HISTORY ETHNOGRAPHY NATURE WINE-MAKING SITE MAP
Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
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SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 255

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feet square and six feet deep, from the bottom of which the water could be liberated for the purposes of irrigation. W e selected a position upon a terrace beneath a number of these splendid tremithias, which afforded a shade during all hours of the day. The little stream rippled just below, passing by the roots of the trees that sheltered us, and watered a rich and dark green plot of about two acres of — neither roses, nor violets, but something far better, which at once delighted our cook Christo — onions ! According to his practical ideas the Garden of Eden would have been a mere wilderness in the absence of] a bed of onions ; but at length we had entered upon Paradise ; this was a charming place ! For some distance beyond this captivating plot the tremithias (which at a distance resembled fine-headed oaks) ornamented the surface and gave a park-like appearance to the country ; but beyond them the plain was a gentle slope, highly cultivated towards the sea. Long before the arrival of our baggage animals we had visitors ; Captain Wauchope, the chief commissioner of the district, and several officers in official positions,, were kind enough to call. A n old man and his wife,, the proprietors of the onions, who lived close by,i brought us some rush-bottomed chairs with muchi civility ; and as the day wore on a long string ofl visitors appeared, including the Bishop and some of the native officials ; and we were of course surrounded I with the usual throng of women and children : these] were cleaner and better looking than those we had] hitherto encountered. The camels did not appear until late in the evening,] as they had descended the steep pass from thel table-land of Arodes with much difficulty, and Iiani'sB

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