The Adventures of Captain Mago

CHAPTER VI

CRETE AND THE CRETANS

No sooner were the ships safely settled in their moorings, than Himilco and I, who had both been up on watch throughout the last four nights, retired to take the rest that we so much needed, and, worn out by fatigue, I did not wake until the sun was high above the horizon.

The shore was still quite deserted; the steep rocky mountains appeared for the most part to rise perpendicularly from the sea; and the little valley of the river soon lost itself in a deep gorge, densely wooded with myrtles and holm-oaks.

My first care was to send a squad of sailors on shore to fill our barrels and goat-skins with a supply of fresh water; I next ordered a guard of soldiers and archers to be landed ready for any emergency; and then despatched Bichri, accompanied by half a score of bowmen, up the gorge to explore the mountains. There was abundance of wood about, and I determined to light some fires and cook our morning meal upon the strand. I likewise pitched a couple of tents, in which I laid out some of our merchandise, in case Bichri should fall in with any of the natives of the island. Jonah made himself especially prominent by his services on the occasion; he carried wood enough on his back to load three ordinary men, and lifted a barrel of water without any assistance, remarking that, if any one would give him wine in it to drink, he would lift a barrel twice the size.

About midday Bichri returned, tired with his wanderings, but well pleased with his morning's work. He had come across several of the natives on the mountains; they fled at his approach, but being an experienced mountaineer he had followed them from rock to rock, and had at length succeeded in capturing one of them. The others had pelted him with stones from a distance, but he had sustained no injury, and, in accordance with the orders I had given him, he had acted strictly on the defensive, and had not in any way returned their violence. The prisoner that he brought with him was a great strapping fellow, with a quantity of glossy black hair and a skin as brown as a Midianite's; his eyes were black and obliquely set; his face wide, with projecting cheek-bones, and a pointed chin. He had no other covering except the skin of a wild goat, which was thrown over his shoulders and fastened round his waist by a cord, and on his bare neck and arms were a necklace and bracelets made of shells. A hatchet with which he had defended himself had been wrested from him by Bichri; it was made of a highly polished stone of a greenish hue, and had a strong wooden handle.

As soon as the barbarian was brought to me he began with many gesticulations to speak in a language of which I did not understand a word. I restored him his hatchet, made him a present of a piece of red cloth, and after showing him the goods in the tent, gave him his liberty. He bounded off towards the mountains and disappeared among the trees.

Two hours afterwards he came back with several other men, half-naked as himself, and armed with lances and rudely-made bows. When within about a hundred paces of us, they stopped and waved some boughs of myrtle. I ordered my men to do the same, and then I advanced to meet them, making Hanno accompany me, and display some pieces of red cloth and strings of glass beads. Gradually the savages gained courage and were induced to approach, and at last to enter our tent. There was one of them who seemed to be a sort of chief, and acted as spokesman; he first pointed to the sky and ejaculated, "Britomartis;" and then to the mountains, saying "Phalasarna, Phalasarna." It was evidently not the first time he had come in contact with Phœnicians, for as soon as he caught sight of our ships he cried "Sidon! Sidon!" and touching our tunics, he called them "kitons."

We gave him an old kitonet, and distributed a quantity of glass beads amongst his followers, who brought us in return a couple of wild goats, and some partridges, which they called "hamalla."

Towards evening another of their number, an old man, came to us; he wore a kitonet under his goat's skin and had on an old pair of sandals. He could speak a little Phœnician, and succeeded in making us understand that he was of the race of the Cydonians, who had been the original possessors of the island, until the Phrygians and the Leleges had made war upon them and forced them to take refuge, east and west, where the mountains were most inaccessible. The whole of the coast, and the central highland, as well as the fertile valleys of the north and south, were now occupied by the conquerors, who had subsequently been joined by a colony of Dorians, so that, altogether, the Cydonians were being gradually exterminated. I now comprehended how it was that I, who had always approached Crete from the north by way of Caria and Rhodes, had never seen any inhabitants except Dorians; whilst other Phœnician captains who had landed on the eastern extremity of the island – where they had discovered some insignificant mines, and opened a small traffic in the ore – had always transacted business with the Cydonians.

The old man likewise informed us that his people had a town, up in the mountains, called Phalasarna; also that their goddess was Britomartis, which in their language signifies "the gentle virgin." He was delighted with the wine which I gave him; and on receiving, as a present, a couple of lance-heads and a necklace of enamelled earthen beads, he promised to get us next day as much fresh meat as we wanted.

Upon its growing dark, the barbarians retired to their mountains. Hannibal took the precaution of doubling the number of his sentinels, but we were quite undisturbed throughout the night.

In the morning the Cydonians returned and brought some goats. They are not in any way an agricultural people, and consequently could not provide us with either corn or vegetables, but they brought us a quantity both of wild fruit and wild honey. I showed them a picture of an ox, and tried to make them know that that was the animal I wanted them to get me, but they explained that they had none of their own upon the mountains, and that such an animal had been quite unknown upon the island until it was introduced by the Phrygians.

Pointing in the evening to the crescent moon, the barbarians told me that it was Britomartis, their goddess of the chase. Chryseis said she knew this goddess by the name of Artemis, from which I drew the inference that the Cydonians might have taught her worship to the Dorians, who would have made her known to the Ionians. The offerings that are accustomed to be made in her honour are hinds and deer; and I have heard it said that young men have been sacrificed as victims on her altar; but this is mere tradition, and I do not pretend to state it as a fact. I feel quite certain, for my own part, that although this goddess is the moon, she is not identical with our goddess Ashtoreth, otherwise she would not have been content only to encourage them to hunt, but would have taught them the science of navigation.

The Cydonians are also acquainted with the god of the Phrygian tribes of the Curetes and the Corybantes, who have a city called Cnossus in the island, where they have built a temple. This god is a white bull, although sometimes he is known to take the form of a man. The Dorians affirm of him that he is the primitive god of the country, but the Cydonians protest against this statement, and maintain that he was imported hither by the Curetes. I myself had never heard of the god. I cannot believe that he is either the Apis of the Egyptians or our own great Moloch. Chryseis asserts that she knows him by the name of Zeus, and believes that once upon a time he crossed the strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Ionia, carrying a fair maiden on his back. He is said to be a fine and majestic creature, and the Phrygians of Crete honour him with dances, howlings, and the music of tambourines: his priests are of the tribe of the Corybantes, the progeny of Corybis. It was mentioned by Chryseis that a bull had once married a queen of the island, named Pasiphae, by whom he had a strange offspring, half-man, half-bull; but the monster was destroyed, she thought, by some Dorian or Ionian King. I can hardly persuade myself that this bull was Zeus; and I am rather inclined to suspect that the whole story is a fable, depicting some victory gained by the Ionians over the mixed Phrygian tribes that had made good their settlement upon the island.

I openly avowed my own conviction that this god was not our own god Moloch. Moloch was far more powerful than any god of the Ionians; he was much too mighty to permit foreigners to triumph over his own people. It was quite possible that the Phrygians had not honoured their bull-god Zeus as they were bound, and he, in anger, had abandoned them to their conquerors; but this was not like Moloch; no, he was not Moloch.

"Gods! gods!" cried Chamai, who had overheard the tenor of our talk; "who are all these gods? There is one only God; and El is His thrice-holy name. Another name He has, but that we are forbidden to pronounce. In His sight Moloch, Zeus, Artemis, Melkarth, all are nothing. Chemosh could not defend the Moabites against our hosts; Dagon could not protect the Philistines of Gaza and of Askelon; Nisroch could not lead the Syrians at Zobah on to victory; Adrammelech was impotent to gain a triumph at Damascus; and Baalim could not prevail in behalf of the Amalekites. They all are nothing. It is the Almighty El, the Lord of hosts, the Maker of the heaven and the earth, that is the only God. He has brought us out of Egypt; He has established us in our goodly lands. He is the God invisible and true, the God of vengeance and of power."

"However much I may confess," said Hannibal, interrupting Chamai's earnest protest, "that your mighty El may be the god of the mountains and the plains, it cannot be denied that our Ashtoreth is the goddess of the ocean. See what glorious victories she has gained for us Sidonians; she has made us monarchs of the sea! For Moloch and Melkarth I have no reverence whatever; but still I think that Baal and the gods of Arvad should be honoured in the countries they have favoured with their care."

"And don't forget our great Cabiri," put in Himilco; "what would all our Tyrian pilots do without their guidance and protection?"

"I know nothing about pilots," Chamai said; adding, "for my part I shall be content to worship El, our Lord Almighty, by land, by sea, and everywhere."

So ended the discussion; and every one having made his invocation to his own special divinity, all retired to rest.

There was little more to be gained from the Cydonians; accordingly, on the following morning, having made a few trifling purchases, I prepared to start. My own intention was first to round the western limit of the island and to steer full north; next, having sighted the two Cytheras, to coast along the mainland till we reached the mouth of the Achelous, where I hoped to replenish our supply of water, and to transact some profitable business with the natives; thence, passing between Zacynthus and Cephallenia, I reckoned I could take our course between the mainland and the island of the Siculi; once there, I would coast along the north of it to Lilybœum, from which headland the distance was only 380 stadia across to Carthage. Such was my project; but whether any of the gods had been incensed at our discussion the preceding night, or whether they were disposed to put the capabilities of our vessels to the test, certain it is that they had decreed that our course should be very different.

The sky was dull and lowering, and Himilco drew my attention to some lurid clouds that were gathering in the south-west.

"No time to lose," I said; "unless we can get ahead of the hurricane that is brewing down there, we shall run the risk of being dashed on this rugged and unsheltered coast. There is safe anchorage on the northern shore, and thither with all speed we must betake ourselves before the storm shall break."

The weather was unnaturally calm; but I knew the necessity of urging the rowers to full speed, and the ships made rapid progress to the west. In the course of twelve hours I calculated we had made about 450 stadia, and had got quite clear of the island; but by this time the sky had become obscured with low heavy clouds, and there was no room to doubt that the tempest was approaching. I continued to keep well out to sea, and fortunate for us I did so; for at nightfall, when we were, as I conjectured, about 150 stadia from the land, the storm overtook us in its fullest fury. The hurricane blew from the south-west and feeling satisfied that by abandoning ourselves to its violence we should be carried nearly north between Crete and the lesser Cythera, I ordered a sail to be hoisted, and permitted the wind to drive us on before it.

Throughout that night we knew not where we were. The rain poured down in torrents; wave followed wave in quick succession, dashing masses of water on to our decks, and our helmsmen had the utmost difficulty in controlling the vessels so that they should not present their broadsides to the squalls. The crash of the thunder was incessant, and by the vivid glare of the lightning we could see where the seething foam was rent asunder into black and yawning chasms.

In spite of the heavy seas that they continually shipped, our vessels, all three, bore up admirably. I made the rowers and the soldiers set to work with scoops to bale out the water, and under the supervision of Hannibal and the oarsman in command, who spared neither fair words nor hard blows to keep them to their task, they worked away with a will.

In a voice loud enough to be heard above the roar of the tempest, I shouted to Chamai that now was the time to invoke his God. To Bichri's inquiries whether the danger was really great, I answered that I had experienced worse weather in the Syrtes, and had known worse peril on the sea beyond the Straits of Gades, the swell out there being very long; but here, though rough and strong, the sea was short, and the ships seemed as though they might hold their own.

Chryseis and Abigail were in their cabin locked in each other's arms. Chamai and Bichri, although quite unaccustomed to the sea, and scarcely able to maintain their footing, kept up their spirits bravely, and to their very utmost assisted the sailors in securing the rigging and making fast the stowage; but nothing could exceed the terror of the great hulking Jonah, who, in the most abject state of alarm, threw himself down upon the floor of the hold, where, like a big bundle, he was rolled about at every pitch and lurching of the vessel.

"Oh, oh! why did I come?" he groaned, in the agonies of despair; "why did I come? why did I leave the village where I had plenty, and more than plenty? I shall be drowned, drowned in the sea, and the fishes will eat me! Oh, oh!"

"Out of the way, you great camel!" said Hannibal, giving the poor wretch a tremendous kick in the ribs; "you will be smashing something if you keep floundering about in this way; you all but threw me down just now. Here, some of you," he called to the sailors, "come and lash this fool to the foot of the mast."

The unwieldy giant was rolled helplessly along, and bound securely as Hannibal directed.

Going to the stern, I found Himilco doing his best to instruct the helmsman. He informed me that he had quite lost sight of the Dagon. Just as he spoke, an enormous wave almost dashed the Cabiros against our side, and a vivid flash of lightning revealed Hamilcar and Gisgo gesticulating vehemently to their men.

"A fine beginning to our voyage!" shouted Gisgo, as he passed us.

"Hold on, man; face it out! and we shall conquer in the end," I screamed in reply.

To Hanno, who stood clinging to a rope, gazing out upon the sea, I said:

"Keep up your courage, Hanno."

"I have courage enough for Chryseis and for myself as well," he answered, cheerily; "but I confess," he added, "I have never seen weather so bad as this."

At this moment we were startled by the voice of Himilco, shouting vehemently:

"The sail! the sail! look to the sail!"

The sailors flew to the yard. We were all but capsized; an immense wave had turned the ship's side to the wind, and the sail was driven tight to the mast. A flash of lightning, more dazzling than any that had gone before, threw its vivid glare upon a great round vessel right in front of us.

"The Melkarth! Bodmilcar!" cried Himilco and Hanno the same instant.

A second flash. There was no mistake; beyond all doubt there was the Melkarth, and Bodmilcar, standing erect upon the poop, seemed to be controlling the very winds and waves.

A third flash gleamed out amidst the continuous crashing of the thunder, but it revealed nothing except the raging waste of waters; the Melkarth had vanished in the darkness.

"Khousor Phtah[31 - The god of subterranean fire and of the hammer. Compare Phtah with the Hephaistos of the Greeks.] is working away up there with his hammer," said Himilco; "but let him hammer; he will not harm us; we have the Cabiri on our side."

The next hour was a period of intense anxiety. As far as I could judge the tempest was bearing us northwards, but I had no means of knowing for certain whether it was so. Every wave threatened to break upon the ship's side, and the Cabiros, which was quite close to us, appeared sometimes towering high above our heads, and at others gulfed down far below our feet. I was standing with Himilco and the two helmsmen over the stern cabin, when a sea, heavier than any we had yet encountered, swept clean across the deck. I clung to the ship's side, and when I raised myself, half stunned and half blinded by the shock, I found that Himilco and one of the helmsmen had disappeared. Fortunately the helm had not been carried away, and by exerting all my strength, I succeeded in pushing the tiller round, and bringing the ship back into the current of the waves; then confiding the helm to a seaman who had just come up, I leaned over the side, and kept shouting "Himilco! Himilco!"

Day was beginning to dawn, and in the glimmering light I could just distinguish Chamai; he had cast himself down before the cabin-door, and was imploring the God of Israel to spare the lives of the two women, even though it should please Him to destroy the lives of all beside.

Noticing the agitation of my voice, Hanno rushed towards me, expressing his alarm that something must have happened to our good pilot. I was telling him how much I feared that he had been washed overboard, when a voice reached me from behind:

"All right; I came down on my head;" and Himilco emerged from the hold with a goat-skin in his hands.

His appearance was a great relief, the more so when he explained that he was quite unhurt.