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VAN BRUTO. 2:Ì7 One enters it by twenty-four steps. These, ami the church itself, are cut in the rock. There is a well, and a chamber with traces of ancient paintings. Soon after mid-day we started again, passed a little village and saw presently a bridge of eleven arches called Jestiery de Trapese, and passing several other villages we arrived at nightfall at Cytheria, called perhaps after the goddess of love. There too is the Fountain of Venus. We left the next day, taking with ns some villagers chosen specially to shfcw us a certain place in the mountain where are seen bones of men and animals incorporated in the rock, which hold there together in a state of petrifaction. While I was at Larnaca the Consnl had strongly recommended me to go to see this place, and as 1 expected to find something important I had brought with us hammers and scissors. I partly accomplished my purpose, for I extracted some of these bones from the rock. The chief was a bone which I took to be the radius of a man's arm. It was imbedded so firmly in the rock that it took ns two hours to get it out, and despite all our efforts to preserve it whole, the rock itself broke and the bone with it. This after all was an advantage, for the fracture allowed us to see the marrow plainly defined. Τ carried it off carefully wrapped in cotton. On the same spot I found plenty of fragments just hidden by the earth; some were human bones, others those of beasts, and some teeth of surprising size. All round the rock were candle-ends, I guessed the place was held in veneration, and found indeed that the Greeks came there occasionally to pray, believing perhaps that some of their saints may be bnried there. I carried off my spoils, and noticed that the pieces which had beni covered with soil were nut so much petrified as the bone 1 had extracted from the rock. It was late before we left the place, and we were obliged to pass the night in a village close at hand. I may mention that from a hill a few miles from Nicosia 1 brought a way some petrified oysters, full of sand (as a live oyster might be of water). The shells are fitteti close together, and on opening them yon see the oyster as clearly defined on each shell ns though it were graven on it. The shells themselves are petrified. Soon after leaving Cytheria we came to a fountain called Cefalofriso (spring-head). It lies under a hill and disperses itself in several directions. The water falls first into an oval basm, and with such swiftness that it eddies round and round. At noon we reached the convent of S. Chrysostom, and saw on a mountain near it the remains of a very large building. I started with three others to examine it. But we were not yet half way when the Greek whom I had taken from Lamica was too tired to go on— the hill is very steep—but the other two, one was from the village where we had slept, the other from the convent, remained with me. But we were obliged to rest and take breath a dozen times. The ascent is as difficult and dangerous as I have ever made. The greater part of the time we had to climb with oui- hands as well as our feet, and whichever way we turned our gaze we saw only what made our hair stand on end. We took an hour and a half to reach the top. There une sees only the live rock, a number of ruined chambers, and large stone-bnilt reservoirs. It must have been a huge building, with many rooms built at different levels. The sea is visible on all sides but one, and most of the island. The view of Nicosia, with many villages scattered over the plain, is very striking. We returned to the convent, which I drew as well as the mountain and its buildings. The former is fairly large, surrounded by a good wall, and contains some few rooms of modern style, rebuilt after the destruction, not long ago, of a great part of the edifice by fire. The church is in two parts, 48 feet long and 28 wide. Under a little dome is a large half-length painting of Christ) and all round other figures, nearly all faded. Eight columns built into the wall support the dome. The altar is adorned with much foliage and gilding,

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