Their Dwellings Are Extremely
Filthy, And Swarm With Vermin, As The Fowls, Goats, Or Even A Cow Or
Two, Generally Increase The Domestic Party.
It is well known that Paphos
in Cyprus was the supposed birthplace of Venus, and that the island was
at one time celebrated for the beauty of women and immorality:
The
change has been radical, as I believe no women are more chaste, and at
the same time less attractive, than the Cypriotes of the present time.
They are generally short and thickset; they are hardly treated by the
men, as they perform most of the rough work in cultivation of the
ground, and, from the extreme coarseness of their hands, they can seldom
be idle; the men, on the contrary, are usually good-looking, and are far
more attentive to their personal appearance.
Dali was an interesting spot to any agriculturist. The soil was
exceedingly rich, as it had been formed, like all valleys in Cyprus, by
the alluvium washed down from the surrounding hills; these were from
three to six hundred feet above the level of the plain, and were
composed of the usual hard species of chalk and gypsum; thus the deposit
from their denudation by rains supplied the chief constituents for the
growth of vines and cereals.
There is a depressing absence of all recent improvements in journeying
through Cyprus; even at Dali, where the water from the river was used
for irrigation, and large farms in the occupation of the wealthy
landowner, M. Richard Mattei, were successfully cultivated, I could not
help remarking the total neglect of tree-planting.
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