Les aventures du Capitaine Magon. English

by David-Léon Cahun

  CHAPTER VI.

  CRETE AND THE CRETANS.

  No sooner were the ships safely settled in their moorings, thanHimilco and I, who had both been up on watch throughout the lastfour 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 thehorizon.

  The shore was still quite deserted; the steep rocky mountainsappeared for the most part to rise perpendicularly from the sea; andthe 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 ourbarrels and goat-skins with a supply of fresh water; I next ordered aguard 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 woodabout, and I determined to light some fires and cook our morningmeal upon the strand. I likewise pitched a couple of tents, in whichI laid out some of our merchandise, in case Bichri should fall inwith any of the natives of the island. Jonah made himself especiallyprominent by his services on the occasion; he carried wood enough onhis back to load three ordinary men, and lifted a barrel of waterwithout any assistance, remarking that, if any one would give himwine in it to drink, he would lift a barrel twice the size.

  About midday Bichri returned, tired with his wanderings, but wellpleased with his morning's work. He had come across several of thenatives on the mountains; they fled at his approach, but being anexperienced mountaineer he had followed them from rock to rock, andhad at length succeeded in capturing one of them. The others hadpelted him with stones from a distance, but he had sustained noinjury, and, in accordance with the orders I had given him, he hadacted strictly on the defensive, and had not in any way returnedtheir violence. The prisoner that he brought with him was a greatstrapping fellow, with a quantity of glossy black hair and a skin asbrown as a Midianite's; his eyes were black and obliquely set; hisface wide, with projecting cheek-bones, and a pointed chin. He hadno other covering except the skin of a wild goat, which was thrownover his shoulders and fastened round his waist by a cord, and on hisbare neck and arms were a necklace and bracelets made of shells. Ahatchet with which he had defended himself had been wrested from himby Bichri; it was made of a highly polished stone of a greenish hue,and had a strong wooden handle.

  PLEASED WITH HIS MORNING'S WORK. _To face page 99._]

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

  Two hours afterwards he came back with several other men, half-nakedas himself, and armed with lances and rudely-made bows. When withinabout a hundred paces of us, they stopped and waved some boughs ofmyrtle. I ordered my men to do the same, and then I advanced tomeet them, making Hanno accompany me, and display some pieces ofred cloth and strings of glass beads. Gradually the savages gainedcourage 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 asspokesman; he first pointed to the sky and ejaculated, "Britomartis;"and then to the mountains, saying "Phalasarna, Phalasarna." Itwas evidently not the first time he had come in contact withPhœnicians, 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 beadsamongst his followers, who brought us in return a couple of wildgoats, 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 ofsandals. He could speak a little Phœnician, and succeeded inmaking us understand that he was of the race of the Cydonians, whohad been the original possessors of the island, until the Phrygiansand the Leleges had made war upon them and forced them to takerefuge, east and west, where the mountains were most inaccessible.The whole of the coast, and the central highland, as well as thefertile valleys of the north and south, were now occupied by theconquerors, 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 approachedCrete from the north by way of Caria and Rhodes, had never seen anyinhabitants except Dorians; whilst other Phœnician captains whohad landed on the eastern extremity of the island--where they haddiscovered some insignificant mines, and opened a small traffic inthe ore--had always transacted business with the Cydonians.

  The old man likewise informed us that his people had a town, upin the mountains, called Phalasarna; also that their goddess wasBritomartis, 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 enamelledearthen beads, he promised to get us next day as much fresh meat aswe 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. Theyare not in any way an agricultural people, and consequently couldnot provide us with either corn or vegetables, but they brought us aquantity both of wild fruit and wild honey. I showed them a pictureof an ox, and tried to make them know that that was the animal Iwanted them to get me, but they explained that they had none oftheir own upon the mountains, and that such an animal had been quiteunknown upon the island until it was introduced by the Phrygians.

  Pointing in the evening to the crescent moon, the barbarians told methat it was Britomartis, their goddess of the chase. Chryseis saidshe knew this goddess by the name of Artemis, from which I drew theinference that the Cydonians might have taught her worship to theDorians, who would have made her known to the Ionians. The offeringsthat are accustomed to be made in her honour are hinds and deer; andI have heard it said that young men have been sacrificed as victimson her altar; but this is mere tradition, and I do not pretend tostate it as a fact. I feel quite certain, for my own part, thatalthough this goddess is the moon, she is not identical with ourgoddess Ashtoreth, otherwise she would not have been content only toencourage them to hunt, but would have taught them the science ofnavigation.

  The Cydonians are also acquainted with the god of the Phrygian tribesof the Curetes and the Corybantes, who have a city called Cnossusin the island, where they have built a temple. This god is a whitebull, although sometimes he is known to take the form of a man. TheDorians affirm of him that he is the primitive god of the country,but the Cydonians protest against this statement, and maintain thathe was imported hither by the Curetes. I myself had never heard ofthe god. I cannot believe that he is either the Apis of the Egyptiansor our own great Moloch. Chryseis asserts that she knows him by thename of Zeus, and believes that once upon a time he crossed thestrait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Ionia, carrying a fairmaiden on his back. He is said to be a fine and majestic creature,and the Phrygians of Crete honour him with dances, howlings, and themusic of tambourines: his priests are of the tribe of the Corybantes,the progeny of Corybis. It was mentioned by Chryseis that a bullhad once married a queen of the island, named Pasiphae, by whom hehad a strange offspring, half-man, half-bull; but the monster wasdestroyed, she thought, by some Dorian or Ionian King. I can hardlypersuade myself that this bull was Zeus; and I am rather inclinedto suspect that the whole story is a fable, depicting some victorygained by the Ionians over the mixed Phrygian tribes that had madegood their settlement upon the island.

  I openly avowed my own conviction that this god was not our own godMoloch. Moloch was far more powerful than any god of the Ionians;he was much too mighty to permit foreigners to triumph over his ownpeople. It was quite possible
that the Phrygians had not honouredtheir bull-god Zeus as they were bound, and he, in anger, hadabandoned 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 ourtalk; "who are all these gods? There is one only God; and El is Histhrice-holy name. Another name He has, but _that_ we are forbiddento pronounce. In His sight Moloch, Zeus, Artemis, Melkarth, allare nothing. Chemosh could not defend the Moabites against ourhosts; Dagon could not protect the Philistines of Gaza and ofAskelon; Nisroch could not lead the Syrians at Zobah on to victory;Adrammelech was impotent to gain a triumph at Damascus; and Baalimcould 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 andthe earth, that is the only God. He has brought us out of Egypt; Hehas established us in our goodly lands. He is the God invisible andtrue, the God of vengeance and of power."

  "However much I may confess," said Hannibal, interrupting Chamai'searnest protest, "that your mighty El may be the god of the mountainsand the plains, it cannot be denied that our Ashtoreth is thegoddess of the ocean. See what glorious victories she has gained forus Sidonians; she has made us monarchs of the sea! For Moloch andMelkarth I have no reverence whatever; but still I think that Baaland the gods of Arvad should be honoured in the countries they havefavoured with their care."

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

  "I know nothing about pilots," Chamai said; adding, "for my part Ishall 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 tohis 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, Iprepared to start. My own intention was first to round the westernlimit of the island and to steer full north; next, having sighted thetwo Cytheras, to coast along the mainland till we reached the mouthof 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 takeour course between the mainland and the island of the Siculi; oncethere, I would coast along the north of it to Lilybœum, fromwhich headland the distance was only 380 stadia across to Carthage.Such was my project; but whether any of the gods had been incensed atour discussion the preceding night, or whether they were disposed toput the capabilities of our vessels to the test, certain it is thatthey had decreed that our course should be very different.

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

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

  The weather was unnaturally calm; but I knew the necessity of urgingthe rowers to full speed, and the ships made rapid progress to thewest. In the course of twelve hours I calculated we had made about450 stadia, and had got quite clear of the island; but by this timethe sky had become obscured with low heavy clouds, and there was noroom to doubt that the tempest was approaching. I continued to keepwell 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, thestorm overtook us in its fullest fury. The hurricane blew from thesouth-west and feeling satisfied that by abandoning ourselves to itsviolence we should be carried nearly north between Crete and thelesser Cythera, I ordered a sail to be hoisted, and permitted thewind to drive us on before it.

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

  In spite of the heavy seas that they continually shipped, ourvessels, all three, bore up admirably. I made the rowers and thesoldiers set to work with scoops to bale out the water, and underthe supervision of Hannibal and the oarsman in command, who sparedneither fair words nor hard blows to keep them to their task, theyworked 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. ToBichri's inquiries whether the danger was really great, I answeredthat I had experienced worse weather in the Syrtes, and had knownworse peril on the sea beyond the Straits of Gades, the swell outthere being very long; but here, though rough and strong, the sea wasshort, and the ships seemed as though they might hold their own.

  Chryseis and Abigail were in their cabin locked in each other'sarms. Chamai and Bichri, although quite unaccustomed to the sea,and scarcely able to maintain their footing, kept up their spiritsbravely, and to their very utmost assisted the sailors in securingthe rigging and making fast the stowage; but nothing could exceed theterror of the great hulking Jonah, who, in the most abject state ofalarm, threw himself down upon the floor of the hold, where, like abig bundle, he was rolled about at every pitch and lurching of thevessel.

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

  "Out of the way, you great camel!" said Hannibal, giving the poorwretch a tremendous kick in the ribs; "you will be smashing somethingif you keep floundering about in this way; you all but threw me downjust now. Here, some of you," he called to the sailors, "come andlash this fool to the foot of the mast."

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

  Going to the stern, I found Himilco doing his best to instruct thehelmsman. 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 Hamilcarand 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," Iscreamed in reply.

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

  "Keep up your courage, Hanno."

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

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

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

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

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

  "THE MELKARTH!" _To face page 106._]

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

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

  "Khousor Phtah[31] is working away up there with his hammer," saidHimilco; "but let him hammer; he will not harm us; we have the Cabirion our side."

  [31] The god of subterranean fire and of the hammer. Compare Phtah with the Hephaistos of the Greeks.

  The nex
t hour was a period of intense anxiety. As far as I couldjudge the tempest was bearing us northwards, but I had no means ofknowing for certain whether it was so. Every wave threatened tobreak upon the ship's side, and the _Cabiros_, which was quite closeto us, appeared sometimes towering high above our heads, and atothers gulfed down far below our feet. I was standing with Himilcoand the two helmsmen over the stern cabin, when a sea, heavier thanany we had yet encountered, swept clean across the deck. I clung tothe ship's side, and when I raised myself, half stunned and halfblinded by the shock, I found that Himilco and one of the helmsmenhad disappeared. Fortunately the helm had not been carried away,and by exerting all my strength, I succeeded in pushing the tillerround, and bringing the ship back into the current of the waves; thenconfiding the helm to a seaman who had just come up, I leaned overthe side, and kept shouting "Himilco! Himilco!"

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

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

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

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

  "The water carried me clean over the hatchway," he said; "and by goodluck my head struck against this goat-skin in the hold. Strange tosay the goat-skin hasn't burst. Praise to the good Cabiri! they havebeen good guardians. But what has become of Cadmus, who was at thehelm?"

  I could only point mournfully to the sea. Himilco seemed tocomprehend, but he made no reply, and having seated himself upon thepoop, began to refresh himself with the contents of the goat-skin hehad found.

  All of a sudden Bichri came towards me, and said he should like tospeak to me. He began:

  "As I am no sailor, perhaps I ought to apologise for giving anopinion, but my eyesight is very keen; and I am certain that I cansee mountains over there to the right of the poop."

  Himilco started to his feet; without relinquishing his hold upon theskin of wine, with his single eye he steadily scanned the horizon inthe direction in which Bichri was pointing. After a few moments, hesaid:

  "The archer is right; my eye seldom deceives me; we are to leeward ofland."

  Notwithstanding the incessant downpour of rain, I could just seeenough through the mist to discern that there were mountains behindus to the right. Feeling sure that we had been driving to thenorth, I had no doubt in my own mind that the land we saw was somepromontory on the north coast of Crete; and so ultimately it proved.

  Our first business now was to get clear of the whirlwind, and tomake for the shore. I signalled to this effect to the _Cabiros_, anddoubled the number of the rowers by making a soldier as well as asailor work at every oar. In the next place I inspected the stowage,and was rejoiced to find how little it had been displaced.

  In a few hours the wind had almost dropped, and shortly afterwards aray of sunlight darting through the clouds, cast an enlivening gleamupon our course.

  "The Lord has saved us," said Chamai; "but I confess I was horriblyalarmed."

  Himilco wrung out his drenched kitonet, and proposed that, with mypermission, he should give Bichri, who had been the first to spy outthe land, a draught of wine from the skin which he still retained. Iacknowledged that he well deserved it.

  The two women were now induced to come from their cabin; althoughthey were still somewhat tremulous with their recent fright, they hada bright smile upon their faces.

  "Here they are," said Hanno, as he escorted them on to the deck;"they are like the weather, half smiles, half tears."

  Chamai declared that he would rather contend with ten armed menthan with one angry sea; I told him, however, that he had behavedadmirably, considering it was his first squall, but recommended himto be cautious for the future how he spoke irreverently of the gods.

  Emerging from the hold, helmet in one hand, cuirass in the other,Hannibal came up to us, saying:

  "I have had such sharp work all night in keeping those beggarlyrowers up to the mark, that I had no time to look to my armour;I expected to find it battered to bits; but thanks to your gods,Ashtoreth or any one you like, it is all safe and sound. Happy to seeyou, ladies; I hope you have recovered your fright, and regained yourappetites. I am hungry enough."

  And as he caught sight of Himilco and Bichri, enjoying themselvesover the goat-skin, he hurried off to join them.

 

  By the afternoon the sun had dispersed the clouds entirely, and thedeep blue waters shone brightly in contrast with the verdant landfrom which we were distant not more than thirty stadia. I sent the_Cabiros_ on ahead to find a suitable place for anchorage, wherewe might rest and repair our damages. Whilst we were sitting onthe deck of the _Ashtoreth_, basking in the sunshine, and taking asimple repast of dried figs, unleavened bread, and raw onions, toour great delight we saw the _Dagon_ coming on behind us. She hadlost her yard-arm with its sail attached, but drifted along by thetempest, she had surmounted all further perils. Happily we had agood store of spare sails to replace what were lost. We came up withthe _Cabiros_ as she was lying off the head of a high promontory,waiting to announce that on the southern slope of the headland therewas a fine bay, into which a river debouched from an open and fertilevalley. All three vessels accordingly rounded the point, and steeringto the south, along the coast, by nightfall had reached the middleof the bay, whence the shore recedes considerably to the east. Herethe _Dagon_ and the _Ashtoreth_ were brought to anchor, and the_Cabiros_ was drawn up on shore. The anchorage was very good, and theweather continued beautiful; inland we could see lights gleaming fromseveral villages, and thus feeling secure, with light hearts, thoughwith weary bodies, we laid ourselves down to rest, and slept soundlythroughout the night.