560 



CRETE 



CRETINISM 



The sea of western Europe may have been dotted 

 with small islands from none of which large 

 rivers descended ; and possibly the formation of the 

 chalk was not so slow a process as many geologists 

 suppose. Professor Prestwich even suggests that 

 it may to some extent be of the nature of a 

 chemical precipitate thrown down under special 

 and peculiar conditions prevailing at the time. 

 However that may be, the shells of foraminifera 

 and other organic remains certainly enter very 

 largely into its composition. In the Mediterranean 

 basin, a deep open sea would seem to have persisted 

 all through the cretaceous period. It was in this 

 sea that the massive hippurite limestone was 

 formed. Open water appears at this time to have 

 extended through the Mediterranean area into 

 Asia, covering there also vast tracts of what is 

 now dry land, and communicating with the Indian 

 Ocean. The conditions of climate seem to have 

 been remarkably uniform over vast regions of the 

 earth's surface. Ferns, cycads, and conifers flour- 

 ished in the lands within the Arctic Circle, and the 

 waters of the same region were tenanted by cuttle- 

 fish, ammonites, and huge reptiles. 



Crete (Ital. Candia, Turk. Kirit, Gr. Krete], 

 a Turkish island in the Mediterranean, is the most 

 southerly portion of Europe. It is 60 miles S. of 

 Cape Malea in Greece, 110 SW. of Cape Krio in 

 Asia Minor, 100 SSW. of Rhodes, and 300 W. of 

 Cyprus. Its length is 156 miles ; its breadth 

 varies from 30 to as little as 7 miles ; and its area 

 is 3326 sq. m., or twice the size of Hampshire. 

 The climate, inferior only to that of Rhodes, is 

 excellent, and has always been celebrated for its 

 salubrity. The air is pure, fresh, and bracing ; 

 the rainfall about 27 inches. In July, August, and 

 September it is hot in the plains, but the sea- 

 breezes temper the heat, especially at night, and 

 during the rest of the year the climate is delightful. 



Crete is for the most part mountainous, espe- 

 cially in the west, where the White Mountains 

 form the most important range. In the centre 

 Mount Ida, now called Upsiloriti, the loftiest in 

 Crete, rises to a height of 8055 feet. The east 

 is less mountainous, and everywhere numerous 

 small valleys are exceedingly fertile. The rivers 

 are unimportant, being almost invariably dry in 

 summer, and in winter and spring rushing down 

 to the sea as torrents. The country is, however, 

 fairly well watered, even in the dry season, as 

 springs abound all over the island. 



The coast-line, deeply indented on the north, 

 includes some good harbours : Suda Bay, on the 

 north, is one of the finest anchorages in the 

 Mediterranean, and now well known by name as 

 the resort of the British fleet at interesting political 

 crises ; and on the south is the small but well- 

 sheltered Kaloi Limenes, or the Fair Havens, by 

 which name it is spoken of in Acts, xxvii. 8. In 

 the immediate neighbourhood of Crete are three 

 islands: Clauda, the modern Gavdo, off the south- 

 west coast, Avith an area of about 15 sq. m., also 

 spoken of in Acts, has a lighthouse. Dia, north 

 of Candia, and Grabusa, at the north-west, were 

 fortified by the Venetians. In Homer, Crete had 

 'a hundred cities;' now there are but three of 

 importance Canea (q.v. ), the chief town ; Candia 

 (q.v.) ; and Retimo (q.v.). 



Wheat and fruit are the most important pro- 

 ducts ; oranges and lemons flourish. The grapes 

 are good, but the wine, though abundant, is of 

 inferior quality. In the middle ages the wine made 

 at Malevesi, near Canea, was celebrated under the 

 well-known name of Malmsey (Fr. Malvoisie). The 

 forests, as usual in the Levant, have almost entirely 

 disappeared. But on the hills the cypress grows ; 

 on the plains the olive is cultivated ; and chestnuts, 

 valonia oak, and carobs also grow. The principal 



exports are olive-oil, soap, carobs, wool, cheese, 

 valonia acorns, and fruits. Sheen are largely bred, 

 but the wool is not of fine quality. Sponges are 

 found upon the coast. The most important wild 

 animal is the Cretan ibex. The population, num- 

 bering about 295,000, are, with the exception of a 

 few Turks in the larger towns, almost wholly of pure 

 Greek descent; though about 90,000 of them are 

 Mohammedans, descendants of renegades, but they 

 too speak Greek as their mother tongue. 



The early Cretans were seafaring Greeks, rivals 

 of the Phoenicians. The island was the favourite 

 resort of colonists from every part of Greece, and 

 was celebrated at once for its climate, its laws, 

 and its great lawgiver, judge, and king, Minos. 

 Crete was subdued by the Romans in 67 B.C., and 

 was held by the Greek emperors (with an interval 

 of Saracen rule in 823-961 ), until the capture of 

 Constantinople by the Crusaders ( 1204 ). A year 

 or two afterwards the Venetians established them- 

 selves here, and kept possession till after the ter- 

 rible siege of the then capital, Candia, which lasted 

 three years the Turks conquered the island. The 

 Cretans are a turbulent race, of proved and pro- 

 verbial mendacity, bold, independent, and hard to 

 govern ; and, except after defeated rebellions, their 

 subjection to the Porte was more nominal than real. 

 They shared in the Greek rising of 1821, but were 

 subdued by Ibrahim Pasha in 1824 ; and from 1830 

 till 1841 ' the Powers' left it under the administra- 

 tion of the Viceroy of Egypt. A really serious 

 rebellion against Turkish rule took place in 1866, 

 suppressed with difficulty by Omar Pasha in 1867, 

 Greek assistance and European sympathy prolong- 

 ing the native resistance; and in 1869 a convention 

 at Halepa, a suburb of Canea, made important con- 

 cessions to the islanders, never fully carried into 

 effect. After repeated risings and nominal conces- 

 sions, a very resolute rebellion broke out in 1896, 

 which brought the Avhole Eastern Question into an 

 acute phase. The Greek intervention here led to 

 the short but disastrous war of the Greeks with 

 the Turks in April and May of 1897, when the 

 Turkish victory made it difficult for the ' Concert 

 of Europe,' hampered by international jealousy, to 

 secure for the Cretans the promised autonomy, with 

 a Christian prince of their own. Prodigious diffi- 

 culty Avas experienced in keeping the peace on the 

 island by means of a large body of men and ships 

 belonging to the A^arious Powers. A serious and 

 fatal Moslem attack on a British force in Candia 

 led to an ultimatum by Britain, Russia, France, 

 and Italy, which Avas accepted by the Sultan in 

 October 1898, and the Turkish troops were with- 

 drawn ; and in December, Prince George of Greece 

 reached Crete as High Commissioner for Europe. 



See books on Crete by Spratt (1865), Raulin (Paris, 

 1869), Stillman (New York, 1874), and Edwardes (1887) ; 

 H. F. Tozer, The Islands of the jEgenn ( 1890 ) ; and 

 R. A. H. Bickford-Smith, Cretan Sketches ( 1898 ). 



Cretinism (Fr. cretin, 'an idiot;' probably 

 f rom chretien, 'a Christian,' an 'innocent' ). Idiocy 

 or defective mental development, associated Avith 

 bodily deformity or arrested growth, occurring along 

 with Goitre (q.v.) or enlargement of the thyroid 

 gland, in the lower mountain valleys of the 

 SAviss and Italian Alps, of the Pyrenees, of 

 Syria, India, and China. In Europe it is rarely 

 found above 3000 feet, and haunts chiefly 

 valleys surrounded by high and steep walls of 

 rock, Avhich exclude the light, and limit the free 

 circulation of air. In some such localities it is 

 extremely prevalent. Cretins are always pitiable 

 and frequently repulsive objects ; they are gener- 

 ally dirty, shameless, and obscene ; their appetite is 

 commonly voracious ; the mouth is large and open, 

 the tongue often protruded, the eyes small, the 

 nose flat and broad, the skull flattened above and 



