places." For this purpose, the olive-tree is much cultivated. "A mother will hardly give bread to her children without pouring them some oil out into a dish, that they may moisten the staff of life, and render it more savoury before eating it. Oil is used with all kinds of vegetables, as well as in preparing every sort of meat and fish; in short, it enters into every dish in Crete.”

Vultures, eagles, and falcons, build their nests in this island, in difficult and precipitous places, among rocks which look towards the sea. "We disturbed a flock of ten large vultures, of a light brown colour, with wings which were nearly black, as they were feeding on the body of a kid lying near our path."

The cypress also grows abundantly, and in great perfection. It is a common way of describing a hand

some woman, to say, "She is tall and beautiful as a cypress." Describing the scenery in part of this island, Mr. Pashley writes:-"We had a beautiful cloudless sky; our course lay near the shore ... We met several droves of mules and asses laden with oil for Khaniá; and ... saw the village of Plataniá, on a rocky elevation about half-a-mile from the shore, and a mile before us. Soon after passing it we crossed its rapid stream, which rises in the White Mountains, and after flowing between two villages, runs through a valley formed by low hills, and filled, especially near the stream, with lofty platanes; from which both the village and river obtain their names. Vines twine around most of these platanes to the height of thirty or forty feet, and are of a size unknown in France or Italy, the thickness of many of their stems being that of an ordinary man's waist. These vines are never pruned, and in consequence of the shadiness of their situation, their fruit does not ripen till after the common vintage; they thus supply the bazár of Khaniá with grapes for the whole month of November, and, I believe, even till near Christmas. The varied scenery produced by these noble plane trees in the valley of Plataniá, is very beautiful, and is one of the objects best worth viewing by those who visit Khaniá, and can stay only a short time in the island."

The Cretan wine is frequently spoken of by ancient authors, and wines peculiar to the island are mentioned. In the reign of Henry VIII., the commerce between Crete and England was very great, the former furnishing delicious sweet wines, as malmsey and muscadine, spoken of by our early poets, and the return from England consisting chiefly of woollen cloths. So great was the quantity of malmsey exported from Crete, that the wood annually imported to make casks to hold it, was a considerable article of commerce. Readers of English history will remember that the Duke of Clarence was drowned in a butt of malmsey, in 1478.

The juice of the Cretan grape is rarely met with

T

now out of the island, but all modern travellers who have tasted it agree in celebrating its praises.

Arriving at a Cretan village, the people were most anxious to do all they could for us; the Proestós spent some time himself in searching the village for eggs, which at last he found; the only addition to them consisted of olives, black barley bread, and plenty of excellent water. The evening meal of my host and his wife, was a dish of wild herbs, on which the Cretans seem chiefly to live; they boil them and then serve them up in oil; bread, olives, and sometimes cheese, completing the meal."

At another place, of wild asparagus."

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we supped on eggs and a salad

Asparagus, such as we cultivate in our gardens, can scarcely be seen in Crete, but the wild plant grows all over the island, and is far superior to that produced by cultivation.

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At another spot, Mr. Pashley writes:-"A very hospitable and even intelligent old man received us most kindly in a short time his wife and servant produced an excellent supper, and his wine was the best I had tasted in the island. On my praising it and inquiring if it was abundant, he replied that he had not much of it, and therefore never drank it except when a stranger came to see him. In what country of Europe should we find either a peasant or a gentleman keeping his choicest wine untouched that he might share it with the wandering stranger?

"On another occasion I had heard the words of a Cretan song, which my kind and hospitable reception in this village calls to my mind:

"A thousand welcomes strangers greet,
Whene'er they here arrive:
And unto them, as to our own,
Kindness to show we strive.'

"Certainly it is far more satisfactory to any traveller to meet with such individual hospitality as this, than it

would be to have a lodging and dinner provided by the city; as used to be done in ancient Crete."

"Maniás conducted us to the house of a relation of his, the greater part of whose family had retired to rest before we arrived. Within the single apartment, on the ground-floor, of which, as is generally the case in all the villages of Crete, the house consists, we find a sort of

upper story, or rather a wooden floor, extending along about one-third of the apartment, at a height of nine or ten feet from the ground. This apology for a 'first-floor,' is reached by a ladder, and is ordinarily used as the sleeping-place of the family. We threw the cottagers into great confusion by arriving after they had retired to rest. They insisted on giving up to us the 'first-floor'

in question; so we ascended by the ladder, and were fortunate enough to rest extremely well."

There are some remarkable natural grottoes in Crete. Of one, Mr. Pashley observes, "It is a beautiful grotto, to the entrance of which we are brought by a descent of about a hundred and forty steps, many of them cut out of the steep rocks on the southern side of the glen.

Its height varies from ten to fifty or sixty feet; it is nearly five hundred feet long; it penetrates into the mountain in a southerly direction; and its sides consist of varied and beautiful stalactites. Some of them form as it were columnar supports for the roof of the cavern ; many are quite transparent, and others are brilliantly white.