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florins a piece in imperial taxes. The Pasha of Levkosia used to take the revenue of the sanjaq of Paphos, as well as the pay of the defterdar-kiaya, the two making up 9000 piastres, which were collected from the muqata'a of the two villages of Zodias, and partly from other villages, for the office of defterdar-hiaya had been suppressed long since as superfluous. ft appears moreover that the Tnrks were not satisfied with the old division of the island, as it stood under the Lusignan kings, into twelve districts, but redivided it into seventeen qaziliqs, Levkosia, with Orini, Kythraia, Mesaoria, Aminochostos, Carpasion: Paphos, with Chrysophou, Kouklia, Avdimi: Larnax, with Lem esc*, Episcopi, Koilanion: and Ky renia, with Morphou, Pentagin and Levka. These comprised, as we have said before, 850 villages. Yet in this 18th century only 550 remain, and these much less thickly peopled than* the older ones. This, there is little doubt, was the oldest arrangement, older than the Christian kings, when the island had tenfold as ma η »in habitants as now. Tn each of five larger villages or towns on the seashore was installed an officer called a dideban or zabit. They were named by the Governor or Pasha for the time being, and were dependent on liim. These were stationed at Larnax, Lemesos, Paphos, Kyrenia and Ammochostos, and paid yoarly to the Governor 5000 piastres. For the defence of the coast from the incursions of corsairs or hostile vessels there were eleven serdars from the above named corps, sent with the privity of the Governor, as well as others called disdars, chosen to direct the defence of the fortresses of Ammochostos, Lemesos, Larnax, Paphos and Kyrenia. Thus you have, kind reader, a sort of sketch, although not η very clear one, of the organisation of this unhappy island from the Turkish conquest np to the present day. I am bound to say something too about the religious organisation of the Turks in the island, at least as it exists at present. A molla is sent from Constantinople for perhaps a year or more as guardian and defender of the faith, and as jndge in commercial disputes, differences, debt, damage and insult, in contracts of marriage and titles to honses and lands, with power to decide and to punish with foity stripes save one. Under his jurisdiction lie the five qamtiqs of Levkosia and Orini, Kythraia, Morph on, Pentagia and Carpasion, from whose inhabitants he receives a monthly salary. To the other qaztriqe are sent oasis of the class of readers of the Qoran, natives or strangers, who jndge in the disputes of the inhabitants of the villages in their qaeiliq, end receive from them a small monthly salary, for their own maintenance, and in repayment of the sum claimed either by the molla at Levkosia, or by the persons at Constantinople who have the right of farming nut these offices. The whole monthly sum paid by them exceeds 2000 piastres, some paying less than 100, some more, according as their qaziliqs are thickly or sparsely peopled. What the molla receives and pays I do not know exactly, bnt I imagine that his yearly income exceeds 15,000 piastres, clear of all outgoings. As we have already said, after the capture of Ammochostos, and up to the new harvest of the following year 1572, there prevailed great and distressing dearth and famine, the result of the war ; although Mustafa Pasha, and others who were pnt in authority under him, tried to encourage the peasants to sow, yet the result was small, because they had not sufficient seed. The very few Cypriote of the ruling classes who were left after the war gained their freedom somehow or other, bnt, like other citizens of Levkosia, were stripped of all their goods, and having no other way of gaining a livelihood and the means of paying the poll-tax, became labourers and muleteers, hawking wine and the like from place to place, and selling it to get a living : a humble employment, and very different from their old stately condition. The inhabitants of Ammochostos remained in their houses, and appeared at the time to be the owners, yet afterwards the Turks dispossessed many of them, on the pretext that they were CYPRIANOS. 347

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