The greenstone cropped out through the surface in large masses,
accompanied by a peculiar dun-stone precisely similar to that of Knowles
Hill in South Devon. In a cutting through a hill-side by the government
new road veins of bright yellow ochre were exposed, also red ochre in
considerable quantities. I took samples of the yellow, which appeared to
be of a good quality; but I believe the commercial value is too
insignificant to support the charges of land-transport and the
subsequent freight from Larnaca.
Mattiati is about 1300 feet above the sea-level. The troops were camped
in wooden huts on low hills about forty feet above a flat valley, where
olive-trees throve in considerable numbers. I should not have selected
Mattiati as a sanitary station; the plain showed evident signs of bad
drainage, and the rich deep soil would become a swamp after heavy rains.
Upon the low hills within a mile of the station were vast quantities of
scoriae or slag from ancient smelting-furnaces, and the remains of
broken pottery, mingled with stones that had been used in building,
proved that important mining operations had been carried on in former
ages.
From Mattiati to Lithrodondo the country is broken and little
cultivated; there was no longer a sign of cretaceous rock, but the bold
range of mountains rose before us crowned by Makheras, 4730 feet,
apparently close above us, dark in plutonic rocks and sparsely covered
with myrtles and other evergreens. As we neared the base of the
mountains, the vegetation increased, and passing the dirty village of
Lithrodondo, we entered upon a succession of hills divided by numerous
small torrent-beds, the steep banks of which were thickly fringed with
oleanders, mastic, myrtles, and other shrubs, which formed an
inspiriting change from the weary treeless country we had left behind.
Beyond Lithrodondo are extensive vineyards; but it was late, and I was
obliged to turn back towards Dali, fifteen miles distant.
Wherever I had been since my departure from Larnaca the natives had
complained of the effects of fever to which they are subjected during
the summer months; but they were unanimous in declaring that "the
general sickness of the last year was exceptional, and that the fevers
were not of a dangerous nature." It is well known that upon our first
occupation of the island in July, 1878, all troops, both English and
Indian, suffered to a degree that would have rendered them unfit for
active service. It is true that the actual mortality was not excessive;
but the strength of an army must be reckoned by the EFFECTIVE force, and
not by numbers. There can be no doubt that, owing to a season declared
by the inhabitants to be exceptionally unhealthy, and the unfortunate
necessity for a military occupation during the extreme heat of July and
August, the troops being overworked, badly fed, and unprotected from the
sun, the newly-acquired island was stamped with a pestilential
character, and Cyprus became a byeword as a fever-smitten failure. I
shall give my personal experiences, untinged by any prejudice. The
natural features of the country produced a sad impression upon my first
arrival in a scene where the depressing influence of a barren aspect
must to a certain extent affect the nervous system; but a careful
examination of the entire surface of the island subsequently modified my
first impressions, with results which these pages will describe.
There was no object in prolonging my visit to Dali; the tombs of ancient
Idalium had already been ransacked by the consuls of various nations;
and had I felt disposed to disturb the repose of the dead, nominally in
the interests of science, but at the same time to turn an honest penny
by the sale of their remains, I should have been unable to follow the
example of the burrowing antiquarians who had preceded me; a prohibition
having been placed upon all such enterprises by the English government.
It is supposed that Idalium is one of the largest and richest treasuries
of the dead in Cyprus. For several centuries the tombs had been
excavated and pillaged in the hopes of discovering objects of value. The
first robbers were those who were simply influenced by the gold and
other precious ornaments which were accompaniments of the corpse; the
modern despoilers were resurrectionists who worked with the object of
supplying any museums that would purchase the funeral spoil.
It is a curious contradiction in our ideas of propriety, which are
measured apparently by uncertain intervals of time, that we regard as
felonious a man who disinters a body and steals a ring from the fingers
of the corpse a few days after burial in an English churchyard, but we
honour and admire an individual who upon a wholesale scale digs up old
cemeteries and scatters the bones of ancient kings and queens, princes,
priests, and warriors, and having collected the jewellery, arms, and
objects of vanity that were buried with them, neglects the once honoured
bones, but sells the gold and pottery to the highest bidder. Sentiment
is measured and weighed by periods, and as grief is mitigated by time,
so also is our respect for the dead, even until we barter their ashes
for gold as an honourable transaction.
The most important object of antiquity that has been recently discovered
by excavations at Dali is the statue of Sargon, king of Assyria, 707
B.C., to whom the Cypriote kings paid tribute. This was sent to the
Berlin Museum by Mr. Hamilton Lang, and is described in his interesting
work upon Cyprus during the term of several years' consulship.
The ruins of ancient cities offer no attraction to the traveller in this
island, as nothing is to be seen upon the surface except disjointed
stones and a few fallen columns of the commonest description.
