[Illustration]
The island of Crete, lying like a long, narrow bar across the mouth of
the Ægean Sea, presents a mountainous and rugged appearance to one
approaching from any side. Possessing an extreme length of about one
hundred and sixty miles, it is nowhere more than thirty-five miles in
width, and in places much less than that. A lofty backbone of mountain
runs through it from end to end. In all its coast-line few decent
harbors are to be found, and that of the thriving city of Canea, near
the northwestern end of the island, is no exception. In ancient times
the fortifications and moles that were built to protect the ports had in
view the small sailing vessels of light draught which were then common,
and today it is necessary for steamers of any size to anchor in the
practically open roadsteads outside the harbor proper. Needless to say,
landing in small boats from a vessel stationed at this considerable
distance outside the breakwater is a matter largely dependent on the
wind and weather, not only at Canea, with which we are at present
concerned, but at Candia, of which we shall speak later. In a north
wind, such as frequently blows for days together, a landing on the
northern coast is often quite impossible, and steamers have been known
to lie for days off the island waiting a chance to approach and
discharge. This contretemps, however, is less to be feared at Canea
because of the proximity of the excellent though isolated Suda Bay,
which is landlocked and deep, affording quiet water in any weather, but
presenting the drawback that it is about four miles from the city of
Canea, devoid of docks and surrounded by flat marshes. Nevertheless,
steamers finding the weather too rough off the port do proceed thither
on occasion and transact their business there, though with some
difficulty. The resort to Suda, however, is seldom made save in
exceedingly rough weather, for the stout shore boats of the Cretans are
capable of braving very considerable waves and landing passengers and
freight before the city itself in a fairly stiff northwest gale, as our
own experience in several Cretan landings has proven abundantly. It is
not a trip to be recommended to the timorous, however, when the sea is
high; for although it is probably not as dangerous as it looks, the row
across the open water between steamer and harbor is certainly rather
terrifying in appearance, as the boats rise and fall, now in sight of
each other on the crest of the waves, now disappearing for what seem
interminable intervals in the valleys of water between what look like
mountains of wave tossing angrily on all sides. The boatmen are skillful
and comparatively few seas are shipped, but even so it is a passage
likely to be dampening to the ardor in more ways than one. On a calm
day, when the wind is light or offshore, there is naturally no trouble,
and the boatmen have never seemed to me rapacious or insolent, but quite
ready to abide by the very reasonable tariff charge for the round trip.
In bad weather, as is not unnatural, it often happens that the men
request a gratuity over and above the established franc-and-a-half rate,
on the plea that the trip has been "molto cattivo" and the labor
consequently out of all proportion to the tariff charge—which is true.
It is no light task for three or four stout natives to row a heavy boat
containing eight people over such a sea as often is to be found running
off Canea, fighting for every foot of advance, and easing off now and
then to put the boat head up to an unusually menacing comber.
[Illustration: LANDING-PLACE AT CANEA]
The landing at Canea, if the weather permits landing at all, is on a
long curving stone quay, lined with picturesque buildings, including a
mosque with its minaret, the latter testifying to the considerable
residuum of Turkish and Mohammedan population that remains in this
polyglot island, despite its present Greek rule under the oversight of
the Christian powers of Europe. The houses along the quay are mostly a
grayish white, with the light green shutters one learns to associate
with similar towns everywhere in the Ægean. Behind the town at no very
great distance may be seen rising lofty and forbidding mountains,
snowcapped down to early May; but a brief ride out from the city to Suda
Bay will serve to reveal some fertile and open valleys such as save
Crete from being a barren and utterly uninviting land. The ordinary stop
of an Italian steamer at this port is something like six or eight hours,
which is amply sufficient to give a very good idea of Canea and its
immediate neighborhood. The time is enough for a walk through the
tortuous and narrow highways and byways of the city—walks in which one
is attended by a crowd of small boys from the start, and indeed by large
boys as well, all most persistently offering their most unnecessary
guidance in the hope of receiving “backsheesh,” which truly Oriental
word is to be heard at every turn, and affords one more enduring local
monument to the former rule of the unspeakable Turk. These lads
apparently speak a smattering of every known language, and are as quick
and alert as the New York or Naples gamin. Incidentally, I wonder if
every other visitor to Canea is afflicted with "Mustapha"? On our last
landing there we were told, as we went over the side of the steamer to
brave the tempestuous journey ashore in the boat which bobbed below, to
be sure to look for “Mustapha.” The captain always recommended Mustapha,
he said, and no Americano that ever enlisted the services of Mustapha as
guide, philosopher, and friend for four Canean hours had ever regretted
it. So we began diligent inquiry of the boatman if he knew this
Mustapha. Yes, he did—and who better? Was he not Mustapha himself, in
his own proper person? Inwardly congratulating ourselves at finding the
indispensable with such remarkable promptitude, we soon gained the
harbor, and the subsequent landing at the quay was assisted in by at
least forty hardy Caneans, including one bullet-headed Nubian, seven
shades darker than a particularly black ace of clubs, who exhibited a
mouthful of ivory and proclaimed himself, unsolicited, as the true and
only Mustapha,—a declaration that caused an instant and spontaneous howl
of derision from sundry other bystanders, who promptly filed their
claims to that Oriental name and all the excellences that it implied.
Apparently Mustapha’s other name was Legion. Search for him was
abandoned on the spot, and I would advise any subsequent traveler to do
the same. Search is quite unnecessary. Wherever two or three Caneans are
gathered together, there is Mustapha in the midst of them,—and perhaps
two or three of him.
It is by no means easy to get rid of the Canean urchins who follow you
away from the landing-place and into the quaint and narrow streets of
the town. By deploying your landing party, which is generally
sufficiently numerous for the purpose, in blocks of three or four, the
convoy of youth may be split into detachments and destroyed in detail.
It may be an inexpensive and rather entertaining luxury to permit the
brightest lad of the lot to go along, although, as has been intimated,
guidance is about the last thing needed in Canea. The streets are very
narrow, very crooked, and not over clean, and are lined with houses
having those projecting basketwork windows overhead, such as are common
enough in every Turkish or semi-Turkish city. Many of the women go
heavily veiled, sometimes showing the upper face and sometimes not even
that, giving an additional Oriental touch to the street scenes. This
veiling is in part a survival of Turkish usages, and in part is due to
the dust and glare. It is a practice to be met with in many other Ægean
islands as well as in Crete. It is this perpetual recurrence of
Mohammedan touches that prevents Canea from seeming typically Greek,
despite its nominal allegiance. To all outward seeming it is Turkish
still, and mosques and minarets rise above its roofs in more than one
spot as one surveys it from the harbor or from the hills. The streets
with their narrow alleys and overshadowing archways are tempting indeed
to the camera, and it may as well be said once and for all that it is a
grave mistake to visit Greece and the adjacent lands without that
harmless instrument of retrospective pleasure.
As for sights, Canea must be confessed to offer none that are of the
traditional kind, “double-starred in Bædeker.” There is no museum there,
and no ruins. The hills are too far away to permit an ascent for a view.
The palace of the Greek royal commissioner, Prince George, offers slight
attraction to the visitor compared with the scenes of the streets and
squares in the town itself, the coffee-houses, and above all the curious
shops. Canea is no mean place for the curio hunter with an eye to
handsome, though barbaric, blankets, saddle-bags, and the like. The
bizarre effect of the scene is increased by the manifold racial
characteristics of face, figure, and dress that one may observe there;
men and women quaintly garbed in the peasant dress of half a dozen
different nations. In a corner, sheltered from the heat or from the
wind, as the case may be, sit knots of weazen old men, cloaks wrapped
about their shoulders, either drinking their muddy coffee or plying some
trifling trade while they gossip,—doubtless about the changed times.
From a neighboring coffeehouse there will be heard to trickle a wild and
barbaric melody tortured out of a long-suffering fiddle that cannot, by
any stretch of euphemism, be called a violin; or men may be seen dancing
in a sedate and solemn circle, arms spread on each other’s shoulders in
the Greek fashion, to the minor cadences of the plaintive “bouzouki,” or
Greek guitar. There are shops of every kind, retailing chiefly queer
woolen bags, or shoes of soft, white skins, or sweetmeats of the Greek
and Turkish fashion. Here it is possible for the first time to become
acquainted with the celebrated “loukoumi” of Syra, a soft paste made of
gums, rosewater, and flavoring extracts, with an addition of chopped
nuts, each block of the candy rolled in soft sugar. It is much esteemed
by the Greeks, who are notorious lovers of sweetmeats, and it is
imitated and grossly libeled in America under the alias of “Turkish
Delight.”
From Canea a very good road leads out over a gently rolling country to
Suda Bay. Little is to be seen there, however, save a very lovely
prospect of hill and vale, and a few warships of various nations lying
at anchor, representing the four or five jealous powers who maintain a
constant watch over the destinies of this troublous isle. The
cosmopolitan character of these naval visitants is abundantly testified
to by the signs that one may see along the highroad near Suda, ringing
all possible linguistic changes on legends that indicate facilities for
the entertainment of Jack ashore, and capable of being summed up in the
single phrase, “Army and Navy Bar.” The Greeks were ever a hospitable
race.
The road to Suda, however, is far from being lined by nothing more
lovely than these decrepit wine shops for the audacious tar. The three
or four miles of its length lie through fertile fields devoted to olive
orchards and to the cultivation of grain, and one would look far for a
more picturesque sight than the Cretan farmer driving his jocund team
afield—a team of large oxen attached to a primitive plow—or wielding his
cumbersome hoe in turning up the sod under his own vine and olive trees.
It is a pleasing and pastoral spectacle. The ride out to Suda is easily
made while the steamer waits, in a very comfortable carriage procurable
in the public square for a moderate sum. It may be as well to remark,
however, that carriages in Greece are not, as a rule, anywhere nearly as
cheap as in Italy.
It is a long jump from Canea to Candia, the second city of the island,
situated many miles farther to the east along this northern shore. But
it easily surpasses Canea in classic interest, being the site of the
traditional ruler of Crete in the most ancient times,—King Minos,—of
whom we shall have much to say. Candia, as we shall call it, although
its local name is Megalokastron, is not touched by any of the steamers
en route from the west to Athens, but must be visited in connection with
a cruise among the islands of the Ægean. From the sea it resembles Canea
in nature as well as in name. It shows the same harbor fortifications of
Venetian build, and bears the same lion of St. Mark. It possesses the
same lack of harborage for vessels other than small sailing craft. Its
water front is lined with white houses with green blinds, and slender
white minarets stand loftily above the roofs. Its streets and squares
are much like Canea’s, too, although they are rather broader and more
modern in appearance; while the crowds of people in the streets present
a similar array of racial types to that already referred to in
describing the former city. More handsome men are to be seen, splendid
specimens of humanity clad in the blue baggy trousers and jackets of
Turkish cut, and wearing the fez. Candia is well walled by a very thick
and lofty fortification erected in Venetian times, and lies at the
opening of a broad valley stretching across the island to the south, and
by its topography and central situation was the natural theatre of
activity in the distant period with which we are about to make our first
acquaintance. Even without leaving the city one may get some idea of the
vast antiquity of some of its relics by a visit to the museum located in
an old Venetian palace in the heart of the town, where are to be seen
the finds of various excavators who have labored in the island. Most of
these belong to a very remote past, antedating vastly the Mycenæan
period, which used to seem so old, with its traditions of Agamemnon and
the sack of Troy. Here we encounter relics of monarchs who lived before
Troy was made famous, and the English excavator, Evans, who has exhumed
the palace of Minos not far outside the city gates, has classified the
articles displayed as of the “Minoan” period. It would be idle in this
place to attempt any detailed explanation of the subdivisions of
“early,” “middle,” and “late Minoan” which have been appended to the
manifold relics to be seen in the museum collection, or to give any
detailed description of them. It must suffice to say that the period
represented is so early that any attempt to affix dates must be
conjectural, and that we may safely take it in general terms as a period
so far preceding the dawn of recorded history that it was largely
legendary even in the time of the classic Greeks, who already regarded
Minos himself as a demi-god and sort of immortal judge in the realm of
the shades. The museum, with its hundreds of quaint old vases, rudely
ornamented in geometric patterns, its fantastic and faded mural
paintings, its sarcophagi, its implements of toil, and all the manifold
testimony to a civilization so remote that it is overwhelming to the
mind, will serve to hold the visitor long. Nor is it to be forgotten
that among these relics from Cnossos, Phæstos, and Gortyn, are many
contributed by the industry and energy of the American investigator,
Mrs. Hawes (_née_ Boyd), whose work in Crete has been of great value and
archæological interest.
Having whetted one’s appetite for the remotely antique by browsing
through this collection of treasures, one is ready enough to make the
journey out to Cnossos, the site of the ancient palace, only four miles
away. There is a good road, and it is possible to walk if desired,
although it is about as hot and uninteresting a walk as can well be
imagined. It is easier and better to ride, although the Cretan drivers
in general, and the Candian ones in particular, enjoy the reputation of
being about the most rapacious in the civilized world. On the way out to
the palace at Cnossos, the road winds through a rolling country, and
crosses repeatedly an old paved Turkish road, which must have been much
less agreeable than the present one to traverse. On the right, far away
to the southwest, rises the peak which is supposed to be the birthplace
of Zeus, the slopes of Mt. Ida. Crete is the land most sacred to Zeus of
all the lands of the ancient world. Here his mother bore him, having
fled thither to escape the wrath of her husband, the god Cronos, who had
formed the unbecoming habit of swallowing his progeny as soon as they
were born. Having been duly delivered of the child Zeus, his mother,
Rhæa, wrapped up a stone in some cloth and presented it to Cronos, who
swallowed it, persuaded that he had once more ridded the world of the
son it was predicted should oust him from his godlike dignities and
power. But Rhæa concealed the real Zeus in a cave on Ida, and when he
came to maturity he made war on Cronos and deprived him of his dominion.
Hence Zeus, whose worship in Crete soon spread to other islands and
mainland, was held in highest esteem in the isle of his birth, and his
cult had for its symbol the double-headed axe, which we find on so many
of the relics of the Candia museum and on the walls of the ancient
palaces, like that we are on the way to visit at Cnossos.
It is necessary to remark that there were two characters named Minos in
the ancient mythology. The original of the name was the child of Zeus
and Europa, and he ruled over Crete, where Saturn is supposed to have
governed before him, proving a wise law-giver for the people. The other
Minos was a grandson of the first, child of Lycastos and Ida. This Minos
later grew up and married Pasiphaë, whose unnatural passion begot the
Minotaur, or savage bull with the body of a man and an appetite for
human flesh. To house this monster Minos was compelled to build the
celebrated labyrinth, and he fed the bull with condemned criminals, who
were sent into the mazes of the labyrinth never to return. Still later,
taking offense at the Athenians because in their Panathenaic games they
had killed his own son, Minos sent an expedition against them, defeated
them, and thereafter levied an annual tribute of seven boys and seven
girls upon the inhabitants, who were taken to Crete and fed to the
Minotaur. This cruel exaction continued until Theseus came to Crete and,
with the aid of the thread furnished him by Ariadne, tracked his way
into the labyrinth, slaughtered the monster and returned alive to the
light of day. Of course such a network of myths, if it does nothing
else, argues the great antiquity of the Minoan period, to which the
ruins around Candia are supposed to belong, and they naturally lead us
to an inquiry whether any labyrinth was ever found or supposed to be
found in the vicinity. I believe there actually is an extensive
artificial cave in the mountains south of Cnossos, doubtless an ancient
subterranean quarry, which is called “the labyrinth” to-day, though it
doubtless never sheltered the Minotaur. It is sufficiently large to have
served once as the abode of several hundred persons during times of
revolution, they living there in comparative comfort save for the lack
of light; and it is interesting to know that they employed Ariadne’s
device of the thread to keep them in touch with the passage out of their
self-imposed prison when the political atmosphere cleared and it was
safe to venture forth into the light of day. It seems rather more
probable that the myth or legend of the labyrinth of Minos had its
origin in the labyrinthine character of the king’s own palace, as it is
now shown to have been a perfect maze of corridors and rooms, through
which it is possible to wander at will, since the excavators have laid
them open after the lapse of many centuries. A glance at the plans of
the Cnossos palace in the guide-books, or a survey of them from the top
of Mr. Evans’s rather garish and incongruous but highly useful tower on
the spot, will serve to show a network of passageways and apartments
that might easily have given rise to the tale of the impenetrable
man-trap which Theseus alone had the wit to evade.
The ruins lie at the east of the high road, in a deep valley. Their
excavation has been very complete and satisfactory, and while some
restorations have been attempted here and there, chiefly because of
absolute necessity to preserve portions of the structure, they are not
such restorations as to jar on one, but exhibit a fidelity to tradition
that saves them from the common fate of such efforts. Little or no
retouching was necessary in the case of the stupendous flights of steps
that were found leading up to the door of this prehistoric royal
residence, and which are the first of the many sights the visitor of
to-day may see. It is in the so-called “throne room of Minos” that the
restoring hand is first met. Here it has been found necessary to provide
a roof, that damage by weather be avoided; and to-day the throne room is
a dusky spot, rather below the general level of the place. Its chief
treasure is the throne itself, a stone chair, carved in rather
rudimentary ornamentation, and about the size of an ordinary chair. The
roof is supported by the curious, top-heavy-looking stone pillars, that
are known to have prevailed not only in the Minoan but in the Mycenæan
period; monoliths noticeably larger at the top than at the bottom,
reversing the usual form of stone pillar with which later ages have made
us more familiar. This quite illogical inversion of what we now regard
as the proper form has been accounted for in theory, by assuming that it
was the natural successor of the sharpened wooden stake. When the
ancients adopted stone supports for their roofs, they simply took over
the forms they had been familiar with in the former use of wood, and the
result was a stone pillar that copied the earlier wooden one in shape.
Time, of course, served to show that the natural way of building
demanded the reversal of this custom; but in the Mycenæan age it had not
been discovered, for there are evidences that similar pillars existed in
buildings of that period, and the representation of a pillar that stands
between the two lions on Mycenæ’s famous gate has this inverted form.
[Illustration: THRONE OF MINOS AT CNOSSOS]
Many hours may be spent in detailed examination of this colossal ruin,
testifying to what must have been in its day an enormous and impressive
palace. One cannot go far in traversing it without noticing the traces
still evident enough of the fire that obviously destroyed it many
hundred, if not several thousand, years before Christ. Along the western
side have been discovered long corridors, from which scores of long and
narrow rooms were to be entered. These, in the published plans, serve to
give to the ruin a large share of its labyrinthine character. It seems
to be agreed now that these were the store-rooms of the palace, and in
them may still be seen the huge earthen jars which once served to
contain the palace supplies. Long rows of them stand in the ancient
hallways and in the narrow cells that lead off them, each jar large
enough to hold a fair-sized man, and in number sufficient to have
accommodated Ali Baba and the immortal forty thieves. In the centre of
the palace little remains; but in the southeastern corner, where the
land begins to slope abruptly to the valley below, there are to be seen
several stories of the ancient building. Here one comes upon the rooms
marked with the so-called “distaff” pattern, supposed to indicate that
they were the women’s quarters. The restorer has been busy here, but not
offensively so. Much of the ancient wall is intact, and in one place is
a bath-room with a very diminutive bath-tub still in place. Along the
eastern side is also shown the oil press, where olives were once made to
yield their coveted juices, and from the press proper a stone gutter
conducted the fluid down to the point where jars were placed to receive
it. This discovery of oil presses in ancient buildings, by the way, has
served in more than one case to arouse speculation as to the antiquity
of oil lamps, such as were once supposed to belong only to a much later
epoch. Whether in the Minoan days they had such lamps or not, it is
known that they had at least an oil press and a good one. In the side of
the hill below the main palace of Minos has been unearthed a smaller
structure, which they now call the “villa,” and in which several
terraces have been uncovered rather similar to the larger building
above. Here is another throne room, cunningly contrived to be lighted by
a long shaft of light from above falling on the seat of justice itself,
while the rest of the room is in obscurity.
It may be that it requires a stretch of the imagination to compare the
palace of Cnossos with Troy, but nevertheless there are one or two
features that seem not unlike the discoveries made by Dr. Schliemann on
that famous site. Notably so, it seems to me, are the traces of the
final fire, which are to be seen at Cnossos as at Troy, and the huge
jars, which maybe compared with the receptacles the Trojan excavators
unearthed, and found still to contain dried peas and other things that
the Trojans left behind when they fled from their sacked and burning
city. Few are privileged to visit the site of Priam’s city, which is
hard indeed to reach; but it is easy enough to make the excursion to
Candia and visit the palace of old King Minos, which is amply worth the
trouble, besides giving a glimpse of a civilization that is possibly
vastly older than even that of Troy and Mycenæ. For those who reverence
the great antiquities, Candia and its pre-classic suburb are distinctly
worth visiting, and are unique among the sights of the ancient Hellenic
and pre-Hellenic world.
[Illustration: STORE-ROOMS IN MINOAN PALACE, CNOSSOS]
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