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CLAUDE DELAVAL COBHAM
Exerpta Cypria
page 440

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a very picturesque effect. At half past ten vre arrived at Idalinm (a small village of a hundred houses, still to my great delight called Thali) which is situated in a plain better cultivated than the surrounding country, being very fruitful in corn, grapes (whence they make the common red wine of the country, sold for eight paras an oke), beans and cotton, and surronnded by small mountains near it, whence perhaps issned the boar fatal to Adonis. We went to the house of a peasant, who admitted us very cordially, and his wife shook hands with us on our entering, contrary to the custom of countries in the Levant, which is either to kiss hands, or to carry the hand to the forehead. They gave us some eggs, which with bread and cheese and wine brought by Ibrahim, made ine a good dinner. The master of the honso and his family made themselves so serviceable, and were so civil, that I snpposed them Greeks, and was astonished when he told me he was a Musulman, as well as his wife and six children. He went to Constantinople four years ago, he said, to fight against the Russians; and after serving six months ill the Turkish army received 70 piastres as pay. His wife was weaving cotton, which in its raw state sells here for 31 piastres an oke. His cottage was neat and clean, and consisted of only one room with mud walls and a mud floor, of which one half was raised above the other. After dinner the peasant offered to conduct me to a veiy fine antique building in the neighbourhood, aud on my assenting led ine about two miles through rich fields full of the productions before-mentioned, and shaded by long rows of olive trees, aud watered by a small river : the tout ensemble, with the mountains round, made a pleasing prospect. On my way my guide complained bitterly of the tyranny of the government, who exacted from each cottager ΙΛΟ piastres yearly. When we came to the antique he had boasted of, I found it was a small Venetian building, on which I left it immediately, and he led me to the site of the ancient Idalinm, which is about a quarter of a mile to the north of tlie village, between two small mountains, pari of which it covered: here, he said, according to a tradition in the village, stood α large city formerly, and though there were no walls standing, yet the tradition was supported by an amazing number of stones scattered abont the fields and the mountains, and by two small water troughs that appeared ancient. I had not been able to borrow at Larnaca any volume containing Rion's Idyll on the death of Adonis, but fortunately my pocket Anacreou contained, among some few pieces of other poets, Theocritus, XXX, "Tlie dead Adonis," which I read on the spot with enthusiastic pleasure. Prom tlie site of the ancient city I laid a very advantageous view of the modern village, with its small mountains, behind which were others in the distance of a considerable height : bnt it is infested by the curse of modern Cyprus, pools of stagnant water, which were drying and brewing fevers apace. At a quarter past three I left. Thali, rather disappointed at not having been able to find a single antique. We met several pensants on the road driving large flocks of sheep and goats: their prevailing dress was α white turban, -white jacket and white shaluar (trousers) : that of the women was the common Greek dress, with a large white vest to shade them from the sun. When we were about half-way, Ibrahim made me turn aside from the road, a narrow pass between two rocks, to look at the tomb of a poor Greek, who had l>een found dead on the read, having been ill with the fever, and, it is supposed, drank too copiously of α pool of water near which his body was found. The rocks that we passed were very white, and scooped out into natural basins by the rains. We passed a little after sunset the village of Aracipou, where I got some delicions milk, wann from the goat, the flocks being just returned. Hence we proceeded by glimpses of the moonlight, which was at intervals obscured by clouds. When we were drawing near Larnaca we met four Greek peasants on donkies; as the first in passing ns saluted ns with "Good evening," Ibrahim struck him with the switch in his hand, returning his sainte with "anasiny siqdim" (the 43(1 EXCERPTA CYPRIA.

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