234

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

[CHAP.

ποῤῥὰ ὡραίαις, ὡς αἱ ἀκτῖνες τοῦ ἡλίου· εἴδασι καὶ ἐβαστοῦσαν ἕνα πράμμα ὡς καθῶς καὶ βαστοῦνι τὸν ἀπεθαμένον νεκρόν· μεταῦτος ἀποφάσισαν καὶ αὐτοὶ νὰ τοὺς βαρέσσουσι καμμίαν μπαρουτιά, ἀπ ̓ ἧς ἐμπρὸς περάσανι· εἶχαν καὶ ἕνα τραγοῦδι ἀκουσμένο, καὶ ἐλέγασιν ὅπως

Νύμφην πά νὰ πάρωμε, νύφην κύραν,

ἀπὸ τὸ κρημνισμένο, νύφην μοναχήν

καὶ ἀποφασίσασι καὶ τζὴ ἐπαίξασι μία μπαρουθιά· διὰ ταῦτος καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐφωνάξασι, οἱ προσθινοὶ, μίᾳ φωνῇ, “ τί εἶναι;” καὶ οἱ ὀπισινοὶ ἀποκριθήκανι, “ Τὸν γαμπρόν μας ἐσκοτώσασι, τὸν γαμπρόν μας ἐσκοτώσασι”· καὶ ἔκλαιγαν, καὶ ἐφωνιάξασι καὶ ἐφύγασιν.

around him, on his dismounting for the evening, to learn what can have induced him to visit the valleys and mountains of Crete.

THE APPEARANCE, IN SFAKIA, OF A SAINT AND PROPHET, WHO WORKED MIRACLES. THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS NOT ALLOWED IN THE GREEK CHURCH. THE SAINT'S REPUTATION AND SUCCESS CONFINED TO THE MOUNTAINEERS. VESTIGES OF AN ANCIENT CITY: MASSIVE REMAINS OF POLYGONAL MASONRY.

PRODUCE

OF THE PLAIN AND MOUNTAINS OF ANOPOLIS. SELF-DESTRUCTION OF A CHRISTIAN MOTHER, WITH HER CHILD. A SFAKIAN WORTHY. SFAKIAN CUSTOMS. PUNISHMENT OF A WIFE IF SUPPOSED FAITHLESS. FEUDS PERPETUATED BETWEEN FAMILIES.

IN a country where the belief in such supernatural occurrences, as have been described in the previous chapter, is not confined to old women and children, but prevails among the whole population, it is not surprising to learn how powerful an influence has occa

236

2

A SAINT AND PROPHET.

[CHAP.

sionally been exerted over the people by artful men, who have played on their simplicity and credulity, and have made the profession of a Saint and Prophet answer well their own base ends. The older Sfakians remember that not long after the devastation of their country in 1769, a saint, who was stone-blind and never tasted any food', came from one of the monasteries of the Holy Mountain to preach and prophesy to the Sfakians. When surrounded by a numerous audience he would sometimes declare who were the sinners, and who the righteous men among his hearers. Once some Mohammedans joined his congregation, and scarcely had they entered the church before he exclaimed, that they would never learn any thing from him but must go to their prophet Mohammed. He declared that the wrath of God could only be averted from the land by their abandoning their unchristian and murderous practices : and the influence of his reputation and preaching among them was confessedly great enough to put a stop, for awhile, to the murders which from time immemorial were so common in Sfakiá. But the date of this worthy man's ministry is so remote, that we do not learn so much about him as we may of another saint, who is still living3, and who made his appearance in Sfakiá

1 My Sfakian informant, although he had been a leader in the whole war, and had lived in exile at Nauplia ever since his country was given up to Mehmet-Alí, was firmly persuaded that the ayios yépwvras never eat anything. Many examples "of wonderful fasting" are stated in JONSTONUS, An History of the Wonderful Things of Nature, Classis x. Ch. 2. §. 7. p. 315. ed. Lond. 1657. The periods vary from the modest length of forty days to that of forty years! "Hermolaus knew a priest who lived in health forty years, without any thing, but by sucking in the air." The goats of Cephallenia are said always to have satisfied their thirst in the same way: see the Book de Mirab. ausc. n. 9. p. 831. ed. Bekk. Ai èv Kepaλλnvía aîyes où πίνουσιν, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὥςπερ καὶ τἄλλα τετράποδα, καθ ̓ ἡμέραν δὲ πρὸς τὸ πέλαγος ἀντία τά πρόςωπα ποιήσασαι χάσκουσιν εἰςδεχόμεναι τὰ πνεύ

ματα.

2 To "Aylov "Opos, as Mount Athos is called by the Greeks.

3 I saw him at Nauplia in 1834. He has long since abandoned his sacred profession spoken of in the text.

XXXVII.] A DISINTERESTED SAINT AND PROPHEt. 237

during the year 1811. His dress consisted of a single coarse garment, under which he wore an iron chain hung about his neck. He preached repentance and newness of life, exposing to the wild mountaineers, by whom he was surrounded, the wickedness of their ways, dwelling chiefly on the daily acts of violence, robbery and murder, which they were committing, and declaring to them, that the anger of Heaven was awakened, and would soon shew itself in earthquakes, pestilence and war, to the desolation of the whole land, unless they repented and changed their course of life. Every one went to hear him his addresses were always vehement, and lasted several hours: he was regarded as a man sent by God, (he professed a divine mission,) and the impression he produced was very great. His fare was most simple, and abstemious almost to starvation: he ate no meat, eggs, fish, cheese or milk: a few herbs, simply boiled, and a crust of black barley-bread, formed his single daily repast. He professed not to receive any money from his hearers: nevertheless, at the end of his discourse, he used to tell the people, that although his reward was not of this world, still he had left a poor monastery on the Holy Mountain, where six hundred

4 The object of Venturius of Bergamo, in his preaching throughout Lombardy and Tuscany in 1334, was "to bring sinners to repentance; and so great was the success, and so visible were the fruits of his eloquence, that more than 10,000 Lombards, of whom many were of the higher ranks, set out to pass the season of Lent at Rome." WADDINGTON, History of the Church, Vol. III. p. 112. Note at the end of Ch. XXIII. Nearer home we had, about a hundred and sixty years ago, one John Exham, an early religious associate of William Penn, who was distinguished by the name of the QuakerProphet. "His enthusiasm was so great that he walked through the streets, his head covered with sackcloth and ashes, preaching repentance and amendment of life, for which he suffered a long and severe imprisonment." CROKER, Researches in the South of Ireland, Ch. x. p. 198.

5 It is said of one Athanasius, a contemporary of Nicephorus Phocas, who used to wear an iron collar round his neck, to which a wooden cross weighing six or eight pounds was fastened, that "he seldom ate above three or four times a week, and once lived seven days without meat or drink; and once nine days, excepting only that he ate and drank the Holy Sacrament twice in that time." RICAUT, Greek Church, p. 234.

VOL. II.

238

SUCCESS OF THE PROPHET-SAINT,

[CHAP.

kalógheri were praying and fasting, daily and hourly, for the sins of a wicked world, interceding with the Deity to obtain a remission of the punishment which mankind merited, and therefore those who had many sheep might give one, or even two, for repairing this monastery. Now, almost every one in Sfakiá had some sheep, if not a whole flock, and thus the Prophet-saint obtained, perhaps, a much greater sum than, without such a suggestion, he would ever have raised by any voluntary contribution. The devastation committed among the Sfakian flocks, by this ravenous monster, as he prowled through the mountains, reminds me of the words of our poet":

Wolves shall succeed to teachers, grievous wolves,

Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven

To their own vile advantages shall turn

Of lucre and ambition3.

So holy a heaven-sent messenger, as the saint was believed to be, did not remain long among this simpleminded people without their seeing proofs of his divine mission. The shepherd's wife, in a house where he lived, was once preparing some eggs for her family's meal after breaking three, she went to the door for an instant, and, on her return to the fire, found four in the pan! "But how is this, holy priest? I only

broke three."

“I have blessed them," he replied,

6 There is a very good account of the monasteries of Mount Athos in Col. LEAKE's Travels in Northern Greece, Vol. III. pp. 114–142. 7 MILTON, Paradise Lost, XII. 508.

8 With the Cretan saint's pecuniary success we may compare that of a more recent impostor, who, even amid the din of arms of the revolution, exhorted his auditors, among other things, "to use no other weapon than the sign of the cross." A reverend English missionary says of him, "I should myself have been rather disposed to consider the man as deceived, than a deceiver, were it not for the immense sums of money which he amassed, by means of his preaching. I have been assured that he collected no less than 700,000 piastres, the offerings of enthusiastic multitudes." HARTLEY, Researches in Greece, p. 357.

• Τὰ εὐλόγησα.