View PDF version of this page

must induce a want of stamina which is unable to resist the fever in malarious districts, and this results in chronic disease of the spleen. I have already described the general protuberance of the abdomen among the children throughout the Messaria and the Carpas districts, all of whom are more or less affected by splenetic diseases. On the mountains a marked difference is observed, as throughout the numerous villages at high altitudes the children are as healthy as those of England, although poorly clad in the home-made cotton-stuffs of the country. I have already remarked the absence of flannel or other woollen material worn next the skin ; the natives prefer their own manufactures to those of Europe, and as they grow the cotton, which is spun and woven into cloth by their own women, there is no actual outlay of coin. Some of the native material is very superior in strength to the machine-made stuffs of Manchester, especially a blue stout cotton with a thin red line that is in general request both for men and women. The only woollen stuff that is manufactured in Cyprus is confined to Nicosia, where the dark brown and immensely thick capotes are made for the winter wear of the common people. A cart-driver during the halt in a winter night simply draws the hood over his head and face, and, wrapped in his long and impervious capote, he lays himself beneath his cart and goes to 1 sleep. Coarse woollen saddle-cloths and bags are also made at Nicosia. The same locality is celebrated for manufactures of silk and gold embroidery, all of which is performed by the hands of women, while the printing of calicoes and the production of morocco leather are local industries confined to the labour of men. No country is better adapted for silk culture

View PDF version of this page