The Goatherd Upon Our
Mountain Had Been A Turkish Servant (Shepherd) In A Greek Family, And
Had Succeeded In Gaining The Heart Of His Master's Daughter, Whom He Was
Permitted To Marry After Many Difficulties.
This woman must have been
very beautiful when young, as, in spite of hard work and exposure, she
was handsome at forty, with a pair of eyes that in youth might have been
more attractive than the mysterious light in the hermit's cave.
It is
one of the blessings of fine eyes that they are almost certain to
descend to the children. Property may vanish, litigation may destroy the
substance of an inheritance; but the eyes, large, soft, and gentle,
which can occasionally startle you by their power and subdue you by a
tear, are the children's entail that nothing can disestablish. Even when
time has trampled upon complexion, the eyes of beauty last till death.
The children of this Linobambaki and his handsome wife were seven--two
boys of about nineteen and seventeen, and five girls from fourteen to
one and a half--all of whom had the eyes of the mother developed most
favourably. I cannot well describe every individual of a family: there
were the two handsome shepherd youths who would have made level ground
of mountain steeps, through their power and activity.
"Right up Ben Lomond could he press,
And not a sob his toil confess."
These young fellows matched the goats in clambering up the rocks and
following their wayward flocks throughout the summits of the Troodos
range; and their sisters the little shepherdesses were in their way
equally surprising, in hunting runaway goats from the deepest chasm to
the sharpest mountain-peak.
I hardly know who was our greatest favourite. There was "Katterina"
(about fourteen) too old to make a pet of, but a gentle-charactered
girl, always willing to please and never out of temper, and even in the
big, hateful, beauty-destroying, high hob-nailed boots she could run up
the mountain soil and clamber like a monkey. Then came, I believe, our
best favourite, the bright, large-eyed, sparkling child "Vathoo," who
was the real beauty of the family, about ten years old; she was full of
life and vigour, a perfect goat upon the mountains, with a most lovely
face that would have charmed Murillo as a subject, with an extreme
perfection of features, a bronzed complexion, but hardly the soft
expression required for a sacred picture; in fact Vathoo was a perfect
little gipsy beauty, with perhaps more devil than angel in her impulsive
character.
Then came the real gentle little face with gazelle-like eyes, "Baraksu,"
about eight years old: followed by a minimum shepherdess, "Athena," of
nearly five years old, who climbed the rocks, shouted, and threw stones
at her refractory flock, as though an experienced goatherd of forty. The
youngest was just able to stand; with a pair of the biggest black eyes,
and a natural instinct for gorging itself with unripe fruits and hard
nuts, which, added to its maternal sustenance that it was still
enjoying, proved the mill-like character of its infantine digestion. For
two months we thought this young Hercules was a promising boy, until by
an accident we discovered it was a "young lady" Linobambaki! When we
arrived at Trooditissa these children were in rags and filth, but under
the tutelage of my wife they quickly changed, and the never-failing
fountain, assisted by a cake of soap supplied occasionally, effected a
marked improvement in all complexions.
They were remarkably well-mannered after the first natural shyness had
worn away, and formed a contrast to children of a low class in England
in never misbehaving when intimate. All these little creatures were
employed in cleaning and improving the place; even the minute Athena
might be seen carrying a great stone upon her small shoulder, adding her
mite to the work, and rubbing the galled spot as she threw down her
load. The bright threepenny pieces were in great favour, and the
children invariably hastened to their mother with their earnings at the
close of the afternoon. When the camp and monastery surroundings were in
perfect order there was no longer any remunerative employment for the
family, except the uncertain and occasional work of collecting wild
flowers for the tent and table. The myrtles bloomed in early July, and
in the deep ravine by the waterfall the oleanders were then still in
blossom. Several plants which were strange to me were added to the
collection; the days were generally passed by the children in minding
the numerous goats until the evening, when each child brought some
simple offering of flowers. We bought sheep from the low country at
about six or seven shillings each, and Vathoo was the special
shepherdess of our small flock, for which she was responsible; they were
invariably driven out at 4 A.M. and brought home at 8 to avoid the sun,
and again taken out from 4 P.M. till 7.
In this simple manner we passed our time at Trooditissa; my amusements
were my small garden, writing an account of Cyprus, and strolling over
the mountains: the latter occupation being most unprofitable, as I
destroyed all my boots upon the horrible surface of loose stones, in
which there was little geological interest, as they were all gneiss and
syenite, cracked and starred during a process of subaquean cooling. The
deplorable aspect of the otherwise beautiful mountains was occasioned by
the wholesale and wilful destruction of pine-trees, which is the
Cypriote's baneful characteristic, and as this is one of the most
important subjects in the modern history of the island, I shall devote
the following special chapter entirely to the question of "Woods and
Forests."
CHAPTER XIII.
WOODS AND FORESTS.
The climate of Cyprus is extreme in temperature during the months of
June, July, August, and until the close of September; throughout the
greater portion of the island the treeless surface absorbs the sun's
rays, and during the night radiates the heat thus obtained, which raises
the thermometer to 90 degrees before sunrise:
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