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DEPARTURE FROM LAKI.

MESKLA, THERISO, DHRAKONA. EVENTS AT KERAMIA IN JUNE 1821. ΚΑΜΡΙ. THE PASCHAL LAMB. RHAMNE, FRE, AND IPO. OLIVE-TREES OF APOKORONA. THE COMMON RETURN FOR THE INVESTMENT OF CAPITAL IN CRETE. EASTER-SUNDAY, WITH ITS FESTIVITIES, SALUTATIONS AND SUPERSTITIONS. SONG ON THE CAPTURE OF ADRIANOPLE BY THE MOHAMMEDANS. PYRGO OF ALIDHAKI AT PROSNERO. DEFILE OF ASKYFO. GREAT ROUT AND SLAUGHTER OF MOHAMMEDANS

IN AUGUST, 1821. PLAIN OF ASKYFO. ARRIVAL AT ONE OF THE HAMLETS OF ASKYFO. PROCEEDINGS OF THE EGYPTIANS IN 1833.

May 3.

I LEAVE Láki at half past six, and, after a rugged descent, performed chiefly on foot, to Mesklá, cross the rapid stream, which here, as well as nearer the shore, before passing Plataniá, is shaded by lofty plane-trees, almost all with vines twining round them. I now begin

160 EVENTS AT KERAMIA IN JUNE 1821. [CHAP.

an ascent which lasts for near an hour, when I arrive at the village of Thériso. The number of olive-trees about these villages of the Rhiza is not great; neither is there much arable land near them: the flocks of the

district are however numerous. I pass through the straggling and well-shaded village of Thériso; and, continuing my course nearly due eastward, for upwards of an hour, arrive at Dhrakóna, one of the villages classed together under the common name of Kerámia.

It was in a village of this district of Kerámia, that blood was first shed in June 1821, when the Sfakians, and as many Rhizítes as possessed arms, raised the standard of the Cross. The súbashi of Kerámia is said to have been shot by the Christians, on the 17th (29th) of June. The following morning the Mohammedans issued out of Khaniá, one division of them going to Kerámia, and the other to Alikianó-Vatólako, a little below Láki. The Mohammedans carried off the head of a single Christian from the scene of their conflict at Kerámia, but had the worse of the engagement at both places. The Christians were always victorious, while the Khanióte-Mohammedans were without aid from the other cities. Hence the Austrian Consul, writing on the 15th of August 1821, says, "Les Turcs ont fait plusieures sorties et ont toujours été repoussés avec perte:" and thus the correligionaries of these unwarlike Moslems sang, as they approached Khaniá,

Ελᾶτ ̓ ὑσεῖς οἱ Καστρινοί,

κ ̓ ἡμεῖς οἱ Ριθυμνιώταις,

νὰ πάμε, νὰ γλυτώσωμεν

τζὴ κλέφταις τζὴ Χανιώταις.

Press onward, all ye Kastrians,

With us Rhithymniótes,

That we may go and save from death
The cowardly Khaniótes.

XXXIV.]

THE PASCHAL LAMB.

161

Dhrakóna contains about thirty-eight houses: all its inhabitants are Christians, as is the case with nearly every village of the Rhíza. I remain here about half an hour. Soon after eleven o'clock we have before us Kendros, Mount Ida, the hills beyond the plain of Mylopótamo, and the bay of Rhíthymnos. Kendros now retains a mere sprinkling of snow, and the High Mountain himself, Pselorítes, as Ida is emphatically called by the modern Cretans, although for at least a thousand feet from his highest peak he had on a thick covering of snow only a fortnight ago, now shows strips of his rocky surface almost to his very summit. I pass Kámpi, the last village in the district of Khaniá, at half past eleven. Its Christian population is assembled at the church. Every one, of both sexes, is dressed in his or her gayest apparel. All are gladly bidding adieu to the last day of their Lent. I have seen many lambs this morning: some already slaughtered for tomorrow's feast: others tethered and destined to live only a few hours.

Pleased to the last each crops his flowery food,

And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.

We are reminded of the Jewish paschal lamb, both by the Lampré or Easter-Sunday of the Greeks, and by the Kurbán-bairám or Feast of Sacrifice of the Mohammedans. Every true believer, whose means enable him to incur such an expense, is expected to kill a sheep on that occasion: its flesh, however, is not consumed in merry-making, but is, I am told, ordinarily distributed among the poor. As I noticed this morning the tethered lambs, on passing the cottages of Christians, so, for a few days before the Kurbán-bairám1, I saw fine fat sheep tied up in half the shops of the bazár of Khaniá.

At a few minutes after one I arrive at Rhamné, and obtain some refreshment in the house of former host2.

my

1 See above, p. 21.

2 See Vol. 1. p. 65.

162

ARRIVAL AT IPO.

[CHAP.

It

At two o'clock I leave Rhamné, and, in about an hour and a quarter, arrive at Pemónia: in descending towards this village, I had a fine view of the plain of Apokorona, bounded by the Sfakian mountains on the right and by the gulf of Armyró before us, Mount Ida of course remaining in sight. Fré, one of the most considerable villages of Apokórona, is only about a mile distant from Pemónia: olive-trees cover the plain between the two places. At Fré I remained about an hour with the priest of the village: he was one of the deputies sent to Murniés last autumn, and also one of the delegates who carried petitions to the Consuls. is said that his name was included in the list of the proscribed, but that remonstrances were made to the Pasha by some of those about his person, respecting the disgrace of suffering the execution of a man in whose house he had so often eaten bread and drank water. The Papás's house was for some time the Pasha's head-quarters, when the Arab troops were cantoned in the different villages of Apokorona. I leave Fré at half past five, and, after passing the village of Dzidzifé, I arrive at 'Ipos at a quarter before seven: I lodge in the house of a gossip of my Sfakian guide.

:

The corn-land in the plain of Apokorona usually gives a return of from fifteen to twenty fold the quantity of seed. I am assured that, not long ago, three measures of barley, produced a crop of nearly ninety measures. The olive-trees of Apokorona are generally small: they are very unlike the magnificent trees of Sélino it is said, that for a thousand mistata no less than four thousand roots are here required. A wealthy Turk, who was sent into exile last winter, after the affair of Murniés, in which the government thought proper to suppose him implicated, possesses about sixteen thousand roots of olives, and their mean produce is not much above three thousand mistata. The villagers put the weekly consumption of oil, in each family, at four okes and a half. Each olive-tree sells here for from

XXXIV.]

STATISTICAL DETAILS.

163

fifteen to twenty piastres: some may fetch thirty: a tree here and there, if unusually large and fruitful, may occasionally sell for more than double the latter sum; but of this last class there are few in Apokorona. If the arable field in which the olives stand is good, it will also be worth a hundred piastres the measure3. A calculation of the return made for the investment of capital at these prices, will give about thirty or even thirty-five per cent. as its annual amount: and this is not more than is really obtained. About three years' purchase is the ordinary price of land: I have met with cases where it has been obtained for a good deal less. The most ample security can be had for money, on mortgage of land and property far exceeding in value the sum borrowed: and, for a loan thus obtained, the rate of interest is sometimes as low as fifteen per cent.; in the case of a monastery it may be even less; but, for a private individual, it commonly amounts to nearer thirty. This is all quite natural; for the country is very fertile, and money, wherever it is applied to cultivate the soil and develope its dormant powers, produces so large a return, that the borrower can well afford to pay twenty and even thirty per cent. for the use of it.

Maniás and his gossip sit down this evening to a dish of snails1, a luxury in which the Greek is allowed to indulge even on his most rigorous fasts. The snails of Crete are highly prized in the Levant; and they are one of the regular exports of the island. The Christian populations of Constantinople, Smyrna, and Alexandria all enjoy this delicacy during the fasts of the Oriental church.

'Ipo produces good wine, and I obtained some this evening: I also found wine last night at Láki: I did not once obtain it during the days which I have lately spent in the province of Sélino3.

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