free download here - Michael Llewellyn-Smith

The Great Island
on, the dry stone huts round the edge of the Omalos are occupied by
men from Lakki and Agia Eirene. Cereals and potatoes make up the
crop. Some 30,000 goats and sheep pasture on the surrounding slopes.
In the cafe on the Omalos where we slept on the floor, there is an
astonishing photograph of the local palikari Hadzimichalis Iannaris,
looking exactly like W. G. Grace except that he is cradling a gun
instead of a bat. Beside him there is a second photo of Cretans who
fought in Macedonia (1906-9) with just the moustaches, the stern
faces and stiff poses of nineteenth-century cricketers: hands on hips, or
arms folded, and in front one captain lying, reclining on one elbow,
with his legs crossed. But again it is guns, not bats.
Hadzimichalis, who was prominent in the ‘66 revolt, first distinguished
himself in a brawl. After the fall of Sebastopol in 1855 the
Turks of Canea held three days of festivities on the Sultan’s recom-
mendation. Some Turks met in a little cafe to drink and celebrate with
music; and turned to insulting the Orthodox Russians and Cretans.
‘Now that the devil has taken the Tsar, he will soon take you too.’
Hadzimichaiis, with a cousin, entered the cafe" and was invited to
drink; filled with anger, he proposed the health of the Emperor of
Russia. A brawl ensued, in which several Turks were wounded,
The Turks took relatives of Hadzimichalis as hostages and im-
prisoned them; but soon Mustapha Pasha released them and promised
an amnesty if the two miscreants gave themselves up. They did; and
were imprisoned. After some months Hadzimichalis was allowed out
on paying a sum of money towards the hospital bills of those he had
beaten up. But seven years later he was back in prison. A group of
Lakkiots came down to Canea to release him. Passing a church of St
Panteleimon on the way they prayed for help, promising him a chapel.
And after his successful release Hadzimichalis raised a little chapel to
the saint on the Omalos. He is buried next door.
Local tradition is rather different. Aphrodite Drakoulakis, the wife
of the cafe keeper, told me that when the two heroes were in prison,
Hadzimichalis and his Lakkiot friends all prayed to the saint at the
same time. ‘Help me, St Panteleimon, and I will build you a chapel.’
Hadzimichalis was scratching a hole in the wall, covering it up each
day with his bed. ‘And God enlightened him. ’ He managed to send a
letter out of prison, saying ‘allegorically 1 that ten men were to go to
work his vines at such and such a time. His friends understood, and
were there. At the agreed moment, Hadzimichalis broke through the
wall and jumped down into the blankets they held below. His friend
jumped but broke his foot. ‘What could they do? There was no time.
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