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I.

CHAP. stroke), if they venture out at noon without the precaution of carrying an umbrella. The inhabitants, especially of the lower order, wrap their heads as if exposed to the rigour of a severe winter; being always covered with a turban, over which, in their journeys, they place a thick shawl, many times folded. The great heat experienced upon the eastern coasts of Cyprus is owing to two causes; to the situation of the island with respect to the Syrian, Arabian, and Lybian deserts; and to its mountainous nature, preventing the cooler winds, the west and north-west, from the low shores to the east and north-east.

We had scarcely entered the bay, when we observed to the north-east a lurid haze, as if the atmosphere was on fire; and suddenly from that quarter a hurricane took us, that laid the Ceres upon her beam-ends. At the time of this squall we endeavoured to ascertain the temperature of the blast. We found it to be so scorching, that the skin instantly peeled from our lips; a tendency to sneeze was also excited, accompanied with great pain in the eyes, and chapping of the hands and face. The metallic scale of the thermometer, suspended in a porthole to windward, was kept in a horizontal position by the violence of the gale; and the

mercury, exposed to its full current, rose six degrees of Fahrenheit in two minutes, from eighty to eighty-six; a singular consequence of northeast wind to Englishmen, accustomed to consider this as the coldest to which their island is exposed. All the coast of Cyprus, from Salines to Famagosta, anently SALAMIS, is liable to hot winds, from almost every point of the compass; from the north-east; from the east; from the south-east; from the south; and south-west. The north-east, coming from the parched deserts of Curdistan; the east, from the sands of Palmyra; the south-east, from the great desert of Arabia; and the south, and south-west, from Egypt and Lybia. From the west, north-west, and north, the inhabitants are barred by high mountains, lying open to the beams of a scorching sun, reflected from a soil so white, that the glare is often sufficient to cause temporary blindness, without even the prospect of a single tree, beneath which one might hope for shade. In the middle of the day few animals are seen in motion, except the lizard, seeming to sport with greatest pleasure where the sun is most powerful; and a species of long black serpents, abounding in Cyprus: one of these, which we killed, measured four feet and three inches in length. Sometimes, also, a train of camels may be noticed, grazing among dusty thistles and

CHAP.

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CHAP. bitter herbs, while their drivers seek for shelter from the burning noon.

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Larneca.

Insalubrity of the Island.

We found at anchor in this bay the Iphigenia, Captain Stackpole, from the fleet, with several transport-ships, waiting for supplies of cattle and water. On the following morning, June the seventh, about ten o'clock, we landed, and carried our letters of recommendation to the different Consuls residing at Larneca, about a mile from Salines, towards the north. Here the principal families reside, although almost all commercial transactions are carried on at Salines. We dined in Larneca, with our own Consul; collecting, during our walk to and from his house, beneath the shelter of umbrellas, the few plants that occurred in our way. In our subsequent visits, we soon found that the malaria we had witnessed from the deck of the Ceres, veiling all the harbour with its fearful mist, could not be approached with impunity. Our lamented friend and exemplary commander, Captain Russel, was the first to experience its baneful influence; being seized with a fever, from which he never afterwards recovered'.

(1) The salt lakes in the neighbourhood of Salines contribute much to the insalubrity of the bay, and of the surrounding territory. For an account of them, see Drummond's Travels, p. 141. Travellers should be particularly cautioned to avoid all places where salt is made in the Levant : they are generally called Lagunes.

I.

the Island.

Indeed the fevers of Cyprus, unlike those caught CHAP. upon other shores of the Mediterranean, rarely intermit; they are almost always malignant2. The strictest attention is therefore paid by the inhabitants to their diet. Fortunately for them, they have no butter on the island; and in hot weather they deem it fatal to eat fat meat, or indeed flesh of any kind, unless boiled to a jelly. They likewise carefully abstain from every sort Produce of of pastry; from eggs, cream, and milk. The island produces abundance of delicious apricots, from standard-trees, having a much higher flavour than those of Rosetta, but equally dangerous to foreigners, and speedily causing fever if they be not sparingly used. Those of Famagosta are the most esteemed. They are sent as acceptable presents to Nicotia the capital. The apricots of Larneca are also fine, and may be purchased in the market at the small price of three shillings the bushel. Many different varieties of the gourd, or pumpkin, are used in Cyprus for vegetables at table. The young

(2)" Some authors," says the Abbé Mariti, vol. I. page 6," tell us that the air of this island is bad and unhealthful. This prejudice prevents many strangers from remaining in it long enough to make the experiment themselves. But people who have lived here a year, have been convinced of the wholesomeness of the air, and of the error of the Antient writers." With similar effrontery, Tournefort maintained, " Quoiqu'en aient dit les Anciens, la Mer Noir n'a rien de noir."

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CHAP. fruit is boiled, after being stuffed with rice.

I.

Wine of
Cyprus.

We found it refreshing and pleasant, partaking the flavour both of asparagus and artichoke. We noticed also the beet-root, melons, cucumbers, and a very insipid kind of mulberry of a white colour. The corn of the island, where the inhabitants have courage or industry enough to venture on the cultivation of the land, in despite of their Turkish oppressors and the dangers of the climate, is of the finest quality. The wheat, although bearded, is very large, and the bread made from it extremely white and good. Perhaps there is no part of the world where the vine yields such redundant and luscious fruit: the juice of the Cyprian grape resembles a concentrated essence. The wine of the island is so famous all over the Levant that, in the hyperbolical language of the Greeks, it is said to possess the power of restoring youth to age, and animation to those who are at the point of death. Englishmen, however, do not consider it as a favourite beverage: it requires nearly a century of age to deprive it of that sickly sweetness which renders it repugnant to their palates. Its powerful aperient quality is also not likely to recommend it, where wine is drunk in any considerable quantity, as it sometimes disorders the bowels even after being kept for many years. When' it has remained in bottles,

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