Every year in May, hundreds of tourists flock to the ancient castle of Frangokastello on the southern coast of Crete. They spend sleepless nights, hoping to see with their own eyes the procession of "dew people".
Bloody story
“At the end of May, before sunrise, you can see the shadows of armed horsemen and soldiers,” say the locals. - They come out of the shadow of the mountain and march silently in formation, as if they are going into battle or maneuvers.
If someone dares to come closer, they disappear into the sea. These are the ghosts of those killed in the Frangokastello castle during the terrible battle with the Turks in 1827. They return every year to the castle where their blood was shed.
The vision appears at the time when the dew falls, hence the name “dew people”.
The castle was built in 1371-1374 by invaders from Venice. The Cretans resisted as best they could. Fishermen made their way to the construction site at night and spoiled everything that could be destroyed without raising an alarm. The enemy castle was not built on time. They had to pay a considerable price for this: having hardly finished the work, the Venetians hung a Greek on each battlement of the wall.
When the Turks drove the Venetians out of Crete, it didn't get any better. Greece now and then rebelled against foreign oppression. In 1827, the detachment of Hajimikhalis Dalianis attempted to start a war for the independence of Crete and captured the castle. The leader of the detachment was a wealthy merchant, but abandoned his business, equipping a cavalry detachment at his own expense.
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On the night of May 17, the Turkish army of Mustafa Pasha stormed the castle. 335 rebels were killed in action. The Turks did not bury their bodies, throwing them from the wall into the ditch.
An anonymous poem about the revolution, formed at the beginning of the 20th century, says:
“To this day, on May 17th, the Hajimikhalis detachment appears. They beat in the clouds, and unbelievers hear voices and the clatter of hooves near the castle walls. Ghost soldiers can be seen and frightened, but may the Lord have mercy on them, they do not harm anyone …"
During the German occupation, the garrison in the castle opened fire on the shadows. Then the amazed Germans asked the peasants what the hell was going on in front of the fortress gates.
Unknown Warriors
With all due respect to local legends, it must be said that the "people of dew" have nothing to do with Hajimikhalis's detachment. Its men were armed with firearms, and the armored ghost soldiers carried shields, spears, and short swords. In addition, shadows are shown not on May 17, but later, sometimes lingering until the first ten days of June. Nor can it be the shadows of the ancient Romans from the legion that stood on the island. They are holding not tall Roman scutums, but round Greek-style shields.
General Hajimikhalis, the great-grandson of the hero of the revolution, visited the castle 100 years after the death of his ancestor. He saw the procession of ghosts three times, describing what he saw in a letter to the president of the Greek Association of Parapsychology, Angelos Tanagras.
He emphasized that the shadows have nothing to do with the events of 1827: weapons, the speed of the march, even the tall height of the soldiers distinguish them both from the Greeks of that time and from the soldiers of Mustafa Pasha. Although they are striding towards Frangokastello, it is obvious that the castle is not their goal.
“A non-local woman was working in the field in the morning when the ghosts appeared,” Hajimikhalis wrote. “She thought people had come to look for work in the harvest. “What brought hundreds of people here? she asked another woman. "There is no work here for such a crowd."
All three days they marched in formation, from east to west, from the foot of the mountain across the gloomy plain to the ruined castle. Sometimes they marched in close formation, and sometimes their columns were thin and stretched. It must be some kind of strange natural phenomenon."
Natural wonders or …
Angelos Tanagras suggested that the vision could be a mirage, reflecting in a distorted form the maneuvers of soldiers in Libya, on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. His article on "people of the dew" in the journal Parapsychological Research was immediately criticized to smithereens. Scientists have noticed that the source of the mirage at ground level cannot be further than the horizon. Even if, by some mirage, a mirage would show Libya, in those days an Italian colony, he had to repel people with rifles.
- From the end of May to the first ten days of June, the position of the sun relative to the mountain in Frangokastello is such that within 10 minutes before dawn, thanks to the morning fog, a unique setting is created, - suggested Thomas Vasiliakis. - The sun at this time is covered by the edge of the mountain, but it is already so bright that its light projects onto the foggy screen the shadows of the mountain peaks, which move in the direction of the sun.
Vasiliakis's hypothesis also does not stand up to criticism. The sun and mountains are always the same here, and the phenomenon appeared only at the turn of the 20th century. At least I hadn't spoken about him before. The ghostly "people of dew" are not mentioned in the collection of Nikolaos Politis "Study of the life and language of the Greek people", published at the beginning of the XX century. Its compiler spent a lot of time in Crete writing down local traditions.
Moreover, the vision is not repeated. This is not a movie playing endlessly in the labyrinths of space and time. Soldiers can walk in close formation or in thin chains. Among them, sometimes horsemen ride, and other times only infantrymen are visible. It happens that they pause and even turn back against the course of the sun.
In 1924, the infantry retreated several times and went forward again. The vision lasts 8-15 minutes, and the shadows do not change growth as the luminary ascends. Locals say that the faint sound of footsteps, voices and the clang of weapons can sometimes be heard nearby.
Attempts to capture the "dew people" with a video camera were in vain. When viewed on the screen, only the landscape was visible. There are no genuine pictures of the phenomenon, there are only more or less successful photomontages.
The Cretan wine merchant Georgios Naxakis reported that there are cases of the appearance of "dew people" not before dawn, but after sunset. If this is true, the hypothesis of the natural origin of the phenomenon becomes even more ridiculous. In the evening, the sun shines from the other side, where there is nothing but the sea.
Decisive observations
Among the parapsychologists who tried to personally see the "people of the dew" was Sir Ernest Bennett, a member of the British Parliament. He served as a war correspondent in Greece and could communicate with locals without an interpreter. Bennett asked the peasants about the phenomenon.
Local residents said that last time one woman either hesitated, or was not frightened. She found herself in the path of the column of ghosts. Everyone was waiting for what would happen. Will shadows pass through her or, on the contrary, will her body block the light and make passing ghosts disappear?
The ghosts acted as if they saw an obstacle. Some went around the woman on the right, others on the left, then the column closed again. The phenomenon disappeared suddenly, as if it had been turned off.
Residents immediately rushed to the woman with questions. It turned out that she had not seen, heard, or even felt!
Bennett asked what the priest from Frangokastello thought of the "people of the dew". The representative of the church did not remain silent.
“I've seen ghosts twice,” he admitted. “These shadows are like an army on a march, marching from east to west. Once with me was Eumenios, Archbishop of Crete. On that day, everyone who was in the house came out to look at them. Interestingly, when walking, you can see them worse than standing still. They walked in a column about a quarter of a mile long. The phenomenon lasted fifteen minutes.
Foreign Minister Manusos Koundauros was the most prominent politician to see the dew people. His press attaché Psilakis said he saw ghosts at a distance of 200 meters:
- It happened 10 minutes before sunrise, when the stars are still visible in the sky. I saw a crowd of moving shadows, like the ones that people cast on the curtains in houses when it's dark outside and light inside. There were people of all shapes, but I don't remember seeing horsemen among them.
Bennett himself sat on the beach until the end of May, and then left for Heraklion. The ghosts appeared the next day, as if awaiting his departure. Sir Ernest felt that something supernatural had left him in a fool.
Window to the next world
The "dew people" do not seem to reflect Crete's Greek past. Why did not the ghosts of shepherds or women appear in the morning? Why this endless march? What he saw is more like hell, where people always walk on the plain with a heavy load and languish under the weight of armor. From year to year the same thing …
One can only guess what opened the "window to the underworld" at the beginning of the 20th century and made the ghostly soldiers temporarily visible. Whether it was a witchcraft rite, scientific experience or pure chance, it will forever remain a mystery.
If you arrive in Frangokastello by the end of May and want to try your luck, keep in mind: the phenomenon is only visible to people standing between the mountains and the castle. There is nothing to do on the shore, look at the plain from the side of the mountain. If you are not afraid to take a careless step and become a new soldier of the march of the damned, welcome to Crete.
German MIKHAILOV