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from all ghostly comfort, hastened to arrive at a pecuniary compromise. Th e monasteries are an important institution throughout Cyprus, and there is a decided difference between the monks of these establishments and the general priesthood. The monks are supposed to devote their lives to charitable objects; they are not allowed to marry, and they have a superior education, as all can read and write. On the other hand, the priests are grossly ignorant, and it is computed that only a quarter of their number could even write their own names. These are allowed to marry one wife, but they cannot re-marry in the event of her decease ; they are generally poor to a superlative degree, and "are frequently obliged to work for hire like common labourers. Should a man desire to become a priest, it is only necessary that he should be recommended by the inhabitants of his village as a person of good reputation that would be suitable for the office : he is then ordained by the bishop upon payment of a fee of about one hundred piastres (or 150), and he is at once at liberty to enter upon his duties. These ordination fees are a temptation to the bishops to increase the number of priests to an unlimited extent, and the result is seen throughout Cyprus in a large and superfluous body of the most ignorant people, totally unfitted for their position. The monasteries vary in their revenues, as they have derived their possessions at different periods from grants of land, or private gifts, or legacies. In like manner with the bishops, although they cannot legally compel the villagers to pay according to their demands, they assumed a power which by long sufferance

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