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 384

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of a rock, or a holy effigy, may lead to complications. It was of no use to moralise ; Christina was gone, together with the child ; there was absolute quiet in the monastery; neither the scolding of the mother, nor the crying of an infant, was heard. The monks looked more austere than ever, and remained in unwashed linen, until they at length succeeded in engaging a charming substitute in a middle-aged maid of all work of seventy-five ! About the 20th July the swallows disappeared, and I have no idea to what portion of the world they would migrate at this season. In the low country the heat is excessive, and even at the altitude of Trooditissa the average, since the ist of the month, had been at 7 A.M. 70Λ—3 Ρ·Μ· 77Î V°- The birds that had sung so cheerfully upon our arrival had become silent. There was a general absence of the feathered tribe, but occasionally a considerable number of hoopoes and jays had appeared for a few days, and had again departed, as though changing their migrations, and resting for a time upon the cool mountains. I frequently rambled among the highest summits with my dogs, but there was a distressing and unaccountable absence of game ; in addition to which there was no scent, as the barren rocks were heated in the sun like bricks taken from the kiln. The undergrowth up to 4500 feet afforded both food and covert for hares, but they were very scarce. A peculiar species of dwarf prickly broom covers the ground in some places, and the young shoots are eagerly devoured by goats ; this spreads horizontally, and grows in such dense masses about, one foot from the surface that it will support the weight of a man.

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