Letters from Crete. Letters written during the Spring of 1886

Front matter

LETTEES FEOM CRETE. LETTERS FROM CRETE LETTERS WRITTEN DURING THE SPRING OF 1886. BY CHARLES EDWARDES. LONDON : RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, $ub lishtre in ffhMnun) to 3Jrr J&sjesi}*. the Outfit. 1887. TO COUNT ANGELO MANZONI, OF BOLOGNA AND SAN ZACCARIA. My dear Manzoni, It increases the pleasure of my memories of Crete that I am able to share them ivith you by thus signing myself Affectionately yours, CHABLES EDW.IRDES. PAGE 12 27 39 50 CONTENTS. Introduction - - - - - - xi

Letter I

Steamship Tibisco — Company on Board — First Look at Crete — Difficulties of Speech — The Corfu Schoolmaster — Ashore in Canea - - - - - 1-

Letter II

The Hotel de Constantinople — Sights and Sounds in the Streets of Canea — The Walls and Suburbs of Canea — The Madara Vouna — Hopes rebuffed — A First Bargain in the Bazaar — Bedroom Counsel - - - - - 13

Letter III

Established as a Householder — Situation and Appointments of my House — Sorrows of Furnishing— A Grateful Confectioner — My First Night in my Cretan Home - 28-

Letter IV

Cretan Schoolboys — A Cretan Shepherd — Business of the Day — Cretan Pronunciation — Political Hopes, Fears, and Suspicions — My Unfortunate Neighbour — Domestic Amusements and Anxieties — The Noises of Khalepa - CONTENTS VIII PAGE •60 80 112 161 182 201

Letter XII

A Journey West — A Bad Pony and a Good Mule — My Moslem Guide — A Cretan Wayside Inn — The City of Platanias — A Ride against the Wind — The Beautiful Village of Spiglia — On the Mountains and in the Valleys — Kissamos Kastelli - 214 — !

Letter XIII

The Situation of Kissamos Kastelli — New Hardships of Ignorance — Daily Routine and Visitors — Treasures of the City — A Review of Troops — Remains of Antiquity — A Bevy of Young Patriots — Night and Morning - 235 — :

Letter XIV

A City of very Ancient History— A Rude Track to it — Other Prehistoric Cities conjecturable — Monuments of the Past — A Lovely Maid — The Day ends with the Dictionary ------ 252 — :

Letter XV

The Ancient Coast City of Phalasarna — A Gusty Ride to it — Tlie Throne, the Empty Houses, and the Ruined Temples — Lunch by a Spring — A British Gunboat — The Village of Mesoghia — Cards, Coffee, and Hard-Boiled - 268—: Eggs CONTENTS. X PAGE •331 ■360 381 389 390

Letter XVI

Crete a Deserter— Farewell to Kissamos— The Monastery of Gonia — The Ardent ' Grammatikos ' — Ollendorff and the Monks— The Monks and the Quinine — An Evensong in the Church— A Protracted ' Good-Night '—Petrified Men — An Horatian Breakfast - 299 — ',

Letter XVII

Candia, the Old Capital of Crete — Retimo and the Coast — Characters on Board — The Walls of Candia — The Governor — The Labyrinth of Dædalus in its Modern Aspect — Independence and Superstition of the Hill Cretans - 332 — !

Letter XVIII

The Metropolis of Jove and Minos — The Great Labyrinth — Cnossus, its Barley-Fields and its Empty Graves — Arkanais — The Mayor of the Village — Embarrassments — Up the Mountain and into the Tomb of Jove — Back to Candia ------ 361 —

Letter XIX

Athens — Break-up of a Home and ' Good-bye ' — Again on the Tibisco — Wooing and Necromancing — The Archbishop and the Rose — Farewell to Canea and Crete — In the Saronic Gulf - 382 — I Appendix to Letter VI.

Introduction

. Crete is so charming a country that I hope I may find forgiveness for imposing upon the public a me morial of the bright days I have spent in it. The pity is that this beautiful land should perennially be in a state of political unrest. Hard things have been said of Crete and the Cretans ; but in relation to this island, Fate seems even more un kind than man. In the first ages of European history, a prey to despots of the most despotic stamp ; and noAv, in these latter days, still a slave, though a priAuleged one ! Strange that a country Avhich classical myth has honoured above every other division of the Avorld, should have suffered so much in the past, and should know so little of the happiness of contentment in the present ! As for the political future of Crete, that will be a matter of schemes and conjecture so long as the Ottoman flag flutters dominant over the toAvns of the island. Thirty years ago the Emperor of

INTRODUCTION.

. XII Russia thought to gain British sufferance and good- Avill by promoting (as part of a quid pro quo) the cession of Crete from moribund Turkey to Great Britain. But the Crimean War proved the visionary nature of this little plan of Nicolas I. Even now, in 18 87, the Turkish Empire still holds together, after a fashion. To the majority of the Cretans themselves, no doubt it seems the most obvious thing in the Avorld that they should revert to the King of the Hellenes as soon as they have slipped off the loose chains of the Sultan. France openly backs them in this assumption ; but it is hard to say if France is quite so disinterest edly Philocretan as she pretends to be. The political agents from Athens have dinned it into their ears until they have accepted it as their inevitable lot. But the simple-natured Cretans have no real conception of what Avould come upon them Avith such a change of suzerainty.

They are fatally susceptible to rhetoric, and are, there fore, to a great extent, puppets in the hands of the rhetorical Athenians, who come to them Avith all manner of plausible words on their tongues. They listen only too ingenuously to these intrig ants of modern Greece, who profess such hot and generous eagerness to enlarge the bounds of the kingdom of Greece — seemingly heedless or

INTRODUCTION.

. XIII unaware that the maladministration of a small territory affords no very reasonable claim to the administration of a larger territory. However, time will settle the question, and it is Avell for Crete that certain of the wiser and more philo sophical Cretans are content to leave such settle ment to time. Why should they not, to the very last moment, enjoy the unique pleasure of attracting the sympathies of every enlightened European, and the consciousness all the while that in every essential particular they are happier than they can hope to be when there is no Sultan at Constanti nople ? But of course the day is not with the philosophers ; and so Ave may at any hour look for the outbreak, upon one pretext or another, of the last of the long list of insurrections, for which alone unhappy Crete has been famous dining these latter centuries.

The Cretans have an appalling record against their rulers, ancl until human nature is dis placed by divine nature, they are not likely to forgive the Turks their wrongs of the past. The writer will be glad if the following ' Letters ' may in any degree serve to inform Englishmen of this relationship, in the past and the present, betAveen the Christians and the Moslems of Crete. In conclusion, my best thanks are due to Mr.

INTRODUCTION.

. XIV Kopassis, of Canea, for the use of his library of Cretan books ; to Madame de Schwartz, Mr. Biliotti (her Majesty's Consul in Crete), and Mr. Almond, for the invaluable help I received at their hands ; and to Lord Rosebery for allowing me to examine and extract from a recent consular report, at present among the unprinted MSS. of the Foreign Office, on the conventual establishments of Crete. Mr. Stillman's account of the last insurrection has also been very useful ; and whoever possesses Mr. Curzon's ' Visits to the Monasteries of the Levant,' Avill see at once that I owe not a little inspiration to that excellent work. Wolverhampton, February 22, 1887,

Letter I

Steamship Tibisco — Company on Board — First Look at Crete — Difficulties of Speech — The Corfu Schoolmaster — Ashore in Canea. As a beginning, you will probably Avant to hear Avhat I haA^e to say about Athens. But, I pray you, do not press me on this subject. Rather, choose a time when you do not feel very well, or have had a disappointment the bitterness of which seems immeasurable, and find yourself strangely melancholy. Thus conditioned, take Wordsworth's ' Greece ' (for the sake of the pictures) and as many handbooks as you can discover (for the sake of the facts, or their diversity of reasoning about the facts), and lock yourself up for a steady spell of reading. After this, the difference between us will be one of degree only : your ideas Avill be my impressions. We left the Piræus for Crete just a day late.

The weather was mirky, and the sight of Hymettus, the Plain, the Rock of Lycabettus, and even the sacred Acropolis itself, Avas hardly more emotional than Woolwich or Greenwich in a fog. A steady drizzle soon made the deck so slippery that I was glad to go beloAv. Our ship Avas an old Danube steamer called the Tibisco, able to roll in the calmest sea, and quite used to being execrated by every passenger Avho crosses the Ægean in her. The ship's officers had not a good word to say for the poor thing ; a sly smile and a shrug of the shoulders was the nearest approach to praise they could bestow upon it. Our company Avas small indeed : a lady whose husband is in the Cretan Consular Service ; an Athenian young gentleman whose aims soon de clared themselves, though he Avas diplomatically cautious at the outset ; and, lastly, myself.

The lady was a Russian, Avith a most marvellous talent for conversation. She talked with everyone, and, Avithout saying anything very informing on her own behalf, she cleverly unkernelled her inter locutors ; so that after a Avhile she was looked at a little askance. I Avas an infant in her hands. At first I pleaded ' poor French ;' and she kneAv no English. But at dinner she soon found out that my French, bad as it Avas, could be understood. INQUISITIVE FELLOW-PASSENGERS. 3 ' So you are going to Crete, monsieur, Avithout any political mission, but for pleasure alone ? Oh, how charmed you will be with the beau tiful country ! And you think nothing Avill happen to embarrass you while you are on the island ?' I assured her I had nothing* to do Avith Mr. Gladstone, and her brisk rejoinder of ' Certainly not, monsieur,' clinched the matter, and betrayed her Philottoman tendencies.

The young Athenian was going to Crete to stir up an insurrection, if he could manage it. He was already very exasperated with England, and made a great noise with his patriotic orations Avhen coffee was on the table. ' She is little, and she is brave ! She is Avilling to fight and suffer the consequences if Turkey wins. Why, then, do not the Powers let us fight it out by ourselves ?' He here alluded to Greece, not Crete ; but Avith him it was all one ; nor Avould it be his fault if the tAvo nationalities did not make common cause against their common enemy. His curiosity about me was delightful. ' What, sir, are your affairs in Crete V He could not under stand that an Englishman's Avhim should take him there for other than political reasons, and eventually 1 — he dismissed me from his mind by saying, as if to himself : ' Then you are concerned Avith the ships at Suda.' It is no use feeling angry about this sort of cross-examination.

One must take it for granted that Southerners are interested in what does not concern them. In the second-class part of the ship were two or three bronzed nondescripts, and two fat, thick lipped JeAVS from Trieste. They shared the upper deck Avith us, ate Avith us, and Avent under the tongue of our consular lady. The JeAvs were amusing. They Avere as inquisitive about my business as everyone else. ' And pray what are your affairs in Crete ?' I retorted, Avithout enlightening them. They smiled at each other, and even winked, I believe ; then one of them Avhispered something. The rascals were bound for the little town of Suda, where they intended establishing a roulette-table for the sailors and marines who chanced to come ashore. At a word, they were ready to play ecarte, or anything else, there and then, while we were steaming away from the mountains of the Morea. ' Pour passer le temps, monsieur !' Avith a gesture that told how it would bore them, in fact.

For the rest, the lower-deck of the Tibisco was littered with other and poorer Jews, Albanians, A NOTABLE TURK. 5 Greeks, Cretans, and others, who were to sleep and victual as best they could under the tarpauline contributed as a canopy by the ship's officers. They ate lettuces and olives, smoked cigarettes, scratched, sang, said their prayers, and told stories, all huddled together in a romantic commixture of dirt and picturesqueness. One stout Turk, squatted in their midst, haunted me through the night. He had a cast in both his eyes, and was besides as ugly as one of Brahma's incarnations ; and there he sat motionless for two or three hours, looking Heaven knoAvs where, Avith a string of yelloAV beads in his hands. His sins could hardly have been as ugly as himself, poor fellow ! but they were very engrossing to him.

The young Athenian glared at the Turk Avhenever his steps took him Avithin the radius of the other's eyes ; but it did not disturb the Turk. ' The Englishman's innate dislike for a Greek ' is a current phrase ; but I think one's innate affection for a Turk is not strong enough to make good the antithesis. It came on to Uoav in the evening. With the ship's officers, there were seven or eight of us in the saloon, smoking and drinking tea Avith cognac in it, and the consular lady Avas in our midst, talking as hard as the wind. But the rolling soon despatched us each and all to our cabins ; and for the next eight hours we were bowled from side to side, like a log in a rapid, without intermission. Through my little window, I could see that there was a vexed moon in the heavens. Whenever she tried to peep for a moment at the tossing Ægean, a fresh mass of scud blew across her face, dyed with divine tints.

Gusts of wind and rain also came upon us in the course of the night, and the timbers of the superannuated old craft Availed beseechingly to be put out of their misery. In short, it Avas something like Mr. Irving's Walpurgis Night, Avithout the fire, and without, I hope, the devil. Early the next morning, however, Ave slackened speed, and the rattling of chains made me tumble out of bed. Looking through the port-hole, I could see an amalgam of purple rocks, placid blue sea, and snow mountains in the background, so that it was apparent our voyage was over. And I Avas very soon on deck enjoying a first sight of the Turkish capital of the island, Canea, a gay little town level with the Avater, its windows all sparkling in the face of the sun, Avith some tall green and ochre houses, so like those of Corfu that they were instantly marked as relics of the Venetian times, and studded here and there Avith white minarets and domes.

Behind the town, seeming to press it closely, Avas a ridge of high dark land ; while IN CANEA HARBOUR. 7 immediately behind the ridge Avas a superb group of snoAv-peaks, so clear in the morning light, and so dazzling, that it made one blink and sneeze to look at them. The hills in the foreground are really four or five miles from the town, and not more than tAvo or three thousand feet high ; but the Madara Vouna or Bare Mountains, sometimes also called the White Mountains, or Mountains of Sphakia, are eight thousand sublime feet in height, and about ten miles from Canea. I fancy Canea must be one of the most beautiful places in the Avorld — vieAved from the sea. The harbour is very tiny and neglected : a fair circle, Avith an inner loop to the left. The Tibisco crept in timidly, and her long lean body seemed to cut the port in tAvo.

Then, in an instant, Ave were surrounded by the usual swarm of earnest boatmen, banging each other's boats and the ship's side, cursing and screaming at the top of their voices, and inviting, nay, compelling the passengers to face half a dozen respectable chances of accidental death if they wished to land Avithout delay. I sat and smoked, and let the world wag for a time. The consular lady, very pale and tired, but talkative and impressive as before, expected her husband. She bemoaned the trials of the night and denounced the Tibisco, until a green-striped boat coming towards us put her on a new tack. It was her husband ; and for several minutes the re-united couple looked exultantly at each other from their re spective craft. The lady vowed she would never leave him again — 'jamais! jamais !' — but the gentleman, who Avas a short, rough-looking, taciturn Russian, Avith an ursine smile, said nothing to this.

At the lady's bidding, we exchanged bows ; but I never saAv the man again. I heard later that he Avas not the kindest of husbands, and that the poor lady Avas ahvays glad to get aAvay from him on a visit to her friends in Russia. That ancient Avorthy, Dr. Kitchener, says in his ' Hints to Travellers ' : ' When you arrive in any ToAvn, begin with ascending the highest edifice, or the highest neighbouring ground.' Perhaps he never visited any except Christian lands and Christian cities, where he Avould be shown to the top of the church readily enough. In a Turkish city it is not so easy to climb to the top of a minaret, Avhich is certainly the loftiest building of the place. Here in Canea, hoAveArer, the Customs authorities first claimed a little time. We spoke by signs, and Avith a patchwork of Italian, French, and English, to which the boy Avho rowed me ashore contributed.

Turkish and Cretan Greek DIVERSITY OF TONGUES. 9 are the languages in vogue, the latter predomi nating. The officials, Avhen they Avere satisfied that I had no dynamite for the subversion of the Ottoman Empire, and Avas on the Avhole a man of fair respec tability, demanded my passport to settle the matter. But they could not read it when it Avas given to them. They handed it from one to the other, Avith elegant upliftings of eyebrows, and an evident readiness to shirk the responsibility of interpreting it, until at length, having held it upside down for about a minute, with a very sapient look on his face, one of them discovered the lion ancl the unicorn, Avith which he had a boAving acquaintance. I then offered them a letter of introduction in Latin characters, but their numbers diminished so im mediately and the residue of them Avere so much dismayed and mystified, that I at once perceived they could not read a Avord of the superscription.

It Avould certainly seem well, therefore, to have a feAV words of colloquial Greek at command before coming to Crete. A dozen breakfasts Avith Pro fessor Blackie Avould be a great comfort and relief to one's anxieties, or a steady three months' course of Geldart's ' Modern Greek Grammar.' HoAvever, I shall face the difficulty as best I may even noAv, Avith Geldart and the dictionary. At Brindisi I met Avith a cordial but eccentric old pedagogue of Corfu, Avho spent half an hour one afternoon in driving a feAV commonplace phrases into my head. I feel more grateful to him now than I felt then, for it is something, though not much, to be able to remark that it is fine weather, that the sun is hot, or that it promises to be rainy, Avhen this or that questioner is puzzling himself to know hoAv to address a single intelligible Avord to one.

This grim old pedagogue invited me to spend a Aveek Avith him at his schoolhouse in Corfu. Hoav I wish I had gone, even though it might have been to mix on terms of sad equality with small brown urchins of six years and seven, just stumbling up the scale of Alpha, Beta, Gamma ! He assured me that a Aveek Avould Avork Avonders, if I were cut off from all communication with my native tongue. And no doubt he spoke sense. Hoav the old gentleman laughed, to be sure, when I asked if he were a severe disciplinarian ! And with Avhat gross but emphatic pantomime he shoAved how he was wont to treat those of his scholars who were remiss, either from laziness or natural dulness ! I think it was the horrific spectacle he presented in the portrayal of this feature in his professional life that made me Avish him a curt ' Good-afternoon,' and summarily dismiss from my mind the shy thought that had already occurred to me of en- THE CORFU PEDAGOGUE. 11 rolling myself as a large and very stupid scholar under his roof and ferule.

At any rate, I have not thought of the old gentleman since ; and now that the need occurs, of course the opportunity is lacking. I believe the inflection and terminology of Turkish are not a very profound tax on the in tellect of a student. But, nevertheless, Turkish as a language for use during only a feAV months of one's life is quite out of the question. And as for learning it merely as a pastime, I think I will Avait until it seems advisable to oust some great grief from my mind by the installation of a greater. But even the Greek of the Corfu pedagogue might not serve very successfully doAvn here. For Cretan Greek differs so much in sound from Athenian Greek, that a subject of King George is often mystified by a Cretan's tongue. On this matter, perhaps, I may have more to say by and-by.

I must noAv make an end, as I Avant this to return Avith the Tibisco. The boat is such an old miscreant that no port keeps her more than a feAV hours, unless she is going under repair. For to-night, at all events, I am at an hotel, in a narrow street of shops, Avhere I see pots of Cretan honey for sale side by side with great heaps of seductive Turkish tobacco. The hotel has an inner courtyard of no great interest ; but its windows look further into a Turkish graveyard of painted tombs, Avith a fountain, and sundry other attractions Avhich keep the place populous.

Letter II

The Hotel de Constantinople — Sights and Sounds in the Streets of Canea — The Walls and Suburbs of Canea — Tbe Madara Vouna — Hopes rebuffed — A First Bargain in the Bazaar — Bedroom Counsel. I must say a few words about Avhat I have seen of Canea, and its far pleasanter suburb Khalepa, Avhere the consuls and more respectable Greeks and Turks have their residences. The hotel here is called ' of Constantinople.' It is, hoAvever, a hybrid concern. The anteroom is furnished Avith some tall presses, containing articles of European usage, such as calico shirts, gilt studs, pomatum, tinned salmon, and dress shoes ; and opposite these presses are two nice broad benches upon which I sat for an hour or tAvo, aAvaiting the decision of the genteel Greek in a fez who oaviis the inn, and was considering Avhether he could receive me as a guest. ' It will be aAvkAvard,' he made me understand, ' because it is fast-time, and only the sickly lambs will be killed, and you will not like eating as we eat.

Again, I am not sure that I can give you a room.' I assured him that he need not be anxious. I did not purpose staying with him long enough to suffer from the inconveniences of his establishment. Happily, my gambling Jews then came to set things straight betAveen us, by acting as interpre ters. One of them had spent the feAv hours he had been on shore in getting into a state of tipsi ness that tempted me to kick him. He hiccup ed in my face while renewing the old inquiries about my business, and turned his face that he might roar with drunken laughter about Avhat he thought my extraordinary position, stranded in the island of Crete, with no very certain plans on my hands. With some to-do I got breakfast at this inn. It was the custom, they explained, for guests to go into one or the other of the little dens in the highway, and feed at feeding-time only ; but I was Inglese, and so — Well, they took me to the kitchen, a large rickety room, filled with uncouth Oriental culinary implements ; and there I was attended by a fierce-looking Cretan, Avith a dagger in his belt, who Avatched my every movement, the better to anticipate my Avants, and quarrelled three or four times with his master about this thing or A CRETAN AND A BEDOUIN. 15 that Avhich he Avished me to have, but AA'hich his master Avould have denied me.

The man Avas so affectionate and devoted that I conceived a liking for his felloAV-countrymen there and then- — a liking which circumstances have not yet made me adul terate. You Avill Avant to knoAv Avhat I had to eat in this hostelry. Well, I am sorry I cannot tell you. It was like hare and tomato sauce, and afterAvards they gave me a Turkish pie of some kind. This, Avith some bread, some salt in crystals nearly as large as dice, and a flask of famous Cretan Avine, put new life into me after the night's racket. My Cretan placed his hand to his heart, and boAved SAveetly Avhen I rose from the table ; his civility, contrasted Avith his bellicose face and the dagger, seemed to me rather odd. After the breakfast I Avas provided with a bald headed Arab Avith an eye like an eagle's, bare legs, and a wrapper of gay-coloured raiment about his loins and stomach : he Avas to guide me through the toAvn and out to the Britisii consul's house.

It Avas a AAralk, completely charming for its novelties, but fatiguing in the extreme. The toAvn is old, still about a quarter Venetian, I should think, Avith narrow streets paATed Avith abominable large cobbles, over Avhich men and asses, dogs and horses and mules slip and splash to and fro all though the day. And such an assortment of human beings ! They say Canea can beat any place in the Levant for the number of its nationalities ; and I can believe it. There Avere Greeks from the mainland in frowsy broadcloth and top-hats or billycocks ; looking, oh, so very remote in dignity from the conception one forms of their notable ancestors ! There Avere Turks of all ranks and conditions ; from the imposing though a trifle sleepy-looking Bey on a long-tailed thoroughbred swaddled in valuable trappings, to the very undignified Moslems who sat in the doorAvays of their shops or Avare houses smoking chibouks, and exposing their obesity.

Turkish foot-soldiers stood at the gates of the city and challenged me ; but, of course, my Arab had the countersign or pass-word, if that Avere part of the routine of Canea life. Then there were Arabs, men and women, dressed precisely as if they were living in their native desert. There is a colony of them outside the city ; and also of Bedouins Avho, according to report, Avould make nothing of tearing an inquisi tive European to pieces and throwing him to the chickens : so untamed ancl unamenable to civilized influences are they ! By the fountains in the city we came upon little CANEA FOLK. 17 clusters of fat Nubian ladies, sitting elegantly upon their haunches, with store of lettuces, radishes, and other more mysterious greens for sale. Occasionally one of them would scream, and make me jump to one side ; it Avas her method of advertising the freshness of her kitchen-garden stuff.

Their faces, black though they were, glistened to such a degree that I fancied I could see my reflection in their fat cheeks. At these same fountains one saAv, moreover, all the picturesque bustle and movement which makes such places interesting in the East. Porters were bending under a long pole supported on their shoulders, from which tAvo or three big barrels of water were suspended. Others were filling sheep or lamb skins, until the shape of the deceased owner of the skin was pathetically reproduced. Then there Avere purveyors of different trifles standing here and there in the open places : lemonade-men, tart-men (I AA'as not tempted by their tarts, I can assure you), honey water-men, and others ; and each and all screamed to attract passers-by towards their goods. Add to all these, the Cretan people proper, a fine stalwart race, Avith independence in their eyes, and ten times as manly as the mainland Greeks Avho come over to teach them the A B C of conduct; multitudes of little boys in blue cotton goAvns and breeches, going to school or AA'hat not ; little boys in fezes, with countenances showing forth some problems of birthright, though their Turkish paternity is plainly written on them ; ancl lastly, a staring sailor here and there from the Fleet, with commissariat work on his hands Avhich he Avould give the world to be creditably quit of, ancl a sprinkling of black coats representing the different employes of the consular houses — and you may get a fair idea of the tumult of tongues and the variety of colour in these streets of Canea.