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:
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