This Was The Result Of Enormous Labour, Far Disproportioned To The Value Of The Crops; Yet In The Face Of

This perilous industry there are persons who declare that the Cypriotes are an idle race, and that "land exists in

Superabundant acreage sufficient for double the amount of population." If this theory is correct the Cypriotes, who climb to these dizzy heights to build some walls among the precipices that will act as an agricultural trap to catch some few square yards of soil, must be simply madmen; but I have not found them wanting either in brains or industry when working independently for their own profit; where they are positively wanting, is in ready money. All strangers who take an interest in agriculture must be struck with the extraordinary pains taken by the natives to save the soil from water-wash, to which I have already alluded; but this peculiarity is the more striking when we observe the dangerous positions to which they have been driven by a desire to increase their lands.

In a ride from our camp to St. Hilarion I carefully remarked throughout the extremely rugged nature of the route that no plot, however minute, had been neglected. In one rocky nook buried among the cliffs was a little cottage, with hanging gardens all terraced by exceedingly high walls, yet affording the smallest superficial area for cultivation. This is discernible with a powerful telescope from the base of the mountains, although to the naked eye it appears like a cluster of barren rocks, tinged with the green of fruit-trees growing from the clefts.

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