E. Cobham Brewer 18101897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Klephts (The)
etymologically means robbers, but came to be a title of distinction in modern Greece. Those Greeks who rejected all overtures of their Turkish conquerors, betook themselves to the mountains, where they kept up for several years a desultory warfare, supporting themselves by raids on Turkish settlers. Aristotels Valaoritis (born 1824) is the great poet of the Klephts. (See Nineteenth Century, July, 1891, p. 130.)