Almost All Of Them Went
Through The Ceremony With The Utmost Precision And Formality; Each
In Succession Spoke Her Blessing,
In the tone of a person repeating
a set formula, then deferentially accepted the invitation to sit,
partook of the
Proffered sweetmeats and the cold, glittering water,
remained for a few minutes either in silence or engaged in very
thin conversation, then arose, delivered a second benediction,
followed by an elaborate farewell, and departed.
The bewitching power attributed at this day to the women of Cyprus
is curious in connection with the worship of the sweet goddess, who
called their isle her own. The Cypriote is not, I think, nearly so
beautiful in face as the Ionian queens of Izmir, but she is tall,
and slightly formed; there is a high-souled meaning and expression,
a seeming consciousness of gentle empire, that speaks in the wavy
line of the shoulder, and winds itself like Cytherea's own cestus
around the slender waist; then the richly-abounding hair (not
enviously gathered together under the head-dress) descends the
neck, and passes the waist in sumptuous braids. Of all other women
with Grecian blood in their veins the costume is graciously
beautiful, but these, the maidens of Limasol - their robes are more
gently, more sweetly imagined, and fall like Julia's cashmere in
soft, luxurious folds. The common voice of the Levant allows that
in face the women of Cyprus are less beautiful than their brilliant
sisters of Smyrna; and yet, says the Greek, he may trust himself to
one and all the bright cities of the Aegean, and may yet weigh
anchor with a heart entire, but that so surely as he ventures upon
the enchanted isle of Cyprus, so surely will he know the rapture or
the bitterness of love.
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