These Were Wide-
Spreading, Although Not High, And I Measured The Girth Of One Solid
Stem--Eighteen Feet.
We had hardly off-saddled, when crowds of women and children collected
from all quarters, with a few men, to stare at the new-comers; not at ME
personally, but at my wife.
They were, if possible, more filthy than the
average of Cyprian women, and a great proportion of the children were
marked with recent attacks of small-pox. I regretted that I had not a
supply of crackers to throw amongst and disperse the crowd that daily
pestered us; any lady that in future may travel through Cyprus should
have a portmanteau full of such simple fireworks. It was in vain to
explain that the people were a nuisance if too near: when driven to a
moderate distance, they would advance shyly, by degrees; two or three
children would come forward and sit down a few paces in front of the
main body; after a few minutes several others would overstep this
frontier and sit down five or six yards in advance of the last comers,
and by this silent system of skirmishing we were always surrounded in
twenty minutes after the original crowd had been dispersed. I did not
mind them so long as they were not in personal contact, and were free
from recent small-pox; but some of the red-pitted faces were full of
warning.
There was nothing of interest to detain us at Polis, and we started
early upon the 19th April towards Baffo.
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