I Have Already Remarked The Absence Of Flannel Or Other Woollen Material
Worn Next The Skin; The Natives Prefer Their Own Manufactures To Those
Of Europe, And As They Grow The Cotton, Which Is Spun And Woven Into
Cloth By Their Own Women, There Is No Actual Outlay Of Coin.
Some of the
native material is very superior in strength to the machine-made stuffs
of Manchester, especially a blue stout cotton with a thin red line that
is in general request both for men and women.
The only woollen stuff
that is manufactured in Cyprus is confined to Nicosia, where the dark
brown and immensely thick capotes are made for the winter wear of the
common people. A cart-driver during the halt in a winter night simply
draws the hood over his head and face, and, wrapped in his long and
impervious capote, he lays himself beneath his cart and goes to sleep.
Coarse woollen saddle-cloths and bags are also made at Nicosia. The same
locality is celebrated for manufactures of silk and gold embroidery, all
of which is performed by the hands of women, while the printing of
calicoes and the production of morocco leather are local industries
confined to the labour of men.
No country is better adapted for silk culture than Cyprus, where the
mulberry-tree grows in great luxuriance to the altitude of 5000 feet,
and the warmth and dryness of the climate is highly favourable to the
silkworm. There is no tax upon the mulberry, and should artificial
irrigation be encouraged by the government, this tree should be
generally planted throughout the Messaria and all other districts, and a
special impulse should be directed to silk development. Formerly the
production of silk was an important export to France, but of late years
it has decreased to a mere bagatelle. In the spot where I am now writing
there are numerous mulberries in a profusion of rich foliage sufficient
for the production of two pounds of silk by each tree; but they are
entirely neglected, and the same depression in the silk cultivation may
be remarked throughout the island.
The numerous wild-flowers, together with the blossoms of oranges and
lemons, are highly favourable to bees, of which there are several
varieties; but there is no export of wax, which is used within the
island for the manufacture of candles and tapers for the various
churches. The Cyprian bee-hive is a contrivance which is extremely
simple, at the same time that it possesses the great advantage of
sparing the bees when the comb is to be saved. I see no reason why this
primitive arrangement should not succeed in England, and thereby save
countless swarms from destruction.
The hive is an earthenware cylinder about three feet six inches or four
feet in length, by ten or twelve inches in diameter; this might be
represented by a common chimney-pot. One end is securely stopped by a
wad of straw, neatly made in a similar manner to the back of an archery
target.
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