DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5295#0283
HOLY LAND, AND CYPRUS. 247
miserable stone cottage now and then showed itself, where
fio- trees and vines were to be seen.
The peasantry ill looking. The men were dressed in a
white canvass vest over a waistcoat of the same material, and
a white linen turban on their heads. They wore the Al-
banian petticoat, similar to the Highland kilt, or the usual
sharaweel or breeches of the Turks, and high boots, used, as
I understood, to avoid the fatal venom of the serpents of the
island *.
I found only an old Greek priest at the convent of Sta.
Thecla, who from his dress I imagined was a peasant: he
had two or three attendants with him. The convent was
undergoing a repair, for the reception of an additional
number of priests, and for a feast that was to take place
in a few days in honour of the saint. I had supplied myself
with provisions, and therefore did not intrude on him. He
was an old man, of about sixty years of age, perfectly igno-
rant of all except his missal, which he could not read; he
had learnt it by heart; it was all that was necessary. He was
proud of his chapel, and pointed exultingly to the wretched
* See Walpole's Memoirs on Turkey, p. 80. Dr. Sibthorpe talks of only
one species of venomous serpent, called Kouf i in Cyprus; he mentions six species
of Coluber.
miserable stone cottage now and then showed itself, where
fio- trees and vines were to be seen.
The peasantry ill looking. The men were dressed in a
white canvass vest over a waistcoat of the same material, and
a white linen turban on their heads. They wore the Al-
banian petticoat, similar to the Highland kilt, or the usual
sharaweel or breeches of the Turks, and high boots, used, as
I understood, to avoid the fatal venom of the serpents of the
island *.
I found only an old Greek priest at the convent of Sta.
Thecla, who from his dress I imagined was a peasant: he
had two or three attendants with him. The convent was
undergoing a repair, for the reception of an additional
number of priests, and for a feast that was to take place
in a few days in honour of the saint. I had supplied myself
with provisions, and therefore did not intrude on him. He
was an old man, of about sixty years of age, perfectly igno-
rant of all except his missal, which he could not read; he
had learnt it by heart; it was all that was necessary. He was
proud of his chapel, and pointed exultingly to the wretched
* See Walpole's Memoirs on Turkey, p. 80. Dr. Sibthorpe talks of only
one species of venomous serpent, called Kouf i in Cyprus; he mentions six species
of Coluber.