I Will Imagine That An Englishman Of Any Class
May Be Placed In The Following Position Of A Cultivator, Which He
Assuredly Would Be, If Foolish Enough To Become A Proprietor In Cyprus.
I am at this moment looking down from the shade of the great walnut-tree
upon the terraced gardens and orchards beneath, which are rich in
potatoes of excellent quality, onions, beet-root, &c.; together with
walnuts, pears, apples, plums, filberts, figs, and mulberries.
The pears
and plums are of several varieties, some will ripen late, others are now
fit to gather, but nothing can be touched until the valuer shall arrive;
he is expected in ten days; by which time many of the plums will have
fallen to the ground, and the swarming rats will have eaten half the
pears. The shepherds' children and the various monastery boys live in
the boughs like monkeys, and devour the fruit ripe or unripe, from
morning till evening, with extraordinary impunity; women who arrive from
the low country with children to be christened place them upon the
ground, and climb the pear-trees; neither colic nor cholera is known in
this sanctified locality. The natives of the low country who arrive at
the monastery daily with their laden mules from villages upon the other
side of the mountains, en route to Limasol, immediately ascend the
attractive trees and feast upon the plums; at the same time they fill
their handkerchiefs and pockets with pears, &c., as food during their
return journey.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 416 of 524
Words from 113444 to 113695
of 143016
