The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-01-09
The Women of Crete.

A correspondent writes as follows from
Crete, the celebrated island i'll the Med
i~terranean A Cretan village is a
strange. looking place. All the dwellings
are alike in ugliness, oblongin form,
with walls of rough stone, and fiat roofs
destitute of parapets and chimneys.
One or two arches are thrown across the
length of the cottages to support the
roof, which consists of tenacious clay a
few inches deep, laid on pieces of bark,
and rolled fat-let antiquaries shudder
with the drums Of marble columns.
In Askypho the heavy snow storms
which occur there make it unsafe to
carry up the buildings higher than n
story, and they certainly have a misera-
bic exterior.
But the comfort within doors depends
at Askypho, as everywhere else, not on the
architect, but on the lady of the house,
and the wives of the Sphakia rank high
among their sex. They are conspicuous
for their beauty. Their dark eyes are
large and lustrous, their features are
delicately chiselled, and waving tresses
fall in profusion from beneath their
modest kerchiefs. Their carriage is
graceful as the does.
But, though possessed of uncommon
personal charms, their attention is by
no meansconfned to the toilet. Every
thing which their homes contain is the
work of their own hands. The cloth OF
the husbands jacket and fez of the wool
of the sheep he tends is dyed, spun and
woven by the hands of his faithful wife.
She it is who makes his garments from
the cotton plant which grows before the
door; the bright scarf that binds his
waist is from the silkworm which feeds
upon his mulberry tress; the mats and
tapestries whose bright designs, taken
from the pattern book of tradition alone,
give his home q cheerful air, are the
work of her industrious loom, and many
more objects that I nm incompetent to
! enumerate are due to her untiring labors.
It was these same Sphakian women
who only ten years ago were, with their
helpless children, hunted from noun.
tain to mountain, outraged, and u
dered. In the cottage of my guide,
though the owner was by no means a
chief among his people, the tablesloth,
the napkins, the sheets, all of them
homemade, were bordered with Cretan
lace; the pillow case was a single piece
of the same rich material; the counter
pane was so gorgeous with many colors
that I did not refrain from expressing
nv admiration for it. eyes," said my
host, "my wife is of q very good fami-
~, and knows the old-fashioned ways OF
weaving which her mother taught her.
The cottage itself consisted of a mod
erate-size room, with n gallery for
sleeping in, and two very small ones,
of which the larger was the kitchen.
The walls were not even w~hitewashed,
and the floor was Of mud yet the spirit
that reigned there reconciled n to all.
I dined with great zeast off English
plates, which are priced there much as
Japanese crockery is in England F.; but
without wine, not a drop of which was
to be found in the sever v~illages-a
significant fact. The wife waited on us,
for coDjugal respect is strictly enforced,
while even suspected infidelity is pun
ished with death. 1t is easy to believe
how such a people hate and despise any
one, be he caimakam or be he emil
ordi," who attempts to introduce the
vices OF Western Europe into their
mountain retreat.