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CLAUDE DELAVAL COBHAM
Exerpta Cypria
page 81 View PDF version of this page a couple of geese you will hare to pay five to six silver marcelli, for a pair of turkeys fonr marcelli. Fine fowls three marcelli, medium do. two and a half. Quails a little more than a marcello the couple, tame pigeons about the same, wood-pigeons a little more. Six walnuts for a quattrino, the same for a quince, but these are small. Apples scarce and poor ; such as you can find cost a quattrino for two. I have seen no pears yet, but am told that peasants bring them from the hills and sell them very dear. Medlars, sorbs and almonds are nowhere grown. Citrous, lemons, oranges, capers, pistachios, dates, breadfruit, figs, green and dry, are abundant aud cheap. The native cheese is made of a mixture of the milk of sheep, goats and cows, but it does not keep, for it is too rich. Most of the Jews here get their cheese from Za η te or Tripoli, and pay dearly for it.
The small sheep aud the lambs, they tell me, are fine and good : there are many of them, they sell at a mocenigo each, more or less, according to the size. One or two families buy a whole one, because you cannot resell the legs, which the Jews do not eat, to anyone outside. We have not had them yet, they begin to come into the market about the end of this month. Until then the Jews eat mutton or goat, at six or seven quattrini the pound : beef costs nine quattrini. As a matter of fact this does not come dearer than what is lost on animals declared ritually unfit for food. At Constantinople, Salonica, Candia and here in Cyprus the Jewish saerificers force air into the lungs of the animals they examine : in this way they are saved much waste, and leave a gain to the butchers, who keep as sound most of the animals whose throats they cut for the Jews. Honey is dark and thick, and sold at two quattrini the pound.
A man is lucky if be knows medicine, for the Greeks respect the Jews as good doctors, and trust them. It is true that they pay in ordinary cases two hundred sequins a year for each patient to the Christian doctors, while they give only a hundred and twenty to Jews, about a Venetian gaceta a month per patient. These are the common fees. But there are also two Jewish doctors, α Portuguese and a Roman, who earn more and make a fine income by their profession. They are held in great respect, and wear a black hat with a yellow badge no bigger than the small coin called issarion, a privilege allowed to no other Jews, who are all obliged to wear, as at Venice, α head-covering entirely of yellow. Washing is very dear, twice as dear as we pay in Italy. Shoes aro cheap, one can get a good pair with stout soles for two and a half marcelli.
So mncb for a rapid sketch of the life, manners and customs of this town....Written at Famagusta, Monday, October 18, or the new moon of Heswan, in the year of grace 5324, by him who humbly kisses the dust of your feet, who writes here in silence and sends you aloud the blessing of peace.
76
EXCERPTA CYPRIA.
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