DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5295#0261
HOLY LAND, AND CYPRUS. ' 227
however, a good bed, and that sort of welcome which is given
where a handsome return was expected. The monks spoke
only Arabic ; and, like many other Levantines I had met with,
would only take the trouble to understand me when their
interest was concerned. They talked much of their poverty,
which certainly did not take away from their healthy ap-
pearance.
I retired to my bed, wThich consisted of a mattress laid
on the ground, covered with a thin cotton of the manu-
facture of the country, over which was a silken coverlid,
stuffed with wool and lined with the same sort of cotton,
that served as upper sheet: I was surprised to find it clean.
I slept comfortably; rose early, and enjoyed the morning
air in the balcony of the convent, which overlooked the
gardens of the town and the opposite side of the valley.
The cultivation here, as elsewhere in the mountainous parts
I had passed, was on the acclivities terraced up by walls, to
prevent the soil from being washed away. Mulberry and
olive are the principal trees ; but the produce seemed
scanty.
I traversed the unpaved streets of a long straggling town,
which had much the appearance of a second-rate Italian
borgo in the mountains. It had suffered greatly from the
invasion of Djezzar. I was attracted by observing about
twenty silk-looms at work in one of the squares of the town,
2 g 2
however, a good bed, and that sort of welcome which is given
where a handsome return was expected. The monks spoke
only Arabic ; and, like many other Levantines I had met with,
would only take the trouble to understand me when their
interest was concerned. They talked much of their poverty,
which certainly did not take away from their healthy ap-
pearance.
I retired to my bed, wThich consisted of a mattress laid
on the ground, covered with a thin cotton of the manu-
facture of the country, over which was a silken coverlid,
stuffed with wool and lined with the same sort of cotton,
that served as upper sheet: I was surprised to find it clean.
I slept comfortably; rose early, and enjoyed the morning
air in the balcony of the convent, which overlooked the
gardens of the town and the opposite side of the valley.
The cultivation here, as elsewhere in the mountainous parts
I had passed, was on the acclivities terraced up by walls, to
prevent the soil from being washed away. Mulberry and
olive are the principal trees ; but the produce seemed
scanty.
I traversed the unpaved streets of a long straggling town,
which had much the appearance of a second-rate Italian
borgo in the mountains. It had suffered greatly from the
invasion of Djezzar. I was attracted by observing about
twenty silk-looms at work in one of the squares of the town,
2 g 2