to cover us again with others of white
satin, still more sumptuous than before. Next
they brought coffee, in golden cups studded
with diamonds; and the mantles were once
more taken away. After this, there came
slaves kneeling before us with burning odours
in silver censers, which they held beneath our
noses; and finally, a man, passing rapidly
round, bespattered our faces, hands, and clothes,
with rose-water-a compliment so little ex-
pected at the time, and so zealously admini-
stered, that we began to wipe from our eyes the
honours which had almost blinded us. The
principal dragoman belonging to the Governor
next presented to each of us an embroidered
handkerchief;
gifts," he said, "by which
Infidels of rank were always distinguished in
their interviews with his Master." The hand-
kerchief consisted of embroidered muslin, and
was inclosed in a piece of red crape. These
presents we in vain solicited permission to

СНАР.

II.

the house where he had supped. (Epig. 57. lib. viii.) It was also customary in the East to change their robes at feasts. The master of the house gave one to each of his guests: none were to appear without it. Thus, in the Parable of the Marriage Feast (Matt. xxii.), the guest who had it not was driven out by order of the king who gave the feast; not being found worthy of admittance there, no garment having been given to him, as to the others. See D'Arnay's Life of the Romans p. 118. Lond. 1764.

CHAP.
II.

decline ; adding, that "as private individuals, meanly habited, in the view of travelling expeditiously through the island, we hoped he would not form his ideas of Englishmen of rank either from our appearance or pretensions." When all his servants had retired, and the ceremonies of opening and shutting silver utensils, of presenting coffee, conserves, and tobacco, were ended, which generally occupy half an hour, the Governor began a eulogy upon Lord Nelson and Sir Sidney Smith. We found it difficult to gain an opportunity for stating the cause of our coming; for with Turkish grandees an hour is soon passed, without the interchange of ten words. At last we obtained a hearing, and spoke of our intention to visit Baffa. We had no sooner mentioned this place, than we found that all intercourse with it, and with the western side of the island, was cut off by the plague, which had begun to shew itself even in the neighbourhood of Nicotia: we therefore resolved to return to our more humble host in the village of Attien the same night; when, to our great surprise, the Governor requested that we would spend a few days with him; and, as we stated this to be impossible, he even threatened to detain the frigate at Salines for that purpose. We were however resolute in our determination; and therefore representing to him the illness of

our Captain, and out utter inability to remain an instant after the Ceres had got her cargo on board, we took our leave; accompanied by an officer of his guard, whom he permitted to attend us among the goldsmiths of the place, in search of medals and other antiquities.

CHAP.

II.

or Gold

smiths of

Turkey.

It is to these artificers, bearing the name of Gayamjee, Guyúmjee, almost universally in Turkey, that the peasants of the country, and lower order of people in the towns, carry all the pieces of gold or silver they may chance to find in the soil, to be exchanged for modern trinkets. They are generally men in a very small way of trade, sitting in a little stall, with a crucible before them, a touchstone', and a handful of very ordinary tools. Their chief occupation consists in making coarse silver rings, of very base metal, for the women, and in setting signets for Turks of all denominations. There is hardly a Moslem who does not bear upon one of his fingers this kind of ornament. The Turkish signet is

(1) Various substances are in use under the name of touchstone, and of course it has various appellations. Mineralogists have called it Lapis Lydius, Corneus trapezius, primitive basalt, basanite, trap, schistus, &c. The substance most employed by Oriental goldsmiths is a dark and very compact basalt.

II.

CHAP. generally a carnelian stone', inscribed with a few words from the Korán, a proverb in Arabic, or a couplet in Persian. We found, as usual, ample employment among these men; and were so much occupied in the pursuit, that we even neglected to visit the Cathedral of St. Sophia, built in the Gothic style by the Emperor Justinian, when he raised the edifice of the same name in Constantinople. It is said that the monuments of English warriors who fought during the crusades still exist within this building. We have the testimony both of Drummond and of Mariti for the architecture

(1) To supply these stones, they frequently disfigure or conceal the finest antique gems; either by cutting them into a more diminutive form, or by hiding the work of the antient lapidary in the setting, and turning the obverse side outward for the writing.

(2) "The most beautiful edifice here is, without doubt, the Church of St. Sophia, where the kings of Cyprus were formerly crowned. It is built in the Gothic style, and has three large naves. It contains the tombs of the Lusignans, and of several antient Cypriots and noble Venetians. The choir and the altar were destroyed when the city was taken. This church then became the principal mosque; and Mustapha, the Turkish general, went to it for the first time, to offer thanks to the Almighty, on the fourteenth of September, 1570." Mariti's Travels, vol. 1. p. 98. It is said by Dapper (Descrip. des Isles de l'Archipel. p. 32. (Amst. 1733) to contain an antient tomb of very beautiful jasper, of one entire piece, eight feet and a half long, four feet and a quarter wide, and five feet high. Dapper, perhaps, alludes to the beautiful kind of marble called Rosso Antico by the Italians.

II.

exhibited in its construction: the cathedrals CHAP. both of Famagosta and Nicotia are described as Gothic. If it be true, therefore, that the Nicotian church was erected by Justinian, we have authority for the existence of that style of architecture, in a high degree of perfection, so long ago as the middle of the sixth century; six hundred and forty years before the conquest of Cyprus by Richard the First; and certainly long anterior to the introduction of any specimen of the architecture, called Gothic, into Great Britain. Other examples of still higher antiquity exist in Egypt, in Palæstine, and in India.

The only Manufactures which we noticed in Nicotia were those of Turkey leather, of small carpets, and of printed cottons. The red leather made here, like that of Acre, is remarkable for its brilliant and lively colour. Mariti describes it as superior in this respect to the leather which is manufactured in Barbary3. The carpets were barely large enough to cover an English hearth; but they were valued at forty and fifty piastres each. The workmanship was, however, excellent. We visited the cotton manufactory. The process did not appear to

(3) Mariti's Travels, vol. I. p. 102. Lond. 1791.