, as much
as from the more permanent temperature of those
depths; for their natural habitat seems to be where
there is a firm basis, such as rock, to attach themselves
to, and where little mud or sand exists to render
the water impure and turbid under the agitation of
storms and currents. It may surprise the reader to
be informed that the quantity of fine sand he finds in
a new sponge has not been enclosed there by the
animal or vegetable during its growth, but is an adul-
teration practised by the agents and merchants who
purchase the sponge from the divers, in order to in-
crease its weight and their profit. I have seen, in the
islands of Symi, Calymno, and Khalki, as well as else-
where, the recently arrived cargoes of several sponge-
boats undergoing the process of adulteration before
packing. The sand having been imported from some
spot known to yield it of the fineness requisite for the
purpose, is mixed with water, in which there is a little
gelatine or gum, to enable the sponges to take up and
I think it arises also from the
CONDITION OF THE SPONGE-FISHERS.
221
retain it the better, and without being detectable
afterwards; the sponges are then well kneaded in it,
so as to fill up their minute pores; they are then
dried in the sun, and packed very closely together in
goat's-hair sacks, of an open texture, that the sand,
as it becomes detached from the sponges by the mo-
tion of their transit, may escape, and prevent detection
by the European trader.
In this way a hundredweight of sponges in their
dry state will be so sanded as to weigh more than a
ton, before they are packed for exportation to Europe.
The local merchants understand the process, and charge
accordingly; and thus they have hitherto derived the
chief profit, whilst the poor diver hardly obtains more
than a scanty living for all his risks and hardships,
and is in general in debt to the local trader; for,
being idle all the winter, through having no other
occupation, he is in consequence too frequently brought
into the power of the local trader as a money-
lender, and, through habits of drunkenness and gam-
bling following upon idleness, becomes his perpetual
debtor. The sponge-fishers are thus a degraded class
of the Greek community, and chiefly belong to those
islands where there is no produce or trade-barren
rocks in comparison to the generality, but compa-
ratively healthy localities; and as they are there
almost free from the Turkish rule, they are more in-
dependent than in the larger islands or the towns on
222
FLEET OF SPONGE-BOATS.
the coast of Asia Minor. This comparative liberty
induces them to prefer their native rock to another;
and necessity obliges them to seek their bread from
the sea, as the island is incapable of affording it.
Hence they seem to have followed the occupation of
sponge-divers from generation to generation for many
centuries.
A visit to the ports of one of these islands presents
at certain seasons an interesting scene of the aquatic
gambols of the young divers, who, from two to ten
years of age, sport in the sea as if it were their natural
element; for, in the summer months, when the grown-
up are all absent, and the children and aged only
left, the mothers seem to send their infants to the
water as soon as they can walk, as a duck does her
brood, and they are very soon expert enough to dive
in two, three, and five fathoms.
At the first commencement of the diving-season the
diver suffers much, and cannot easily dive at greater
depths than twelve and fifteen fathoms for a few days;
the eyes, nose, and ears then bleed freely under the
pressure and consequent congestion of the vessels.
The sponge-fishing is chiefly carried on in neatly
rigged but small caïques or half-decked boats from
eight to ten tons' burthen, that contain from seven to
nine men in each, and are very handy little craft,
very good sea-boats, and fine models, that seem to
have been the original of the famed yacht the ‘Ame-

J. Schranz, del.from a sketch by T.A.B.S
SPONCE DIVERS AT WORK
M&N Hanhart imp
*
MODE OF OPERATION.
223
rica.' They go to work in companies of half a dozen
to twenty or thirty boats for mutual support and pro-
tection; and when the weather is favourable, and they
are in working condition, each diver will dive fifteen,
and even twenty times a day, in as many fathoms.
They are obliged to be particular in their diet
during the diving-season, making no meal until even-
ing, and sustaining their strength by an occasional
pipe and a small cup of coffee once or twice during
the day.
It is to behold one of the most interesting sights pos-
sible, to be in the midst of a fleet of these sponge-boats
when the men are at work on their fishing-ground; for
they are like a flight of mosquitoes, or rather of butter-
flies flitting from flower to flower, as they move from
one spot to another, anchoring for a few minutes only
whilst a few dives are made, then hoisting their
numerous and well-handled sails to shift a few yards
further in the direction desired, and then anchoring
again and diving, as long as the weather is favourable
and sponges are procurable. The same ground is
thus often worked over and over year after year; but
they say that a rest of two or three years is necessary
to ensure a good crop of full-grown sponges upon the
same spot.
The accompanying sketch was taken from a group
to whom I had indicated some new patches of rocks
which I had just discovered, at depths of 15 and 20
224
MODE OF OPERATION
fathoms, previously unknown to them. In a few
minutes the whole party were actively diving there;
and, the ground being new to them, they made a
great harvest in a few hours. Being exposed so much
in the sun whilst diving, they look, when stripped, a
different race of men from the Greeks in general, in
consequence of the bright copper-colour of their skins
and their lean figures. The mode of operation pre-
paratory to a dive is very peculiar and interesting:
the sketch in some degree represents this also. The
diver whose turn it is takes his seat on the deck of
the vessel, at either the bow or stern, and, placing by
his side a large flat slab of marble weighing about
25 lbs., to which is attached a rope of the proper
length and thickness (1 inch), he then strips, and is
left by his companions to prepare himself. This
seems to consist in devoting a certain time to clearing
the passages of his lungs by expectoration, and highly
inflating them afterwards, thus oxidizing his blood
very highly by a repetition of deep inspirations. The
operation lasts from five to ten minutes or more, ac-
cording to the depth; and during it the operator is
never interfered with by his companions, and seldom
speaks or is spoken to; he is simply watched by two
of them, but at a little distance, and they never ven-
ture to urge him or to distract him in any way during
the process.
It seems to a spectator as if the diver
were going through a sort of mysterious ceremony or
IN DIVING FOR SPONGES.
225
incantation. When, from some sensation known only
to himself after these repeated long-drawn and heavy
inspirations, he deems the fitting moment to have
arrived, he seizes the slab of marble, and, after cross-
ing himself and uttering a prayer, plunges with it
like a returning dolphin into the sea and rapidly de-
scends. The stone is always held during the descent
directly in front of the head, at arm's length, and so
as to offer as little resistance as possible; and by
varying its inclination, it acts likewise as a rudder,
causing the descent to be more or less vertical, as
desired by the diver.
As soon as he reaches the bottom, he places the
stone under his arm to keep himself down, and then
walks about upon the rock, or crawls under its ledges,
stuffing the sponges into a netted-bag with a hooped
mouth, which is strung round his neck to receive
them; but he holds firmly to the stone or rope all the
while, as his safeguard for returning and for making
the known signal at the time he desires it.
Now let us notice the proceedings of his companions
in the boat floating some twenty or thirty fathoms
above him. The two men who were nearest to him
previously to his making the dive, but who systema-
tically seem to place themselves so as to prevent him
from conceiving the idea of being impatiently watched
by them whilst undergoing the preparation, spring to
their feet as soon as he disappears, and rush to the
VOL. I.
Q
226
THE DIVER'S RETURN FROM BELOW.
rope, which one of them then holds in his hand, veering
it out or shortening it in as the diver moves about upon
the bottom; and as soon as the signal indicative of his
wish to return is felt, they commence hauling up the
rope with great energy and earnestness, and in a
way calculated to ensure the greatest expedition of
ascent, since the overstay of a few seconds may be
a point of life or death to the diver. The hauling
up is thus effected:-The assistant who has hold of
the rope, awaiting the signal, first reaches down with
both hands as low as he can, and, there grasping
the rope, with a great bodily effort raises it up to
nearly arm's length over his head; the second as-
sistant is then prepared to make his grasp as low
down as he can reach, and does the same, and so on
the two alternately, and, by a fathom or more at a time
and with great rapidity, bring the anxious diver to the
surface. A heavy blow from his nostrils, to expel the
water and exhausted air, indicates to his comrades
that he is conscious and breathes. A word or two is
then spoken by one of his companions to encourage
him, if he seems much distressed, as is often the case;
and the hearing of the voice is said by them to be a
great support at the moment of their greatest state of
exhaustion. A few seconds' rest at the surface, and
then the diver returns into the boat to recover, gene-
rally putting on an under garment or jacket, to assist
the restoration of the animal heat he has lost, and to
:
NUMBER OF SPONGE-FISHERS.
227
prevent the loss of more by the too rapid evaporation
of the water from his body. Such is the trying life
of a Levantine sponge-diver; and doubtless there are
very few of us who have any idea of what a fellow-
creature has suffered in procuring that little article
which has become a necessity of our toilet-table and
the luxury of our morning ablutions.
The number of sponge-divers, who depend on it for
a livelihood, is probably about 3000 in all, almost all
of them inhabitants of the five or six south-eastern
islands of the archipelago, viz. Symi, Rhodes, Khalki,
Tilo, Kalymno, and Astropalea: there are a few,
also, at Lero and Castelorizzo; but they chiefly be-
long to the most barren of these two islands. It is
curious that there are none in the neighbouring islands
of Carpatho and Caso; and although the former is a
singularly formed and comparatively barren island, the
male population are all house-builders and masons,
not sailors, and consequently pass the summer season
in various localities, far and near, building and repair-
ing houses; whilst the inhabitants of the still more
barren island of Caso, between it and Crete, are
all ship-builders and sailors, none sponge-divers, and,
next to those of Syra, build the greatest number and
the finest of the ships used by the Greeks.
Notwithstanding the number of divers thus dis-
persed over the Levant and along the African coast
and Syria during four months of the year, viz. from
22
228
INCONVENIENCES AND DANGERS.
the middle of June to the middle of October, engaged
in the sponge-fishing, the deaths from drowning or ac-
cident are very few, averaging not more than five or six
annually; and the cases which occur from the attacks
of sharks or other fish are said to be rare: yet the ap-
prehension of such danger always exists, and for this
reason they say that the younger divers would dive best,
and in the deepest waters, if they had the same courage
as those who are older and experienced; but, by the
time the required confidence has been attained, their
physical powers are often diminished by premature age
from the nature of the work. One of their greatest
annoyances arises from a very little Actinia, which
stings their hands and bodies, and is therefore called
by them the Vromo (or the stinging): it is not larger
than a halfpenny, and is of a pale orange-colour; and
as the animal often clings to the roots of sponges, they
suffer much from the irritation that follows: although
it does not seem to blister, it causes a swelling, and
prevents their working for several days. When an
officer was about to take one into his hands, the crew
all loudly called out in alarm to prevent his doing
so; I was therefore not disposed to try its effect.
The shark is an enemy that appears sometimes
amongst them, and when seen produces much alarm,
suspending their operations at the time; for it is a
fact that some sharks in the Mediterranean reach a
considerable size, and attack men in the sea. An
SHARKS.
229
instance is on record of one having been caught at
Alexandria that contained the half of a man, and of
another that a few years since attacked and took
down one of our own soldiers at Corfu; and when
I was employed upon the coast of Africa about two
years since, the largest shark ever observed by any
one on board was seen by all hands. The ship was
at anchor off Cape Tanoob, about 100 miles west
of Alexandria, in 12 fathoms' water, and upon a
clean sandy bottom, when the word was suddenly
passed that a shark was in sight. We had only re-
cently passed through a fleet of sponge-boats at work
a few miles from the spot, and upon the very bank
he was now steering for; but, attracted by the ship,
he quietly sailed round and round, reconnoitring
us, at a distance of about a quarter of a mile, until
at length he was induced to approach pretty close,
within 30 or 40 yards of the ship's quarter, and to
poise himself there at two or three fathoms below the
surface; and then, as he lay perfectly still, and our
gig was also towing astern, we had the means of
making a comparison of his length, and concluded
that it was not much, if at all, under 18 feet; some
even thought it exceeded 20 feet*.
His presence
naturally excited great interest amongst us, especially
as he was attended, as usual, by seven or eight little
* Prince Canino relates that one Mediterranean species attains
to 24 feet.
230
A LARGE SHARK AND HIS
pilot-fish, which went actively and fearlessly round
and round the great monster's head, and seemed to
regard him quite as their protector and friend. I
never witnessed anything that appeared more truly to
indicate a perfect understanding between the shark
and his little companions than on this occasion.
As some of the crew had seen him pass under the
ship a little time previously upon some fowls' heads
and offal being thrown overboard, and after the pilot-
fish had previously been to it, he was supposed to
have gone and eaten the refuse, as he certainly went
to the spot. Now, therefore, there appeared a tempt-
ing chance of catching him with a bait. The shark-
hook was consequently duly baited with a large piece
of fat pork, and thrown from the quarter a few yards
in front of his nose; the huge monster nevertheless
remained all the while motionless, except his broad
and thick fins, that alone appeared to move occasion-
ally so as to steady his position. His little active and
zebra-striped companions, however, seemed at first
rather scared by the splash of the bait; but before
it had sunk to the depth of a few feet, one or two
advanced cautiously towards it, and then the whole
seven or eight followed, and after carefully going
round and round the bait as it slowly descended, and
also reconnoitring and running up and down the rope
attached, they darted off to the head of the shark, and
then seemed to pass close over and under his nose, in
LITTLE PILOTS.
231
the very precincts of his terrific jaws. We watched
the motions of all with great interest, hoping to see
him the next moment dart at the alluring bait; but
the huge leviathan slowly turned his head and sailed
away. It was, to all of us, exactly as if he had been
informed by his little companions that there was
danger in the tempting food; and so Mr. Shark and
his little friends sailed away together, and were not
again seen.
nose.
The frequent association of these little fish (which
are about the size and form of the mackerel) with the
shark is remarkable, as is also the place they take
when swimming with him, just in front of or over his
When accompanying a ship, as they often do,
the pilot-fish take up a position a few inches only in
front of the cutwater, where they have been known
to remain several days, with the exception of an occa-
sional dive under the ship's bottom, whence they soon
return to their station, where they so regulate their
speed by that of the ship as to appear attached to
it by an invisible wire. Instinct or experience has
taught them, no doubt, that this is the safest place
from their own special enemies, and a place of im-
punity, when in company with the shark; so they
adopt it with the ship,-having also found that, when
the shark feeds, crumbs fall for them from his terri-
ble jaws.
•
232
CHAPTER XXI.
THE EAST COAST OF CRETE-GORGE OF KAROUBA-ZAKRO BAY—
CYCLOPEAN REMAINS-THE ANCIENT ITANUS-DESTRUCTION
OF IT AND PRESUS BY THE HIERAPYTNIANS-THE ANCIENT
NAME STILL APPLIED TO A NEIGHBOURING VILLAGE -THE
COINS OF ITANUS-THE APPROPRIATE EMBLEMS UPON THEM
·SITE OF THE SMALL TOWN OF AMPELUS-ROUTES TO RETURN
TO IERAPETRA.
To the south of Grandes Bay, the coast of Crete
assumes a wild, forbidding aspect for several miles,
indeed until opposite the white cliffy islands of Kou-
phonisi. Along all this part, including the barren
headland of Cape Plaka, naked limestone steeps and
cliffs frown upon the shore, but are here and there
intersected by gorges and ravines.
The largest of these gorges and bays is at Zakro,
six and a half miles south of Cape Plaka, where there
is a small plain bordering the bay, about half a mile
long and the same in breadth. There is anchorage also
in the bay at convenient depths; but the locality has
a wild, forbidding aspect from the sea, from the naked-
ness of the cliffs and mountains above.
This little plain of Zakro is enclosed by high steeps
of grey limestone, and by cliffs which ascend from the
plain in a series of natural terraces, like steps, each
ZAKRO BAY.
233
being the well-marked line and ledge of a former sea-
level. The conical hill over the bluff on the north
side of the bay most remarkably shows these several
levels, presenting a somewhat pyramidal form, there
being six or seven such evidences of the old sea-levels,
which, as so many zones, almost encircle the hill.
The limestone is a hard, compact, bluish, stratified
rock, dipping to the eastward at an angle of about
30° or 35°. In consequence of such an inclination,
the upturned ends of the strata have been shorn off at
each of these levels, by which the fact of their having
been each the result of sea wear and encroachment
is made too clear to be disputed, or to require vestiges
of positive beaches upon them.
The north winds are less felt in this bay than at
Grandes; but heavy squalls strike the sea two or three
miles off the shore, which increase in violence and
frequency off the bolder parts of the coast to the south
of Zakro, and leave Zakro Bay less subject to them.
Behind Zakro there is a great sunken valley five or
six miles long, and from one to two in breadth, which
is not a plain, but filled up with a series of disturbed
schists and slaty ridges like those of Grandes Bay; and
the valley is of a similar geological age, and, like it,
the result of a downcast, or the limit of a great dis-
placement.
This sunken district or valley has several villages
in it; but they are poor, although sometimes pictu-
1
234
CYCLOPEAN REMAINS.
resquely situated. The karouba is the chief produce.
There are two outlets to the valley, through narrow
gorges. One, with a village called Karoub in it,
which takes its name from the tree, lies to the north
of Zakro Bay. At the mouth of the Karouba gorge
there are some remains of an Hellenic ruin, which
appears to have been a mere tower or coast-station
defending the approach to the valley. The Karouba
valley is reached by a road from the Topler Monas-
tery, which passes through the hamlet of Angathe
near Palaio Kastron, and crosses through a gap in
the Samothe ridge.
The second and principal outlet of the sunken
valley of Karouba is that at the Bay of Zakro, where
a rivulet from it threads a serpentine course through
an impracticable and tortuous gorge, a mere rent in
the mountains, that originally opened under the great
convulsions that raised them; and the stream flowing
through it turns two or three mills at its entrance
into the plain of Zakro.
From this description it must be evident to the
reader (viz. from the combination of a rivulet, plain,
bay, and high bounding ridge) that Zakro presents
features highly favourable for the situation of a coast-
city of the Cretans in early days. And in examining
the crags and lower hills which enclose the little
theatre-like plain, the Cyclopean remains of a very
ancient and very considerable city were found, which,
THE ANCIENT ITANUS.
235
from their position on the coast, their character, and
extent, can be no other than those of Itanus, since
Scylax and some others, including Ptolemy, place this
city in the most eastern part of Crete: but the name
of Zakro, which the place now bears, has evidently no
connexion with the ancient city.
The river flowing from the gorge divided the city
into two parts, of which the remains are considerable
and are of much interest, consisting entirely of Cyclo-
pean walls and the foundations of rude and massively
constructed buildings and terraces, ranged upon two
steep ridges running into the plain on the north side
of the river, with a sort of acropolis or fortified height
over the gorge. On the south side of the river, simi-
lar remains occur on the lower spurs jutting from the
surrounding precipices, which, however, are crowned
on this side with some massive walls in addition, as
it was there more approachable.
During a careful examination throughout the above
site, I saw only a large stone trough, and three or four
squared blocks, that showed evidences of a tool being
used to trim the rude stones into a shape for building-
purposes. The stratified character of the surrounding
rocks, as at Olus, was favourable, however, for split-
ting the massive blocks into a form somewhat adapted
for the Cyclopean style of construction; yet the mas-
sive character of the walls, terraces, and buildings
shows that no mean power or skill was used in the
A
236
DESTRUCTION OF ITANUS.
construction of them. A Pelasgic character is thus
stamped upon the entire remains of this city; for no
Roman or middle-age ruin was visible anywhere, to
show that it had had inhabitants in these later times;
and if so, as at Olus, the rude habitations of its ear-
lier people were used by them.
My chief reasons for believing the very early and
once flourishing Cretan city of Itanus to have been
at Zakro, in the absence of any name, at the site
itself, similar to that of Itanus, are the following:-
The inscription at Topler Monastery records the
fact of an alliance between Præsus and Itanus. Now,
as the upland territories of Præsus and of this site are
conterminous, an alliance was natural.
This alliance was doubtless for mutual defence
against their rival neighbour, Hierapytna, as it is
recorded that that town finally warred against and
destroyed Præsus; and therefore it is reasonable to
conclude that Hierapytna did not allow the allied
flourishing coast-city to remain as its maritime rival
after Præsus had fallen; and so Itanus probably
shared the fate of Præsus. Then what would be the
result to the inhabitants that escaped or were left?
Why, they would naturally flee to another land, if
able to do so; and if not, submit and retire to the
furthest limits of their upland fastnesses, so as to
lessen the recollection of their misfortune by locating
at as great a distance from the scene of it as possible.
SITANO.-COINS OF ITANUS.
237
And it is precisely the latter of these two courses
that they seem to have followed; for in the far-off
highest of the upland plains above Zakro, where it is
adjacent to the Præsian boundary, we now find a small
village, apparently the representative of that remnant,
having remarkably preserved the name of their deso-
lated city in that now applied to this village, viz.
Tsitano or Sitano, but with the usual prefix of the S,
or Ts, that I have before noticed as frequent in the
east of Crete. And not far from it, viz. on the oppo-
site hills, we found a small square Hellenic fortress,
which perhaps was the frontier outpost between the
old city of Itanus and the territory of the Præsii.
By the coins of Itanus, which are not uncommon,
we know it to have been an important trading-city in
the early period of Cretan history; and as no coins of
it, of the Roman period, I believe, exist, nor any re-
mains of that date, its time of desertion is made clearly
to be cotemporary with that of Præsus-about the
time of Alexander probably, or not long after it.
The emblems upon the coins are also characteristic of
the locality here assigned to Itanus:-the eagle, as in-
habiting its overtowering cliffs and gorges; the triton,
with trident in hand, in the field of the same coin or
occupying the entire obverse of another very fine but
earlier coin, as indicative of the early connexion of the
inhabitants with the sea as traders and fishermen.
And Herodotus mentions one Corobinos, a purple-
!
238
SITE OF THE SMALL TOWN
trader of Itanus, from whom the Theræans gained
their knowledge of the Libyan coast, and under whose
pilotage the first Greek colony went to Cyrene, under
Battus, about 630 B.C., by order of the Delphian
Oracle (Herod. iv. 153).
From the fact that Pliny notices Itanus only as a
promontory around which were the islands of Onisia
and Leuce, and the 'Stadiasmus' does not mention
it at all, my view regarding its probable conquest
and desertion receives further support. I have felt it
the more necessary to give a full exposition of my
reasons for placing the site of Itanus at Zakro, because
Dr. Pococke places it at Palaio Kastron, in Grandes
Bay; and, from his minute description of Kouphonisi,
and the manner in which he mentions Zakro (although
in a note only), he seems to have been in its neigh-
bourhood. Nevertheless he does not appear to have
landed at Zakro, but only to have passed near it in
a boat; and therefore the opinion of the learned
doctor cannot be founded upon a complete research.
Ampelus is mentioned by Pliny as being a town
beyond Itanus, but by Ptolemy as a promontory only;
and this town is apparently identified at some ruins,
consisting mainly of the foundations of a small walled
city, which exist upon the coast opposite the Cavallos
Islets, at the end of a narrow, shelving, stony plain
that borders the shore there, about three miles south-
ward of Zakro.
OF AMPELUS.
239
The walls were built of quadrangular blocks of
sandstone, from the rock which underlies this little
coast-plain of Katocampo, as the place is called. The
ruins of Ampelus are apparently not more than 300
yards long. Hence, from its size and the character
of its walls, it seems to have succeeded Itanus on this
part of the coast as a mere fishing-town.
Had Ampelus been of any size and of very ancient
date, the hill over the adjacent point, westward of
the present ruins, would doubtless have been chosen
as a more inviting position, and more consistent with
early Greek sites than its present. An open bay
under it was doubtless its haven, under the partial
shelter afforded by the two rocky Kavallos Islets that
lie off it.
There is a mineral spring near, which is in repute
for its medicinal properties; and Ampelus probably
in part owed its existence to this cause. It is now
without inhabitants, save the families of two or three
shepherds.
A road ascends from Katocampo, or Ampelus, to
the upland plains of Khadra and Zero, which is ex-
ceedingly rugged and steep; but there is no more
practicable route along the coast to the westward.
Therefore the traveller, if he ventures thus far by land,
can retrace his steps by the way of the Topler Monas-
tery to Sitia, or ascend the mountains leading from
here to the plains of Zero and Khadra, or from
240
RETURN-ROUTES TO IERAPETRA.
Zakro to that of Kataleone and Khadra, and thence
take the southern route to Ierapetra along the south
coast; and this route I recommend in preference to
returning to Sitia Bay.
As my notice of this part of the island would be
deficient without a reference to the White Islands of
the Kouphonisi, which lie about two miles off its
south-east headland, I shall describe them in the fol-
lowing chapter,
241
CHAPTER XXII.
THE KOUPHONISI ISLANDS-ROMAN RUINS-ANCIENT STATUE-
THE ISLAND OF OPHIUSA-CRETAN PIRATES IN EARLY TIMES-
ROMAN AND RHODIAN WAR AGAINST THEM THE HAUNT OF
ALGERINE PIRATES- -AN ENGLISH TRAVELLER TAKEN BY ONE
-CAPTAIN MANIAS HIS PIRATICAL DEEDS AS A SFAKIOT
CHIEFTAIN -HIS DEATH IN MY SERVICE-A CHARACTER, BUT
NOT A TYPE OF THE RACE—A PATRIOT'S GRAVE.
THE largest of the Kouphonisi is a flattish and low
island, about two miles in length, with three small
islets close off it. There is a plain on its north side,
nearly a mile in length, with the remains of a small
town at its extremity and just over the north-west
point of the island, which seems to have been of the
Roman time, the wall which encloses it being built
of small stones and mortar, with Roman bricks in
horizontal layers between. The greater portion of the
ruins, however, are buried beneath blown or drift sand,
which has accumulated over them from the sandy
shore near.
In the plain to the south of the small tower or
fortress are three vaulted and solidly built cisterns,
constructed in the same manner as the wall of the
town. These cisterns communicated with each other
VOL. I.
R
242
ROMAN RUINS.
and with the town by an aqueduct, which remains in
part visible, and can be traced also to the hills south-
ward of the cisterns, whence there must have issued a
spring in ancient days, and where in the winter season,
I was told, there is still a small source. The largest
of the cisterns was 650 feet long, divided into three
longitudinal vaulted compartments, and was evidently
built to hold for summer use the whole supply which
the springs and rains would yield.
Near the south end of the town are some fragments
of slender columns of grey and reddish-grey lime-
stone, that may have belonged to a church, or more
probably a temple, as a fragment of a draped figure
in white marble, but much mutilated, was found on
a sandhill near them.
On the peak forming the summit of the island,
and situated over the steep white cliffs of the southern
shore, there is a raised platform or pedestal of squared
blocks of limestone, upon which was formerly placed
a colossal figure in white marble, in a sitting posi-
tion, like the one at Palaio Kastron. It now, how-
ever, lies on the side of the platform that supported
it, and is split into two pieces, but was originally
sculptured out of a fine block of Parian marble.
No ancient author seems to have mentioned this
island as having been inhabited. Can it, then, have
been the haunt of pirates originally, as it was during
the middle ages, and even not many years since, as I
ISLAND OF OPHIUSA.
243
learned from my Sfakiot guide and interpreter, Captain
Manias, so often mentioned in Pashley's Crete'?
For Manias told me himself of his own early cruisings
here; and I found the truth of his statements con-
firmed by his knowledge of every inlet or creek of this
part of the coast, and, to my surprise, of the islands of
Caso, Carpatho, and Castelorizzo also.
Pirates do not erect statues, however, to their heroes
or chiefs; so that this town must have been originally
a legitimate city, dependent upon Crete, and doubt-
less subject to Hierapytna. But what was its ancient
name?
Pliny places the Onisia and the Leuca or White
Islands of Ophiusa, Butoa, and Aradus all opposite
the Itanus promontory. The first-named (the Onisia),
then, are most probably the Cavallos; for the Leucæ,
or White Islands, are unmistakeably the Kouphonisi
group, from their remarkably white aspect; and as
the first-mentioned of the White Islands or Leucæ
was probably the nearest to Itanus, as well as the
largest, and was called by Pliny Ophiusa, its identity
with Kouphonisi seems to be established, the modern
appellation having been formed by corruption from
Ophiusa.
Between the two islets lying off the point of the
town there is a small natural harbour for coasting-
craft, and where the wary corsair could be hid from
view to all passers-by, and be ready to pounce sud-
R 2
244 CRETAN PIRATES IN EARLY TIMES.
denly upon any unfortunate trader that had been
drifted too close by currents during the darkness and
uncertainty of navigation by night.
That the corsair and pirate had long made the
islands lying off the eastern extremity of Crete their
haunt is well authenticated; and the several dangers
which lie off Cape Sidero, and which were so little
known previous to our surveys, were perhaps used as
so many snares, into which a stranger was decoyed,
and when surprised by them was embarrassed, so as
to prevent escape. This appears to have been the case
ever since the time of the Romans; for Diodorus the
Sicilian, in a fragment touching upon the Cretan wars
of the Romans, has given the following account of the
piratical propensities of the Cretans:-
"The senate had often debates concerning the
Cretans, alleging, and at length concluding, that they
joined with the pirates and were sharers in the rob-
beries; and therefore they decreed the Cretans should
send in all their ships to Rome, even to a skiff of four
oars, and resign the three hundred famous hostages,
and send away Lasthenes and Paneres, and amongst
them pay 4000 talents of silver. The Cretans, hear-
ing what was decreed, went into a consultation about
these commands imposed upon them. The more pru-
dent amongst them advised them to be observant in
all things to what was enjoined them. But those that
were of Lasthenes's party and guilty of the same crimes,
PIRATES IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 245
fearing that, being sent for to Rome, they should be
there punished for their offences, stirred up the people
to a sedition, advising them to maintain those liberties
that they had ever, time out of mind, enjoyed."
Also, in his book xxvi. is the following account of
war being declared by the Rhodians against them for
piracy:-"The Cretans rigged out seven ships for
piracy, and robbed many passengers at sea; whereupon
the merchants being altogether discouraged, the
Rhodians, looking upon it to belong to them to re-
dress this mischief, proclaimed war against the Cre-
tans." And it was evidently off this part of Crete
that one of our countrymen, a Dr. Veryard, was
taken by pirates in the year 1668, when sailing from
Candia to Alexandria in a Dutch merchant-vessel.
For in his Book of Travels,' under the heading of
Voyage to the Levant," after a brief account of
a journey to Mount Ida in Crete from Candia, he
says, "I returned on board the Dutch vessel bound
for Alexandria, and on the first day's sail (from Candia)
we discovered a vessel at south south-east making
towards us with all possible speed. Our captain,
suspecting it an enemy, bore off, hoping the night
would favour our escape; for though we had thirty
guns mounted, yet we were not much above half
manned, and consequently incapable of making any
defence. What we did was to little purpose; for
they came to us above an hour by sun, and two
66
246 CAPTURE OF AN ENGLISH TRAVELLER.
others came in sight, so that all three appeared under
the colours of Algiers, and the first saluted us with a
broadside. Three to one was a prodigious inequality;
wherefore, after a small resistance, we suffered them
to come on board; but I can hardly express the con-
sternation we were in to see ourselves surprised by
the enemies of the name of Christ, for indeed our
spirits were so damped that we had hardly force
enough to cry 'Quarter.
He then relates that they were shut up between
decks, all but nine or ten men and boys, who were
kept to work the ship, with the thirty Moors left on
board by the corsair. "Of the passengers, there were
besides myself Italians and Jews, who all equally de-
plored their hard fate: some blamed the stars, others
quarrelled with fortune, others, more piously inclined,
vowed vows to the saints on condition of escape. As
for my own part, I never thought my curiosity dear-
bought till then. However, I endeavoured to make
the best of a bad market, and encouraged my compa-
nions to an entire resignation to the divine will."
A terrible gale of wind overtook them on their
voyage, which lasted two days, and separated them
from their three companions; but on the third night,
when it fell a calm, the Moors, being exhausted, fell
asleep, which their deck-comrades perceiving, they
found an opportunity for allowing those below to
escape into the cook-room, when the arms were sud-
A PROTESTANT CLERGYMAN TAKEN. 247
denly seized, and, the few Moors first aroused being
shot down, the vessel was retaken; upon which they
bore away for Malta and reached it in safety.
This story of our countryman's capture off here by
Algerine pirates towards the end of the seventeenth
century induces me to relate the capture of an ancestor
of mine in the same century, a clergyman: but he was
captured when in sight of Cork harbour, and was not
so fortunate as the doctor; for he was carried to
Algiers, and remained there some time in slavery: and
when ransomed by the merchants of Genoa, he refused
to take advantage of his freedom, prefering to remain,
that he might contrive to administer the gospel in
secret to his fellow-countrymen still in slavery there.
That Algerine pirates even resorted to our own
coasts for the capture of Christian slaves does not
appear to be generally known or believed as a fact in
their history, or as recorded in our own; but this in-
stance is too authentic to be doubted, as it is narrated
in the sufferer's own handwriting, and the manuscript
is in my possession as an heirloom, the author, my
direct ancestor, being a Protestant clergyman, named
Devereux Spratt, who was captured when on his pas-
sage to England, after the rebellion and the massacre
of Protestants in the South of Ireland.
The narrative would be out of place here; so the
reader who may feel an interest in it is referred to
the Appendix.
248
CAPTAIN MANIAS.
The remarkable whiteness of the cliffs of the Kou
phonisi renders them a conspicuous feature in this
part of the coast of Crete, where otherwise all is dark
and iron-bound by grey and almost sterile and inhos-
pitable-looking mountains. The cliffs are not chalk,
however, although so white; but their geology is of
interest from their being composed of strata of two
ages of the marine tertiary period, as well as contain-
ing a dyke of trap.
I refer for details to the Geological Appendix; for
I am induced to linger on the thought of these old
haunts of corsairs still; and I have spoken of Captain
Manias, my pilot, as having been one in modern
times. My learned predecessor in Cretan research,
Mr. Pashley, has spoken highly of his patriotic deeds
as a chief, or capitaine, of a band of Cretans during
the revolution; for Manias was a true patriot, although
at times also a pirate, but the latter, it is to be hoped,
only from necessity. I will therefore speak only of
his brighter deeds; for although we are on the scenes
of some of his corsair life, we are also approaching
his last resting-place, his grave, as poor Manias died
in Her Majesty's service, as my interpreter and guide,
a few days only after our first visit to these islands.
I will here relate, then, that on our first coming to
the east end of Crete in H.M.S. 'Spitfire,' to com-
mence its survey, and as we were running inside of the
Yanisades Islands without any knowledge or even a
MANIAS A PIRATE.
249
previous hint of the existence of a danger near them,
but were keeping simply a good look-out as usual, and
proceeding very slowly, old Manias came aft on the
quarter-deck, and quietly asked me if I did not think
there might be some danger near. I had heard of
none, I said, and hoped there was none. He, how-
ever, advised my keeping nearer the Yanisades Islands
than the Cretan coast; and then told me of an an-
chorage in those islands, and a cave in which there
was a little spring of water. I thought the advice
good, on this display of his local knowledge of the
islands, so I followed it, but was surprised at the in-
formation coming from him, as I could get it from
no one else, nor even from him previously.
This fact, however, revealed to me that he knew
perfectly all the dangers thereabouts, and, as I found
afterwards by our surveys, that he had thus cautioned
me when I was near a very treacherous one that lies
about two miles from the land, and which I have
named the "Spitfire rock" in consequence; but he
evidently did not like to say too much then, lest he
should excite a suspicion of his patriotic or piratical
cruisings in these waters.
Now Manias was a Sfakiot chieftain; and they have
the reputation of having been all more or less pirates
as well as patriots in their time, as the older Casiot
sailor and the older Castelorizziot resident also know.
But their pirate deeds must die in their own breast:
250
CHARACTER OF MANIAS.
I shall not record them here, nor many other of their
deeds nearer home (and less excusable than what they
did in concert with their countrymen against the
common enemy), which I have heard from their own
mouths; but the Cretan lowlanders, both Mahomedan
and Christian, know them to their sorrow.
The patriot chieftain Manias shall sleep, therefore,
with his piracies unwritten by me. Pashley has
recorded his heroism during the revolution, has given
his portrait, and thus raised a deep interest in the
man as a type of a peculiar people in Crete. But he
was a remarkable character, and displayed many
noble traits, as does every true hero whom the love
of freedom rouses in defence of his country or its
cause; and there have been few like Manias among
Sfakian worthies of modern times, even according
to the account of the Cretans themselves. Manias's
manners and character are therefore by no means to
be taken as the type of all those hardy mountaineers,
as Pashley's narrative rather leads his readers to infer.
He was a specimen of lion-hearted patriotism, com-
bined with lamb-like gentleness in all the common
intercourse of life: his form and constitution were
herculean; but his manner was fascinating, and his
voice he could modulate to a tone as soft and per-
suasive as that of a maiden.
By these qualities and virtues, Manias had gained
a high local repute amongst his countrymen, mainly
HIS DEATH AND BURIAL.
251
in consequence of his heroism during the futile strug-
gle for independence between 1820 and 1828-a long
struggle between the two religions in Crete, that un-
happily only ended in desolating the land, filling it
with blood and misery, and throwing it back half a
century or more. But his kindly speech and manner
had so brightened and, indeed, gilded his fame, that
he had many friends in every village, and an acquaint-
ance in almost every man he met; for his manner
was a true reflex of the bent of his mind and feelings.
He was patient and gentle; and his heart was kindly,
though stout: a lion or a lamb, he had no interme-
diate quality.
With feelings of respect, therefore, for his me-
mory, and appreciating his good service to me, I
approach his last resting-place, as he died of fever at
Hierapytna, after piloting us round to it only a few
days previously, and was buried by the side of the
church of Agios Georgios (or St. George), which
stands at the northern end of that dilapidated and
fever-haunted town. He was buried as he had lived
during the past five or six weeks with us, viz. in
his clothes, and even in his boots-an article that is
almost as inseparable from a Cretan peasant's limb as
his skin, being seldom removed either for repose or
for ablution.
Poor Manias left a widow and two or three chil-
dren to mourn him, but with some property for their
.
252
A PATRIOT'S GRAVE.
support, both in Sfakia and at Dramia, near Retimo.
As I was myself prostrate at the time also with an
attack of fever (that enemy to oriental travel and
research), I could not follow his remains to their last
rest, as I desired; neither would it have been con-
sistent in me to have inscribed upon his tomb, "A
Patriot's Grave;" I will therefore simply indite them
upon these pages, in respect for his good name and
his patriotism. But not a word regarding Grabusa or
Grandes Bay shall blot the page of this memento of
poor Manias. And do not desire it, good reader, or call
it mistaken sympathy; for had you been a Greek, a
Cretan Greek, at that same period, you, under the
same circumstances (that is, if you had the heart),
would not have been less, from the tyranny and misrule
that then chafed the patriots' souls into flint and fire,
and rubbed out the perception of moral right in its
flashings of revenge, for domestic losses not to be re-
paid, and for mental and bodily sufferings not easily
realizable to you.
253
CHAPTER XXIII.
RETURN TO IERAPETRA—ITS SITUATION AND NATURAL FACILITIES
FOR FORMING A GOOD PORT-ITS IMPORTANCE IN EARLY
CRETAN TIMES-ITS THREE THEATRES-ITS THREE HARBOURS
-AN INSCRIPTION WITH THE NAME OF THE CITY—A LEPERS'
VILLAGE-VISIT TO THE VILLAGE-THE NEGLECT OF THE
LEPERS BY THE CRETANS-THE CHAPEL OF THE HOLY CROSS
UPON A MOUNTAIN-MISDIRECTION OF MIND AND MEANS-
CONSTANT RESORT OF THE SICK TO THE SHIPS FOR MEDICAL
AID-THEIR WANTS AND WOUNDS ATTENDED TO BY THE
DOCTOR-THE GOOD PHYSICIAN'S PLEASURES.
THE route to Ierapetra by the southern coast-road has
nothing to attract attention, being tedious and long,
as it occupies fully nine hours from Khadra, and lies
near the shore during a great part of it-crossing, how-
ever, many narrow and uncultivated valleys and ridges,
with a shepherd's farm or a water-mill here and there
in some lonely but picturesque glen. Numerous ravines
intersect the route, across which the road proceeds
by a series of ascents and descents, sometimes more
troublesome from their number than from their depth
and steepness, until the last ridge is gained, which
opens to view the low-walled and miserable town of
Ierapetra, which I passed, on my entrance to the Sitia
peninsula, without describing it.
254
SITUATION OF IERAPETRA.
Ierapetra, or Girapetra as it is also called, is the
capital of the eastern peninsula of Crete, is the
fourth city in the island, and is governed by a mudir,
under the Pasha of Candia. It is situated upon a
low part of the shore, near the extremity of a long
undulating and slightly inclined plain which borders
the south coast at the narrowest part of the island.
The plain thus extending behind the town is not
alluvial, but somewhat rocky in parts; it is neverthe-
less for the most part very fertile, and is covered with
a large grove of remarkably fine olive-trees. Just
where Ierapetra stands, the plain is somewhat more
undulating; and the roots of the lower hills, running
through the centre of the isthmus lying behind it,
approach so near the shore that a natural ledge
of rocks originally jutted out from the undulating
ground a little way into the sea, and thus afforded
facilities for the construction of a harbour within
them. Massive blocks were thrown by the ancients
into the sea to form moles from the extremities of
these reefs, and thus complete the harbour or har-
bours that were in part formed by nature.
Consequently, in ancient times, a town of consider-
able importance, named Hierapytna, arose upon this
low part of the coast, although it is an unusual posi-
tion for an early Greek city, and a weak one for
defence, as was shown by its abandonment during the
war with the Romans under Metellus, without any

J Schranz, del.from a sketch by T.A.B.S..
Agios Stavros.
M. & N.Hanhart imp
IERAPETRA THE ANCT HIERAPYTNA.
HARBOURS OF HIERAPYTNA.
255
resistance, the defenders having fled on his approach,
although their chief had gathered all his strength
there.
Hierapytna had apparently two harbours thus
formed by nature and art, viz. an inner and outer one,
both of which, however, have been destroyed, and are
now for the most part filled with sand and débris
subsequently thrown in by the sea and by man; and
the modern town stands upon part of the outer of
these ancient harbours. It is enclosed by a loopholed
wall on the land side, which is a Turkish construc-
tion, leaving within it the inner port or naumachia
thus cut off from the sea, and forming a malignant
marsh that annually poisons the poor inhabitants with
fever of a very malignant form.
Its inhabitants number about 2000, of whom rather
more than half are Turks, and nearly every one of
whom have had the fever during the past few years,
and are, in consequence, a weakly, cadaverous-looking
community, who depend more upon their olive-groves
than hard labour.
Its chief trade is in oil, of which it exports 2000
tons in good seasons.
A square fort, that was erected by the Venetians,
stands upon the southern basement of the old moles,
and mounts a few old guns. It is garrisoned by a
company of fifty Turkish troops and artillerymen.
The remains of the ancient city are deserving of a
I
ř
:
ONORIO BELLI'S DESCRIPTION OF
256
brief description, as Hierapytna was evidently a fine
city in its day, which seems to have been about the
time of, or immediately prior to, the conquest of the
island by the Roman Metellus; for it contained two
theatres and an amphitheatre: one of the former and
the latter are still distinguishable.
C
In the Museum of Classical Antiquities,' Mr.
Falkener has published extracts from some manu-
scripts referring to the antiquities of Crete, which he
found in the Venetian libraries.
The most important of these was that of Onorio
Belli; but the original work, it appears, does not now
exist, only some extracts of it, with some brief notices
and some plans of the most perfect of the ancient
theatres which existed in Crete when he was there.
As an eminent classical architect, Mr. Falkener was
therefore the more able to appreciate them. I ac-
knowledge the value of this publication, although so
fragmentary, and for some time thought it superseded
any necessity for my now venturing to write upon
Cretan antiquities; but I have been persuaded other-
wise, and therefore venture to submit my pages to the
public.
I give the following interesting extract from Onorio
Belli, in reference to Hierapytna, because it shows
the state of its ruins as he found them in 1590, and
thus conveys an idea of the beauty and importance of
this city when under the Romans. For the plan and
THE REMAINS OF HIERAPYTNA.
257
details of the theatres, made out by this able archæo-
logist, I must refer to Mr. Falkener's work.
"About forty miles west of Cape Salmone, on the
south coast, are the remains of the noble city of
Hierapytna. The city was formerly called Cyrba,
then Pydna, then Camiro, and lastly Hierapytna; the
modern name is Girapetra. It appears to have been
built in the manner of Alexandria, having opposite to
it a small island connected to the city by a mole
formed of a wall twenty feet in thickness, and serving
as a gabion battery to a beautiful and commodious
harbour.
66
Hierapytna contained a naumachia, an amphi-
theatre, two theatres, temples, thermæ, and aqueducts.
The modern city was ruined by a dreadful earthquake
in 1508, which is described by Girolamo Donato,
duke of Candia, the translation of whose letter I will
give when I come to speak of the earthquakes which
have happened to this island. Since that event the
city has been reduced to a small castle, with a
hamlet.
"The theatres of Hierapytna are highly remark-
able from the peculiarity of their design. The smaller
theatre, of which many of the seats remain, measuring
two feet in width, was adorned with two orders of
columns of the whitest marble, 5 quarters in dia-
meter (17 inches English), of the Ionic order; the
capitals and entablatures were of the most excellent
VOL. I.
S
258
ONORIO BELLI'S DESCRIPTION OF
workmanship, many of which have been sent to
Venice by his Excellency the Proveditor General.
The statues (of the scene) were of stucco: these I
found entire on excavating a trench along the front;
but on endeavouring to remove them, they fell to
powder. Most of the columns have been destroyed
by fire: those of the lower order were 10 feet high
(11 feet 4 inches English). The columns of the
upper order were 1 foot in diameter and 9 feet in
height. The columns of the portico behind the scene
correspond in size to those of the lower order; but
they are of granite (pietra dura), like the two columns
at Venice. These columns, which are so numerous
here and at Gortyna, must have been brought from
Egypt; for there is no stone of this description in the
island of Candia; indeed the building-stone is very
indifferent, being even softer than that of Creazzo
and Sorzio. Many of the seats of the theatre re-
main in place; they measure two Vicentine feet in
width.
"Among the ruins of the theatre are some in-
scriptions, of which, although much mutilated, I send
you copies, hoping that you will be able to get them
translated for me, and to forward them to me here;
for, as you know, I am not sufficiently acquainted
with the language to interpret them myself.
"The great theatre was partly excavated out of the
mountain. The scene was of marble, relieved in
THE REMAINS OF HIERAPYTNA.
259
parts with red-marked stone similar to that of Verona.
It was most richly decorated with columns, cornices,
and other ornaments, now, alas! a heap of ruins. The
order was Ionic, which was the favourite order in
these parts.
"The capitals are of most beautiful design and
wonderful execution, and indeed all the architectural
members are carved with the greatest care. Where
the Corinthian order is employed, the capitals are far
from possessing the beauty of those designed by Pal-
ladio, nor are the Doric columns to be compared with
those at the Basilica at Vicenza.
"You will pay particular attention to the arrange-
ment of the Scene in these two theatres of Hiera-
pytna, which depart further from the directions of
Vitruvius than any other theatres which I have
seen, and probably from many that have been seen
by others; but the parts behind the scene, includ-
ing the hospitalia, are generally disposed according
to the usual principle. The theatre had at least
one row of bronze echeia, the cells for which are
very visible, and indeed the best-preserved of any
of these theatres. The ignorant inhabitants of the
island, who do not know what a theatre was, call
these cells ovens.
"The amphitheatre was dug between two little
hills or rocks; and in order to complete the oval, six
buttresses of solid masonry, without any decoration,
s 2
260
THE AMPHITHEATRE.
were built at each extremity; between these were the
stairs."
This amphitheatre I unexpectedly discovered when
exploring the site previous to Mr. Falkener's publica-
tion of the above extract, no notice having been given
of it in Tournefort, or Pashley, or any previous publi-
cation; for although Pashley also visited Ierapetra,
he left the description of it for a future volume on
Crete, of which he hints at the probable publication,
or was satisfied with the notice of it by Tournefort,
who, however, did not see this amphitheatre. And it
is exactly as Belli has described it, viz. placed between
two low hills, and, in order to complete the oval, six
buttresses of masonry were built at each extremity of
the opening separating the ridge, which is not more
than fifty or sixty feet above the sea.
Mr. Falkener gives another extract, as a note to
the manuscript of Maffei in which this author strongly
expresses his difficulty of understanding what Belli
meant by his description of the amphitheatre (see
Falkener). But Belli's correctness is now verified in
a very satisfactory manner by what actually remains.
The masonry of which it was chiefly built was small
stones and mortar, but faced apparently in part with
thin slabs of white and variegated marble, the frag-
ments and chips of which are now found scattered
near; but not a single squared block or stone seat is
anywhere seen.
1
THE LARGE THEATRE.
261
The rising ground in which it was made seems to
be an old raised beach indurated into a sort of petri-
fied conglomerate, through which there appears to
have previously been an opening or quarry, that
invited its selection for the site of an amphitheatre,
as offering facilities for its construction.
The large theatre mentioned by Belli I found to be
about 154 feet in diameter, as near as I could estimate
it. Belli makes it five feet more. It is more con-
spicuous than the amphitheatre, and was likewise
partially dug out of rising ground by the side of a
neighbouring watercourse a little to the west of the
amphitheatre; it faced the east. Nothing, however,
of its ancient beauty can be made out from the mere
semicircle of rubble masonry which now remains, or
of the elegant portico with its many columns and
statues shown by Belli to have existed in front of it,
that part being now a corn-field. Thence no doubt
came some of the marble statues that found their
way to Venice, noticed in another manuscript, pub-
lished by Mr. Falkener in his vol. ii. part 3; and thence,
as we learn from this manuscript, was brought the
statue now ornamenting the fountain of St. Salva-
dore in the town of Candia, figured by Pashley, and
which, as I have also noticed above (see p. 44), is
regarded with superstitious reverence by the lower
classes of the Turkish community there. About mid-
way between the theatre and amphitheatre, there were
<
262
THE SMALLER THEATRE.
recently found two sculptured sarcophagi also, which
have been removed to the British Museum. (See
Chapter XXIV. for the description of them.)
The smaller theatre of Belli I had not originally
made out when exploring the site; but when led to
look for it by Mr. Falkener's publication of Belli's
plan and description, I imagine I was enabled to iden-
tify it in a conspicuous mass of masonry standing on
the top of a rising ground near the west extremity
of the city, since it has some indications of having
belonged to a building of a circular form. This ruin
faces the north-west, and was not excavated into the
rising ground, but entirely built above it. Near it,
to the eastward, are some fragments of a handsome
portico in white marble that had been recently dug
up there,—which supports the idea.
But in none of the three theatres does a single seat
now remain, nor are any of the niches that contained
the harmonious vases for the transmission of sound,
noticed by Belli, and of such interest in connexion
with his account of the Cretan theatres, visible or
traceable; so great has been the dilapidation of the
ruins since the Venetian occupation. These vases
were sometimes of earthenware and sometimes of
metal, according to the wealth of the locality; and
the former seem to have answered the purpose as
well as the latter.
The chief part of the city occupied a level and low
THE HARBOURS.
263
plateau between a watercourse opening to the sea
near the large theatre and amphitheatre, and another
nearly a mile more to the west of it. This interme-
diate plateau is consequently scattered over with the
foundations of several public buildings and habita-
tions, with remains of aqueducts and cisterns; but
these deserve no particular notice-except one large
building, that lies prostrate with its foundations, but
which, from its many compartments, seems to have
been a palatial edifice of some importance: it stood
near the south-west angle of the city.
The western watercourse is so steep that it was both
a natural wall and fosse on that side; but no distinct
line of walls or fortifications enclosing the entire city
is now recognizable.
According to Belli, there were three harbours, in-
clusive of a naumachia: the other two, as distinct
from the naumachia or inner port, cannot be clearly
defined, although some massive foundations of moles
or quays are traceable through the modern town,
which, as I have before remarked, stands upon the
very centre of the main harbour of the old Hiera-
pytnians, and the Venetian castle upon the outer
part of it.
In the western mole, which was built very solidly,
although of stones and mortar, or rather pozzolana,
there are still to be seen five or six perforated blocks,
that projected from its sides to receive the ships'
264
INTERESTING INSCRIPTION.
cables. These are visible near the south extreme of
the modern town-wall, which is for a short distance
built upon this mole. Within the town may be seen
many fragments of columns both granite and marble
(as well as other architectural fragments), that were
brought from the old city, the styles and orders of
which were chiefly Corinthian or composite, and thus
indicate a Roman period.
From a recently repaired house in the town I copied
the inscription (No. 21, Plate I., and noticed in the
Appendix by the Rev. C. Babington) in which the
name of Hierapytna occurs twice. I was informed
that the stone upon which it was inscribed had been
dug up only a few years since, and then built into
the house of its proprietor, a Greek, to repair it after
being injured by the recent earthquake of 1856.
Earthquakes appear to have been of frequent occur-
rence in Crete from the earliest times; and in the
very severe one of 1856, which was felt throughout
the Levant, the inhabitants of Girapetra suffered
much from its effects-every mosque, church, or house
being more or less split and injured by it, and some
destroyed entirely.
I will now dwell a little upon some features of
interest in the neighbourhood of the town. The hills
directly north of the town, the summits of which
overlook both Ierapetra (or Girapetra) and the Mira-
bella Gulf, have their summit and northern face com-
LEPERS' VILLAGE.
265
posed of the older limestone and shales, that form a
sort of support for a group of soft brown marls and
sands and sandstones, and also for a white tertiary
marl and limestone, that repose against the south
face of the ridge towards the Ierapetra plain.
These tertiary strata are apparently of two ages,
and lie unconformably. They are also both of marine
origin, as far as could be ascertained from the fossils
present, which are here very scarce.
Upon one of the lower roots of these ridges, and
about one mile north of Girapetra, is a little village,
nothing striking in itself, but pleasantly situated upon
a commanding and airy locality. An oleander-shaded
rocky watercourse or torrent-bed passes beside it, in
which runs a little rill during a part of the year; and
a fine view is obtained from its rather neat-looking
whitewashed habitations over the olive-grove extend-
ing from it to the town and the Libyan Sea beyond.
"The peaceful retreat of the better class of the in-
habitants of the fever-haunted and putrid town of
Girapetra, no doubt," is probably the conclusion of
the reader, or the traveller who chances to see its white
buildings from a distance. But is it so? Alas! it is
only another community of the polluted, the unclean!
-a village of lepers, outcasts from every community.
There are nearly one hundred poor wretches who
are obliged to live apart from their families and
homes while this loathsome disease creeps upon them,
t
266
PROBABLE CAUSE OF LEPROSY.
and to become dependent upon each other for the
daily help they finally need, unaided and uncared for
by their brethren of the towns. In this village I
found a Cretan Turk located with his leper wife, and
he was the only untainted inhabitant in it. He had
resided with her for several years without becoming
a leper likewise, and consequently had the privilege
of free access to his mosque and to the neighbouring
cafés. He was our guide through the village, and
showed us all its miserable scenes.
Each Eparkhia in Crete has a separate locality for
the lepers of its own district; and this is that of
Ierapetra and Sitia.
The ignorant Cretans attribute the prevalence of
this disease in their island in a great degree to im-
purity of habits; and hence their extreme disgust at it;
but the educated, perhaps more rightly, attribute it to
the great consumption of oil with their food: it being
the principal produce, and cheap, is in consequence
largely used by all, either pure or with the olives
which with salt fish, often rancid or of the worst sort,
and bad cheese, constitute the principal portion of
their diet. They regard it as a very contagious
disease; and the touch of a leper would paralyze
them with fear. Yet the case of the Turk ought to
remove their prejudice. But such prejudices are not
easily removed unless the educated and better condi-
tioned set an example to their less favoured brethren.
SCENES OF WRETCHEDNESS.
267
When I first visited this lepers' village, most of
the stronger portion of the population were absent.
As it was harvest-time, they were gleaning charity
from their native or neighbouring villages and friends;
and the remnant, that were left as being past such
efforts, were objects that sickened the heart as well
as the sight when we beheld their bloated coun-
tenances, covered with sores and blotches, and their
otherwise disfigured limbs, as they held aloft, to
implore for charity, their scaly and fingerless stumps
for what were once hands. The unexpected sight
of untainted strangers amongst them set all astir
who could stir, as it was rare for them to see any
but their own companions in affliction within their
village, since no native comforter ever comes to
them: few would enter it at any price. I was glad,
however, that I had induced one intelligent Iera-
petran to enter the village with me as an example
to the rest; but his moral courage almost gave
way when amongst them. For the voices of many
failed them as they desired to greet us or implore
our aid; and only a hoarse, unearthly sound pro-
ceeded from their throats-nay, apparently from
their very stomachs. Some of them could not walk,
but yet crawled forth from their hovels on the oc-
casion; so grateful to them was the sight and sense of
sympathy. What a sight of horror was that assem-
blage of lepers! it made the flesh to creep, although
268
WANT OF SYMPATHY.
the heart desired to be strong in comfort and en-
couragement.
What is the natural conclusion from this sight,
but that the Cretan community, exhihiting so little
regard for the care and cure of their outcast leper
brethren, have made extremely little advance in civi-
lization? This state of social feeling is as much (if
not more) a reproach to the whole community as to
the local government, in not providing some hospital
or some medical care for the purpose of dealing with
the disease on its first appearance, nor providing a
comfortable retreat for those who are beyond cure and
individual care. For one of the first indications of
healthy moral feeling in a community, together with
the security of private rights and the advance of
pros-
perity, is the provision made for the helpless poor; and
whilst leprosy is thus so prevalent in Crete, and so neg-
lected, one of the best signs of a hopeful social condi-
tion, and of fitness for self-government, is wanting.
The fine olive-grove growing on the undulating
plain which borders the coast in the vicinity of Gira-
petra is confined on the west by a ridge of rather
striking and picturesque appearance, from a number
of rugged knolls and detached rocks that bristle on
its otherwise smooth or gently swelling surface, and
which, from a distance, look like huge blocks and
fragments that a giant hand has hurled from the
pinnacled summit crowning the ridge.
CHAPEL OF THE HOLY CROSS.
269
Upon this summit, at more than 3000 feet above
the sea, there is a Greek chapel dedicated to the Holy
Cross (Hagios Stavros), which having been recently re-
stored and whitewashed, shines against the dark peaks
of the Lasethe range bounding the view above and
behind it, as a bright star resting upon the mount, and
as if intentionally placed by the Cretan Christians as
significant of the rising cross, thus elevated conspi-
cuously over the recently fallen minarets of the
towns.
But what an anomaly and inconsistency with the
true spirit of their faith is found in close proxi-
mity to this elevated building erected to adore the
symbol of Christianity! Upon this lofty hill the
Holy Standard is set on high, and the prayer of
the Cretan Christian thence ascends towards a loftier
throne; but a smaller hill is near it-in sight in fact
-crowned with a community of diseased, neglected
outcasts of humanity, whose voice, too, must often be
raised to the same throne, but in bitter suffering from
the neglect experienced by them in their helpless
condition. And does not that cry ascend also, good
Cretans? and shall it not be heard against you? Your
thoughts are turned hopefully to a coming struggle,
and your purse devoted to the accumulation of arms
and gunpowder, clandestinely bought under the dis-
guised name of "black rice," in anticipation of a
strife that, if begun, will again desolate your land with
270
THE LEPERS' ALLOWANCE.
fire and sword, blood and misery. Let that "rice"
damp and rot in its hiding-places, rather than be
used for the purpose for which it was supplied by
false friends, for their individual advantage, not yours.
Rather, if you elevate the cross, carry out its princi-
ples towards your own co-religionists, who, through
your neglect, are allowed to live in lingering misery
of mind and body as outcasts, purely from the want
of a lepers' hospital for their early cure or later
relief.
The Turkish Government, I have been informed, do
prevent them from starving, by allowing one oke of
bread per day to each leper; and thus, in the eyes of
most, a large part of its duty towards them is fulfilled-
that is, if they really do receive it. But the want of
care for their better tendance and cure, the want of
sympathy for the 800 or 1000 suspected or confirmed
lepers that are made outcasts from their villages and
families the moment the plague-spot is declared to be
upon them, is a reproach to the whole community of
Cretans.
When employed upon the surveys of the eastern
parts of Crete, previous to the Crimean war, several
who suspected themselves lepers came to the ship
for medical advice, amongst many others afflicted
with divers diseases who daily journeyed to her from
all districts, all of whom were most patiently and
charitably attended to by Dr. Smart, the surgeon, in
DRS. SMART AND WILLCOX.
271
the first instance, and afterwards by his successor,
Dr. Willcox, at the cost of much labour and time on
their part, extra to their duties; and it was gratifying
to all of us who could only sympathize, and not ad-
minister, to see the wants of the halt and sick so
humanely attended to-often after long journeys from
distant parts of the island to us in the hope of
some relief, and often after long suffering from neg-
lect or the injudicious treatment of ignorant itinerant
empirics.
Thus they came to us at all times and hours, and
we received them, Dr. Smart even establishing a
sort of hospital in an adjacent hut whilst we were
anchored in Grandes Bay for the shelter and conve-
nience the bay afforded us during the progress of the
survey of the eastern coast; and there he successfully
performed the amputation of an arm for an adult
female peasant living within the Sitia province-an
event that caused considerable sensation in the island.
I here, therefore, thankfully and with most pleasur-
able satisfaction record this devotion of time and
skill to so good, so charitable a cause on the part
of Dr. Smart and Dr. Willcox, the latter of whom,
having continued to serve under me during the
subsequent years, has enlarged my obligations by
continuing to give his skill and time in some other
places, where relief could not otherwise have been
obtained.
*
272 THE GOOD PHYSICIAN'S PLEASURES.
There is, perhaps, no act of charity so comforting
as that of giving relief to the sick in the way of
medical or surgical treatment; and the gratification
that must arise from every act of such devotion of
talent and skill is therefore to be envied. There can
be no higher pleasure than the recollection of such
acts; and in few places was there so large a field for
them as in Crete when we began our survey of it;
and as it can be enjoyed only by those who possess
that skill, their privilege is therefore great who possess
and in philanthropy and charity use it. The profes-
sional pride, too, which attaches to the possession of
a diploma will, no doubt, stimulate many to its exer-
cise whenever opportunity offers or helpless impor-
tunity solicits, and they know that they alone can do
what is required.
Dr. Smart's attention to the lepers that came to him
led to a closer study of their disease; and many there
were who, suspecting themselves possessing the foul
spot, with fear and trembling came and exhibited the
blotch or sore in secret, but returned to their homes
new creatures in mental feelings on receiving the as-
surance that their fears were groundless, that they
were clean. And it led to his writing an able and
interesting paper, which appeared in the Medical
Times,' upon this disease.
6
In 1853 my late friend Dr. Hjorth, a son of a Dane,
and the head of the Health Department in Crete, was
POSSIBILITY OF EXTIRPATING LEPROSY. 273
induced also to write a small pamphlet on the sanitary
condition of Crete. He there points out the hopeful
prospect of greatly reducing, if not entirely eradicating
as in other civilized countries, the malady which is so
prevalent in that country as to render outcast nearly
1000 of its inhabitants.
And he feelingly remarks, "Whoever walks out of
the gate of one of the large towns, especially if it
be on a Saturday, is distressed by the hideous sight
of many of these unhappy beings sitting by the road-
side imploring charity. It is impossible to behold
with indifference the condition of these unfortunate
people, or to meditate that as soon as they are branded
with the name of leper they are driven away from
parents, children, relatives, and friends, like crimi-
nals, deprived of the power of earning their liveli-
hood in an honest manner by labour, and reduced to
the degrading state of begging."
Dr. Hjorth suggests a hospital exclusively for the
lepers, and appeals to the Turkish government. But
if the inhabitants themselves do not feel and move
for their suffering brethren, what can be expected in
this way from the very authorities they themselves
oppose in other acts of improvement.
VOL. I.
T
274
CHAPTER XXIV.
DISCOVERY OF TWO SARCOPHAGI-THEIR PURCHASE AND REMOVAL
TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM—A GHOST STORY-DESCRIPTION OF
THE LARGER SARCOPHAGUS-THE SITUATION IN WHICH THE
SARCOPHAGI WERE FOUND, NOT IN SITU-CONJECTURES UPON
THEIR ORIGIN AND ORIGINAL SITES.
IT having come to my knowledge that two sculptured
sarcophagi had been recently found near the Theatre
at Ierapetra, the trustees of the British Museum, on
being informed of it by me, were induced to become
the purchasers of them from the Greek family in
whose property they were found. The purchase having
been effected, their removal was effected also by the
officers and crew of H.M.S. Medina,' during the latter
part of December 1860 and the beginning of January
1861, but with considerable labour and difficulty, in
consequence of the exposed position of the anchorage
of Ierapetra at that season, and the great weight and
the situation of the tombs.
6
As the largest of these tombs weighed nearly seven
tons, a very substantial pier had to be made upon
this open sandy coast before it could be embarked;
and as it had to be removed some distance, over
heavy ground or sand, to the most sheltered part
TWO SARCOPHAGI.
275
of the bay, the operation was both slow and tedious.
This duty, however, was performed with great zeal by
the shore party under the direction of Messrs. Wil-
kinson and Drew, and its shipment by Mr. Stokes,
master, aided by our chief boatswain's mate and per-
fect seaman John Douglas: and as the larger tomb
was an interesting as well as a fine specimen of art,
although much mutilated and cracked, great care was
taken to preserve it, as far as possible, from further
injury during its removal; and to prevent it being
injured wantonly or by local enemies (there being a
party there who were opposed to our removal of the
relic), Mr. Wilkinson thought it advisable to sleep in-
side the tomb until it had arrived within the walls of
the town: yet it did not wholly escape mischief; for
some wanton hand destroyed what remained of the
face of Hector.
The sarcophagus having thus been brought to
within a few yards of the land gate of Ierapetra,
upon the top of which a Turkish sentry nightly
walked his solitary watches, when from time to time
he called the hours, with his face towards his post and
therefore turned away from the town, his eyes looked
directly down upon these tombs of the dead, which,
after many centuries of repose, were now being trans-
ported from their hallowed resting-place by the rude
hand of strangers.
It was a subject for reflection to a meditative mind,
T 2
276
A GHOST STORY.
even though he were but a Turkish sentinel. The
midnight hour, too, favoured the mind's play in
phantom spectres and ghosts, more especially on that
night, as the moon's light was dimmed by heavy
clouds that hung over the adjacent mountains, and
there was lightning and thunder, and a storm of wind
now and then swept over the town. Whether our
sentinel was meditative, or whether he had pre-
viously any apprehension of the ghosts of the men
whose tombs were being so ruthlessly removed by the
hands of infidels, I cannot tell; but I can aver that
as he thus had his eyes upon the two marble sarco-
phagi, and had commenced his occasional call of
"All's well," to quiet the fears and alarms of the
slumbering natives within, those eyes were suddenly
fixed, as they beheld a tall figure, enshrined in a
windingsheet, and white as a spectre, suddenly rise
out of one of the tombs. The words of the affrighted
Turk stuck in his throat before they were half ut-
tered, as if grasped by a vice; and then, as if struck
by an unseen hand, he as suddenly dropped down from
his post behind the thick screen of walls and gates of
the city; and neither he nor any other sentry of that
guard ever ventured to mount to the summit of that
gateway again whilst the tombs were there, nor was
the gate opened by the serjeant of the guard until
broad daylight had appeared to ensure them from an-
other vision of the spectre, the ghost of the tomb.
SCULPTURE ON THE SARCOPHAGUS.
277
The account of that sight has no doubt since been
often repeated in the barrack by the serjeant and his
party on guard during that eventful night. Many
a tale of terror and legend, regarding ghosts and
spectres, has arisen from a circumstance or circum-
stances as explicable and simple, if explanation had
been sought for at the time; and that the ghost of
the hero who was buried in the tomb some twenty
centuries before had not appeared to the sentry on
that night it would probably be as hard to convince
them, or their many subsequent hearers at their dis-
tant homes, as to disabuse people of their belief in
the stories told of ghosts in some benighted parts of
our own land.
The larger tomb is very interesting, as containing
a representation of some of the more striking events
connected with the life of Achilles, the hero of the
siege of Troy. It was sculptured on all four sides;
but three only seem to have been finished. Hence it
appears to have been originally intended to stand
close to some temple or sacred way.
The style of art is undoubtedly very good; and
as we know so little of the early Cretan sculpture,
beyond its having been in high repute, and having had
an early school, whence came several good masters,
without going back to the father of Cretan and of
Greek sculpture, Dædalus himself, we may be justified
in supposing this to have been the work of one of its
278
SCULPTURE ON THE SARCOPHAGUS.
best masters, leaving it to the modern masters of the
art to determine the exact date, and to point out its
beauties and defects, when hereafter exposed to public
view at the British Museum. The fine grouping of
the figures of the front piece, as well as the figures on
the end faces, cannot fail to strike even an ordinary
eye, as also the exquisite finish of the deeply chiselled
eggwork above, and chaste interlaced or plaited mould-
ing which ornamented the lower part of this fine relic
(that resembles the carving upon the beautiful Ionic
temple of Minerva Polias, in the Acropolis at Athens),
and therefore to awaken deeper regret that the features
of all the figures upon it were irreparably mutilated
previously to its discovery.
The back field represents the triumph of Achilles
over the body of Hector, which he is dragging by the
heels behind his chariot before Troy. This, however,
is only a rough, unfinished representation, but gave the
key to the recognition of the other sculptured faces in
all their details.
The front of the sarcophagus has a representation
of the discovery of Achilles at the court of Lycomedes
of Scyros, the two prominent figures in the group
being Achilles and Deidamia, who are seated in chairs.
It is a finely executed group, containing, with heralds
and attendants, some dozen figures, as will be seen by
the view here given.
The two ends have more exclusive reference to

ACHILLES AT THE COURT OF LYCOMEDES. 279
280 SCULPTURE ON THE SARCOPHAGUS.
Achilles. One depicts him in his youth, under the
instruction of the wise centaur Chiron, who taught
him the gymnastic exercises and music, with his other
accomplishments; here, therefore, he is in the act of
going through some of his athletic attitudes; the other
represents him when in the zenith of his manhood and
power, but when under humiliation and grief at the
death of his friend Patroclus, to whom also he had lent
his armour,—a fit subject and circumstance to herald
his final triumph. Thetis, or Iris, then appears to
console him in his grief, and promises to provide him
with new armour to avenge the death of his friend,
some parts of which she seems to be here actually pre-
senting to him; whilst Hephaestus or Vulcan him-
self is behind her, in intent labour upon a new shield
for his future use and glory. Of this, from its better
state of preservation and its interesting character, I
give a sketch also..
The interest naturally attaching to this fine relic
awakens a desire to know whence it originally came,
and for whom it was intended, since it was evidently
not in situ where found at Ierapetra; and therefore
a record here of its exact position when found is per-
haps desirable, to prevent the rise and spread of false
conjectures upon it.
During some excavations made by one Kluveraki,
an independent Greek of Ierapetra, between the the-
atre and amphitheatre at the east end of the city,

ACHILLES, THETIS, AND VULCAN.
281
282
STATE AND POSITION IN WHICH
a sunken chamber was struck upon, about 11 feet
square, and from 6 to 8 feet below the soil. The
chamber was without vaulting or covering of masonry,
and was entirely filled with rubbish and earth, on
clearing away which the two marble sarcophagi were
found, as represented below, with their lids removed
and broken. But as poor Kluveraki soon after was
taken ill and died, and local superstition attributed
it to the supernatural spirit he had disturbed, the sar-
cophagi were neglected by the family, and would have
become in a few years worthless from mischief and
exposure.

a
€
2
f
a. Triumph of Achilles over Hector.
b. Lamentation of Achilles at the death of
Patrocles.
c. Instruction of Achilles by Chiron.
d. Achilles at the court of Lycomedes.
e. Old wall.
f. Composite capital.
1
d
e
Although both sarcophagi are in white Parian
marble, the smaller sarcophagus, No. 2, found with
it, is less ancient, and of very inferior art, representing
festoons and heads only: it was no doubt intended for
the wife of the individual who had then appropriated
the large sarcophagus for his own body, and had
evidently removed it into this sunken chamber from
some other, perhaps distant locality.
THE SARCOPHAGI WERE DISCOVERED.
283
The walls of the chamber were of small stones and
mortar, or pozzolana, from their solidity; and the
front wall (e) seemed, from its depth and durability, to
have been a part of the old town-wall that faced the
bay on this side.
The larger tomb also showed that it had been
broken into before its removal here, by a hole exist-
ing in its north face (c), which, from the position
of the small sarcophagus so close against it as we
found it to be (in fact, touching in some parts), could
not have been made after the two were placed in this
chamber. The flooring of the chamber was found to
be formed of thin, flat stones, indiscriminately mixed
with Roman tiles, showing likewise the late time at
which they were placed in this vault.
Moreover the tomb itself, from the better preserva-
tion of the lower part of it, and the worn condition of
the upper, shows that it originally stood for a long time
in some exposed position, and that this lower part must
have been preserved by the accumulation of the soil
around it to that height previously to its removal to
the chamber in which it was recently found.
Whence did it originally come? is probably the ques-
tion of the inquisitive student as he views this fine tomb,
or of the reader as he peruses these crude remarks
upon the interesting relic and beautiful work of art.
Heroes and monarchs alone were worthy of such a
tomb and monument, wherever it stood originally,
284
CONJECTURES ON THE ORIGIN AND
whether Hierapytna or elsewhere. But Hierapytna
was never a city of such celebrity as to possess either,
so far as we know of Cretan history.
To whom, of all the Cretans, was such a monument
so appropriate as to the hero king Idomeneus himself,
one of the suitors of Helen, and the companion of
Achilles in the great war, having led the eighty
Cretan ships which this then flourishing island sent
to that war? and he is said, too, to have returned in
safety to Crete, with his followers, and to have had
his tomb or monument at Gnossus, and also to have
been afterwards worshipped there as a god. Hero-
worship is still practised at the same locality, as I
have before shown in the Pasha's Tomb outside the
fortifications of Candia; and the Roman statue at the
Venetian fountain of St. Salvador, within the town
of Candia, is another instance of such worship, even
in the present time: it is curious that this statue
actually came from Ierapetra, as we learn from the
manuscript of Belli, to embellish the Venetian foun-
tain in which it is built. May we not, then, suppose
the converse to have taken place with respect to the
sarcophagus in question? namely that it came from
the old capital, Gnossus, at some very late period of
its decline, to become the tomb of a Hierapytnian of
the late Roman time (which it evidently was, from the
position in which it was found, and from the character
of the sunken chamber or walled sepulchre it was
ORIGINAL SITES OF THE SARCOPHAGI.
285
buried in)? And as a small composite capital was like-
wise found with it in this chamber, all the facts show
that it was deposited here at some late period.
I believe, moreover, that the smaller sarcophagus
had a previous owner and occupant elsewhere. May
it not, then, have been the very tomb or monument to
Idomeneus which some late authors have alluded to as
having existed at Gnossus, but which must have been
a restoration after the original had fallen to ruin,
and at a time when art and taste in Greece and Crete
were such as to render an illustration of the prominent
features of the siege of Troy the natural and appro-
priate embellishment upon it?
Now, the popular admiration of the Homeric poem
was perhaps at no time greater than in the century
subsequent to the great sculptor Phidias, when Alex-
ander gave popularity to the incidents recorded in it,
by his well-known admiration of the Homeric record,
and his own heroic deeds in the same land; and the
style of art, the finish of the detail of the sculpture,
and its ornament of egg-work and plaited moulding
seem to correspond best with the works of that time
rather than a later.
Although Crete was a school of the art from the
earliest period, and sent many masters of renown into
Greece, and although its sculpture has been highly
spoken of by ancient authors, no actual monument has
been mentioned as of especial note for its merit as a
286
GOODWILL OF THE POPULATION.
specimen of art, this tomb of Idomeneus being merely
noticed, by late authors only (Diodorus Siculus and
others), as having existed and been worshipped at
Gnossus; yet, having been so noticed, and as it was
dedicated to Crete's great Trojan hero, it must have
been a monument worthy of the man and of the art
that flourished within the island.
6
Some of the early coins of Crete undoubtedly show
very high art in design and taste, but fail in complete-
ness of form as medals, from this having been evi-
dently there considered secondary to the former; and
although illustrations of the Iliad' upon sarcophagi
became common in the later period of the Roman
empire, yet the style of art of this sarcophagus must
fix its date at a much earlier period, probably about
that of Alexander or not long after; and thus it
seems probable that this may have been the very
monument or tomb noticed by Diodorus at Gnossus
to its Trojan hero Idomeneus, since no other Cretan
was so worthy of so fine a work.
Although there were some in the town of Ierapetra
who were covertly opposing my efforts to secure these
relics for our national Museum, probably from having
been influenced in favour of some other nation, yet
the greater portion of the population, Greek as well
as Turk, were entirely in my favour, and took much
interest in the mode of removal of them from their
sunken chambers to the ship; and I was particu-
}
DISPLAY OF GOOD FEELING.
287
larly indebted to the father of our respected Vice-
Consul at Candia, Signor Colocherino, for his influence
on the occasion—a loyal Ionian who highly appreciated
the British protectorate, and took every opportunity
of showing that he did so; and even the old Cadi of
Ierapetra joined in the general anxiety for our suc-
cess; and as, from the season of the year, the opera-
tion was attended with many difficulties, he came to
help, and encourage the natives to assist us, during
the embarkation.
I must also relate a circumstance indicative of the
good feeling of the chief members of the Greek com-
munity of Ierapetra on another occasion, when the
ship was seen to be in some difficulty and danger. A
gale of wind having set in from the south-east before
I could embark men enough from the shore party to
weigh my anchor, having only a badly constructed
windlass, I was obliged to hastily slip my cable; but
in turning ahead, the floats of the starboard paddle-
wheel drew the bight of the buoy-rope into the wheel,
and rolled up a turn or two of the cable round it be-
fore we were made aware of the fact; and whilst we
were thus helplessly lying in the trough of the sea
with head paying off towards the shore during the
long minutes required to clear it, the good people of
Ierapetra happened to be coming out of church from
their morning's service (for it was a Sunday), and
saw that we were in some difficulty, apparently drift-
288
DISPLAY OF GOOD FEELING.
ing towards the surf. All instantly ran back to the
church to desire the priest to join with them in a
prayer for the safety of the captain and crew; but
before the prayer was concluded we had happily
freed ourselves from the chain-cable without any
damage, although the position was for a few minutes
very awkward, and the risk of losing one of our pad-
dle wheels seemed imminent, involving the danger of
having to ride out the gale too near the shore, with
only one paddle wheel to help us in case of need.
I relate this display of good feeling by our Ierapetra
friends with much gratification and grateful recollec-
tion.
289
CHAPTER XXV.
THE VILLAGE OF ANATOLI—VALLEY OF MYRTO-VILLAGE OF MALIA
WITHIN IT-TOURNEFORT'S “
SIMPLING JOURNEY TO IT-
ROUTE FROM GIRAPETRA TO ARVI-A GIANT'S TOMB-PASH-
LEY'S LEARNED DESCRIPTION OF THE CONFLICT OF OTOS AND
EPHIALTES, SONS OF A GIANT, AGAINST THE GOD ARES
PROTRUSION OF PORPHYRITIC TRAP-SITE OF THE TEMPLE OF
JUPITER ARBIUS-CLEFT MOUNTAIN OVER IT-THE PROBABLE
ORIGIN OF THE TEMPLE AT ITS BASE-GEOLOGICAL NOTICE OF
THE ADJACENT COAST DEPOSITS-KERATON ROCK AND BAY-
VAST NUMBER OF OLIVE-TREES ROUTE TO VIANO-VIANO THE
ANCIENT BIENNUS-ROUTE TOWARDS THE MESSARA-ROMAN
AQUEDUCT—A FIGHTING TURK-TCHIFOOT KASTELLI.
I RETURN now to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, noticed
in the last chapter, and proceed with my description
to the westward.
Below it, upon the south slope of the mountain,
is the village of Anatoli, nestled between two of the
knolls I have spoken of upon its surface, and sur-
rounded by well-wooded and fertile terraces and fields.
It was thought, from the information of some natives,
that here were some Hellenic ruins, and so, probably,
the site of an ancient city; but when examined by
Lieut. Mansell, they proved to be simply those of a
Genoese or Venetian tower, or pyrgo, made strong as
VOL. I.
U
290
MYRTO VALLEY.
a secure residence for the proprietor of the village or
governor of the district. Nor did the coins found
there by the villagers indicate anything earlier than
these times; but a small bronze figure of an athlete
was purchased from the priest of the village, and pro-
bably came originally from Hierapytna. It is no
doubt a representation of some good work in marble,
and is not unlike a torso that I presented to the Bri-
tish Museum, that came from that city.
The western face of the Anatoli ridge descends to
the deep valley of Myrto, which penetrates into the
heart of the Lasethe Mountains. The river Myrto,
flowing down it, is the boundary between the Eparkhia
of Sitia and Rhizo; and its waters turn two or three
mills, near the sea, where the Vasiliko Dromo or main
coast-road from Girapetra to Candia crosses it.
The Myrto valley has two or three villages in its
upper part, the largest of which is Malia, containing
upwards of two hundred families, and situated on the
slopes of a well-wooded and wild basin of abrupt hills.
A mountain-source, of some size and beauty, issues
from an aperture near the village of Kalomafka.
Tournefort spent three days in exploring this valley
on a botanical excursion from Girapetra, and, passing
Kalomafki and Anatoli, he came to Malia, and thence
on to the upper regions of the Lasethe. Thus "sim-
pling" along the border of the first snows, that then
rested (June 7th, 1700) upon the summit and sides
A GIANT'S TOMB.
291
of this mountain-a margin of snow which, according
to my observations, is at that time of the year about
6500 feet above the sea-he says that he there "met
with the ilex, oaks, maples (Acer Cretica) with leaves
slashed in three points." He says also, "Nothing is
more surprising than a sort of plane-tree (Prunus Cre-
ticus) with which all these rocks are embellished,
and which flourishes in proportion to the melting of
the snow its stems are not more than half a foot in
height; the branches are very bushy, and loaded with
flowers of a flesh-colour; it grows hardly bigger than
a white gooseberry.'
The celebrated botanist and traveller also makes it
appear that the wild olive-tree, which is found with
the above shrubs, is indigenous to these mountains, by
the following remark:-" If Hercules the Cretan had
been informed that these trees grew in Crete, he
would not have given himself the trouble of going
amongst the hyperboreans to bring them into Greece,"
quoting Pausanias for the statement.
The road from Girapetra to Arbi or Arvi has been
already described by Pashley, whose ground I am now
again beginning to tread upon; so that in my brief
description of the island as a sequel to his learned
work, I shall not prevent my reader from fully appre-
ciating the interest of the story with which his de-
scription of this route is garnished in a learned disser-
tation upon the traditional grave of a twice-forty-feet
U 2
292
LUXURIANCE OF THE MYRTLE.
giant (!) that was shown him near Sikologo, a village
situate four or five miles from the mouth of the Myrto
valley, and the classical learning connected with the
marvellous mythological tale of the contest between
the sons of the giant (Otos and Ephialtes) and
the god Ares; for the learned traveller supposes this
story to have had its origin at this locality, from the
present tradition regarding this giant's tomb-this
saranda pikes, or forty pikes of man; and he shows
that it was near the Cretan town of Biennus, whose
position he also determined by finding that the prin-
cipal village or town situated over this part of the
coast still bears the name of Biano or Viano. I refer,
therefore, to his erudite work, vol. i. pp. 279-283.
Pashley, however, has only partially touched upon
the features he met with in the way; so from the
mouth of the Myrto, and along the sea-coast, I will
take up the physical features there developed as an
additional subject of meditation for the reader whilst
he is wandering towards Arvi in imagination, or the
traveller as he passes along the road leading over the
rocky steeps and myrtled vales that intervene; for here
especially this beautiful shrub flourishes in profuse
luxuriance wherever there is water to counteract the
drought of the sunny southern aspect, mingled with the
oleander, arbute, mastic, and juniper, affording some-
times a refreshing shade, and at others sending forth
a delicious fragrance, as the traveller brushes through
PORPHYRITIC TRAP.
293
them and startles at the same time a homely black-
bird from the thicket, to recall, by its well-known
twit-twit-tweet when so disturbed, the land of his
home more vividly to his memory.
This part of the topography of the interior was
completed by my late coadjutor Lieut. (now Com-
mander) Mansell, during the progress of the exami-
nation of and soundings off the coast; but he was not
more fortunate than Mr. Pashley in the discovery of
any ancient city of importance between Girapetra and
Arvi.
The coast, after passing the valley of Myrto, is
marked by high white cliffs of tertiary marls and
gypsum, the strata of which are much displaced by a
mass of porphyritic trap that has risen through them,
and which has also much shattered or split the masses
of grey hippurite limestone that were also uplifted
by it, and upon the flanks of which the tertiary strata
reposed.
To the west of this disturbance is a small narrow
valley, and a plain that extends to the sea from the foot
of a steep and bare rock, that is singularly rent from
summit to base by a yawning fissure, nearly 1000 feet
high, and from the bottom of which issues a gurgling
stream that cascades from an upland plain close above
it; but its waters are absorbed by the thirsty little
plain through which it then descends to the coast at
Arvi, long before it reaches the sea.
懔
​294
TEMPLE OF JUPITER ARBIUS.
Near the mouth of this valley is a small modern
chapel, which seems to stand upon the site of an
ancient temple, from some relics that have been found
there; and there is some appearance of a small town
having also occupied the site. By the name it now
bears of Arvi, Pashley identified it as the site of the
temple of Jupiter Arbius, which name, according to
Cramer, was also applied to a mountain of Crete
(“Arbius, a mountain where Jupiter was worshipped
under that name," Cramer, vol. iii. p. 392). It was
here, as Pashley has shown, that the elaborately sculp-
tured sarcophagus presented by Admiral Sir P. Mal-
colm to the Cambridge Museum, and figured in the first
volume of Pashley's work, was found; it represents the
triumph of Dionysius: but as a work of art it is greatly
inferior to that from Hierapytna, now in the British
Museum, and descends, moreover, from a much later
period.
The annexed view of the valley of Arvi and the
cleft mountain above it, from near the site of the
temple, is striking as a picture, and the phenomenon
interesting, so proximate to the comparatively recent
volcanic outpouring before noticed, to which doubt-
less the remarkable rent in the mountain here shown
in part owes its origin, as well as two or three
smaller rents in its vicinity, each of which also gives
outlet to two or three streams from small upland
basins above, that, without these rents for the es-

CLEFT MOUNTAIN.
295
cape of their waters, would be lakes instead of fertile
plains.
CLEFT MOUNTAIN OF ARVI, THE ANCIENT ARBIUS.
In this remarkable feature, we probably see the
reason for the erection of a temple to the God of
Thunder at this locality, under the name of Jupiter
Arbius. To whom but the God of Thunder could a
temple be so appropriately dedicated when associated
with such an apparent fracture from some great vol-
canic movement, and so proximate also to a protrusion
of igneous matter, that showed its comparatively re-
cent origin by the disturbance of the strata it burst
through, and thus naturally connected it in the minds
-
296
FOSSIL SHELLS.
of its early people with earthquakes, and the terrors
of the thunderings and of the lightning's flash, occa-
sionally sent forth by Jupiter himself to indicate his
anger or his power.
I have frequently observed in the Levant that many
of the Greek mythological traditions which are asso-
ciated with Vulcan or Jupiter are remarkable for their
connexion with apparent volcanic phenomena, or with
rocks of volcanic origin, and thus display an early know-
ledge of the localities which have been in bygone times
the foci of great or small igneous movements or erup-
tions, as submarine or suboreal uprisings or outpour-
ings. I need only refer to Lemnos (fabled to be the
forge of Vulcan) and its entirely volcanic origin; and
here at Arvi is another instance. It follows then,
either that the early Greeks, whether Pelasgians or
others, were eye-witnesses of some of those eruptions,
so as to hand down the traditions, or that, in a
limited sense, they were geologists.
Pashley notices the great abundance of fossil shells
in the cliffs near Arvi. These I found to be chiefly
those of living Pectunculi, and to be in a remnant of
a very modern tertiary deposit-most probably post-
pliocene, as it is only about forty feet above the pre-
sent sea—which must have been about the depth in
fathoms it was deposited in.
At two miles west of Arvi there rises a remarkable
rock, called Keraton, which is surrounded by a middle-
?
ད
1
KERATON ROCK AND BAY.
297
age or Venetian fortress; but there is a tradition of
its having been an Hellenic site also, vestiges of which
are said to be found under the west side of the horn-
shaped rock when cultivating its terraced side there,
the ruins being now covered by the soil.
Dr. Cramer, in his most valuable work, suggests that
"Castel Keraton possibly represents the town of the
Ceraitæ, mentioned by Polybius as being allied with
Lyctus;" and although Pashley treats this with con-
tempt, I am strongly of the same opinion as the
learned Doctor. The singular horn-like form of this
peak, which is just 2000 feet above the sea, and only
about a mile from it, perhaps suggested the appella-
tion.
A fine open bay lies under the Keraton to the west,
and a plain covered with young olives, through which
flows a stream that descends from a small cliff or gorge
like that of Arvi, being the outlet of the waters issu-
ing from the enchanted little mountain retreat of
Viano, the most secluded and charming upland basin
in Crete, the name of which suggested its identity
with the ancient Biennos, both to Dr. Cramer and to
Pashley; and this seems confirmed by the position
given to it in the 'Stadiasmus,' in which it is placed
midway between Hierapytna and Lebena the southern
port of Gortyna, although not lying upon the coast.
6
I anchored in Keraton Bay in the Medina,' not
far from the mouth of the Anapodhari, the largest
298
THE ANAPOTHARI.
river in Crete, but which in the summer season is re-
duced to a mere rivulet, that meanders through a
wide pebbly bed and is finally lost in the sandy beach
at its outlet to the sea, very much like what the famed
Scamander of the Troad is at this same season; but
in winter, when the rains fall heavily upon the moun-
tains, it is swollen to a wide and impassable torrent,
and would then likewise justify all the apparently ex-
aggerated description given of the whirling currents
and deep pools of the Scamander by Homer. The
main road from Ierapetra to Candia crosses it, by a
bridge of three arches, at about five miles from the
sea; and from its mouth to the bridge there is no road
by the side of its course, as it traverses a narrow im-
passable rent or gorge for some distance, whence it
issues at about two miles from the sea.
Two miles west of the Anapothari (or Anapodhari),
is another mountain rivulet issuing through a rocky
gorge; but it has its rise in the mountains adjacent,
not more than five miles from its outlet: it is called
the Sudsuro, and has been confounded with the Ana-
pothari by Pashley and previous travellers through
being a stronger stream at its mouth than the latter,
and more spoken of by the natives in consequence.
I shall refer to it more fully after a trip to Viano and
to the valley of the Messara.
To get to Viano I was obliged to send there for
mules; for not an inhabitant but shepherds dwells
f
ROUTE TO VIANO.
299
within two or three miles of the sea along the whole
coast between the valley of Myrto and Kaloi Limenes
(vulgarly called Kalos Limiones), and not a boat is
to be found upon it either. The heat of the climate
of the south coast, and the greater insalubrity of its
valleys in consequence, has driven its scanty population
to the upland districts, one or two hours' distance
from the shore and its malarious plains.
Being provided with horses sent to me from Viano,
I started for it on a July day. The road began to
ascend, through a thicket of wild shrubs, from the
western point of Keraton Bay. These trees were
chiefly a species of stunted, bushy cypresses, mingled
with the karoub and wild olive. I ask my guide why
the latter are not cultivated; he answers, "We have
enough to attend to already," and states that in Kera-
ton Bay alone there are between 50,000 and 60,000
olive-trees.
Halfway up the hill we pass by a ruined metoki, with
a water-mill turned by a rapid rill which rushes down
the steep; here the olive-trees have been carefully
cleared of their companions, and brought into bear-
ing by pruning, grafting, and cultivation. The shade
of the grove was a grateful shelter from a July sun; the
myrtle, too, gave both freshness and fragrance to the
In an hour we reach a cleft in the mountain,
like that of Arvi, by which the rivulet from the Viano
plain escapes. As we near it, rock-pigeons dart up-
scene.
300
PLAIN OF KHADRA.
wards from the gorge in flocks. The same occurred
at the gorge of Arvi when we were there, where they
are so numerous that the natives, who are keen con-
noisseurs of pure water, refused to drink it near the
gorge, on account of the impurity their droppings are
supposed to impart to the rivulet, although the water
rushes so copiously and is as clear as crystal. What
would a Cretan say to a drop of the Thames?
We are accompanied in our ascent by a Greek pea-
sant of Khadra driving his three donkeys, each of
which is laden with sacks of chopped straw from his
halone (threshing-floor) near the mouth of the Ana-
pothari, to which he makes three trips a day in this
broiling sun; but as it is his winter provender for his
cattle, he cheerfully toils backwards and forwards with
his poor load, enlivening the journey with a nasal song
in the intervals between smoking his pipe.
The little upland plain of Khadra suddenly comes
into view upon reaching the col by which it is entered;
but no clear ground appears there, it being entirely
covered with olives. The village, too, is close on our
left, with others before us. At the col the road crosses
the stream, just above the gorge, which now is under
us; for its summit is just at the outlet of the Khadra
valley, from the edge of which the lively streamlet
leaps into the abyss-like cleft in the rock below, and
murmurs at its fall, sending up a misty spray from
the bottom.
PLAIN OF VIANO.
301
Skirting the village of Apostoliano, at the junction
of the two plains, we next enter the plain of Biano, or
Viano, nestled in an almost complete circle of moun-
tains. This plain is only in part covered with olive-
trees. Deep ditches drain its centre of the water that
would otherwise lodge there, and thus there are some
fields of corn where otherwise it would be a swamp.
Viano itself rises in part above the plain, on either
side of a rocky ravine and pointed ridge, under which
descends a labyrinth of little enclosures as gardens,
each of which is thickly overgrown with fruit-trees,
and they are rendered thus fertile by a considerable
rill that passes through the village.
I pitch my tent in one of them. The aga being ab-
sent, his secretary presses me to enter the Strangers'
House. (The reader already knows my reason for
avoiding all such hospitable overtures when it can be
done without offence, and when the weather will
admit of tenting in the open air.) The Demarkh also
assists to render my location agreeable, and I am pro-
mised by him better mules on the morrow for my trip
into the Messara.
Viano is the capital of the Eparkhia of Rhizo (or
Arkadia, as it was formerly called), a district that
extends between the Myrto and Anapothari rivers to
the edge of the hills which confine the Pediada.
was the association of the name of Arkadia with this
part which no doubt induced Pashley to place Arkadia
It
302
ANCIENT RUINS.
on the eastern flank of the Lasethe; and hence he
tries to make the ruins near Kritza, the undoubted
Olus, to agree with the distance of thirty miles, given
in the Peutinger Table, between Biennos and Arkadia,
by supposing it to have been measured as a crow's
flight across the lofty mountains which intervene—
a mode of measurement, I need hardly add, that cannot
be at all consistent when the only practicable route
is by a great circuit round the base of the mountains,
and far exceeds that distance, as he is obliged to
admit.
But as Pashley had not proved that Biennos was
really at Viano by any existing ancient vestiges, I
was very diligent to inquire for such, as I had heard
from Mansell that some existed upon the spur over
the Apano Viano; and soon after daylight I ascended
to the top of the hill, and, in the ascent, I passed by
the ruin of a goodly habitation of some wealthy
Venetian, with its four or five front windows of the
upper floor still remaining.
The top of the hill over the village, although
small, I found to contain some vestiges of ancient
terraces, as well as foundations of walls of an early
date, between Cyclopean and Hellenic, which, with
some tombs and cisterns also seen upon it, left no
doubt of the existence of the acropolis of a small town
earlier than the middle-age or Venetian period, and
that this must have been the Biennos (or Bienna) of
SITUATION OF THE VILLAGE.
303
the olden times; otherwise there might be a doubt as
to whether this ancient town was not more properly
identified at Castel Keraton, so proximate to it.
Viano contains about three hundred houses, nearly
equally divided between Mahomedans and Christians,
the latter having the majority; and it is a most de-
lightful mountain retreat for one desirous of escaping
from the busy scenes of the lower world or the insa-
lubrity of the lower plains, above which it is elevated
some 1800 feet, being nearly on a level with the crest
of Keraton castle and peak. At this elevation the
olive nevertheless flourishes here, although, in the
upland of the Sitia, at the same elevation it is not
seen. The reason evidently is, that, in addition to a
south aspect, the high peaks directly over it on the
north shelter it from the cold blasts from that
quarter.
The Demarkh of the village fulfils his promise: three
fine mules are ready for my further journey by the
time I return from the examination of the ruins above
the village; and he sends his son also to be my guide,
to the great disappointment of a young Turk whom
the Muduri's representative and secretary wished to
send with me instead.
Pashley descended to the Messara by the western
road from Viano, and crossed the Anapothari by the
three-arched bridge over it. I took one to the north-
west, leading over a gap in the mountains there; but
304
A ROMAN AQUEDUCT.
the shortest road to Candia is by another and higher
pass due north of Viano, which is more direct, and
leads through the villages of Empero and Nepedeto,
and from the latter across the Pediada plain. My route
descended direct into the deep valley of Martha, on
the other side of the mountains over Viano, by a
zigzag slippery road, which cuts into beds of loose
brown shales and schists, from which I could procure
no fossil to identify their age or origin.
From Martha, a poor village of ten houses, I cross
over gravel hills to Kasame, and thence descend into
an open valley, that leads down from the great Pediada
Plain, and has a few fruit-gardens by the side of a
stream flowing from it, belonging to the inhabitants
of Kasame.
As I approach Ene, a hamlet on the west side of
the river, I come in sight of some masses of ruins in
a hollow or small plain behind two or three eminences
on its east side.
These ruins I soon perceived to be the remains of an
aqueduct of the Roman time, having been arched and
built with horizontal courses of Roman brick or tile.
The aqueduct is also traceable on the hills approach-
ing, but on a level with the ground. The founda-
tions of some buildings of the same age, as well as
those of two or three churches, are seen near the
aqueduct, and upon the top of the hill close over the
river, to which the aqueduct led. Much pottery in
THE ANCIENT INATUS.
305
the soil, with fragments of building-materials scattered
here and there on the hills and plains behind, show
that here was situated a town of some importance in
the time of the Romans, if not earlier; but no circuit
of enclosing walls is anywhere indicated.
The name Ene Kephale, and the tradition that it was
the chief city of the district, identify it as Inatus.
The river passing under the Ene Kephale must
therefore be the Inatus, a river which is mentioned
in connexion with this city (and thus assists to con-
firm its identity) as being a distinct river from the
Pothereus (the modern Anapothari), having its source
in the Lasethe mountains, and thus in the territory
of the Lyctians; whilst the latter river (the Pothereus)
was said to flow between the territory of the Gorty-
nians and Gnossians.
The peasantry at Ene showed me only Roman coins
of the lower empire that are found in its soil; and as
it is not known to have struck coins of its own either in
late or in more ancient times as an independent repub-
lic, Inatus seems therefore to have arisen in importance
upon the decline of the earlier and neighbouring cities
Biennus and Priansus, which latter I identify at the
mouth of the Sudsuro, as I shall by-and-by show.
From Ene I proceed over low ridges of very fertile
but poorly cultivated land, through Makera, Badia, and
Pirate, to Aposoleme, where I arrive at sunset, and
pitch my tent, from the absence of a better spot, upon
VOL. I.
X
!
306
A DRINKING TURK.
the uneven surface of a corn-field near it. These are
all Turkish villages, as are nearly all that are situated
amongst the lesser hills which border the great plain
of Messara on the north,-Kalyvia, the nearest to the
Anapothari, being the only entirely Greek village;
and consequently my Greek guide, the son of the De-
markh of Viano, much wished me to encamp there,
as he had never been to any of the Turkish villages
before, and they are seldom visited by Greeks of other
districts.
As I entered Badia a burly Turk, with a Cretan
cast of features, came out of a mean-looking cottage
to welcome me; and when I asked for water, and drank
it, he in return asked me for rum, from the vulgar
impression generally prevalent in the East that this
spirit is the Englishman's nectar! and he looked, too,
as if the stronger beverages were more grateful to his
palate than pure water.
When I left the village, which my young Greek
guide seemed very glad of, he remarked that our friend
was one of the fighting Turks, and was always ready
for an affray with any Christian-a sort of Maho-
medan Manias, no doubt, although his appearance
rather indicated him to be of Cretan extraction
and therefore Christian descent: but some of this
description are represented as more bigoted and
ill-affected towards the present Christians than the
pure Turk; while many others now in Crete are
CIVILITY OF TURKISH PEASANTRY. 307
still Christians in private, although Mahomedans in
public through fear of declaring themselves whilst
located so exclusively amongst the followers of the
false Prophet.
The hills or ridges descending towards the Messara
from the north side vary from 200 to 600 feet in
height, and are intersected by steep-sided valleys in
most parts. Yet all are capable of great fertility, if
more populous; but a few olive-trees near each vil-
lage, a detached vegetable-garden, and some open
patches of corn-land are the amount of cultivation
they present at present.
The hills are chiefly composed of soft white and
grey tertiary marls, marly sands, and gravels, the
strata all inclining at a small angle to the south, and
thus towards the Messara, from the central backbone;
near to Pirate and Aposoleme I procured several
fossils. But here and there a mass of the secondary
limestone raises its head above the tertiary strata, as
an islet or rock in the sea.
The Turkish peasantry we met working in the fields
showed us the greatest civility everywhere. Twice we
had presents of cucumbers; others gave us honey in
the comb; and some, hard pears; so that my old in-
terpreter, Spero, and even the son of the Demarkh of
Viano remarked that they were not such bad people,
for Turks, after all: for the natural prejudice could
not be overcome entirely.
x 2
308
TCHIFOOT KASTELLI.
I passed through the half-dilapidated village of Ke-
phali, then towards Tchifoot Kastelli, across a wide,
desolate valley without any appearance of cultivation
or habitation within it, in which flows the most
western branch of the Anapothari; but although the
stream has a wide, gravelly bed, that indicates the
size to which it sometimes attains, it at this season
dwindles to the dimensions of a shallow meandering
brook hardly ankle-deep.
Crossing this, and ascending the western side of
the valley, we pass near a picturesque mass of rock
upon the top of the ridges, which, when seen near,
proved to be merely a weather-worn mass of conglo-
merate, but which at a distance had the appearance of
a ruined castle, insomuch that I for some time mis-
took it for that of Tchifoot Kastelli, which I was in
search of: but that old fortress did not appear until
we had crossed another ridge, and were close upon
it. Then the square-headed and almost insular rock
upon which its walls and towers bristle, suddenly rose
before us from the opposite side of a peaceful and
fertile glade, in which were a few fine valoneas and
fruit-trees growing near a spring that bubbled up
through the soil and irrigated in its course a few
vegetable-gardens.
A Turkish hamlet also stands near the bottom of
the ridge on this side of it; and as we are passing, one
of the Turkish inhabitants immediately comes forward
TCHIFOOT KASTELLI.
309
and offers to accompany us as our guide to the fortress,
presuming that to be the object of our visit. The
way winds round by its south face, ascending there
from the neck of a narrow ridge that connects it with
the higher summits to the southward; and we soon
enter this old castle, whose dilapidated walls and
towers bristle round the margin of an inclined pla-
teau of nearly a quarter of a mile in diameter, which
crowns the top of the rock, and enclose numerous
ruined habitations, both Turkish and of earlier times.
Two or three Turkish lepers were entering the castle
at the same time, in quest of charity. They had a
mule in common for the conveyance of the corn, olives,
cheese, or other articles that the benevolent gave
them; and in this way the poorest and least afflicted
make long journeys during the harvest season.
•
310
CHAPTER XXVI.
TCHIFOOT KASTELLI—THE SUPPOSED SITE OF ARKADIA--PASHLEY'S
ERRONEOUS VIEWS REGARDING ITS POSITION-PLINY'S DE-
SCRIPTION OF ITS FOUNTAINS—TCHIFOOT KASTELLI PROVES
TO BE ONLY A MIDDLE-AGE FORTRESS-PROBABLE ORIGIN OF
THE NAME -RETURN TO THE TENT-INFORMATION OF OTHER
RUINS-PROCEED TO THEM-IDENTIFY THEM AS ARKADIA-
THEIR DESCRIPTION.
THE ruins at Tchifoot Kastelli having been described
to me as very ancient, and reputed by the natives to
be Hellenic, I approached this old castle with consider-
able anxiety and interest, from the supposition that it
might be the hitherto undetermined site of Arkadia,
which, in opposition to the opinion of Pashley, I felt
must be in this neighbourhood, and not on the east
side of the Lasethe Mountains as he presumed and
believed it to be. He was no doubt led to form this
opinion partly by the fact that the name of Arkadia
was formerly and is often even now applied to the
eparkhia of Rhizo, extending to the south-east roots of
the Lasethe. Yet this eparkhia of Arkadia, or Rhizo,
also extends to near Tchifoot Kastelli, the river Ana-
pothari close under it being the boundary between it
and Monofatsi; so that the argument, after all, is just
THE SUPPOSED SITE OF ARKADIA.
311
as much in favour of the view that it was at or near
Tchifoot Kastelli as at the foot of the Lasethe, at the
other extreme of the eparkhia.
Arkadia was an early bishop's see of some note,
Cramer showing that, in the Acts of the Second
Council of Nicæa, mention is made of a Bishop of
Arkadia; and a rich monastery of this name existing
on the west side of Mount Ida, in the eparkhia of
Amari, had tended to confuse all writers on Crete
before Pashley, by leading them to suppose that the
monastery must represent the ancient Arkadia-since
its coins show the latter to have been a city of some
importance in ancient times, and its subsequent repute
as the see of an early Christian bishop might naturally
suggest its having a monastic association still.
Pashley, however, showed the error of this view
when, having arrived at the modern village of Arkadia,
four or five miles to the north of Tchifoot Kastelli,
near the Monastery of Saint George, he was led by
the name to refer to it as follows:-"Tournefort,
wandering still more incautiously than Dr. Cramer
from the positive topographic indications of the old
authors, no sooner arrives at the richest and most
beautiful convent in the island, at least fifty miles
west of Gnossus, than he takes it for all that remains
of the ancient city, of which, as it appears to him, it
had preserved the name. Sieber, too, thinks that,
without all doubt, the monastery occupies the site of
+
312
PASHLEY'S ERRONEOUS VIEW.
the ancient city. This supposition is too absurd to
need any refutation, and nothing but the far superior
scholarship of the learned author of the 'Description
of Ancient Greece' (Cramer) would induce me to
detain my reader with an examination of a point on
which his views are almost as untenable and un-
grounded as those of Tournefort and Sieber.
"It will be very easy to show that Arkadia must
have been somewhere in the modern eparkhia of
Mirabella, or on its confines in the direction of Rhizo
Kastro or Hierapetra. I have already mentioned the
evidence of the Peutinger Table. We know more-
over from Pliny that Arcadia was in a district abound-
ing in rivers and fountains-a description which cannot
be applied to the country near Arkadia, but is appli-
cable to many parts of the mountains about Lasethe,
and to the whole of Rhizo Kastro. Lastly, the diocese
of the Greek Bishop of Arkadia does not approach
this village of Arkadia, but contains the district of
Rhizo Kastro, and borders on the mountains of Lasethe
and Mirabello. More might be said about Arkadia ;
but while in this village we are on ground so far distant
from the probable site of that ancient city, that it
seems undesirable now to dwell any longer on the
question." (See Pashley's 'Crete,' vol. i. p. 231.)
The district had only been partially examined by
me when the Russian war interrupted the completion
of our surveys in Crete; and feeling sure that Pashley
PLINY'S DESCRIPTION.
313
was as much in error as the authors he has censured,
and that the Arkadia of Pliny and the seat of the
early bishopric must be in this neighbourhood, the
name of Arkadia being still applied to one of the vil-
lages of the locality seemed so much to confirm this
idea, that, as no other ruins had been discovered
during the progress of the survey, excepting the doubt-
ful Tchifoot Kastelli, I was induced to suppose that
the ancient city might have stood at Agio Thoma, in
the same neighbourhood, where there are some few
remains and rock inscriptions that indicate an Hellenic
site of some kind or another, although apparently not
a large one. But the notice of Arkadia by Pliny
(xxxi. 4) records a special characteristic of this city,
related of it by Theophrastus. He shows that it must
have stood in a strong position, that its neighbour-
hood abounded with rivulets, and that within the city
were springs which are said to have dried up (ceased
to flow) when it fell into the hands of the enemy,
but recovered their supply when the city was re-
taken.
Hence the springs I observed under the Tchifoot
Kastelli, of which there are several, one flowing into
an old reservoir on the side of the rock much above
the others, seemed at first to favour the placing of
Arkadia here; but my examination of the ruins that
crowned this rocky summit proved to me that not a
vestige that was Hellenic could be traced in any of
ៗ
314
A MIDDLE-AGE FORTRESS.
them—not a vestige that might be attributed even to
the Roman period; all was evidently of the middle
ages. Towers, walls, and ruins were all built of
small stones and mortar, some still two, some three
stories high, and others extensively vaulted beneath.
Over the dark apertures of the latter my guide (a
Turk of the district) delighted to pause and tell won-
derful tales of deeply hidden treasures that were
guarded by spirits, and of dungeons where the old
kings of the castle kept their faithless wives, &c.
I was forced to listen to them for a time, but was at
last obliged to tell him that it was nothing but an old
castle of the Franks, and not the Hellenic city I sup-
posed; for it was soon clear to my mind, from the cha-
racter of the fortress, that it was not even Venetian.
I therefore concluded that it must be the very for-
tress that was said to have been built somewhere in
the centre of the island by Boniface during his short
possession of Crete; and this idea was confirmed by
my recollecting that Tchifoot Kastelli is just within
the eparkhia of Monophatsi, and just without the
confines of Arkadia, and that the name of Mono-
phatsi was manifestly the modern Greek corruption
of Boniface, and that therefore the adjacent district
had received, and still retained, the former name of
this evidence of the Franco-Genoese possession of
Crete.
Disappointed, however, in the more interesting
ORIGIN OF THE NAME.
315
hope regarding its having been Arkadia, I could not
help sitting down on the higher crest of the rock
to admire the commanding view it gives over the
several ravines and valleys that surround it. The view,
although a pleasing one, was not very extensive, as
north, west, and south higher ridges rose above it, at
no greater distance than from three to four miles,
while Ida overtopped them in the distance.
The day was hot, so I was glad to rest upon so airy
on eminence; for it was a July sun that shone upon
the scene, and had turned all vegetation brown,
except some patches of heather and shrub upon the
higher hills, and some flowering oleanders which
meandered down every ravine that channelled them,
indicating that there was moisture beneath.
The name of Tchifoot Kastelli, or Jew Castle, is one
which I have found here and there scattered over the
East, applied to some isolated and strongly fortified
fortress of the middle ages; but the origin of this
name always puzzled me, since the fortresses evi-
dently could not have belonged to any of this out-
cast and persecuted community as a possession at
any time; yet the Jew's Castle is a name which
several middle-age fortresses have received, in the
Greek as well as in the Turkish parts in the East,
under the names of Ovreo Kastro, or Tchifoot Kas-
telli, the probable origin of which (possibly the real
one) struck me whilst contemplating the castle from
316
RETURN TO THE TENT.
the top of the rock,-viz. the finding amongst the
ruins at some time a hoarded stock of gold or ancient
coins, the gathering of some old miser who resided
within it; for the association of a Jew with hoarded
money was natural in times when they were perse-
cuted more for their possession of it than their per-
suasion or religion. The traditional tales of the
Turkish guide regarding buried moneys, and guard-
ing spirits, suggested this idea to me here; and I am
induced to offer it as a clue to a better.
As none of the Turks who were with me at the top
of Tchifoot Kastelli could, or rather would, inform
me of any other ancient site in the neighbourhood, I
gladly returned to the shade of the large trees in the
glade beneath the castellated rock. I was hungry, too,
after my early journey and labour, and wanted some
dinner; but neither bread, eggs, nor fowls could I buy:
sour milk and boiled new wheat they said we could
have in plenty, but nothing more. I wondered at
this apparent incivility, but was at length told that,
amongst the fifteen families that lived there, only
four or five had any poultry left, "as they were all
eaten by the Greeks" who assembled in the neigh-
bourhood in the previous year, when the Turks were
obliged to retire to their fortresses. An old cock
was at last obtained at a war price; and it was soon
in the pot, with some rice, for a stew, under the
skilful cooking of Spero, a trusty old servant from
INFORMATION OF ANOTHER SITE.
317
Smyrna, and interpreter to this survey for nearly
twenty years.
The cooking was an attraction to some of the Turks
of the village, who were now resting during the mid-
day sun from their labours at the threshing-floors; or
they may have come only for the love of a gossip with
the stranger. The subject of old ruins was naturally
referred to by me again; and at length one of the
Turks pointed to the high mountain visible on the
opposite side of the wide valley separating Tchifoot
Kastelli from the northern ranges, and said that there
was another palaio kastron at the top of two high
crags there. Glad thus to have a hope revived, I
immediately looked with my glass, but could see
nothing to verify it. The face of the mountain under
the two crags, however, showed indications of being
apparently more than naturally terraced; and upon
each of the terraces had evidently been some patches
of corn. A ruin of some building was likewise visible
halfway down, which he said was that of an old monas-
tery. Others present, however, denied its being the
site of an old city, stating that the top was only a
mandri, or place with walls for keeping sheep; and
the evident desire of the most influential of the party
was now to divert me from giving attention to it and
going there; so that I could gain no more informa-
tion from them then. One of the party, however, an
older man than the rest, and both sick and poor, lin-
318 START IN SEARCH OF ARKADIA.
gered about the shade of the tree after the rest had
left, and after a while he voluntarily told Spero that
there really was an old city there, and a very large one,
which was also built with large stones, and added
that it was the kephale (or chief city) of the district,
where a king once lived, who married the daughter
of the prince of Tchifoot Kastelli after he had con-
quered it. Such was the statement of the old Turk
as to the local traditions connected with the spot,
who, being now alone, did not fear to tell me of it;
for he was poor, and evidently wanted a nourishing
meal. I looked again in consequence of this informa-
tion, but still saw no walls of a palaio kastron of any
kind such as he insisted did exist there, the name of
which he said was Axe Kephala.
But, thinking the information reliable, I resolved to
proceed there, to settle the point, as it was desirable
to discover the true site of Arkadia, which was still
doubtful through my failing to identify it here as I
had expected. As the poor old man still remained,
he gladly shared with Spero a portion of the savoury
stew in return for the information. Unfortunately
a small piece of salt pork had been put into the
stew to flavour it; but, as the poor man was not
cognizant of it, I hope it neither troubled his con-
science nor the digestion of a comforting meal. Per-
haps, too, he had some lingering sentiments of Chris-
tianity from his ancestors, and therefore his sense of
HALT AT MELIDOKHORI.
319
guilt, if he had any subsequently, about Spero's sus-
picious stew, would be extenuated, we must hope, by
the greatness of the temptation of an empty stomach
and craving appetite.
We descended by the ravine from the village down
to the bed of the Anapothari, and crossed it above the
Turkish village of Sore, situated on a small eminence
on the other side. Some Turks were busy around a
threshing-floor on its outskirts, and we went to them
to inquire respecting the truth of the existence of an
old city on the high crags over them; and I was
pleased to find they unhesitatingly confirmed it, ad-
vising us to go to Melidokhori, a village on the
north-east face of the hill, and ascend to it thence. I
took their advice, and reached Melidokhori in a little
more than two hours after leaving Tchifoot Kastelli;
for I halted on the way, to take a hasty sketch of the
picturesque appearance of the latter as it rose like a
pillar behind us when descending under its north
face.
At Melidokhori, a miserable Turkish village of about
ten families, near the foot of the hill, I accordingly
halted to pitch my tent, and then accosted an old
man, who was idly leaning on his staff near the ruins
of an early Greek chapel, to ask for some one to ac-
company me as my guide to the old castle above.
To my surprise, he willingly undertook it himself for
the sum I offered, and immediately took a firm grasp
44
320 ASCENT TO THE SITE OF ARKADIA.
of his staff and tramped off before me.
His wife,
however, had overheard the conversation, and called
aloud to prevent him, insisting that it was too far for
him; so I pressed him to take Spero's mule, which he
consented to do, but reluctantly, appearing slightly
offended at being thought to require it; for he was
still active, although bowed and wrinkled by the sor-
rows of a long life in troubled times.
We proceeded together up the north face of the
mountain, without following any path, as it was
neither too steep nor very rough, nor embarrassed by
cultivation; some wild pear-trees, oaks, and valoneas,
however, which showed the influence of the northern
breezes upon the vegetation by their stunted character,
grew here and there on this bleaker aspect of the
mountain. Some masses of rock also peeped out oc-
casionally above the surface soil, under one of which,
not far from the top, was a small spring. One of the
Arkadian fountains noticed by Pliny! was my natural
exclamation and exciting hope, on seeing it.
In half an hour we had reached the saddle between
the two high crags of limestone that stand upon the
mountain-brow, and at once the fact was clear that it
was indeed, in all probability, an Arkadian fountain we
had passed; for there were portions of the old walls of
a city before us, that could be no other than Arkadia—
a fine piece of Hellenic wall, flanked with square
towers, but facing the north, although extending
THE ANCIENT ARKADIA FOUND
321
from one crag to the other on the crest of the col or
gap between them. It was evident, then, that we were
still outside the city, and that the south face of the
mountain, where I had seen the many terraces, was
its true position; yet here were some few vestiges of
scattered terraces and buildings, and pottery also,
fully establishing that so fine a Greek city and site
must be the long-missed Arkadia—which was actually
in view of Pashley when he halted at the village
that still retains its name, not three miles from the
ruins of which he was in search. It is therefore
strange that the Greeks of the neighbouring Mo-
nastery of St. George had no tradition respecting the
true position of a city that was the seat of a very
early bishopric, and is still a bishopric at the present
time. Revolutions, however, such as have from time
to time occurred in Crete among people of diverse
religious sentiments are destructive of traditions as
well as records; for if retained for a time, they can
only be whispered, and so become lost or so perverted
as finally not to be recognized-like the story told by
the old Turk, regarding its being the castle of the
king who married the daughter of the prince whom
he conquered. Whether this had any connexion
with the conquests and loves of old Boniface, I must
leave the reader to settle as he pleases.
This Cretan city of Arkadia was evidently of note
in very early times, and even disputed with Mount
VOL. I.
Y
•
ปี
h
322
DESCRIPTION OF THE SITUATION
Ida the honour of being the birthplace of Zeus, as
shown by the poet Callimachus, quoted by Dapper.
Hence the reason of its early and only known coin
having the head of Jupiter upon it; and as Arkadia
was also an episcopal see of the third rank at an early
Christian period, it combines an early mythological
with a Christian interest.
This Arkadia, then, without doubt, was the kephale
polis or chief city of the district, as my old guide
also called it. He now first took me round to the
west side of the western crag that overlooks it, and
where it can be best ascended, whence I soon en-
tered within a small acropolis that enclosed its limited
summit, the walls of which are of an irregular but
somewhat quadrangular shape, following that of the
hill, and of a rude style, although not very massive;
but at the south-east angle there was a fine specimen
of a massive Cyclopean tower or angle of the fortress,
to indicate its early date. Within the acropolis is a
fallen ruin of later time, probably a church or monas-
tery, with a large cistern connected with it; but the
old Turk, pointing to it, said it was the mint or trea-
sury of the king.
Leaving him to search over it and to follow with
the mules, I scrambled down over the east face of the
hill, and reached the wall extending across the gap
between the crags; but I did not ascend to the
eastern crag, as it appeared to have nothing on its
7
AND THE RUINS.
323
summit but the wall itself, and was smaller than
the western crag. This wall, connecting the two
crags, is built of quadrangular blocks in regular
courses, and with square towers at intervals, but pro-
jecting to defend the approach to it from the north,
the two peaks or crags also outflanking the whole.
I then descended over the southern face of the hill,
from the col between the crags, and immediately
came upon innumerable artificial terraces and fallen
buildings of the early style, like those of Olus in the
Mirabella-some large, with their compartments trace-
able, but all nearly level with the ground, and the
chief portion lying in a natural theatre-like hollow
between two swelling slopes that descend southwards
from the two crags; but a spur of rock, or cliff, from
the western crag juts out considerably on that side of
the hollow, so as to overhang much of the upper part
of the city, and also to overlook a deep ravine to the
westward of it. The face of this swell or ridge,
descending from the western rock, is so steep that few
vestiges of buildings have remained upon it. But
the swell seems to have been the western boundary
of the city, although no traces of walls exist there;
for the city must have been enclosed by walls that
descended upon the crest of this ridge, as it was
upon the ridge from the eastern crag, where the wall
is in several parts to be traced. There must also
have been a southern boundary-wall low down the
Y 2
324
THE SPRINGS.
hill, as well as the northern one on the col between
the crags; but, having been built upon softer ground,
it must have fallen down, and either been swept into
the valley below, from the steepness of the hill there,
or buried in the soil and fragments accumulated from
above, for the hill-face and lower terraces are covered
with the débris of the city walls and habitations.
In passing under the cliffy spur projecting from the
western acropolis or crag, I came to a cleft in the
rock, on its west side, with a small spring issuing
from it, and with artificial basins and conduits in front
of it, that are evidently as old as the city.
Here, then, was a spring that, although not within
the city, was so completely under the command of the
acropolis and its overhanging cliffs, that a few stones
hurled from their summit could easily defend its
approach. Thus the Arkadian damsels could resort
to it for their necessary supply of water until the city
itself fell into the hands of the enemy; and whenever
this calamity befell them, the early authors relate that
the springs dried up, and only returned when the city
was retaken from the enemy.
Lower down the mount, also, but within the bounds
of the city, there is another spring more copious than
the former, which, although forming a small marshy
puddle before it, trickles for a small distance, and is
then altogether absorbed by the soil; but its track
can yet be traced in its descent by the grass and

THE MONASTERY.
325
rushes that grow over it. These two springs, there-
fore, render the evidence of the identity of the city
more complete; for doubtless they were the magic
fountains referred to by Pliny and others.
The ruins of the monastery I had not time to visit,
or, indeed, to examine the entire city in so minute a
manner as would alone satify an archæologist of
keener research; for the evening shades overtook me
whilst still on the mountain, and I had therefore to
hasten my return to my tent. In doing so, my old
guide showed me some tombs on the eastern side of
the city, that had not long since been found. They
were merely simple graves, formed of rough slabs of
stone in some cases, and of large tiles in others, judg-
ing from the fragments seen on the surface near.
AXEE KEFALA
the Ancient
ARKADIA
Acropolis
Hellenic Wall
Spring
R&Monaster
piring
Spring
Cables
Scale Mile.
།
3
326
SITE OF ARKADIA.
The site of Arkadia was truly a fine one in every
respect; for it was a strong position, had a southern
aspect, and overlooked a great portion of its territory,
and moreover was sufficiently supplied with water.
The foregoing sketch of its ground-plan will best con-
vey an idea of its situation and extent, and perhaps
render my long and rather detailed account more
intelligible.
327
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE MESSARA PLAIN-ITS TWO RIVERS-PROCEED TO PANAGIA-
MUSSULMAN HOSPITALITY -THE EFFECTS OF THE GREEK
MOVEMENT AGAINST THE TURKS DURING THE PAST YEAR-
DISAPPOINTING VISIT TO REPORTED RUINS OVER PANAGIA-
SEARCH FOR THE HOMERIC RHYTION-DISCOVER RUINS AT
ROTAS-IDENTIFY THE SITE AS RHYTION-KASTELLI THE AN-
CIENT STELE-SUDSURO THE ANCIENT PRIANSUS-ITS SITUA-
TION-SUDSURO BAY—ROCK CHAPEL.
HAVING thus satisfactorily determined the site of
Arkadia, I now return by the southern margin of the
valley of the Messara to the mouth of the Anapo-
thari in search of the Homeric cities of Rhytion,
Stelæ, and Priansus, which were cities in this neigh-
bourhood that remained as yet undetermined. The
Messara valley is confined on the south by a long
range of mountains rising abruptly from the coast, over
which, at about the centre of the range, is its highest
summit, at 5700 feet above the sea, and called Kophino.
The Kophino Peak is a remarkable feature from all
sides, more particularly from the sea, rearing itself
like a square hump, and consequently makes a good
landmark for knowing this part of the coast when
approaching from the southward.
328
THE TWO RIVERS.
The Messara plain is but thinly cultivated at present,
as, although numerous villages are scattered along
its margin, they are but half populated and in partial
ruin. The plain is not a dead level, and therefore not
alluvial, but rises gradually from the two extremes
to its centre, between the two opposite villages of
Sternes and Asimi, where it is about 600 or 700 feet
above the sea; but the rise is so gradual on either
side, that the height is not perceptible even when
looking along or across the plain. In this respect its
incline is like the deceptive steppes of Russia, often
considerable, although appearing flat.
The waters from the mountains and ravines on
either side, therefore, flow east and west from this
point, and, uniting, form two considerable main tor-
rents, which cut deeply into the substrata of gravel
and sands of the plain, and form small rivulets within
them.
The western is called the Metropoli Potamos, and
is by some supposed to be the ancient Lethæus that
flowed past Gortyna, although that rivulet seems to
have been only the tributary that divided the city of
Gortyna. That running to the east is the Anapothari
(or ancient Pothereus), and swells to a considerable
river during winter, being capable, it is said, of then
bearing large trees to the sea. These two rivers insu-
late the Kophino range. Desiring to get a command-
ing view over this fine open valley, I proceeded to
MUSSULMAN HOSPITALITY.
329
the village of Panagia, on the south side of it, and
near the most elevated part. This village, although
named after the Holy Virgin, I found to be entirely
Mahomedan, consisting of about fifteen families. At
the pressing invitation of an old Turk, who found me
pitching my tent near the entrance to it, I removed
to his house, which was new, with an upper room
made purposely for the use of strangers,-being in-
duced to do so by the promise which its cleanly ap-
pearance gave me of probable freedom from my usual
night enemies, the B's and F's.
Every Turkish village in Crete, as elsewhere, is
supposed to possess a strangers' room; and as it is a
mark of distinction to have the privilege of lodging
a stranger, in addition to the act being considered
by every good Mussulman a duty, the owner of the
strangers' house is generally the most wealthy or most
charitable Mussulman of the village. My tent was
therefore dispensed with for this clean and newly
floored house, rather than offend the good-natured
proprietor who pressed my acceptance of it. The old
man and his wife occupied a sort of dungeon below;
whilst his son stretched himself at full length upon the
roof, in the enjoyment of the cool and pure atmo-
sphere of the locality.
The family supper being got ready at dusk, it was
given for our use first, viz. a bowl of boiled vege-
tables and oil. Not a fowl or an egg could be got;
330
EFFECTS OF THE RECENT RISING.
Yet
for all the former, as at Tchifoot Kasteli, had been
eaten up by the Greeks from Sfakia and the adjacent
villages during the demonstration of the last year,
when the Turkish peasants of the district were every-
where driven into the fortresses. I was thus obliged
to be content with this simple fare, improved by my
own good tea. One poor Turk of the village deeply
lamented the loss of his seventeen turkeys, and our
host the loss of all his copper kettles and household
utensils, in addition to his poultry and crop.
there was no expression of revenge against the depre-
dators who had so impoverished them; for the Cretan
Mussulman peasant is generally a humiliated being
at the present day, as he feels the weakness of his
government, and lives in constant fear of a revolution
and of an exterminating religious war in connexion
with it. That their day of domination and oppression
is gone they know; and the Greeks do not now fear
openly to tell them so, and with impunity, as I have
heard. But the lowland Cretans generally, both Ma-
hommedans and Christians, desire now to live in peace
and harmony, having too often experienced that it is
they who have first to bear the brunt of any struggle,
and suffer most, as both patriot and foe fall at once
upon their defenceless lands and villages, until ex-
hausted. Therefore, under such apprehensions and
alarms as have occurred recently, very few are dis-
posed to extend their cultivation and improve their
EFFECTS OF THE GREEK REVOLUTION.
331
lands beyond what is absolutely necessary for sub-
sistence.
In no part of Crete have the effects of the last revo-
lution (although now nearly forty years ago) been less
recovered from than in the Messara valley. Every
village is in partial ruin still; some, indeed, have half
their houses in the condition in which that revolution
left them. The blackened walls and roofless hovels
show still the brand of war; and ruined churches
tell, too, of a religious as well as a domestic strife,
with its horrors of violence and revengeful barbarity.
Those who remember the oppressed condition of the
Greeks of past times, however, cannot but in some
degree excuse their present hatred against their old
Ottoman oppressors; for every family has traditions
of wrong and suffering, if the members now living
have not actually experienced it.
Early the next morning I ascended to some ruins
reported to be ancient, half an hour up the mountains
adjacent; but they proved to be only those of a moun-
tain-farm and a church; and immediately upon my
return to the village, I proceeded to the eastward,
along the skirt of the plain.
The next village of Sternes is Greek, and here my
hopes were somewhat raised both by the name (mean-
ing cisterns) and by reports; but it seems to have
derived the name merely from the remains of an old
cistern within a vineyard. As Pashley and both
332
A DISAPPOINTMENT.
Lieuts. Mansell and Wilkinson had passed along this
side of the plain without finding any ancient site, I
now almost despaired of doing so, as I could hear of
none except that of Korakas (or Khorakas), which
they had both determined to be only that of a mo-
nastery; it is, however, a picturesque and complicated
old ruin, crowning the top and sides of an isolated
conical rock that rises on the edge of the plain, near
the modern village of the same name, which I reached
about an hour from Panagia.
The neighbourhood is fertile, and the spot more
striking and pleasing than any other on this border
of the plain; nothing, however, indicated its being
the site of any such old Homeric city as Rhytion,
for which I was in diligent search, as I felt that this
end of the great valley must have had its city, as
well as the western part its Gortyna and Phæstus,
besides some minor places, and that Rhytion was un-
doubtedly somewhere near this part, if not actually
within it.
I had expected much from Agia Photia, near
Sternes, from the description given of it at the latter
place by a communicative Greek I met on the road,
that it was full of old ruins; its position, too—at the
centre of the great valley, and at the head of the
two rivers that flowed east and west through it—was
promising. I certainly found ruins there, but only
those of an old Venetian house and of modern Greek
SEARCH FOR RHYTION.
333
houses; for, of these, six or eight only, out of nearly
forty that originally belonged to it, were now inha-
bited. It was, indeed, full of ruins, which were still
black by fire, and the people apparently the poorest
of the poor; the brand of the last great social war
was its characteristic still.
After passing round the foot of the hills under
Korakas, which here make a sort of bend, we descried
another bay, at the opposite point of which I imme-
diately observed a small hill, with a ruined church or
tower upon it, just over the village of Rotas, which
was also visible. My eye was immediately directed
to this ruin and to the rocky eminence upon which it
was; and as we neared, there appeared terraces on
the side of it facing the plain. The hill was naturally
rugged and bare, and no walls appeared to rise upon
the slope in connexion with the terraces; but on
coming still nearer, by the aid of my telescope I saw
that the terraces were artificial, and apparently Cyclo-
pean. Leaving my mules to proceed towards, and wait
for me near, the village situated at the other end of the
hill, I ascended its western base on reaching it, and
immediately came upon the remains of massive walls
that had extended up its narrow brow, and which, it
was apparent, originally enclosed a rather large and
very ancient Hellenic city. The hill proved to be
almost insulated, being only joined to the main ridges
by a very narrow and low neck at its south-east end.
334
ANCIENT RUINS AT ROTAS.
It is nearly a mile long, and about 400 feet high
above the plain, being also very steep on its south
side, but less so on its north face, yet still so steep as
to have required massive terraces for the support of
the streets or houses of the old city; and some of these
are evidently of the earliest time, although not in the
most massive Cyclopean style, and they are still from
three to eight feet high. Over the village are three
churches of the middle-age period. One of them has
been enlarged, and seems, from the foundations ex-
tending from it, to have been a monastery also.
The smallest of the three churches stands near the
summit. It has a Gothic entrance, and may be (as
the natives said) of the Genoese period; for, as no
Roman remains were seen-not a single vestige any-
where, the place seems to have been deserted from
before the Roman period until the time of the middle
ages, or that of Boniface, when the churches were
probably erected, and a town again rose upon the
site.
This, then, must have been the Homeric Rhytion
which is named as proximate to Gortyna, and which
I was in search of. Pashley conjectured that it was
in this neighbourhood, and must have passed close
under its wall when he crossed the valley. And some
may imagine the name of Rotas, now preserved in the
village, to be a relic of its more ancient name Rhytion,
and to be a confirmation of the identity.
MOSQUITOS AND FEVER.
335
But there are other evidences, besides the character
of the ruins and the name, to support it. For Rhytion
is said to have been once deserted by its inhabitants
on account of a species of fly that infested it; and I
find that a part of the plain in front of Rotas is now
rank and marshy-in fact, the only part of the
Messara that is so; and the few Turks who inhabit
the village say that they cannot sleep outside of their
houses as at other villages, in consequence of the
swarms of mosquitos that rise from the plain, which
probably were the fly that anciently infested it; they
are also much subject to fever, and many of the inha-
bitants have left in consequence: it is therefore
apparent that both the fever and the fly have always
been the local pests. One house, however, was being
repaired for a newly married couple when I arrived
in the village; and as I descended the hill alone, and
had explored it alone, the natives working upon its
roof were taken by surprise to see me thus suddenly
appear amongst them from the ruins above; for I
was the first Frank that had been to them, they said,
evidently jealous and annoyed at my having done so;
and under the influence of a half-blind and infirm
old Turk, who came out of his hovel on hearing that
a stranger had explored the ruins, they were induced
to be positively uncivil, and would give me no infor-
mation. It was a display of the old feeling; and
this accounts in some degree for Arkadia and Rhytion
336
KASTELLIANAH, THE
having so long remained concealed from the Christian
traveller. But the Venetians were equally unac-
quainted with both sites.
Not an individual that I inquired of previously
gave me the least indication of finding an ancient site
at Rotas. Pashley, although unsuccessful himself,
was also so satisfied that Rhytion was somewhere in
this part of the Messara, from the authors who men-
tion it, besides Homer and Strabo (the latter of whom
says it belonged to the Gortynians), that he was, singu-
larly enough, induced to make the following remark
regarding the village of Rotas-" But I can hardly
suppose that this modern village of Rotas affords an
indication of the situation of the ancient Rhytion,'
thus misleading himself from its actual situation.
coast.
""
The most remarkable feature in this part of the
Messara is the high insulated hill of Kastelli (or
Kastellianah) at its eastern extremity, round the base
of which the Anapothari winds on its way to the south
It is a very commanding table-topped hill,
rising to the height of 700 or 800 feet above the plain,
and steep all round, except on the south, where it is
easily ascended by the narrow neck or col that con-
nects it with the Kophino range; but it is not a mass
of limestone, like the long-backed hill of Rotas, but
composed of soft tertiary sands and gravels, excepting
its cap, which is a hard calcareous layer of the same
period, and forms an inclined crust or plateau upon
ANCIENT STELE.
337
its summit. The remains now upon it are those only
of a middle-age town or fortress commanding this
extreme of the Messara, of which it appears to have
been the main stronghold at that time as well as
under the Venetians, who called it the Castel Belve-
dere.
It has the remains of five churches, some cisterns,
and a spring upon the plateau crowning it, but nothing
approaching Hellenic, although it doubtless must have
been an ancient site, from the advantages of its posi-
tion and strength, whence Pashley, without examina-
tion, considered it to have been Inatos; but that city,
particularly in respect to its distance from Gortyna
and Lebena given in the Peutinger Table, is better
identified at Ene, a village and ruins a few miles
north, and which I have before described.
Pashley also quotes Stephanus of Byzantium for a
town called Stela, which he shows is near to or
intermediate with the two towns of Paræsos and
Rhythimna (no doubt confounded by Stephanus for
Priansos and Rhytion). I therefore think that Stelæ
stood upon this remarkable hill of Kastelli, or Belve-
dere; and the name of the adjacent village of Kastel-
lianah seems to favour this conclusion by the pro-
bability of the corruption in later times of Stelæ into
Kastelli, whence, finally, its proximate village took
the name Kastellianah, with the final syllable nah,
according to a Cretan peculiarity in this part, exem-
VOL. I.
Z
1
338
SUDSURO BAY.
plified in the names of some adjacent villages, as
Thavrianah and Babalianah.
The only road from the eastern part of the Messara
to the coast is through Kastellianah over the schis-
tose and shaly ridge intervening between it and the
Bay of Sudsuro, which I follow from here to reach my
ship at the mouth of the Anapothari. An ascent of
half an hour brings us in sight of the Libyan Sea again;
and in two hours more we descend to the coast, near
the mouth of the little river Sudsuro, which river,
however, or the valley in which it flows, we come in
sight of directly the top of the ridge over Kastel-
lianah is reached: the mountain descends very pre-
cipitously to it in most parts; and the road is a mere
mountain-track, seldom used except by shepherds and
now and then a pedlar merchant, generally a Sfakian,
who passes from village to village, and hamlet to
hamlet, buying stock or crop, and selling small wares
and taking in exchange honey, wax, and cheese.
However, little of the produce of the eastern part of
the Messara now finds its way to the south coast, its
natural place of export, partly from the difficulty of the
present mountain-track to it. But in ancient times its
port was no doubt Sudsuro Bay, at the mouth of the
Sudsuro, where there are some remains, hereafter to be
described, which I conclude must be those of Priansus :
and although Priansus seems, from its coins and the
early notices of it, to have been an important city in
PICTURESQUE COAST.
339
the earlier times, yet it must have been deserted or
dwindled into insignificance in later periods of Cretan
history; for neither Pliny, Ptolemy, nor the 'Stadi-
asmus' mention it, or rather it seems then to have
been confounded with Bienna or Biennus and Inatus,
perhaps from being then merely their place of export,
and having few inhabitants.
The coast about Sudsuro Bay is wild and picturesque.
A deep-blue sea laves its cliffs and shingle shore, and
bold crags and hills rise from it. The ruins of Priansos
lie on either side of the steep rocky peaks and banks
confining the narrow gorge through which the moun-
tain-river of Sudsuro issues to the sea. A small
flexure of this unusually straight coast renders Sud-
suro Bay the most sheltered along the whole of the
south coast to the eastward of Fair Havens, and it
affords a good summer anchorage for all classes of ves-
sels. This sheltered position was doubtless the main
inducement for the raising of a town here in ancient
times, as the nearest trading-point of the eastern part
of the Messara; for, although so difficult to reach now,
a good road communicated between the plain and
town in ancient times; but it is now not practicable,
vestiges only of the road remaining visible within the
gorge and valley of Sudsuro.
The produce of the Messara is also now carried
overland to the town of Candia, owing partially to the
difficulty of the road to Sudsuro, and to the risks of
t
z 2
340 FOUNDATIONS OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS.
the sea-voyage all the way round to Candia in coasting-
craft; for foreign vessels are not allowed to take car-
goes, except in one of the fortified ports on the north
coast.
We found a convenient anchorage for the ship on a
shelving bank of sand that extends nearly half a mile
from the mouth of the Sudsuro; but the bank then
descends almost precipitously, resembling in its steep-
ness the sides of the bay and the mountain over it.
In ancient times it must have been used as a beach-
harbour only, if used at all in winter, just as Lebena,
a seaport of Gortyna, more to the west, where vessels
could only be hauled ashore; for there is a strip of
shingle shore and narrow plain along the Bay of Sud-
suro, on either side of the gorge, and this plain is
now partially cultivated by some inhabitants of Viano.
There are foundations of ancient buildings, and
other vestiges, scattered over this low ground, besides
some ruined walls upon the rocky crags on either
side of the gorge, one of which seems to have been
crowned by a small middle-age fortress. There is a
small relic of a Cyclopean platform or wall also near
the modern chapel which stands on the east side of
the Sudsuro, near its mouth, indicating probably that
the chapel was on the site occupied by a temple at
some early period.
Within the gorge, just above its first bend, there
are the remains of a wide and well-built causeway
1
PRIANSUS OR PRESUS.
341
or terraced road, which, I have before mentioned, led
up the valley and across the hills into the Messara,
to Rhytion; and vestiges of a ruined bridge are seen
at the entrance of the gorge. A fragment of an
Ionic pilaster and a diagonally fluted column in grey
marble, with some few squared blocks, were, how-
ever, the only evidences of a temple or other building
that possessed any architectural design; but these are
sufficient to show that an ancient city existed here,
which must have been the Priansus of earlier authors,
and the Præsus of Strabo, who mentions it as ad-
joining the territory of Lebena, although he evidently
confounded the eastern Præsus with it when referring
to the Dictaan Jupiter, as I have before shown.
The coins of Priansus have Poseidon upon the re-
verse, to indicate its situation on the shore; and the
palm tree by his side apparently denotes it as being
in a part of Crete where this tree, perhaps, flourished
and bore fruit in early times. It may also be taken
as an indication of alliance with Hierapytna, which
has the same tree upon its coins; and Dr. Cramer
notices an inscription, now in the Oxford Museum,
which mentions an alliance between Hierapytna and
Priansus.
As no palms appeared to exist now at Sudsuro, I
inquired if they were ever known to grow there, and
was immediately informed that there are ten or twelve
growing near the chapel of Agios Niketas, over the
342
ROCK CHAPEL.
rocky coast about a mile to the westward of Cape
Sudsuro, and was thus induced to visit them and the
rock chapel.
This chapel is within a cavern or grotto there, re-
garding which a marvellous story, illustrative of
Cretan superstition and credulity, was told me, which
I shall relate in the following chapter.
343
CHAPTER XXVIII.
ROCK GROTTO AND CHAPEL OF NIKETAS — BARBARY CORSAIR
MIRACULOUS ESCAPE OF SOME CRETANS FROM THE PIRATES-
THE FLIGHT OF A CRETAN VIRGIN-THE RIVER SUDSURO-A
WATERFALL-THE CITY OF LEBENA-TEMPLE OF ESCULAPIUS
-THE RUINS OF THE CITY.
FROM Cape Sudsuro, towards the west, the mountains
rise abruptly from the shore for a distance of about
fifteen miles; bare crags form their crests, and steep
ravines channel their sides. The chapel of Agios
Niketas is situated just beyond the first of these ra-
vines after passing Cape Sudsuro, upon a small culti-
vated slope, which in ancient times was terraced to sup-
port the soil. It was the only spot, for that distance,
along the steep part of the coast, that showed any
capabilities of cultivation; but it is neglected now,
the church being the only inducement for the natives
ever to visit it. A small rill trickles down the ravine
near the chapel, giving nourishment to the few before-
mentioned palm trees growing over it, as well as to a
few luxuriant oleanders, which always spring up where
there is any moisture in a mountain-ravine and re-
fresh the oriental landscape, in the hottest days of
344
CHAPEL OF ST. NIKETAS.
summer, with their tufts of gay
clothing.
flowers and evergreen
The chapel is at present merely a smoky-looking
cave beneath a large detached mass of rock lying on
the slope, the entrance to which is walled in by a
barrier of loose stones, only about breast-high; for
even this outlying spot did not escape the brand of
the destroyer during the late civil and religious
revolution. But there are still the remains of a
building which once extended far beyond the present
limits.
The roof of the cavern, although very uneven, is
also elaborately painted, representing, as far as could
now be made out, the remarkable events in the life
of the Saviour and of Niketas, and showed that con-
siderable cost and artistic care had been bestowed
upon it; for the recent scaling-off of parts of the
painted surface revealed that there was a previous
painting beneath, of quite a different subject or dif-
ferently treated.
This rock chapel may have been a retreat of some
hermit, in times when such locations were numerous,
in the East. I found within it a small mutilated
Testament, a wooden spoon, some incense, matches,
and a lamp without oil, as evidences of its sanctity
and occasional use.
That which gives it special interest with the natives
at present is the story of an event that is said to have
MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.
345
occurred about four or five centuries ago. It is as
follows:-The church was crowded with Christians
from the adjacent villages, on the eve of the festival
of their patron saint Agios Niketas, so as to be ready
as is usual with the Greeks) for the matin service at
day-break. But the fires which the assembled party
had lighted near it, having been observed at sea by
a Barbary corsair then cruising off the island, guided
his approach to the spot, and under the darkness of
the night he landed his crew in a neighbouring
cove. Thus unobserved, they stole up to the church,
and, finding it full of the natives, closed the door and
windows upon them, and waited for day, the better
to secure for embarkation their captives within.
These, therefore, discovering the reality of their
condition when the door was closed and secured, up-
lifted their voices in a general prayer to St. Niketas.
The lamentation and prayer were heard; for the priest
soon after informed them that the saint had shown
him a way of escape-through the back part of the
cavern, by opening a small aperture there, commų-
nicating with another cavern, that led finally out
upon the mountain-slope over the rock. Through
this aperture, then, they all silently crept, unseen
and unheard by their captors, excepting one little
girl that had fallen asleep in a corner of the chapel.
When daylight came, therefore, and the church
was opened, she alone was left as a prize for the Bar-
346
THE CAPTIVE DAMSEL.
bary corsair; and in consequence of her remarkable
beauty she was made the domestic slave of the chief
of the crew.
Some part of the story is probably founded on fact;
but priestcraft founded two miracles upon it: first,
the miraculous opening through the back of the cave
by the saint, which no doubt was always known to
the priest and was only closed up by a thin partition;
the second was the miraculous return of the girl on
some subsequent anniversary of the saint's day, in the
following manner:-
It happened that on that anniversary, whilst the poor
girl was in attendance on the corsair with his early
cup of coffee, she suddenly remembered that it was
the anniversary of her captivity, and burst into tears.
Being pressed to state the cause, she did so, but re-
ceived an angry reproof from the barbarian for her
folly in not having long ere this forgotten her home
and family. But before the harsh pirate had finished
his anger the damsel disappeared from his sight; for
St. Niketas (who in the Greek calendar is reverenced
as a sort of Bellerophon, having the power of aërial
flight on a white-winged steed) had taken her up;
and the girl was restored by the saint then and there,
whence she had been taken, to the arms and joy of
her family. Some marks upon a rock are shown, too,
which, it is affirmed, indicate where the horse's foot
touched the ground when the saint alighted with the
THE RIVER SUDSURO.
347
girl. Hence it is natural that St. Niketas, and the
church too, should have their due share of respect on
every returning anniversary of his worship, from so
credulous and benighted a Christian community as
the Greeks of southern Crete.
The river Sudsuro is a beautifully crystal stream,
that runs all the year round, and cascades over large
boulders that partially choke its bed in the bottom
of the gorge. This river is a very convenient one for
a ship, on her passage to Alexandria, to water at, as
it flows to the sea as a strong stream.
The water is clear and pure, having only a short
course from its source in the adjacent mountains;
and the present name seems to be compounded of the
Turkish words for milk and water; but it bore the
same name, I believe, in the time of the Venetians, in
which case we must trace it to an earlier race than
the Turkish, or to a different derivation.
notices a river Catarrhactes somewhere here.
Ptolemy
In the early season of the year, when the moun-
tain-springs run freely and every ravine has its rill,
the union of several of these on the southern crest of
Mount Kophino forms two streamlets, which descend
from its summit at about seven miles west of the
Sudsuro and two miles east of the remarkable hump
of Kophino, and then fall over a high cliff under
the outlet of one of these upland valleys or ravines,
forming there two picturesque waterfalls, which have
348
A CATARACT.
a descent of from 200 to 300 feet or more, and are
about 1500 feet above the sea.
We saw them first in the spring (after visiting Sud-
suro), at which season they are strong, and we at once
decided that they must be the Catarrhactes mentioned
by Ptolemy as being "between Inatus and Lebena;"
but when we passed the spot again in the middle of
the summer there was no fall of water, all had dried up,
leaving only the white streak down the face of the
cliff, which a deposit of calcareous incrustation from
its action had left upon the surface. Which, then, was
the Catarrhactes of Ptolemy? was it the modern Sud-
suro, or the upland winter waterfalls near Kophino?
When the north wind blows strong, and its force is
checked by the walls of mountains presented by the
Lasethe range on one side and Mount Ida on the
other, it rushes over these crests of the Kophino Moun-
tains with terrible force, falling in white squalls that
plough up the sea into columns of spray-wind-falls
truly, but which would almost rival the waterfalls in
their force and effect upon a sailing-vessel that hap
pened to be so near the coast as to be under their
stroke at such a time; for they are as much cataracts
of wind as the falls are of water.
But to be able to observe to advantage a remark-
able headland which Ptolemy has handed down to us
as Cape Leon (from its resemblance to a lion), a vessel
must sail or steam along it within a distance of two
CAPE LEDA, OR LEON.
349
or three miles; and then a shaggy-shouldered, bluff-
faced couching lion is really a form which the modern
Cape Leda may be said to resemble.
Cape Leda is nearly twenty miles from Sudsuro
Bay; and the shelter formed by this small but conspi-
cuous headland against the prevailing westerly winds,
together with the possibility of forcing by cultivation
some produce out of the hills behind it, and the fact
of its being directly opposite to Gortyna, with an easy
communication through a gap in the mountains, led
no doubt to the establishment there of a small coasting-
town. For when the sickly citizen of Gortyna, or the
befevered natives of the adjacent parts of Crete, found
no relief from the medicines and hygienic empiricisms
of the early times, it was natural that the invalid
should be tempted to try the air of the proximate sea-
coast or its Libyan-sea bathing.
Thus Lebena was early celebrated for its salubrity,
and for a temple dedicated to Esculapius, as noticed
by several authors. It was natural that the inhabit-
ants should raise there a temple to the god of health,
for it was the Brighton of the central part of Crete ;
and it finally became the emporium of Gortyna.
When we first visited the ruins of Lebena, the
priests of a neighbouring monastery called the site
"the Lasea" (of the Acts) "that was nigh unto Fair
Havens;" but that city I discovered afterwards to be
much nearer Fair Havens, as I shall show.
350
SITUATION OF LEBENA.
That the remains now existing at Leda are those
of Lebena was established by several facts. First, it
is the only spot where the inhabitants of Gortyna
could establish a port so conveniently. Secondly, the
ruins and inscriptions found there more particularly
confirm it. I found many fragments of a beautiful
temple, lying near a Greek chapel called Agios Ioannes,
which no doubt are relics of the very temple of Escu-
lapius of which mention is made; and it was near the
probable site of this temple that I dug up the pedestal,
containing a votive inscription, which is now in the
Fitzwilliam Museum of Cambridge. (See Appendix.)
The following sketch will give an idea of the situa-
tion of this interesting city, rising gently from the
little shingly bay upon the flank of the lion-shaped
headland of Cape Leon, under which it was sheltered
from the prevailing westerly winds and sea.
Several ravines intersected the site; but the inter-
mediate slopes are not very abrupt, yet sufficiently so
to have required in some places artificial terraces for
the support of the buildings. No walls appear to
have enclosed it, neither was there an acropolis.
although the summit over Cape Leda, the back of the
Lion, was just such a position as the early Greeks
would have chosen for such an upper city or fortress,
had it been in early times anything more than a tem-
porary location for the restoration of health.
The ruins now existing are chiefly remains of several

REMAINS OF THE ANCIENT CITY.
351
vaulted buildings and cisterns, the foundations of early
Christian churches and habitations, and of the facings
of the terraces that supported them; all, however,
that remain are built with mortar and unhewn frag-
ments of stone, together with the materials of earlier
buildings, amongst which are found many marble
columns.
About the centre of the city, and near the chapel
of Agios Joannes, two columns are still erect, that
seemed to be in situ, as belonging to the interior
of an early Christian church, by the foundations in
connexion with them; but immediately below these
columns, to the east, is an ancient platform or ter-
race that must have been the site of a temple-no
352
TEMPLE OF ESCULAPIUS.
doubt that of Æsculapius; for among the fragments
near are several other columns, with blocks of Parian
marble, and a fragment of a well-finished and pecu-
liarly ornamented capital, and a base of a column, of
the same marble. Upon this platform also lay the
inscribed pedestal before referred to; but it was more
than half buried in the soil, and, until dug out by us,
the inscription was not discovered: it was also in-
verted.
Lower down there was found, lying in a water-
course, another pedestal, that had two almost illegible
inscriptions, one being with the inscription reversed,
and thus showing that the pedestal had been subse-
quently used for some other purpose, and overturned
for the second inscription. Both these pedestals
appear to have supported statues; and a fragment of
a foot of a colossal statue in white marble was found
near the shore. The natives informed me also that
some years ago an entire statue was found here, by
persons who were digging for stone to make lime, and
was broken into pieces more convenient to remove
to the kiln, the marble, from its whiteness, being
considered more desirable as making a better lime.
Consequently the foot was the only fragment that
had remained; and, from the quality of the marble, it
was very probably that of Esculapius.
There were no other ruins worthy of notice, except
those of a vaulted building by the side of the rocky
WERE THERE TWO LEBENAS?
353
hill lying to the east of the city, which may have
been granaries, and the remains of a larger and well-
built Christian church on the south face of the same
hill, near which are several columns and other frag-
ments that were used in its construction, but which
no doubt came from the temple of Esculapius or
some other early building.
According to Strabo, Lebena was the scene of the
Treatise on Love, by Theophrastus; but by the same
authority it was said to be 70 stadia inland-a state-
ment incompatible with these ruins being those of
Lebena. But the error of placing Præsus near Lebena,
which I have shown in a former chapter, leads to the
inference that it is due to some transcriber, and not
to the geographer, who, having lived at Gnossus,
must have been better informed.
That this was Lebena the seaport of the Gorty-
nians, and that it contained a temple of some beauty
to correspond with the temple of Esculapius, which
was said to have been built upon the model of that
of Cyrene, and was resorted to by strangers, is fully
shown by its situation and remains. Yet there may
have been an inland town of Lebena, besides this on the
coast, if Strabo is correctly transcribed. Onorio Belli
seems to have identified it with some inland site, where
he says a large spring and aqueducts exist, as well as
a bridge and other remains (Class. Ant. No. viii.), but
which I did not hear of when in that part of Crete.
VOL. I.
2 A
AN unavoidable delay in the publication of the volumes, after the
printing of the Cretan Vocabulary, has fortunately enabled
Viscount Strangford, late Oriental Secretary to the British Em-
bassy at Constantinople (to whom I am indebted for the transla-
tion of the Vocabulary), to add also the following brief but learned
dissertation on the Cretan and other Modern Greek dialects, a sub-
ject as yet little investigated.
༔
APPENDIX.
I.-ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK.
BY VISCOUNT STRANGFORD.
COLLOQUIAL modern Greek (its slight and loose-fitting
Turkish and Italian elements apart) is spoken with tolerable
uniformity in nearly all the districts where it is the vernacular
language. It is thereby strongly contrasted with the count-
less dialectic variations, falling into four main types, ultimately
reducible to two, which characterized the ancient Greek of the
early and the classical period. This uniformity arose from the
diffusion of Attic as the basis of a common dialect after the
Macedonian conquests. It continued its progress during the
Roman dominion, and was at length fully established under
and by means of the centralization of the Byzantine Empire*.
A quasi-classical dialect, retaining the ancient grammar and
vocabulary to the best of the speaker's ability and knowledge,
was spoken in formal life at Constantinople by the Court, the
Patriarchate, and the upper classes until the Turkish con-
quest; but the popular language of everyday life had gradually
assumed a form essentially identical with the speech of the
present day in grammar, and only differing in vocabulary by
the absence of Turkish, the comparative absence of Italian,
and the retention of some Latin words. The forms and idiom
* The fancy of calling modern Greek the " Æolo-Doric," which origi-
nated with the poet Christopulo, and has since been taken up by dilettante
students of modern Greek among ourselves, is but a fancy. It would be
easy to show two Ionisms for one Æolism or Dorism in it. Such seeming
cases of either peculiarity as occur here and there probably arise from the
natural growth of phonetic change, rather than from any retention of the
ancient form.
2A2
356
APPENDIX.
of the modern language are at least as old as the tenth cen-
tury. Its pronunciation, certainly not classical, is much older
than that date; and though its various peculiarities are by no
means all of the same uniform degree of antiquity, some of
them probably belong to the later classical epoch*. The long
period during which Byzantine centralization exercised its in-
fluence was sufficient to establish this popular speech, so
formed, with a minimum of variation in all parts of the Em-
pire; so that true provincial dialects, analogous in any degree
to those of Italy or England, are only found in remote and
outlying islands, or in districts early detached from the rest by
Mahometan or Frank conquest. Provincial dialects, in fact,
are only found in a form more or less marked in the ratio of
the greater or less historical independence of the provinces
during the Lower Empire.
Putting aside the interesting dialect of the Greek peasantry
at the back of Trebizond, and the Tzakonic dialect, still
spoken in a few villages on the east coast of Laconia (which,
indeed, is not a dialect of modern Greek at all, but the repre-
* We in England cannot teach scholastically a foreign and a dead lan-
guage like the Hellenic with the simultaneous retention of both accent and
quantity, nor can we conceive without effort how any language can have
been so pronounced. Yet they did undoubtedly coexist in pronunciation
for a long period, without either interfering with the other, when ancient
Greek was a living language. To comparative philologists such a coexist-
ence is not only intelligible, but seems a matter of course. Our classical
scholars, being generally unacquainted with the existence or nature of
other Aryan languages akin to Greek, do not bear in mind the fact that
to this day the Lithuanian of East Prussia fully retains the simultaneous
use of tone-accent and quantity; and the same is the case in Illyrian or
Servian-to say nothing of the accentual system of Vedic Sanskrit, strongly
allied to that of the Greek. Nor can the modern Greek, for his part, con-
ceive how, for example, his ancestors' words eiµì, íλarùs, could be pro-
nounced by accent, yet without the accent changing the time of the vowel
from short to long as in his own pronunciation. Recent Lithuanian gram-
mars will teach him how this is done in the corresponding words esmì,
platùs, of that remarkable language. Controversy on the subject of Hellenic
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK.
357
sentative of the ancient speech of the Kaukones*, being a sub-
dialect of the ancient Doric come down to us in a state of
extreme corruption, yet not without traces of even pre-Hel-
lenic antiquity), the main body of modern Greek speech may
be considered as tending to diverge into two types, which it is
convenient to call the continental and the insular. This, of
course, has reference only to the speech of the uneducated,
the sole refuge of true dialects in our time: the educated
(and they are more numerous in proportion to the population
in Greek countries than anywhere else in Europe, as regards
the elements of education and something more) speak the
same language everywhere. The most marked test of the two
divisions, among many others of idiom and vocabulary and
some of forms, is to be found in the 3rd person plural of verbs,
ending on the continent and in the standard speech in -v, but
in the islands in -σɩ. Thus λέγουσι oι λέσι, εἴπασι, κτυπή-
σασι are said in the latter for λέγουν οι λένε, εἶπαν οι είπανε,
Οκτυπήσανε. The speech of the islands shades off into its
extremest variation in the south-eastern group, in Chios, in
Rhodes, in Cyprus, and in Crete. In the last two islands it
may be said most nearly to amount to true dialect; but
the deviation even there is very far short of the absolute
mutual unintelligibility which we see in, for instance, the
Exmoor Scolding,' when contrasted with the Lancashire of
'Tim Bobbin,' or even in the difference between two adjacent
Italian dialects, such as Turinese and Milanese, or Neapolitan
and the polished Sicilian of the Abbate Meli. Cretan has
even a literature of its own, formed in direct imitation of that
of Italy during the Venetian domination. The 'Eratókritos,'
pronunciation is simply worthless and a waste of time, unless based on the
principles established by the comparative study of the Aryan tongues.
* The common derivation of Tzakónia from Laeonia involves a letter-
change which is quite untenable. The change of κa into ra has several
analogies, as τŠaki(w, TJAKÓvw, &c., "I break, work mischief, quarrel," &c.,
from κακός.
358
APPENDIX.
a long half-heroic half-chivalrous poem by Vincenzo Cornaro,
is the earliest of these. It was written in the 16th century
(at the end of the 16th or beginning of the 17th, according to
Leake; but shortly before 1737, according to Mr. E. A.
Sophocles); its Cretan character is well-marked; and parts of
it are said even now to be remembered and recited by the
Cretan peasantry, much as parts of Tasso by the Venetian
gondoliers. The Voskopúla' or Shepherdess, a pastoral
poem by one Nikóla of Apokórona, and the 'Erophile,' a
tragedy, of which the story and title, as well as the method
and style, were taken from the Italian, have also come down
to us. The latter has many Cretan peculiarities: it also con-
tains perhaps the earliest instance of Italian metre applied to
Greek, such as has since become a favourite form of versi-
fication in the Ionian Islands, and is so delightful to read in
the humorous political flings of Lascarato.
The dialect now spoken is described by Pashley as differing
from that of the above books to some extent, principally by the
admixture of Turkish words which have crept in since the
conquest of the island by the Porte: but these, after all, are
but few, and it must be borne in mind that the authors of
these works, though they did not go out of their way to avoid
provincialism, yet certainly did not seek to represent its pecu-
liarities in full. A few songs taken down by Pashley, a spe-
cimen or two in M. Khurmúzi's work on Crete, a long vam-
pire-story given by Mr. Pashley in the words of his Sfakiot
guide, and the talk of the Cretan in a play by M. Khurmúzi,
the author of the present vocabulary, constitute all the written
specimens of modern Cretan known to me. This last pro-
duction, called “Babel (ἡ Βαβυλωνία, ἡ κατὰ τόπους δια-
ʼn karà
φθορὰ τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς γλώσσης), is what we should term a
screaming farce," and is exceedingly entertaining. It will
remind classical scholars, and those who look at everything
modern Greek through ancient-Greek magnifying-glasses, of
((
>
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 359
the plays of Aristophanes : in reality it and similar modern
comedies, like so much else that is modern Greek, are partly
Italian, partly Turkish in their origin and character. A
number of Greeks are celebrating the victory of Navarino in
a wine-shop; an Albanian becomes quarrelsome in his cups
and fires his pistol at a Cretan, who has taxed the Albanian
with having come to Crete and eaten up all the κovρádia in
the island. The Cretan uses the word as meaning "sheep";
but the Albanian takes it in the sense it bears everywhere
else, that of σkaτà, being, in fact, the ordinary gross oriental
idiom with which readers of Morier's novels are familiar under
the veiled translation of "eating dirt." A row ensues, and
an Ionian Dogberry comes in and marches everybody off to
prison. The fun of the play, which is exceedingly rich and
well kept up, lies in the attempts made by the Ionian to get
at a coherent story from the different witnesses when cross-
examined: he talks something which is as much Italian as
Greek, and he has to do with an Asiatic Greek whose idioms
are mere Turkish, with a schoolmaster who will talk ancient
Greek, with a rough Moreote merchant, and so on. The con-
fusion which arises is, of course, much exaggerated, and is
impossible in real life, but it is very amusing. The Cretan,
unfortunately, being wounded, has little share in the dialogue;
but enough is given to show the nature of the dialect.
Differences of accent prevail among the Cretan provinces—
probably slight, and as imperceptible to foreigners as those
which exist between different provinces or counties in Ire-
land, and are to be detected.by natives alone. This is gene-
rally the case in Greece; and it requires experience to enable
a stranger to distinguish even an Ionian islander's accent from
that of a continental: nothing at all is met with corresponding
to the difference between our West-countrymen and North-
countrymen. In Crete the leading distinction is between the
mountaineers, or 'Aopeîrat, and lowlanders, or Karoμeρîτai.
360
APPENDIX.
Concurrently with this, the provinces group themselves into
districts-the Western, the Sfakian, that of Retimo and the
neighbourhood of Mount Ida, that of Megalokastron, the
Eastern, and the South Central (comprising the two provinces
of Pyrghiótissa and Kenúrion). The differences are to be
defined as germs of dialect rather than actual dialect: a few
special words and a local accent seem to constitute the whole
amount: thus Σтaµóva (i.e. σTáoov póvos), Hold hard, be quiet,
is peculiar to Lasíthi, and épwras, for the Cretan dittany, to
Mylopótamo.
The speech of the Sfakiots is distinguished from that of the
rest of the island by the persistent substitution of p for λ, by
some difference in their vocabulary, and by general retention
of the extreme Cretan type. Owing to their secluded posi-
tion and little intercouse with the rest of the island, they have
been sheltered from the influence of the modern Greek edu-
cational system, elsewhere so strong and all-pervading. But
this system, bearing for its firstfruits an ardent surface-desire
for national union and centralization, which, so long as foreign
domination endures, and until he attains his wishes, is suf-
ficient to stifle the original municipal instinct and naturally
centrifugal tendency of the true Greek in all ages, has taken
firm root in the island. This must end by obliterating all but
the faintest traces of a popular dialect, there as elsewhere-
displacing a real form of speech which might have been made
to bear the same relation to classical Greek that Italian bears
to Latin, and substituting in its stead a strange language,
now, perhaps, unavoidable and past remedy, in which a re-
vived or factitious ancient vocabulary is galvanized, rather
than animated, by the idiom of modern French newspaper-
writing.
It is in words rather than forms that Cretan is best distin-
guished from the dialect of other islands. Many of these are
classical words lost elsewhere, or are otherwise of interest to
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK.
361
رو
the philologist. Of the first class are κaтéxw (" 1 know") for the
common ἠξεύρω, πέμπω (θὰ πέψω) for στέλνω, θὰ θέσω for
θὰ βάλω, ἄγομαι oι πορίζω for πηγαίνω, derivatives of νέμω
and ψέγω in ἐγγαλονόμος, ξερονόμι, ψεγάδι; ἀρίδι (ἄρις),
“ a gimlet ”; ἀροδαμός for ὀρόδαμνος, " a twig " ; χαλέπα
(from xaλeπòs), “a difficult hill"; papuòs, "the evil eye,
from ỏ0paλuòs; the ploughman's cries of avo, čow, &c.;
σκλώπα for σκώπα from σκώψ, an owl; ἔδιωξε, “ it has
occurred to me," very probably for edoce-an excellent pre-
servation, do being utterly lost,—with many others. The
Italian words differ from those in use elsewhere, as Beréμα,
"a crop," It. vendemmia; pošováρw, "I speak," It. ragio-
nare; µaprì, “a fatted sheep" (i. e. fatted for the festival of
San Martino); BɩTσάTO, “thin,” i. e. poor or vitiated; πoúpɩ,
the It. pure, used as a mere expletive or weight-giver to the
phrase, like yaµà (from the It. giammai) in the southern Ionian
islands, or palès at Smyrna; μaтiváda, "a popular song,"
ματινάδα,
and many others. There are a few points indicating some
special connexion or intercourse with the southern Morea.
Besides the local name of Tzákonas (distinctly indicating a
colony from the mainland), in Leake's vocabulary of the
Tzakonic dialect we find répaλ' åpía, written in two words,
interpreted To Keþáλi µov πoveî, "my head aches." But it is
τὸ κεφάλι μου πονεί,
manifestly the Cretan kepaλapía, i. e. repaλaλyía, for the
ordinary Tоvoké aλo, a headache, with the Cretan change of
into
μαρτί,
P : voµeîs or voµeíat, again, for shepherds, are only found
elsewhere in the Cretan words given above. Some local
names, chiefly in the western promontory of Crete, contain
the patronymic termination usual among the Mainotes, but
nowhere else (-ákos, as in Leotzákos, Dimitrákos, Dimitra-
karákos) - Spaniákos, Priniákos, Mustákos, Trakiniákos,
&c. To these may be added the name Kalamatianà in proof
of Moreote affinity. The natural bridge is the island of
362
APPENDIX.
Cerigo. But half a century's routine occupation of this
island, a most primitive and secluded district, has now ended
without a scrap of information on its dialectic or indeed any
other peculiarities having once been contributed to the public
knowledge by the apathetic ruling race. It may here be said
that the local name Sklavokhóri, occurring more than once in
Crete, shows that the island was not without its share of
Slavonian settlements; and the name Katzivelianà (from κAT-
σίβελος, fem. κατσιβέλα, like γύφτος oι τσιγγενές, “ a gipsy”)
must indicate a gipsy colony. Of dialect, properly speaking,
contemporary with, or even prior to classical Greek, it is,
perhaps, just possible to detect a trace here and there. "Аpíа-
Aos, “a badger,” seems to be connected somehow with aρктоs,
ǎρкos, whence the modern apкoûdi. Apokorona, the modern
name of the ancient Hippokoronion, may possibly preserve,
as in Cyprus, a Cretan vernacular pronunciation of the word
ππos (kƑos, originally akvas), retaining the original initial
vowel as perfectly as we see it in the East-Aryan or Indo-
Persian and the Lithuanian corresponding words, well known
to comparative philologists (açva, aspa, aszwà), slightly mo-
dified in the Gothic and Celtic words and the Latin equus,
further modified in the classical Greek, but wonderfully
maintained to this day in Cyprus: ἅππαρος or ἅππαρον is
there used for the Cretan ктμa and the ordinary aλoyov. It
must be remembered, with regard to this word, that in Cy-
prus a doubled consonant is still really a doubled consonant,
pronounced as clearly as in Italian or Arabic: thus aλλo is
not pronounced as a modern Greek pronounces it, but like
the Italian allo-an invaluable relic of Hellenic pronunciation,
which is alone enough to make the Cyprian dialect outweigh
all the others in philological importance.
I subjoin a Cyprian view of the Cretan dialect, taken from
the Vavilonia. Οἱ Κρητιτζοὶ μιλοῦσιν τὰ λωὰ τὰ λόγια τους,
<
"
ป
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK.
363
καὶ τὴν ἀχελομαλοῦσα λέσιν τη νύφη, τὸ λαμπρὸν λέσιν το
φωτιὰ, τὸν ἄπαρο λέσιν το χτήμα, καὶ ταῖς κουδέλαις λέσιν
ταις κουράδια.
In this it is the Cretan whose words, except the last one,
are the same as the ordinary Greek, and the Cyprian that de-
viates. ᾿Αχελομαλοῦσα, “ eel-ringleted one,” for the common
νύφη οι νύμφη, " bride,” is worth noting in this last dialect.
Απαρο is here spelt with only one π; but this must be mere
carelessness: I have twice heard the word pronounced with a
π doubled, and by Cyprians in each instance-one a gar-
dener, the other a professor. Before proceeding to give M.
Khurmúzi's vocabulary, I cannot refrain from quoting from
the body of his little work the following form of disenchant-
ment used for the relief of eye-stricken or bewitched persons,
not only as a long specimen of Cretan dialect, but also for
its curiosity as a bit of "folk-lore."
Πιστεύουσι τὰς νεραΐδας, τὰ φαντάσματα, τὰ στοιχειὰ, τὴν
βασκανιάν, τὰς μαγείας, τρέμουν τὰς κατάρας, κ. τ. λ., καὶ
εἰς μὲν τὸν τόπον ὅπου ὑποπτευθῶσιν ἢ ἀκούσουν ὅτι κατοικοῦν
νεραιδες ἢ στοιχειὰ, παντελῶς δὲν πλησιάζουν· ἂν δὲ κατὰ
δυστυχιὰν περάσῃ τις ἀπ᾿ ἐκεὶ ἢ κοιμηθῇ πλησίον, καὶ ἀσθε
νήσῃ, ἢ εὐθὺς ἢ μετὰ καιρὸν, τότε λέγουν ὅτι ἔχει βυστιριὰ,
τῆς ὁποίας τὸ ἀντιφάρμακον εἶναι τὸ διάβασμα. Τὴν δὲ
βασκανιάν, τὴν ὁποῖαν ὀνομάζουν φθαρμὸν, ἐξορκίζουν οὕτω τὰ
γραΐδια δένει (τὸ γραΐδιον) τρεῖς κόκκους ἅλατος εἰς τὴν ἄκραν
ἑνὸς μανδηλιοῦ, καὶ ἀφ᾽ οὗ τὸ μετρήσῃ μὲ τὸν πήχυν του,
πλησιάζει εἰς τὸν ἀσθενῆ, ἐγγίζει τὸν κόμπον (μὲ τὸ ἅλας) εἰς
τὸ μέτωπόν του, ἔπειτα εἰς τὴν γῆν τρεῖς φοραῖς λέγον “ εἰς τὸ
ὄνομα τοῦ Πατρὸς κ. τ. λ.” ἔπειτα ἀρχίζει “ Ποῦ πᾶς φθαρμὲ,
ποῦ πᾶς κακέ, ποῦ πᾶς κακαποδομένε ; φύγε ἀπὸ τὰς 72 φλέβας
τοῦ παιδιοῦ μου (δεῖνα) καὶ ἄμε στὰ ὄρη στὰ βουνὰ, ποῦ πε-
τεινὸς δὲ κράζει καὶ σκύλος δὲ γαυγίζει, νἄυρης τ' ἄγριο θεριό
νὰ πιῇς ἀπ' τὸ αἷμα του νὰ φᾶς ἀπ' τὸ κρέας του (χασμιριέται)·
σε
364
APPENDIX.
ἐλούσθηκ᾽ ἡ κιουρά μας ἡ Παναγία, κτενίσθηκε καὶ στὸ θρονί
της κάθισε καὶ περάσασιν οἱ ἀγγέλοι οἱ ἀρχαγγέλοι καὶ φθαρ-
μίσασί την (χασμιριέται), καὶ πάγει ἀφέντης ὁ χριστὸς καὶ
τῆς λέγει· “ ἠντά 'χεις μάνα ἠντά 'χεις μητέρα;” · ἐλούσθηκα
παιδί μου χτενίσθηκα καὶ στὸ θρονί μου κάθισα καὶ περάσασ᾽
οἱ ἀγγέλοι οἱ ἀρχαγγέλοι καὶ φθαρμίσασί με 3 (χασμιριέται)·
· καλὲ μάνα καλὲ μητέρα δὲν εὑρέθηκε χριστιανὸς ἁγιασμένος
καὶ τὴν ἁγιὰ Πέφτη λουτουργημένος, νὰ πάρ᾽ ἁλάτσι ἀπ' τὴν
ἁλικὴ, ἢ τρία φύλλ᾽ ἀπ' τὴν ἐλιὰ, καὶ νὰ πῇ μιὰ φορὰ τὸ
Πάτερ ἡμῶν δύο φοραῖς τὸ Πάτερ ἡμῶν (ἕως τὰς ἐννέα).”
Τὸν ἐξορκισμὸν τοῦτον τὸν λέγει τρὶς χασμουριούμενον συγ-
χρόνως, ἔπειτα ξαναμετρᾷ μὲ τὸν πήχυν του τὸ μανδῆλι, καὶ
το βγάζει κοντώτερον 6 δάκτυλα ἀπὸ τὸν πρῶτον μέτρον.
They believe in the Neraides *, in apparitions, ghosts,
the evil eye, and witchcraft; they dread curses, &c. ; and
they never by any chance go near any place which they
suspect or hear to be haunted by the water-nymphs or ghosts.
If, by ill-luck, any one should pass by or sleep in, such a
neighbourhood, and should then happen to fall ill, either at
once or after some time, they say of him that he has the
Vistirià, the proper antidote to which is reading Scripture
over him. As for the evil eye, by them called Phtharmòs, it
is exorcised by old women in this way. The old woman ties
up three grains of salt in the end of a handkerchief, measures
it along her arm, and then touches the sick man's forehead
with the knot, and afterwards touches the ground three times
with it, saying, 'In the name of the Father,' &c. After
which she begins, Whither goest, evil eye? whither goest,
wretch ? whither goest, miserable one? Fly out of the
* These modern nymphs are called by the name of the ancient Nereids,
but their attributes are those of the Naiads. As the ancient word νηρὸς,
whence their name was derived (as also the common modern word for
water), is not limited to salt water, it is possible that this usage may be of
high antiquity in the vernacular.
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK.
365
seventy-two veins of my son So-and-so, and be off to the
mountains and hills, where no cocks crow and no dogs bark,
to find the wild beast, that you may drink his blood and eat
his flesh (she yawns). Our Lady* the Virgin has bathed
and combed herself, and sat on her throne, and the angels
and archangels have passed by, and have bewitched her
(yawns); and the Lord Christ goes by and says to her, "what
is it, my mother †, what is the matter?" "I have bathed, my
son, and combed myself, and sat on my throne, and the angels
and archangels have passed by me and bewitched me" (yawns).
"Well, mother, no Christian has been found [query, can no
Christian be found?] made holy by the Eucharist and by
church service on Holy Thursday, to take salt from the salt-
cellar, or three leaves from the olive tree, and say, Our
Father, &c., once, Our Father, &c., twice (up to nine times).
The old woman utters this exorcism three times, yawning at
the same time, and then measures the handkerchief over
again along her arm, bringing it out shorter than the first
measurement by six fingers."
In concluding these brief remarks, I cannot do better than
refer such of my readers as may be desirous of obtaining
clear and correct views upon the very interesting subject of
κιουρά, κυρά,
* κLovρà, for κupà, being like our conventional English pronunciation of v.
This is found in ancient dialects, as τὰν τιούχαν for τὴν τύχην in a Boeotian
inscription, and is a marked characteristic of the Tzakonic dialect. Y,
probably pronounced like the French u in the later classical, the Roman,
and the early Byzantine periods, has retained or reverted to its earlier
sound in a very large number of words belonging to the colloquial lan-
guage, now written with ov. Similarly, words like Oepɩò, ¿epò, σidepo must
have arisen out of the earlier sound of ŋ as a long e.
† vra is generally used for rì in Chios and the south-eastern islands.
Koraës explains it as a contraction of rì eivai rà (for å); as rì eivai tà
déyeis for tì déyes, " what is it you are saying?" for "what are you say-
ing?" the intermediate τŷva being found in the earliest modern Greek
poetry of the Turkish period.
366
APPENDIX.
the true origin and growth of modern Greek, a subject
hitherto always treated confusedly, with party spirit, and with
insufficient knowledge, to the admirable summary which
forms the preface of Mr. E. A. Sophocles's (of Cambridge,
Mass., U.S.A.) 'Dictionary of Later and Byzantine Greek.'
VOCABULARY OF CRETAN GREEK.
Cretan Greek.
A.
Modern Greek.
ἀγροῦσα .
ἄγομαι
αθιβολή
ἄθος
•
στενοχωρία
Oppression, uneasiness.
πηγαίνω
I go.
ὑπόθεσις, ὀμιλία .
•
Business, affair.
•
στάκτη
•
Ashes.
αἰγούγια
ἀκάτεχος
ἀναβόλεμα
ἀλοίμονον .
ἀνίδιος, ἄπρακτος
ἀνήφορος
Alas!
•
•
A man without experience
•
•
ἀναγκεμένοι
•
αναδια
ἀναλαμπή
ἄντικρυ .
φλόγα .
An ascent, a hill (going
or looking upwards).
φρενοβλαβείς, πάσχοντες Madmen, those afflicted
ἀναλώματα. ἀκαταστασίαι πολιτικαί.
•
αναντρανίζω . βλέπω ἀσκαρδαμυκτί
βλέπω ἀσκαρδαμυκτί .
ἀναστοροῦμαι . ἐνθυμοῦμαι
ἄνω
•
λέγουν τοὺς βόας ὅταν
γεωργοῦν νὰ κλίνουν
πρὸς τὸ ἀγεώργητον.
ἀπαρθινά
ἀληθινά
in mind.
Opposite.
Flame.
Political disturbances.
To look fixedly.
I remember.
The word ἄνω is used to
the oxen when they are
tilling the ground, to
direct them to the part
unploughed.
True.
Cretan Greek.
ἀποβολή
ἀπόγι
ἀπομονάροι .
ἀπορόχια
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 367
·
Modern Greek.
ἀντὶ τοῦ ἴχνους, διότι ζη-
τοῦντες τι ζώον καὶ
εὑρόντες τὴν κόπρον του
λέγουν· ἰδοῦ ἡ ἀποβολή
του.
ἀγιάζι
•
ἐναπολειφθέντες, ζώντες.
Βρουβοβλάσταρα.
ἀποταχνάς . πρίν .
This term is used when
they come upon the
trace of a lost animal;
and when they find its
manure they say, lite-
rally, "droppings.”
Hoar frost, dew.
Survivors.
Lichen, or seaweed.
Before.
Brimstone.
ἀπύρι
θειάφι
•
ἀραγός
ἀσκὶ μικρόν, ἀσκόπουλο A small water-skin.
ἀργατινή
ἑσπέρα .
Evening.
ἀρίδι .
τρυπάνι
Gimlet.
ἄρκαλος .
· ἄσβος
Badger.
αροδαμός
βλαστὸς νέος τῶν ἐλαιῶν
A young olive-shoot.
ἄρτικας .
ἀγριοσέλινον, μαγκούτα.
Wild parsley.
ἀφόρισι
•
ἀφορμάρης
ὑποψία.
•
φρενήρης
φρενοβλαβία .
ὑποπτεύομαι
σποργίτης .
Suspicion.
Mad, hot-headed.
ἀφόρμησι
ἀφοροῦμαι
ἀτσέλαγος
ἄχνα .
•
•
σιωπή, τζιμουδιά
I suspect.
Sparrow.
Silence, quiet.
Madness.
βαβούρα
βαρεμένη
•
βαστάγι
βετέμα
βίσαλα
•
βοή .
ἔγκυος
•
B.
σχοινάκι
εὐφορία ἐλαιῶν
κεράμια, τοῦβλα.
A shout or cry.
A woman in the family-
way.
. A small rope.
Good olive-crop.
Tiles, bricks.
368
Cretan Greek.
APPENDIX.
Modern Greek.
λιγνόν
Lean.
ἔχει βλάβος, ὁ τόπος Sickness, unhealthiness
είναι νοσώδης.
δραγάτης
προσοχή
βιτσάτο*
βλάβος .
βλεπάτωρας
βλέπησι .
βλέπομαι
βοσκήθηκα .
•
ἐμαυτόν.
ἐχόρτασα
σακούλι
•
•
σακουλάκι .
βούργια .
βουργίδι
βυστιριά
•
(said of places).
. A vine-dresser.
Attention.
· προφυλάττομαι, προσέχω I take care of myself, I
ἀσθένεια προερχομένη
ἀπὸ στοιχεῖα, ἀερικό.
look out.
. I a
I am satisfied, or have
eaten enough.
A bag.
A small bag.
Sickness which
comes
from malevolence of
ghosts.
Γ.
γέρα .
γαργερό.
γηρατεία
Old age.
λερομένο
Dirty.
Υγαλονόμος
ποιμὴν τῶν προβάτων The shepherd in charge
ἀλμεγομένων.
of milch ewes.
('γγαλο- for
έγγαλο-).
γιαγέρνω
ἐπιστρέφω
γιοργά
I return.
ὀγρήγορα, καὶ ἰδιαιτέρως Quickly properly said of
τὸ ταχὺ βῆμα τῶν thebriskpaceofanimals).
ζώων.
ἀποπληξία
γιότσα
γκαύτω
ἀναχωρῶ
γλακηχτής
•
ταχύπους
·
γλακώ
•
τρέχω
γουλέ.
γυαλίδι
•
•
κομάτι .
κομάτι, κεφαλοτύρι .
Apoplexy.
I start, quit, g0.
One who walks fast.
I run.
. A morsel.
* Literally "vitiated."
A piece of, the top of a
cheese.
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 369
Δ.
Modern Greek.
Cretan Greek.
δακτυλίδωμα ἀῤῥαβῶνα
•
Betrothal.
δάμακας .
ξηρότειχος .
A bare wall, without
mortar.
δαμάκι
ὀλίγο
A little.
δαμινή
δέτης
•
σιγανή
Slow.
•
βράχος μικρὸς εἰς εἶδος A small rock in the shape
τοίχου.
δευτερογούλης . ιούλιος .
διαρμίζω
διμηνήτης
δόμοι .
•
δροσιά
δῶρον
•
ἔγγαλα
ἐδά
VOL. I.
βάζω εἰς τάξιν, συγυρίζω
εἶδος σίτου μελανοῦ δια-
μένοντος δύω μῆνας
εἰς τὴν γῆν.
λωρίον εἰς πολλὰς δίπλας
ῥαμένον, καὶ τιθέμενον
ὑπὸ τὰ ὑποδήματα
(κόθορνοι).
τίποτε
τίποτε
τὰ ἀλμεγόμενα
•
τώρα
E.
of a wall.
July.
I arrange.
A kind of brown wheat
which remains for two
months in the ground.
A piece of leather thong
which is closely folded
and used by shepherds
for the soles of their
shoes against the slip-
periness and wear of
their mountains.
Nothing.
Nothing. But used by the
Cretan sometimes when
asking for a present or
gift (using the true
Greek word instead of
the Oriental μπαχσίσι
commonly used else-
where).
Milch cows, ewes, &c.
Now.
2 B
370
Cretan Greek.
διωξε
ἐπά
ἐργῶ .
ἔρωτας
εσ
ἔσω
ἔχνος
•
•
APPENDIX.
Modern Greek.
μοῦ ἦλθε κατανοῦν, μὲ I remembered, it has
ἐφάνη νὰ τὸ κάμω
οὕτω.
ἐδώ
κρυόνω
δίκταμος
νὰ κλίνουν οἱ βόες, ὅταν
γεωργοῦν πρὸς τὸ
γεωργημένον.
come into my head, &c.
Here.
I feel cold.
The Cretan dittany, con-
cerning which there is
much in Tournefort and
Pashley.
Is used in directing the
oxen to approach the
ploughed part when
they are tilling the
ground, as ave, to send
them to the unploughed.
ζῶον οἰκιακόν, σκύλος, A domestic animal, as
γάτα, ὄρνιθα κ.τ.λ.
dog, cat, fowl, &c.
ζάλο .
ζημιό
ζουγλός
βήμα
λοιπόν
•
ζυγόνω
•
ζουρίδα
Ζ.
ἀνάπηρος (σακάτης) .
κυνηγώ .
κουνάδι
A pace or step.
Therefore, however, then.
Lame or disabled.
I sport, or hunt.
Polecat or stoat.
θές (common ev- θέλεις
erywhere as
well as Crete).
θέσε .
θέττω
Θ.
Do you wish ?
πλάγιασε
Lie down, or repose.
πλαγιάζω . .
I lie down to sleep.
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 371
Κ.
Cretan Greek.
Modern Greek.
κεφαλαριά
κεφαλόπονος
A headache.
κακαποδομένος. ἄθλιος .
A miserable man.
κακα ποδώνω
δυστυχώ
καταφόρεσι .
ὑποψία .
I am unfortunate.
Suspicion.
κακόσορτος . . κακότυχος, ταλαίπωρος. An unfortunate man.
(common all
over the islands).
κακασύβαστος . δύστροπος
•
καλουργιά τὸ πρῶτον γεώργημα
καμνίζω
•
•
καμπανίζω
καμπανός
κανάκια .
κατακεμένος
κανακεύω
καρφίχτης
κάσα .
καταλῶ
καταχανάς
κατεχάρης
χαμηλύνω, κλειω τὰ
βλέφαρα.
ζυγιάζω
στατέρι.
•
χάδια
χαδεμένος
χαδεύω
•
•
•
•
•
καθρέπτης
λέρα
φθείρω .
Βρουκόλακας
εἰδήμων
· γινώσκω, ἠξεύρω .
κατηγορημένη . ἀδύνατος
κατέχω
κατίνα
κεντιά
•
κεντώ
κι ασυλιάς
•
ῥάχη
σφάχτης
ἀνάπτω
καθόλου
•
A perverse man.
The first cultivation or
break-up of land.
I look downwards, shut
the eyelids.
I weigh.
Scales, steelyard.
Caressing.
One who is caressed.
I caress, soothe, flatter.
A looking-glass.
. Dirt.
To destroy.
• A vampire (see an entire
chapter in Pashley).
A man with his wits about
him.
. I know.
•
A feeble woman.
Back.
Acute pain, twinge.
I light.
At all (ordinary modern
Greek, κιόλας).
2 B 2
372
Cretan Greek.
κοιλιοδρόμι .
APPENDIX.
Modern Greek.
διάρροια
κοιτάζει .
· κουρνιάζει .
κοίτη .
κοκοσάλι
κομπόνουμαι
κοπέλι
•
κοπελιάρης .
•
κορμιάζω
ὀρνιθόσπητον .
χαλάζι .
ἀπατῶμαι
παιδίον .
ἔφηβος
μουδιάζω
Diarrhoea.
(The hen) is sitting.
Hen-coop.
Hail.
I am deceived.-
A boy.
A young man.
To have a limb asleep,
to jar upon the nerves.
νεοσσός περιστερᾶς, πι- A young pigeon.
κορμός
κουβος
.
πίνι.
φραγκόκοτα, γάλλος
.
A turkey.
κουζουλός (com- ἀνόητος, βλάξ
. A silly fellow.
mon elsewhere).
Κουνενός .
ὑδροδοχεῖον πήλινον
An earthen jug.
κουράδι
Κούρταλα
κοπάδι .
•
A flock, or herd.
μάκια.
χειροκτυπήματα, παλα- The clapping of hands.
κουτσουνάρα βρύσις αὐτόματος
•
κρεμαστά . . κάτωθεν τοῦ σημείου,ὑπὸ
τον σκοπόν.
κτημα
·
κτήνος
ὄνος .
κτηματσερός
A fountain, or natural
spring.
Under the mark or object
indicated. (Opposed to
σκεπαστά).
A beast of burden or la-
bour
An ass.
λαλῶ
λέρια .
ἐλαύνω
Λ.
I drive.
Sheep-bells.
προβατοκούδουνα
Cretan Greek.
λήξης
λιγοψυχιά
λιγόψυχος
λιγοψυχώ
λοβιά.
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 373
Modern Greek.
λαίμαργος .
•
στενοχωρία
λογάρι
•
μαδάρα
μαλάκα
•
στενόκαρδος
στενοχωροῦμαι
ἡ θήκη τῶν ὀσπρίων.
θησαυρός
ὄρος πετρώδης
μυζιθρώτυρον .
Μ.
A greedy fellow.
Oppressed, fatigued.
Uneasiness.
I am fatigued, or bored.
A granary.
A treasure.
A stony mountain.
The μυζήθρα of Greece:
fresh cheese made from
buttermilk.
. ὁ ἀλωνισμένος πλὴν ἀλί- Wheat thrashed, but not
πέλεκυς
•
μάλαμα
χριστος σίτος.
μαγλινό .
λείον
μαλιά
λογομαχία.
μάλτα
•
πορτοκάλι
μονάρι
μαργύνω (com- κρυόνω
mon everywhere).
μάροπον
μαρουβάς
μαρούβισε
μαρτί.
μαρτή
winnowed.
Smooth.
A dispute.
An orange.
An axe.
I feel cold, shiver.
ἀρνὶ χρονιάρικον .
τὸ κρασὶ ἀφοῦ σαραν-
τήσῃ, παλαιὸς οἶνος.
ἐπάλιωσε τὸ κρασί, πί-
νεται.
ἀρνί σιτευτόν .
εἶδος κριθῆς σπειρομένης
τὸν Μάρτιον, καὶ τῆς
ὁποίας ὁ στάχυς εἶναι
δίγωνος.
μασέλα
· σιαγών .
.
A yearling lamb.
Old wine.
The wine is old, it is
drinkable.
A fatted sheep.
A kind of barley which is
sown in the month of
March, aud the ear of
which is two-cornered.
Jaw.
APPENDIX.
μαστόρισσα
374
Cretan Greek.
: μαμή
Modern Greek.
ματινάδα
· · τραγούδι
μελίτακας
μιγόμι
μίστατο .
μύρμιγξ
φορτεῖον
A midwife.
""
A song, ballad. Appa-
rently a "mattinata ’
from Italian, like a
"serenata."
An ant.
A burden, cargo.
μέτρος ρευστών δέκα ὀκά- A liquid measure of ten
δων.
Okes.
μιτάτο (proper- μανδρί, στάνη (common A sheepfold.
1y μητάτα).
in Byzantine writers
μονοτάρου
μουζούρι .
μποτόνια.
μπράτη
νάκαρα
ντήρησις
ντηριοῦμαι.
νύχι
ξαμόνω
ξάμου
•
for a lodging or enclo-
sure, from the Latin
metata, castra metata).
διά μιας
κοιλόν
At once.
A bushel.
A necklace.
Information.
Ν.
•
περιδείριον .
εἰδήσματα .
δύναμις.
•
συστολή
συστέλλομαι
τουφεκόπετρα .
E.
σημαδεύω
φροντίς μου*
Strength.
Reserve, shame.
I am ashamed.
A gun-flint, lit. a finger-
nail.
I aim at.
It concerns me, or is my
affair.
* φροντίς μου, if Greek at all, is written Greek, not idiomatic. Probably
ξάμου, ξάσου are equivalent to the ordinary Greek ἔννοια μου, ἔννοια σου,
meaning, in practice, "never mind," "don't trouble yourself," also "take
care,” “I'll take care" (lit, "it is my business," "your business"), for which
φροντίς μου would be fine Greek.
Cretan Greek.
ξάσου
ξεμύνηση
ξεμύστευση
ξεμυστεύω
ξεπαραλώ
ξερά .
ξερονόμι
ξέσυρε
ξετρέχω. .
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK.
•
•
Modern Greek.
φροντίς σου
φυγὴ ἔντρομος καὶ βιαία
σωτηρία, ἀπαλλαγὴ δει-
νῶν.
375
It concerns you, or is your
affair.
Hurried fight.
Escape or safety from
dangers.
ἀπαλλάττω, ἐλευθερόνω Το deliver or set free.
ξυλόνω .
To undo, cut the seam.
τὰ καλάμια τῶν ποδῶν. The shin-bones.
•
•
χόρτον ξηρόν
παραμέρησε
Dry fodder.
Get out of the way.
ἀκολουθῶ, τρέχω κατό- I follow, I run after some
ὄμπανε
•
πιν τινός.
one.
0.
απόψε .
To-night.
Twine.
ὀργιά (όργυιά, a σπάγκος
yard measure).
οὔγια
παίδα
ἀλοίμονον
Π
βάσανον
Alas!!
Trouble.
πεδουκλόνουμαι ἐμπερδεύονται οἱ πόδες My feet are hampered.
παιδομή .
παντέρμος
παπούρα
παραβολή
•
μου.
βάσανον
πάντι ἔρημος
γήλοφος
ὅταν γεωργοῦν οἱ βόες
καὶ φθάσουν εἰς τὴν
ἄκραν, νὰ ἐπιστρέψουν.
(It is usual Greek.)
Trouble, grief.
Entirely barren.
A ridge of earth.
Word used when the oxen
ploughing the
ground, and reach the
end of the furrow.
are
!
376
Cretan Greek.
παρασύρα
παρασύρω
πασπαλα
APPENDIX.
Modern Greek.
σάρωμα
σαρώνω
πασπατεύω.
πεδούλι .
•
•
κόνις
ψάχνω, ψηλαφῶ
κομμάτι πετζίου .
πηλά .
λάσπη
Sweepings.
I sweep.
Dust.
I touch, search by feeling.
A piece of leather.
Mud.
πηλώθω .
στιβάζω
I pile up.
ποθές.
πορίζω
ἐξέρχομαι
πουθενά, εἰς κανὲν μέρος Somewhere (anywhere,
nowhere).
I come out
πόρος .
· δίοδος
•
Passage, transit.
ποταμίδα
ἀηδόνι
πουλο
φάσκελο
Nightingale.
The middle finger stret-
ched out in cursing
an adversary, as if im-
precating blindness.
Nothing.
πράμα
πράσσω
τίποτε
•
•
μανθάνω
πρίκα (common πίκρα, λύπη
•
I learn,
Sorrow or grief.
παρεδόθην εἰς τὸν ἐχθρόν I surrender or have been
everywhere.)
πρόδωκα.
προσκάδα
ἔνεδρα
πρωτογόνατος . προτότοκος
πρωτογούλης Ιούνιος
•
betrayed to the enemy.
An ambuscade,
Firstborn.
June.
P.
ῥάσσω
ῥέμπεται
δράττω .
· ἐπαίρεται
ροζονάρω
ῥούκουνας
·
· όμιλώ
ἀγκονή, γονία .
reap, bind in sheaves.
. Is taken, seized.
. I speak (It. ragionare).
A corner,
To
1
ON CRETAN. AND MODERN GREEK. 377
Σ.
Modern Greek.
ἀποκόπτω τοῦ γάλακτος To wean the child,
Cretan Greek.
σακάζω
σάρακας.
πριόνι
σίβια.
ὅλως, διόλου
σιμοσάτωρας
A saw.
Altogether, entirely.
σύντροφος κατὰ τὸ ἥμισυ A partner of halves, an
equal sharer.
σκεπαστά . . ἄνωθεν τοῦ σημείου, τοῦ Above the mark or object
σκοπού.
pointed out. See κρε-
μαστά.
σκευρώνω
κάμπτω, στραβόνω .
To bend.
σκιάς.
κἄν
Even, if even.
σκλόπα .
γλαύκα .
σκαλινός .
χοῖρος
σκοράρω.
διαβαίνω
σωμίλιγκα
•
λοιμική
An owl.
A pig.
I go, pass through.
Plague.
σώπατο
ἐπίπεδον
σουρο.
φελλός
A plain, on a level.
Cork.
(It. súghero).
σταμόνα .
στοῦπα
(στάσου μόνος) ἡσύχασε Be quiet, stay still.
χιόνι
Snow.
στειρονόμος . . ὁ ποιμὴν τῶν στειρῶν The shepherd of the bar-
προβάτων
συβάζω *
συμφωνώ
σύβασι*
συμφωνία
•
σύγκλησι
χείμαρρος
συγκόκαλη
· ἡ ἀποκρέω .
συργουλιστά . κολακευτικά
σφάκα
σώχωρο
ren ewes.
I make an agreement.
An agreement.
• A ravine, torrent.
The carnival.
Flatteringly.
The bitter laurel.
τὸ περιφραγμένον ἐκλε- The well-fenced inner
ἡ πικροδάφνη
κτὸν χωράφι.
* Common everywhere.
field or enclosure.
378
APPENDIX.
T.
Cretan Greek.
Modern Greek.
ταγή .
βρώμη
Oats.
τάξε
ὑπόθεσε
Suppose.
ταρός.
ἄνεμος σφοδρότατος . . A very strong wind,
ταρταλα
•
λάφυρα.
ταῦτέρου.
•
αὔριον
τσινιά
τσινω
τσίτα.
τσιπραγά
τουρί .
τουρλώ
τουπιὰ
τριτάρης .
•
κλοτσιά
κλοτσώ.
σουβλὶ ξύλινον
δίδυμα
κατήφορος
γλυστρώ
τυροδοχεία
σύντροφος κατὰ τὸ π
Spoil, plunder.
To-morrow.
A kick.
I kick.
A wooden spit.
Twins.
A steep descent.
I slip, or slide.
Skins for cheeses.
A sharer of thirds.
Υ.
ὑστεροβύζης
ὑστερότοκος
Φ.
The lastborn.
φαμέγιος
φθαρμίζω
φθαρμός .
φιοῦ
.
ὑπηρέτης
. βασκάνω
βασκανία
. ὅταν βρωμᾷ τι, ὕβρις
φουντούλης. . ὑπερήφανος
Φρασκιά.
φρύον
•
A servant.
To bewitch.
Sorcery, evil eye.
Exclamation of disgust at
a bad smell.
A conceited man,coxcomb
(Turkish fodol).
μελισσοδοχεία, κυψέλια Beehives.
•
κράμβη
Cabbage.
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK.
379
Cretan Greek.
χαλέπα
χαμήλωσε
•
Χ.
Modern Greek.
πετρόλοφος
κάθισε .
νομίζω
λίθος
ξεφαντωτής
χαντώ
χαράκι
χαροκόπος *
χαστουκιά .
σβερκιά
χαντοῦμαι
χουρχούδα
τρώγω
ῥόπαλον
A stony hill.
Sit down.
I suppose.
A stone, marble.
Pleasure-seeker.
A blow on the nape of
the neck.
. I eat.
A club.
πήλινον ἀγγεῖον, γαβάθα An earthen vessel
χρειασίδι
χύμα.
•
κατήφορος .
χυτά .
. κατηφορικά
A hill (looking down, as
ἀνήφορος is a hill look-
ing or going up).
. Downhill.
Ψ.
ψακί.
ψακόνω .
ψεγάδι
φαρμάκι
φαρμακόνω
ἐλάττωμα .
Poison.
. I poison.
A defect or fault.
NOTES.
ảykovσa, i.e. “ the strangler.”
99 66
ἄγομαι. In the original the words stand ἄγωμε, πήγενε, which seems im-
possible, as a present ȧyóμw cannot be conceived. Perhaps it should
be ἄγωμεν, ἂς παμεν, i. e. “ let us g0," come along," "allons." The
root is extinct everywhere, just as the Latin ago in modern Romanic
tongues.
ἄθος. For ἄνθος.
ἀνάδια. Probably a corruption of ἐνάντια.
ἀπόγι. Lit. “ earth-radiation.”
* Common everywhere.
380
APPENDIX.
άπоρóxia. I do not know the Greek explanatory word, and cannot find it
in any of the dictionaries. It must be remembered that these last
have hitherto made it a point of honour to suppress or ignore the so-
called "vulgar" Greek. Bpovßo- is doubtless from ẞpúov.:
βρύον.
ἀποταχνάς. Lege ἀποταχειας: interesting as preserving the Hellenic use
of ảπò with a genitive.
ȧpyarın, i.e. "the late," like rò Bpádu, or the Spanish tarde.
Boúpyı, Bovpyídı. The Latin bulga, of Gaulish origin, as we are told;
Bulgas Galli sacculos scorteos vocant. The Irish affinities are well
known. It is our word bellows.
уióτσa. From the Italian ghiozzo, "drop." Compare the Turkish damla,
drop," and "apoplexy."
CC
Sóμo. Bands; from déw, doubtless, though the accentuation doμoi might
be expected in that case.
ἐπά. Εδεπά i. e. ἐδά + ἐπὰ, is common in most of the islands instead of
edo (an inversion of &de rather than from evdov).
ἐργῶ. Perhaps from ῥιγῶ.
cow. A word which is retained nowhere else, being supplanted by µéσa.
ἔχνος. Apparently formed from ἔχω, on the analogy of κτῆνος, a posses-
sion,' chattel,” “cattle.”
99.66
Covpída. Zorrilla, properly" a little fox," is used in colonial Spanish for a
variety of skunk or polecat, Buffon's "zorille."
66
Oéσe, béтtw. Here given as neuter, but in the Greek play used as
actives“ μὰ τὰ πάσπαλα που θὰ θέσω στὸν "Αιδη,” “ by the ashes I
shall lay in the grave.”
καλουργιά. The vernacular form of the now common word καλλιέργεια,
which, however, is a revived word, brought in from books, or rather
constructed on ancient principles. The good Cretan family name of
Kalerges, in the sense of " a farmer," is more likely to be from this
indigenous source than from any vague meaning of "doer of good
deeds."
99 66
head-grease."
káσa. Found elsewhere in the sense of "scurf,"
KOTÉλ. Perfectly common everywhere; also in the Wallachian, copil.
The derivation from κόπτομαι can hardly be admitted. Κόπελος is
used in Byzantine writings for a bastard. On the whole, the word is
more probably of Greck than of Romanic or barbaric origin.
κούρταλα. From κρόταλον. Κουρταλίζω is common everywhere, and as
old as the 12th century.
ληξης. Probably λείξης or λείξιος, from λείχω,
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK.
381
diyofux®, &c. These words are used elsewhere, like the more usual
λιγοθυμώ, λειποθυμώ, in the sense of fainting rather than mere
oppression.
λoßiά. From Hellenic λoßòs, “peascod."
μαλάκα. The word μυζήθρα is probably expressive of the straining or
squeezing process, calling to mind Virgil's "pressi copia lactis." Ma-
λáka seems to be a form of the old word for milk, common to most of
the Indo-European languages, which has run together or formed an
etymological confluence with the word µaλakòs, itself ultimately from
the same root, much as mulcere and mulgere in Latin. The Cretan
word reappears at the other end of Europe, among our own islands :
"mulcán (gloss glassia, i. e. yaλagía? a kind of milk frumity) is
O'Reilly's mulachán, a kind of soft cheese."" (Whitley Stokes,
'Irish Glosses,' No. 243.)
µaơéλa. From the Italian rather than the Latin stage of maxilla. The
Latin stage is preserved in µağıλλάpı, “a pillow." Compare Chaucer's
Wanger and the Arabic mukhadda (whence Spanish almohada), both
meaning "cheek
“cheek” or “jawpiece."
ματινάδα. Pashley spells the word μαδινάδα. The oldest work in the
Brescian dialect (1554) consists in part of a
66 canzone villereccia,"
entitled "Matinada, id est Stramboggio che fa il Gian alla Togna."
(Biondelli, 'Saggio sui dialetti gallo-italici,' 163.)
μίστατο. Perhaps from an assumed ἡμίστατον in Hellenic. Compare the
Latin dimidiana, whence our demi-john, dame-jaune, &c.
μovčovρ is not from modius, nor even the It. misura, but rather from
the Byzantine μivσoúpiv, a confluence of the Latin mensura, mensa,
and missus. It is a dry measure containing 15 okes (the oke 23
pounds) of wheat, or 12 of barley. Its half is a mák, its quarter
2 πρατικό, and its sixteenth an ἀξάγι.
pováρi. Query µavápi, It. mannaja.
μπотóvia. A neuter plural. Properly pendants, or button-shaped orna-
It. bottone.
ments.
μπрáτη. Compare below πρáσow (µavðávw), i. e. “to work for information,'
πράσσω (μανθάνω),
"strive to learn." The formation seems irregular, unless the word is
for ἐμπράκτη. Πράσσω and ποιῶ are generally extinct, the latter,
however, being retained in common use in the Trebizond country.
έeμvorców. But in the 'Vavilonía' it means “to set free soul from body,"
“to kill,” “smash,"
33 σε écraser. Τὸν ἐξεμύστευγα δεδιμ, τὸν ἔπεμπα
στον Αδη,” I say that I'd have smashed that man, and sent him
down to Hell, Sir."
99 66
ξεπαραλώ. In this word -λῶ is from λύω : in καταλῶ (φθείρω), given above,
382
APPENDIX.
it is probably from λvu. The present λô for λúw is a natural con-
sequence or suggestion arising from the aorist vora. As a general
rule in vernacular Greek, all verbs whose aorist is -noa, -a, -voa, alike
pronounced -isa, can form a present in - upon the model of the con-
tract verbs, whatever it may have been in the ancient, or may also be
in the "revived" written language. Thus, as èpiλŋσa is from piλŵ,
and ἠγάπησα from ἀγαπῶ, so ἔσβυσα has suggested a colloquial present
σβω by the side of σβύω or σβύνω : ἔπτυσα has φτῶ as well as πτύω :
ἐκόστισα, κοστῶ (constare, costare) as well as κοστίζω. It may be
seen by this how the grammatical modifications of the ancient lan-
guage which constitute modern Greek have arisen naturally out of
changes in pronunciation. Εμείς and ἐμᾶς, and ἐσεῖς and ἐσᾶs, must
have arisen from the impossibility of working the language in daily
life, as soon as µeîs and vµeis came to be pronounced in exactly the
same way; and so with many other instances.
πроσκádα. It. imboscata.
πрштоуоúληя, i. e. "the fore July," as devrepoyouλns is "the latter July."
πρωτογούλης,
The other variant names for months in Greek are the Reaper, the
Thresher, the Vintager (θεριστής, αλωνάρης, τρυγητής), peculiar to the
Ionian Islands. These names remind us of the ancient English and
the Slavonian sets of names. Γούλης for Γιούλης (Ιούλιος), if not a
misprint, exhibits the Rhodian and Cyprian peculiarity of hardening
a y sound after liquids before a, o, u, as καμμγὰ σαρανταργὰ for καμ-
µià σapavтapià, une quarantaine, a lot of forty.
peμteral. It is impossible to say whether this means "it is raised,” or "it
is seized," owing to the author's use of high polite Greek instead of
real Greek. 'Eraíperaι is good ancient Greek in the former sense.
Haíρveraι, its legitimate derivative, is good modern Greek in the latter
sense. No such word as èπaíperaι exists in the modern Greek language,
properly speaking. But it has become, as I have said before, a point
of honour to revive ancient forms, letting them take their chance as
regards embodying modern idiom; and the confusion thus occasioned
to philological work is great. So, below, xápakas (os) may be
stone or may be marble; we cannot tell which, because the author uses
an ambiguous and dead word instead of his own living words, Téтρа
in the one case, µápμapov in the other. So, above, μúpμcyέ, explain-
ing μελίτακας. Μυρμήκι or - μήγκι is good modern Greek for an aut,'
and μúpµng is good ancient Greek for the same; but μúpμys is a
jumble of a misspelling and a dead and withered case-ending. In
the present case, moreover, it is most important to know which is
which. If the word be παίρνεται (“ it is seized”), ῥέμπεται must be one
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK.
383
of two things—either a very old vernacular cognate of the Indo-Euro-
pean word which we possess in the form rob, or else the Albanian
“remb” (rembéñ, “I seize ”) which has passed over into Crete.
poúkovvas. Arabic rukna; as this word is not used in ordinary Turkish,
the Cretan must be from Arabic direct-a very rare occurrence.
σιμοσάτωρας. Probably for ἡμισάτωρας, or from εἰς +ἥμισυ+-άτωρας. This
last form, which is from the Latin -ator, is common in Byzantine and
modern Greek. Compare Вλeπátwpɑs above.
σkopáρw. Apparently from It. scorrere.
τayń. Properly “a ration” or “allowance" (from ráσow), thence specially
one of horse-provender, thence oats generally. In this sense it is used
by Byzantine writers. From it, further, comes the modern verb Tayi(w,
"I feed" (active). Compare the converse process in the Latin cibus
becoming limited in the Spanish cebada to the meaning of barley.
ταῦτέρου. Can this contain the lost ἕτερος in any way?
τουπιά. Perhaps from τύπος, with the common retention of the old sound
of v: types, moulds.
vστeρоßúns. Hence the family name of Sterovízi.
φθαρμὸς is probably to be referred to ὀφθαλμός, elsewhere lost.
a spendthrift" or "free-liver."
Xapokóπos. The common word for "a spendthrift
:
;
384
APPENDIX.
II. THE CAPTURE OF A PROTESTANT DI-
VINE, BY AN ALGERINE CORSAIR, IN
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
THE following is an extract from the Journal of the Rev.
Devereux Spratt, my direct ancestor, who was taken by an
Algerine corsair, in sight of the coast of Ireland, near
Youghal.
("
May the first, An. Dom. 1620, I was borne in a parrish
called Stratton-upon-the-Vosse, in the county of Somersett,
where I was religeously educated by my parents Mr. Thomas
Spratt and Elizabeth his wife; my father being a reverend
godly divine, whome God made instrumental in the conver-
sion of many a soule. When I was 14 years old, my father
died. Afterwards I was sent to Maudling Hall, in yº Uni-
versity of Oxford, where I tooke my degree. After which I
removed for Ireland, my mother Elizabeth being called thither
by her father, Mr. Robert Cooke, a reverend divine, pastor of
ye parish called the Island of Kerry, in the county of Kerry,
where I remayned not long; but was called to ye head towne
of ye county named Tralee, where I was tutor to Sir Edward
Dennys's 3 sons. After, by the persuasion of friends, I en-
tered into the functions of the ministry
October 23,
1640, the horrid rebellion of Ireland brake forth, and in it
God's severe judgments upon the English Protestants, there
being not less than 150,000* murdered, as by publique records
appears. In Feb. 1641 it reached us, the whole country being
•
*N.B. The above is in the handwriting of the said Devereux
Spratt.
CAPTIVITY IN ALGIERS.
385
up in rebellion, and two companyes beseiging us in two small
castles, where I saw ye miserable destruction of 120 men,
women, and children by sword, famine, and many diseases,
amongst whome fell my mother Elyzabeth and my youngest
brother Joseph, booth which lyes interred there. This was a
sad affliction; yet I was comforted by the good end Joseph
made, being but 8 years old, yet beged of me to pray for him,
and gave good assurance of dying in the Lord. After two
months' seige, booth castles were surrendered, upon artikles,
into ye hands of the Irish rebbells. Then y° Lord removed me
to Ballybegg garrison, where I preached to the poor stript
Protestants there; and passing thence to Ballingary, an island
of the Shannon, I fell sicke of a feaver, out of which the Lord
delivered me. Then haveing an opportunity, I returned to
Ballybegg, Captaine Ferreter being my convoy, where I re-
mained in the discharge of my calling untill the English army
came to carry us off: at which time the enemy burned booth
y castle and towne of Tralee, and twice set upon us in or
march to Corke, but with ye power of God wee still beat
them. Then at Corke, I petitioned the Lord Inchaquon, who
gave me a pass for England; and coming to Yougholl in a
boate, I embarked in one John Filmer's vessell, which set
sayle with aboute sixscore passengers; but before wee were
out of sight of land, wee were all taken by an Algire piratt,
who putt the men in chaines and storkes. This thing was soe
greivious that I began to question Providence, and accused Him
of injustice in His dealeings with me, untill ye Lord made it
appear otherwise, by ensueing mercye: upon my arrivall in
Algires I found pious Christians, which changed my former
thoughts of God, which was that He dealt more hard with me
than with other of his servents. God was pleased to guide
for me, and those relations of mine taken with me, in a provi-
dentiall ordering of civil patrons for us, who gave me more
VOL. I.
2 c
386
APPENDIX.
liberty than ordinary, especially to me, who preached the gos-
pel to my poor countrymen, amongst whom it pleased God to
make me an instrument of much good. I had not stayed long
there, but I was like to be freed by one Captaine Wilde, a pious
Christian; but on a sudden I was sould and delivered to a
Mussleman dwelling with his family in ye towne, upon which
change and sudden disappointment I was very sad; my patron
asked me the reason, and withall uttered these comfortable
words, 'God is great!' which took such impression as strength-
ened my faith in God, considering thus with myself, Shall this
Turkish Mahumitan teach me, who ame a Christian, my duty
of faith and dependence upon God.
"After this a bond of £1000, preserved in my pockett at
sea, where all else was lost, was now like to be lost, the chest
wherein it lay being broken up by theives.
"After this, God stirred up ye heart of Captaine Wilde to
be an active instrument for me at Leagourno in Ittaly, amongst
the merchants there, to contribute liberally towards my rand-
some, especially a Mr. John Collier. After the captaine re-
turned to Algires, he paid my randsome, which amounted to
200 cobs. Upon this a petition was presented by the English
captives for my staying amongst them; y¹ he showed me, and
asked what I would do in ye case. I tould him he was an
instrument under God of my liberty, and I would be at his
disposeing. He answered noe, I was a free man, and should
be at my own disposeing. Then I replyed, 'I will stay,' con-
sidereing that I might be more servisable to my country by
my continuing in enduring afflictions with the people of God
than to enjoy liberty at home.
"Two years afterwards a proclamation ishued, that all free
men must begone. I then gott my free card, which cost 50
cobes, and departed with several of my countrymen to Pro-
vence, where I found the English merchants very civil to me.
CAPTIVITY IN ALGIERS.
387
At T- I embarked in a vessell bound to London. Wee
touched at Malaga, where I went ashore to refresh myselfe.
From thence wee put to sea againe; and comeing upon ye
coast of Cornewall, the Vice-Admirall Battin invited me
aboard his ship, and keept me a time as chaplaine to his
squadron; and goeing to ye Downes I parted from him and
went to London, thence to a kinsman, one Mr. Thomas
Spratt, minister of Greenwitch. . . . . After a time the Lord
opened a doore of settillment for me, in a place in the county
of Corke, called Mitchaellstowne."
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
JUN 2 4 1919
Printed by Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street.
F

40
35
30
25°
10'
15'
20'
25'
30'
35
40'
45'
50'
55'
26
10'
15'
20'
45'
Ovo Id
EASTERN PART OF
CRET E.
Surveyed by Lieu A.L.Mansell, M. Stokes Master,
Mess G.R.Wilkinson Mate, & EW.Brooker 2nd Mast!
under the direction of
CAPTAIN SPRATT R.N.
GEOLOGICAL
REFERENCE.
Shales and Schists
Limestone
H40'
35'
Marine Tertiary deposits
30
Fresh or brackish water deposits
Igneous rocks
25
Phodele Bay
Phodeles
Monast of A
Panteleimona"
C.Stavros
DIVM
3C.Dhia
Panagia Panagia P
Aklatha
Monast
CYTEUM
Standia
DIA
Parimada
e. Stavro
25
Marathos
Damasta
20
2660
Stromboli
Plain
Armyro
Gazi
Candia
HERACLEUM
MEGALO KASTRON
Astymaki
Ka
kori
Gonies
TYLISSUS
Mone
Susarka
Kamari
iorgios
ماز
Grandes
ARCADIA
Koutou
Volvoliti
Vora
Vali
GORTYNA
stolas
Lauris
15
10
Nivreta
Korphais"
rusonals #
Ketharida
Gorgoliene
pano Asetats
to setais
Makris
Morini
Klioti
on hato
Petrokep
Pentanothi
A.Meron
ebla
Eugenike
Denerato
Manna
Daphnais
Middle Age
Fortress
Taxede
Panasah
RHAUCOS
Balianee
IL Hellenic Hins
Koutina
Moglia Larand
Rani Moglia
4. Masesato Arianais
4.Seilas
M: Loukta kandis Farvardi
134 Vathypetro
Astratiko Tholus
Arcade
Inca lastelaFortress
Kazipathe Cato Aeria
Bastka
Sterona
Meganin
Episkopee Zedas
Vitsiliak
Partera
GNOSSOS
Selang
Foutais
Spelia
Patsedees
PONTUS AMNISSUS
Apano
MATIUM
Anapoli
Kartarg Yelah
Nathya P
Gounes
Bato
H.Giorgios
Gouralis
Aposelem
C.Xersonesos
KHERSONESOS
Skoteino
Vathya
Boxaro
Kalokorig
Xersonesos
duct
Malia
100
Fathom
Line
Paximadi
Trapini Pt
Taraso
Galepha H
M
Episcope
Sgourkephale
D
Angarathe
2700
Karnari
Besa Kelia
Karouano
Maxos
Potamais
جارت
Felench
Adv Sou
Apostoloi
THENAE
Kastallos
Karduliano
Omphalian Plain
LYCASTUS
Feethia
Sinape
Roukani
Alagan
Nora
Thrapsane Moutarou
LYTTOS
Kastamanetsa
Lagou
MALEA BAY
Melato
Anc site Brakası
Temple to
Windmills
Britomartis
Windmills
Latseda
Katsaatano
H.Giorgios
R
Bolismene
A
Spiridiona
B
Platopodi
Mirabello Plain
Gomais
E
Windmills
Krasi
Potamo
Isermia da
Apno Elunta"
KatoKlunta
Axos
Anc Fortress
Metochi
Souvalo
Hellenic
site
Elias
Karud
Stavro Meno
Luma
DIEUM PROM
Skoencas
Fortress of
C. Zuan
Spina Longa
Dragonara
DIONYSIA DES
INSULA
Yanisades
C.Sidaro
20'
SPINALONGA
Kolokythia
OLONTION
Poro Bay
100
Galatas
Kamara
Amargiano
Lasethe Effendi
Roussokori
Marmakete
Pharsano
Plain of
Plati LA SETHE
Kasethe,
kalokori
Kefala
Kalao
'Gass
A.Asimee
Nepedeto
"Thamania
Melidohori
Dorias
Avli
PYRANTHOS
Aposoleme "Pirati
chif
badiah
Kala Khorio
Kouto fou
dzapardi Ena
Makera
"Kasame
Phate
INATOS
Mid Alge
Turloti "
Asimi
35
Matropolis
Lantrance to
byrinth
Kustulyana
PYLORUS
Flakyakes
Angya
Nakamato Phionisi
Vawanah
Babalianah
STELAEZ
Philippo
Messakhorio
Rotas
-3 RHYTION
Panagia
Star ges
Koralcas
Kaloyero
Sternes
Nikoli Zabres
Ethia
Kandelyne ins
Vasiliki
Kamasa
Kaptanyal
ASTERO
cherias
Brenia
MKophino Mourna
CATTARRHACTES F
PRIAN SOS
Vilgoli
Trapet
Kakou
itsicheri
Garipa
Katzikali "Vakiolis
Z
M
Kephalado
S
Sorfokigne
"Legortino
Tiano
Pretoriah
Tharrianah
Metoke
Empera
Aplecke M
Martha
Cato Viano
Kastiano
BIENNOS
Plaka
Krivata
RHIZO
AMoni
Keraton
CERITCE
R
LEBENA
55
CKefala
LEON PRON
C.Treka
C.Kokino
C.Martello
Alikaporitha
Sudsuro B.
Sudsuro C.
Keraton B.
Arv
Murnies
STRON
Ogdostan
Luraki
JUPITER ARBIUS
Malia
Kristos
Parsas
Mera
Apana Sime
Pefkos
Katoime
Vasili
CSidonia
C.Théopilo
100
Fathom
Line
Ierapetra
or
Girapetra
Moklo
Prena
Messalare Vasilikee
Monasteraki
Effendi
Kalamafka
Makriyali
Episcope
Psathi
Apand Kho
Methis
Anatolie
Kaloyeri
Muertos
Agros GIRA PETRA
Kamela
Petro Rephalee
HERAPY NA
4.Ioannes
"Tanilza
Kaloyer
Elias
Cato Khorio
Kedrie
Kloanne
Fotia nisi
LakoniaKondarado
Nikolo Id
Psyra 1
Plain
Mikro
Loridaki 100
Goolas
LOLERVS
KAMARA
Skopee
Piskokephalo
GULF OF
MIRABELLA
Berati
Piskopee
Misereou
Oxo Mulianah
Metoclu
Kritsa
Agio Mandra
Sphaka
Mulianah
Lastro
Sphakia
Zu
Paleo Mintate
Carouba
Mothes
Sa Mothes
10
CARUBA
BAY
Koudoumalia
Avrakoules
Kroustas
Kumithia
Kalo
KhorioMINOA
Kopra Kephale
Kastelli
Daphne
Sotera
ir Sandali
Toortoply
Panagid
PRESOS
Kareethi
Kalan
Rhokaka
Silaa
Skalliah
Sklavosa
Zakro B.
ITANOS C.Zakro
Fathom
Line
aneromani B
C.Phaneromani
Leoptra
Venetian
Fortress
Good water
C.Sitia
SITIA BAY
C.Mavro
Yandra
Port Keremathi
Tenda
Adziklari
Plu
Monastery
Eremopoli
ETERA
Palaio Kastron
GRAMMIOM-
Elasa d
PLATEA INSULA
GRANDES
C.Tenda
BAY
Grandes I.
1.
C. Salmone
15'
Agio Irine
Villages
Agatee
Hagia Sophia
A Khadra
Sitano
Kataleone
Lariano
Armenos
Kato Epithee
Kataplayah Panagia
Kalo
Nero
MAKRI-YALO B.
Plain
eros Plain
Stalo
Gamion
2632
Zero
C.Goutherou ERYTHRO UM PRO
KUPHO
Kupho-nisi
OPHYUSA
CHAN
Ruins
212
AMPELOS
Kavallos Ids&Bay
35°
55'
50H
45
55'
25°
CHRYSEA
Gaidaro-nisi
10'
15'
20
25'
30'
35
40'
45'
50'
55
Longitude East 26 of Greenwich.
5
10'
15
20'
50
H.Adlard Se.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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