CANEA

canea, or khania, the principal seaport and since 1841 the capital of crete, finely situated on the northern coast of the island, about 25 m. from its western extremity, on the isthmus of the akrotiri peninsula, which lies between the bay of canea and the bay of suda (latitude 35 deg. 31' n., longitude 24 deg. 1' e.). surrounded by a massive venetian wall, it forms a closely built, irregular and overcrowded town, though of late years a few of its streets have been widened. the ordinary houses are of wood; but the more important buildings are of more solid materials. the turks have a number of mosques; there are greek churches and a jewish synagogue; an old venetian structure serves as a military hospital; and the prison is of substantial construction. the town is now the principal seat of government; the seat of a greek bishop, who is suffragan to the metropolitan at candia, and the official residence of the european consuls. the harbour, formed by an ancient transverse mole nearly 1200 ft. long, and protected by a lighthouse and a fort, would admit vessels of considerable tonnage; but it has been allowed to silt up until it shoals off from 24 ft. to 10 or even 8, so that large vessels have to anchor about 4 or 5 m. out. the principal articles of trade are oil and soap, and there is a pretty extensive manufacture of leather. the fosse is laid out in vegetable gardens; public gardens have been constructed outside the walls; and artesian wells have been bored by the government. to the east of the town a large arab village had grown up, inhabited for the most part by natives of egypt and cyrenaica, who acted as boatmen, porters and servants, but since the fall of the turkish government most of these have quitted the island; while about a mile off on the rising ground is the village of khalepa, where the consuls and merchants reside. the population of the town is estimated at 20,000. canea probably occupies the site of the ancient cydonia, a city of very early foundation and no small importance. during the venetian rule it was one of the strongest cities in the island, but it fell into the hands of the turks in 1646, several years before the capture of candia. in 1856 it suffered from an earthquake. the neighbouring plain is famous for its fruitfulness, and the quince is said to derive its name _cydonia_ from the town. (see also crete.) cane-fencing (the fr. _canne_), the art of defending oneself with a walking-stick. it may be considered to be single-stick fencing without a guard for the hand, with the important difference that in cane-fencing the thrust is as important as the cut, and thus _canne_ approaches nearer to sabre-play. the cuts are practically identical with those of the single-stick (q.v.), but they are generally given after one or more rapid preliminary flourishes (_moulinets_, circles) which the lightness of the stick facilitates, and which serve to perplex and disconcert an assailant. the thrusts are similar to those in foil-play, but are often carried out with both hands grasping the stick, giving greater force and enabling it to be used at very close quarters. the canes used in french fencing schools are made of several kinds of tough wood and are about 3 ft. long, tapering towards the point. as very severe blows are exchanged, masks, gloves, padded vests and shin-guards, similar to those used in football, are worn. see georges d'amoric, _french method of the noble art of self-defence_ (london, 1898); j. charlemont, _l'art de la boxe francaise et de la canne_ (paris, 1899). canephorae (gr. [greek: kaneon], a basket, and [greek: ferein], to carry), "basket-bearers," the title given of old to athenian maidens of noble family, annually chosen to carry on their heads baskets with sacrificial implements and apparatus at the panathenaic and other festivals. the term (also in the form _canephori_) is applied in architecture to figures of either sex carrying on their heads baskets, containing edibles or material for sacrifices. the term might well be applied to the caryatide figures of the erechtheum. those represented in the panathenaic frieze of the parthenon carry vases on their shoulders. canes venatici ("the hounds," or "the greyhounds"), in astronomy, a constellation of the northern hemisphere named by hevelius in 1690, who compiled it from the stars between the older asterisms ursa major, bootes and coma berenices. interesting objects in this portion of the heavens are: the famous spiral nebula first described by lord rosse; _a-canum venaticorum_, a double star, of magnitudes 3 and 6; this star was named _cor caroli_, or the heart of charles ii., by edmund halley, on the suggestion of sir charles scarborough (1616-1694), the court physician; a cluster of stars of the 11th magnitude and fainter, extremely rich in variables, of the 900 stars examined no less than 132 being regularly variable.