HISTORY ETHNOGRAPHY NATURE WINE-MAKING SITE MAP
Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
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SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 339

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remarkable inductive power may perhaps be some dayj explained by philosophers, but it is now exceedingly] dangerous, and unfortunate results have occurred, when! in a sudden impulse of devotion young maidens havd kissed the rock entrance to the cave, or imprudently! pressed their lips upon the sacred effigy. During my sojourn at Trooditissa no arrivals of1 despairing wives occurred, but in the exhausted con-J ditions of the finance throughout the island, it would' have been the height of folly to have desired aia increase of family, and thereby multiply expenses ;' possibly the uncertainty respecting the permanence oÊ the English occupation may deter the ladies, who may postpone their pilgrimage to the monastery until their offspring should be born with the rights of British subjects. I have described the origin of the ecclesiastical retreat at Trooditissa as nearly as possible according to the viva-voce history related by the monks. It is' impossible to gauge the opinions of the world, as individuals differ as much in nervous structure and in theological creeds as they do in personal appearance ; some may accept the monks' belief implicitly, while others may suggest that the original occupant of the cave was some unknown hermit secluded from the world, whose solitary lamp burning before the Virgin had attracted the attention of the shepherds from the mountain opposite. The old man may have fallen down a precipice and died, leaving his lamp still alight ; but it would be unfair to interfere with the orS ginal legend, which must remain with the usual clouds and uncertainties that obscure the tales of centuries. About 250 feet above the monastery the ridge of a spur afforded a level space beneath some tall pines

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