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Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
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CLAUDE DELAVAL COBHAM
Exerpta Cypria
page 441

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common Turkish expression of auger or contempt) : immediately he and the other three alighted with great expedition : when I asked Ibrahim why he struck the man, he said it was because he had not alighted in passing me; and I found on enquiry that every Rayah here is forced to alight whenever ho meets a Turk of rank. Γ, of course, charged Ibrahim, who had insisted on the same respect being paid to me, not to be so punctilious on my account in future. At half past seven wc reached Signor Vondiziano's house. 1 could not observe my thermometer at noon to-day, but at nine in the evening it was at 56. We passed on the road several camels, which attain here their full size and perfection : my horse was not, like the Grecian horses of old, either frightened or disgusted by them. March 21. (Thenn. 78e.) Cyprus is no longer fanions for the beauty, or infamous for the immodesty, of its women. The Turkish women of Nicosia are, I am told, in general pretty, but not to any extraordinary degree; and one half of their charms is destroyed by the relaxation of the system consequent on their frequent use of tho bath, the enemy of female attractions throughout the Levant. Bnt after seeing the rigour with which they are guarded at Constantinople, 1 was astonished to see the familiarity with which they enter the houses here, even of the Franks, divested of either feraje or yashmaq. The winds that blow most commonly in the island aro the west and south-west during summer, and the north in the months, of December and January. The best white wine in the island is made on the mountains near Liinesole. Cotton is cultivated in the greatest plenty in the north of the island. In the morning there came in here a small S. Mauriote vessel, of about twenty tons, put in here on her way from Alexandria home, owing to tempests, by which she had been very roughly handled, having lost her masts, and been forced to throw her cargo overboard. In the evening I went to call on Mr How, whom I found heartily tirocl, having been up half the night loading wheat, which though permitted by the government here, must be done secretly, owing to the severe orders of the Sultan that no corn shonld be exported except to Constantinople. H. told me that the island, after supplying its own population, can furnish corn enough to load sixty or seventy vqpsels. I walked to the Marina to look for a ship, and found a large three-masted one going for Jaffa as soon as the wind should change, which, since my arrival, has blown so strong on the west and south-west, that no ship has ventured to leave the island. [Mr Turner left Larnaca on March 22, and after visiting the Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and M. Sinai, returned thither on October 3, IS15.] 'Monday, October 2. At snnset -we were fifteen miles S.K. of Cape Gatta. October 3. All night a dead calm. All the morning light breezes from the N.E. till eleven : from eleven to two again dead cal in. We then got a light breeze, which carried us along the shore, and, freshening at three, brought us to an anchor in the roadsted of Larnaca at five. I went immediately ashore, and found all my Cyprus friends quite well. I stationed myself again iu the house of the consul There has, I am glad to find, been very little fever in Cyprus this year. October 4. (Therm. S2\) This being the fête day of the Emperor Francis, I went with Signor Vondiziaiio and the few English subjects here to pay a visit in form to the Austrian consul, and to the monks of the convent of Terra Santa... October 6. (Therm, at 6.30 a.m. 66e.) This being the fete day of S. Thecla, to the village bearing whose name the Greek peasants flock from all parts of the island, I was glad to accept an invitation, from Signor Peristiani, the Russian consul, to dine with him at his country-house there, and see the amusements of the festival. I set off at seven with Mehmed, the same janizary that accompanied me seven months ago to Thali. For the first hour and a TURNER. 4:ti

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