M. Mattei Is Well Known As The Largest Landed
Proprietor In Cyprus, And The Representative Of Agricultural Progress;
But His Bailiff At Kuklia Could Hardly Have Expected A Prize At An
Exhibition, Although Every Facility Exists For Creating A Perfect
Model-Farm.
The springs which supply the water-power were discovered in
three different positions about three miles distant.
The usual chains of
wells (already described) were sunk, and at a convenient spot they
converged into a single line, until a lower level introduced the channel
to the surface. The water was then received into a stone aqueduct, and
led with great judgment in a half circle beneath the higher ground which
was occupied by the village, at a level which not only enabled it to
command the extensive flats beneath, but eventually passed beyond the
village, and turned an overshot wheel of more than twenty feet diameter.
This great work was at the sole expense of the proprietor. After a
considerable outlay and perfect success in the engineering, it is to be
regretted that greater care is not bestowed upon the land; although the
gardens contain a mass of fruit-trees, large groves of figs, and relieve
the eye by their cheerful aspect, only enough has been attained to
exhibit the great power that exists for producing a still greater
abundance under proper administration.
Having examined the neighbourhood thoroughly, I changed the position of
our camp and halted a mile and a half up the aqueduct on the higher side
of the village, at a point where the water first issued from its
subterranean channel into the conduit of masonry and cement. We thus
secured a supply in its original purity, before it should be
contaminated by any washing of clothes in passing through the village in
an open channel, which from its convenience offered an irresistible
invitation. Such a tempting stream, running through a canal upon a broad
wall of masonry open to all comers would, in any European country, have
been the natural resort of boys, who would have revelled in the freedom
of nakedness and the delight of bathing in forbidden waters; but in
Cyprus I have never once seen a person washing himself in public. This
is not from any sense of indecent exposure, but from their absolute
dislike to the operation. I had subsequently in my service a remarkably
fine man who was always carefully dressed, and in fact was quite a dandy
in exterior, but during the hot weather when he on one occasion saw my
Abyssinian Amarn swimming in the sea, he declared that, "rather than
bathe, he would prefer to cut his throat."
I had arranged the camp close to a hawthorn-tree, which was already
green in its first spring leaves, and had formed blossom-buds that would
open in a few days. There were a considerable number of the same species
scattered in the vicinity, but they had been defaced by the mutilations
usual throughout Cyprus. If a man requires a stick or a piece of wood
for any purpose, he hacks unsparingly at the first tree; whether it
belongs to him or to another proprietor. The ground sloped gradually to
the lowest level of the hollow about four hundred yards distant, all of
which was in cultivation; the broad-beans were in blossom, and a species
of trefoil was already eight or nine inches high (22nd February); this
was in anticipation of a lack of natural pasturage.
It was pitiable to see the wretched condition of the cattle throughout
this district; the absence of rain had prevented the growth of the usual
herbaceous plants, and the animals were forced to seek unnatural food
produced in the stagnant swamps; these were full of skeletons and
carcasses of oxen, that afforded bones of contention for the numerous
village dogs who acted as scavengers. When the droves of oxen returned
from pasture every evening, many were in a state of weakness that
scarcely allowed them step by step to ascend the rising ground; all were
reduced to mere skin and bones, and it would have been a mercy to have
put them out of their misery. I was assured that, "the few whose
constitution could hold out for another six weeks would recover when the
trefoil should be fit to cut."
I daily walked over the adjoining country, and there was little
difficulty in discovering the origin of M. Mattei's water sources. Upon
the heights behind our camp, a plateau of many miles in extent, with an
almost imperceptible inclination towards the south-east, received the
rainfall, in addition to the subterranean drainage of the hills in the
far distance. A great portion of this area was uncultivated, as the
sedimentary limestone was generally close to the surface; this was
covered with the usual prickly shrubs that some writers have misnamed
"heath," together with the highly aromatic herbs that seem to delight in
a thirsty soil; among these is a thorny species of wild thyme, that is a
favourite food for hares. In some places the soil was red, forming a
strong contrast to the white surface around, and in such spots the earth
had been already ploughed in preparation for the forthcoming season. The
large area at a higher altitude formed an example of a principle that
may be accepted as the rule throughout the island. In walking over this
extensive surface, there was occasionally a hollow, drum-like sound
beneath the feet, denoting subterranean cavities in the porous and
soluble strata beneath the harder upper stratum. It was a natural
consequence that a substratum impervious to water should form a bed at a
certain level to retain the drainage: by tapping this bed at any point,
the water would be discovered; but by piercing the surface below this
level, the hydraulic pressure would force the water into a running
stream.
This M. Mattei has accomplished, not as a new invention, but as the
application of a rule well known to the Cypriotes from ancient times;
and I repeat my argument, that, "the hereditary ability of these people
in discovering and utilising springs is a proof that a scarcity of water
has been a chronic difficulty in this island from remote periods, and
that no important change has been occasioned by the sensational
destruction of forests influencing the rainfall," &c., &c., &c. In my
opinion, the whole of the now desolate Messaria district may be rendered
fruitful and permanently abundant by the scientific employment of a
water-power which already exists, although unseen and undeveloped.
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