This Large Village Was A Waving Sea Of Barley, Some Of The Finest That I
Had Seen, And Due To Artificial Irrigation.
An ancient aqueduct of
masonry turned a mill close to the large square tower that we had
previously observed.
We halted for luncheon beneath an olive-tree a few
yards distant from the aqueduct, in a garden of fruit-trees which were
in the brightness of a spring foliage.
The square tower of masonry must have formed a portion of defensive
works that have disappeared, as there is no flanking protection, but the
tower rises above the plain to a height of about sixty feet like a huge
block of stone. It is said to have been erected by the Knights Templars,
and is of great solidity; but such experienced soldiers would hardly
have constructed so important a work without due regard to the first
rules of fortification.
After luncheon, the camels having arrived, I would not allow them to
unload, but directed them straight to Limasol. Of course their owners
declared the distance to be a long day's march, but as the map showed it
to be six miles, I insisted.
From Kolossi the country was perfectly open and cultivated; the
peasantry were engaged in reaping barley, which was carried away upon
donkeys' backs instead of being conveyed by carts. The usual
caroub-trees, although plentiful upon the rising ground in the distance,
were few and far between, and from this to Limasol, which was now in
view, the beauty of the landscape had departed . . . . . I dislike the
approach to a large town in a semi-wild country; the charming simplicity
and independence of travelling is destroyed, and the servants become
more or less demoralised by a love of new associations which produces a
neglect of duty. Iiani was with us in addition to our guide the
zaphtieh, therefore, as an utter stranger to the locality, I ordered
them to lead us to a convenient camping-ground. As we approached the
town there were the usual minarets and date-palms, and several vessels,
including steamers, were lying in the roadstead. We halted near the
entrance in a forsaken garden, where the walls were broken down and the
unwatered orange-trees, although in faint blossom, were parched and
faded. Two very large apricot-trees promised a shade for the tent, but
the sakyeeah, or water-wheel, together with two powerful English
lifting-pumps that were connected with a large reservoir and aqueduct of
masonry, were in the last stage of rust and rottenness. I was not
prepossessed with the aspect of the spot, as it reminded me strongly of
an English property in charge of the Court of Chancery. The baggage
animals with the tents arrived while our people were employed in
clearing a space beneath the trees from the innumerable stones, which,
as usual throughout Cyprus, covered the surface. The servants were
busily engaged in erecting the tent, when a long, lanky individual, with
a repulsive countenance, marched through the little crowd and haughtily
inquired "who we were, and what business we had there?"
This was the first instance of incivility that I had met with in our
journey through the island. The man was a Turk, and was not the
proprietor, but only the agent for this wretchedly-neglected property.
The unfortunate owner was sleeping with his fathers, or he would, I feel
sure, have welcomed us with true Turkish politeness and hospitality but
having departed this life, some legal difficulties had occasioned
trouble, and the estate was in the hands of the uncivil agent, who, of
course, being nobody, assumed the airs of somebody, and endeavoured by
rudeness to exhibit his importance. We were travel-stained and dusty as
millers, therefore our personal appearance had not impressed him
favourably; he was in a thread-bare long black cloth habit that
combined the cloak, dressing-gown, and frock-coat in a manner
inexplicable, and known only to Turks. This garment was trimmed in the
front edges with rather mangy-looking fox-skin: loose pegtop trousers of
greasy-looking cloth, dirty and threadbare, completed the costume of the
great curiosity of Cyprus, "a rude person."
I was not at the time aware that he understood Arabic, and happily I
addressed Amarn in that language, expressing my surprise that in this
country, where we had travelled so widely and found civility upon all
sides, we should be subjected to such rudeness. My servants, who were
more annoyed than myself, spoke rather loudly, and assured him that if
he was a Turk, their master was a pasha of his Sultan, and we would at
once quit his miserable neglected ground and mention his inhospitality
to the chief commissioner. By this time the rear baggage animals had
appeared, and the imposing array of luggage and people seemed to impress
him with the fact that we were neither gipsies nor vagabonds. I
explained to him that we should not have presumed to intrude within a
walled garden, but as the old walls had disappeared and the place was in
an open and ruinous condition, we had trespassed innocently. He
disappeared with an apology, but upon the first opportunity after we had
examined the neighbourhood of Limasol we changed our camp to a good
position on the eastern outskirts of the town. This side was rich in
caroub-trees, and had grass existed it would have formed a park: the
ground sloped from the mountains, about six miles distant, gradually to
the sea, the surface was richly wooded by caroubs throughout, and the
soil was cultivated with barley, which was already in the hands of
reapers. There were six caroub-trees in a line which connected their
shade, and we soon cleared the cultivated, but withered, surface of the
large clods of earth, which, having been turned up by the plough, had
baked beneath the sun into the hardness of bricks; these were arranged
in a square to mark the limits of the camp, while the interior area was
pounded to produce an even floor; from this position we looked upon the
sea, about a quarter of a mile distant, and upon the town of Limasol
upon our right.
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