The aspect of the country was
pitiable; it should have been at this season a waving sea of green
barley and young wheat, but it was a withered desert --with a few
patches of verdure like oases in a thirsty wilderness. This terrible
calamity extended throughout the entire district or plain of Messaria,
and exhibited a sad example of the great necessity of Cyprus--"an
organised system of artificial irrigation."
We remained some days at Kuklia, during which I strengthened the
gipsy-van by lashing the frame-work with raw bull's-hide and securing
the blocks of the springs to the axles with the same material. It is
worthy of note "that a fresh hide should never be used for lashing, but
a skin that has been already dried should be soaked for twenty-four
hours, and then cut into a strip as carefully and as long as the size
will permit. When thus prepared, it should be re-soaked for four or five
hours, and used while wet as a lashing, drawn as tight as possible. The
power of contraction is enormous, and when dry the skin becomes as hard
as wood; but a fresh hide has not the same contractive power, and will
stretch and become loose when subject to a severe strain." It was a
great comfort to return to the luxury of the gipsy-van, which looked the
picture of neatness; the gorgeous Egyptian lantern had ceased to exist
as an object of value, as it had several times been upset and thrown
completely off its hook by the jumpings and bumpings of the vehicle when
forcibly dragged over the steep banks and watercourses. It was now
reduced to an "antique," and looked as though it had been recovered from
the ruins of an ancient temple.
The post was kindly forwarded from Famagousta by the chief commissioner,
and we revelled in newspapers, which during our stay in the Carpas had
been a complete blank. Our cook Christo had also received letters which
disconcerted him. After dinner at about 8.30 P.M. he suddenly appeared
at the tent door with a very large breakfast-cup in his hand. "I beg
your pardon, sir, but I'm sorry to say my mother has just fallen down
and broken her leg!" was his first announcement; and he continued, "she
is an old woman, past fifty, sir, and a broken leg is a very bad thing;
I have come to ask for some brandy, and I've brought a cup."
"Your mother broken her leg, Christo? Why, where is she?" I replied.
"She is at Athens, sir, and I want a drop of brandy, as I have just
received the letter, and I am very anxious about her."
I now discovered that the brandy was not intended for his mother's leg,
but for his own stomach, to comfort his nerves and to allay his filial
anxiety.
