Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/376

326 would one day be in my employ; but so it was. The murderer who escaped in so singular a manner was Manoli the Cassiote.

This very unwelcome discovery explained to me why the chief constable of Calymnos is treated with such profound respect by the authorities and people of his island. He is one of those men who, by a combination of great natural force of character and physical strength, has succeeded in pvitting himself above the law. No one in Calymnos dares take the initiative of bringing him to justice. He is in league with a band of about twenty desperate characters, whom he calls the police of Calymnos, who patrol the streets at night, and take care that nobody commits any act of violence except with the full knowledge and consent of the head constable. Now and then, this functionary, finding himself in want of ready money, favours some rich Greek of his acquaintance with a visit, and requests a loan, which, it is hardly necessary to observe, is never refused; for the consequences of the refusal would be such as few would care to encounter. Last year, about the month of May, Calymnos was suddenly invaded by a band of pupates from Samos, about thirty in number. This small party being- well armed, and choosing for the moment of their attack a time when the greater part of the male population was absent for the sponge-fishery, surprised and captured the lower town in open day, and sacked the houses and magazines of all the richest merchants without meeting with the smallest resistance. Acting on Robin Hood's principle, they invited the poor of Calymnos to a share of