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94 Cvi-RUS IN 1879. tCHAPj he on one occasion saw my Abyssinian Amarn swim-j ming in the sea, he declared that, " rather than bathe^ he would prefer to cut his throat. " I had arranged the camp close to a hawthorn-tree, which was already green in its first spring leaves, and had formed blossom-buds that would open in a fe days. There were a considerable number of the sam species scattered in the vicinity, but they had bee defaced by the mutilations usual throughout Cypru If a man requires a stick or a piece of wood fo any purpose, he hacks unsparingly at the first tree whether it belongs to him or to another proprietor The ground sloped gradually to the lowest level oi the hollow about four hundred yards distant, all ο which was in cultivation ; the broad-beans were i blossom, and a species of trefoil was already eight ο nine inches high (22nd February); this was in an ticipation of a lack of natural pasturage. It was pitiable to see the wretched condition of th cattle throughout this district; the absence of rai had prevented the growth of the usual herbaceous plants, and the animals were forced to seek unnatura food produced in the stagnant swamps ; these wer full of skeletons and carcasses of oxen, that afforde bones of contention for the numerous village dog who acted as scavengers. When the droves of oxe returned from pasture every evening, many were in state of weakness that scarcely allowed them step b step to ascend the rising ground ; all were reduced t mere skin and bones, and it would have been a mercy to have put them out of their misery. I was assured that, " the few whose constitution could hold out fort another six weeks would recover when the trefoil should be fit to cut. "

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