Chapter VII
Exploration of the S.E. coast of Cyprus. — Mode of travelling. — A modern priest. — Ormidia. — An extensive necropolis. — No traces of dwelling-houses or temples.— -The sites of Throni and Leucolla identified by the author. — Ruins of Cataliina. — Mysterious monolithic cone. — Discovery of five cemeteries. — Famagosta probably the ancient Arsinoe. — Criminals. — Kattirdj Janni, the Robin Hood of the Levant. — Salamis, prison and tomb of St. Catherine. — Church of St. Barnabas. — Two tumuli. — From Salamis to Cape St. Andreas evidence of Phoenician occupation. — Cemeteries and ruins. — Mediaeval castles.
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EARLY in the spring of 1872, I resolved to explore as much as possible of the south-east coast of the island, and for this purpose gave orders to have everything put in readiness by my cavass Mustafa, to whose unwavering and affectionate attention during eight years' service I may here pay tribute. During that time he learned to read and write modern Greek, to keep accounts, and to speak the Italian language fluently. He combined in his person butler, valet, dragoman, and consular guard, and was honestly itself. The travelling cook whom I employed on these occasions was informed of the length of time his services would be required; the tents were put in order, the beds and bedding aired and prepared, my portmanteau packed, the camp stools, dining table, and a complete dinner service, together with an abundant supply of everything necessary for a healthy and even luxurious table, were placed upon mules and donkeys. To this careful attention to comfort, and
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the avoidance as much as possible of change of diet and daily habits, I attribute the continuance of my health during these trying excursions, in the course of the many years I passed in Cyprus.
I found it in the end more convenient and less expensive to purchase than to hire animals, and in this way I became the possessor of several fine well-broken mules and two strong donkeys, as high almost as horses, of a breed peculiar to Cyprus. These donkeys are glossy and sleek, with large eyes, and will trot as fast as a mule; they are besides very intelligent. Thus provided we started in the early morning, and proceeded eastward for two hours, quite close to the seashore, to a place called "Palaeo Castro", a name given by the natives to any tumble down building, whether fifty or two thousand years old. Here I found the stone walls of an oblong structure, not older than the Venetian occupation of the island. It had been a small fort mounted with three guns, the embrasures of which are still standing. Along the south-east coast are several of these guard-houses, built near the shore on elevated ground, some of which, now dismantled and roofless, are of Turkish construction, and two or three hundred years old. Most of them appear to have been erected for the protection of the neighbouring villages against the Algerine pirates, who not longer ago than sixtv years were daring enough to land and carry off wealthy inhabitants, and to detain them until the required ransom should be paid. In this neighbourhood is still pointed out the pirates' cave. Contiguous to the fort I found vestiges of an ancient town, traces of the stone wall which encircled it, and small square foundations of dwelling houses.
The cemetery is just outside the wall, and near the sea-shore. The tombs are only a few feet below the surface, and of the shape usual everywhere in Cyprus.
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Those which I opened contained Roman lamps, glass, and black varnished pottery of a very common kind. A little east of the fort is a shapeless mound, apparently artificial, which I found to contain two large graves of the earliest period. From one of them I extracted fragments of twenty-seven different skulls, and a number of cylinders in haematite, not engraved ; also a large copper caldron, bearing traces of fire, and many arrowheads in copper and in iron, but no vases of any kind. This mound seems to have been erected over some fifty or sixty bodies buried in two large oblong tombs, evidently all at the same time, and probably slain in battle. The earth which forms the mound may be that which was dug up in making the tombs.
Continuing my journey along the coast, I reached a spot where the road takes a northerly direction. Pursuing this, I soon came upon a small village called Ormidia, inhabited exclusively by Greek peasants. It was in a pretty little white cottage on the summit of a low hill near the outskirts of this village that I established in 1873 my summer residence, and this continued to be our summer resort as long as we remained in the island.
Its chief attractions were a never-failing breeze at night, good water, and a large garden in the centre of a cleared space, in which spread the branches of a tree capable of shading a hundred persons at a time. Its proximity to the tea-shore gave us the advantage of land and sea breezes, and at the same time afforded a new pleasure in the gathering of shells. In the cool of the afternoon we would wander off to the beach, accompanied by a couple of men to look after our mules, when we dismounted, and then my wife and little daughters would amuse themselves for hours on the sand, collecting what seemed the choicest among the mvriads of tiny shells which lined the beach. At
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Ormidia I first remarked that the Greek priests in the interior, who work in the fields like the peasants, wear a conical hat, not unlike those represented in the statues discovered at Golgoi, and it appears to me not improbable that this fashion of hat has been handed down from the times of the Cypriote priests of Venus. Not only this, but there seemed to me also to be a resemblance between the features of the priest who here attracted my attention and his sculptured predecessors. His name I found was Papa Petro. I wished to have his photograph, and having previously made my photographic preparations, I called him and explained my wish. He begged to be first allowed to go home and array himself in his most imposing garments, and was not a little mortified when I told him that my interest centred exclusively in his head and cap, which he appeared to think, perhaps not without reason, to be the least important of his belongings.
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In the centre of a triangle formed by the villages of Ormidia, Timbo, and Afgoro, I discovered a very extensive burying-ground, which yielded the largest and most highly decorated vases found in Cyprus. The tombs are of a very ancient date. In 1870-71 and 1875 I undertook some systematic explorations at this place, but without finding the slightest traces either of temples or ancient habitations.
An hour's distance south-west of Ormidia is Cape Pyla, called after a village of that name, and this headland is, I believe, the promontory mentioned by Strabo as Throni; not that of Dades as Pococke thinks, which is now called Cape Chiti. On the extreme point of this promontory is a large round tower which Pococke describes as an ancient ruin, but which is a mere watch-tower erected for the purpose of signalling the approach either of the enemy or of some piratical craft, and does not date back farther than the reiim of the Lusiirnans. The circumference at the
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base measures 86 feet, and the height of what is still standing, 22,5 feet ; at this height, which I succeeded in climbing with the aid of two of my men, the vestiges of a doorway are visible. I found that the lower portion of the tower was solid masonry to the height of 18 feet, and that the entrance to it must have been reached from the outside by means of a ladder. It is built of square stones measuring about a foot, many of which have large characters deeply cut on them. Some of these characters resemble Cypriote letters. My object in examining very carefully the vicinity of Cape Pyla was to discover if possible traces of the ancient city of Throni, and I satisfied myself that there had never existed any town or village within a radius of more than a mile. In every direction the ground presents a continuous surface of hard limestone, which has been quarried at several places. In visiting this Cape I took a guide from the village of Ormidia, who conducted me to a large cavern which he called " Spilio Macaria," the entrance of which faces the sea. This cave contains a great quantity of petrified bones, some of which competent authorities have recognised as human. It is about 60 feet above the level of the sea. I say about, because the rock at this place overhangs the sea in such a way as to render measuring it both very difficult and dangerous.
A young peasant who came there one day to procure wild honey which he saw in a crevice lost his footing and was drowned. I succeeded however in penetrating into the cave, and found it to be 64 feet in length, 46 feet high, and 21 feet wide. Two of my men entered with me, and we found the petrified bones on the Moor and in the walls, forming a solid mass. My two men worked for about an hour with picks, and were able to detach only a leg-bone and some teeth. The layer of boneon the floor of the cave seems to be several feet
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thick. How they ever came there will probably remain a mystery.
My guide, who was the nephew of the Greek priest, told me with religious awe that they were the bones of " forty saints," and that to within a few years ago it had been the custom of the peasants of Ormidia, Afgoro, and other neighbouring villages to make a pilgrimage to this cave, accompanied by their priests, on the anniversary of the gth of March, but that the Greek Archbishop of Cyprus, who happened to be in Ormidia collecting his church dues at the time of one of these pilgrimages, had ordered them to be discontinued. Difficult as it was to enter this cave it was still more so to get out of it, and had not my guides, who were barefooted and accustomed to walk on the rocks, lent me their assistance, I doubt if I should have been able to come out safely.
Continuing my route along the rocky coast, which in places is deeply indented by ancient chariot and waggon wheels, the evidence of great traffic in ancient times, I arrived in an hour at a little place called u Potamos," close to where a branch of the Pedeus empties itself into the sea. Here I found an old ruined Greek church dedicated to Aghios Torsos, and the O *s O '
remains of an early Christian village fringing the stream on either side. A little west of it is another cave, which also contains a quantity of petrified bones and somewhat easier of access, but I did not observe among them any portion of human skulls or teeth. There are tombs in this neighbourhood, but thev are all of the early Christian period. During two years I searched in vain in this locality for the site of Throni, of which Strabo speaks obscurely sometimes as of a promontory, and sometimes as of a city. But at last I discovered it, as I believe, between Cape Pyla and Cape Greco, but nearer the latter, at a spot where extensive
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foundations of houses are still visible. The place is called Torno, which obviously is a corruption of Throni. The town seems to have consisted of two districts like Larnaca. In the district near the shore I found several subterranean rooms, partly cut in the rock and partly built of red bricks. The district farther from the sea had been protected by a wall, the outlines of which I occupied nearly an hour in following. In this part of the town I discovered several stairs cut in the rock and leading to underground, circular rooms, which seem to have been used for storing grain, or possibly, like those near the sea, were cellars of houses which may have once been there. I had passed near this place several times on former journeys without noticing it. No tombs were discovered in the neighbourhood, but within the walls I found vestiges of a circular temple, and in its area brought to light several fragments of statues in calcareous stone and of Greek workmanship.
What finally led me to pay special attention to this vicinity in my search for Throni, was the discovery of some fragments of statues which I made in the churchyard of a small village close by, called " Sotira.'' These fragments, I learned from the priests, had been dug up at a spot called " Torno," by workmen in search of stones to build the church. This being in the vicinity of the promontory called by Strabo, Throni —the Greek character of the sculptures found there, together with the similarity of its present name and the fact that no other town is anywhere mentioned as having been built in the neighbourhood, led me to the conviction that these remains could only belong to the ancient Throni. I observed in the course of inv explorations that the most reliable as well as rapid mode of identifying a town the site of which has not been preserved by tradition, is to examine the walls of the churches or mosques in the villages of the district
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where history places the site, and to see whether they contain any architectural fragments, as they are certain to do whenever there has been an ancient ruin at hand for the workmen to quarry from.
Before visiting Sotira I had examined another village called " Leo-Petro ; " but did not find any of the indications there of which I was in search. Leo-Petro is a mere agglomeration of huts. The inhabitants are very poor, and eke out a scanty living by trafficking in poultry, which they buy in the mountain villages of Carpass and sell in the bazaars of Nicosia and Larnaca. They are nick-named " Linobambaki," that is, linen and cotton, a figurative expression which means a combination of Christian and Mussulman. While to outward appearance they are Turks, and are so recognised by the local authorities, in reality they are Christians whose ancestors, at the time of the Turkish conquest, were forced to declare themselves Mussulmans and to embrace Islamism in order to save their lives and property. Many, if not all of them, had been adherents of the Latin Church, though it is still frequently a matter of dispute between the Greek bishops and the Latin priests as to which Church they rightfully belong to, each church being desirous of claiming them as its adherents. The marriage and baptismal ceremonies of the Linobambaki are performed in secret by a priest of their choice.
On the birth of a male child the rite of circumcision is evaded by means of a present of money to the Hodja. They adopt such names for their sons as are common to both Christian and Moslem, such as Ibrahim (Abraham), Moussa (Moses), Yusuf (Joseph), etc. They do not number more than twelve hundred in all, and reside chiefly near Nicosia, Famagosta, and Limassol. Ever}' year they are prosecuted by the ico/il authorities when the conscription takes plac. As
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Mussulmans they are obliged to serve in the Sultan's army if drafted, as Christians they would be exempted by the payment of a tax called the " Askerieh," which commences from the day of their birth, and in order that their children may escape military service, the Linobambaki often pay this tax like the other recognised Christian subjects of the Porte. The Turks accept the tax regularly, as if it were the legal and proper exemption, until the young Linobambaki arrive at the age when they are subject to be drafted, whereupon the proof of having paid taxes as Christians is entirely disregarded and they are claimed as Mussulmans. On these occasions they cling strongly to their Christian names as evidence of their faith, but, as may be supposed, without avail. Rather than be mustered into the Turkish army many of them abandon their homes, leave the island and never return. In such instances the authorities sometimes throw the father of the conscript into prison, and declare that he shall not be released until his son is produced. Sometimes also they claim a brother of the person drafted, and any amount of litigation and false witnessing ensues. During my time there were many disputes arising out of this complicated state of things, and very often my supposed influence with the local government was invoked to obtain a favourable settlement.
On one such occasion the relative of an imprisoned Linobambako begged my intercession with A/AZ Pasha, who was then Governor-General of Cyprus. I telegraphed to him at Nicosia, pointing out the violent and unjust proceeding of the authorities at Larnaca in imprisoning one brother for another. A few hours after, when returning from my usual evening walk with my wife, I met the alreadv liberated man coming to thank me for his release. That the Governor-General had lost no time in acceding to mv request was onlv
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what was to be expected from a man of so kindly a nature as Aziz Pasha, who also is endowed with a rare nobility of character and principle which claims esteem, whether found in Christian or Moslem. His natural love of justice rendered him popular both with Turks and Greeks, and a favourite with the Consular corps during his administration of Cyprus.
Having ascertained the site of Throni, I continued my route eastward towards Cape Greco. Half way between it and the ruins of Throni there is a small village of about fifty houses, inhabited by Greek peasants, built on the side of a rocky hill in close proximity to a large convent. This convent is called Sta. Xapa, and gives its name to the village. It belonged to the Latin Church before the conquest of the island by Selim II., and was given to the Greeks by Mustafa Pasha, but is now in a dilapidated condition. Its architecture proves that it was built under the Lusignan dynasty. The Royal Crusaders must have richly endowed it, as it still owns thousands of acres of fertile land, much of which lies untilled for the \vant of manual labour. Its possessions extend as far as the village of Ormidia. In the gardens of the convent are two large stone reservoirs, fed, chiefly during the winter months, by the water of a spring, the source of which is some four miles north-east. The water is conveyed byan ancient aqueduct somewhat similar to those at Amathus, Curium, Citium, and one or two places on the north side of the island. The aqueduct of Sta. Xapa, like that of Citium, has undergone many repairs, and the greater part of the construction, as it now appears, is according to the Roman system ; but while following its course I found several air-shafts, showing that the water had been originally conveyed to Throni in a more direct way, and by the ancient Greek system of tunnelling. I explored some of these shafts, which
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were pointed out to me as ancient tombs which had been opened before, and found that the rock beneath had been excavated some sixteen inches square for the passage of the water. This part of the works is now abandoned, and the aqueduct winds its way round several hills to within a few hundred yards of the convent, where it is bridged over by a structure of square stones, many of which have large characters or marks similar to the Cypriote letters. Just before reaching the village of Sta. Napa, and quite at the foot of the hill, are the remains of an ancient town of small size which the natives call " Catalima." I dug at this place, but only for a short time, and brought to light the foundations of an elliptical building in which I found a large Corinthian capital of white marble and a mass of broken tiles and jars. The place bore unmistakable signs of having been excavated before, probably by the builders of the convent. A similar capital of the same size and quality of marble as the one discovered here, is lying half buried in one of the courtyards of the convent of Sta. Napa, but the Greek priest, who is now the sole tenant of the convent, could give me no information as to when or where it had been dug up. " I found it where it lies," said he, " when I took charge of the convent twenty-two years ago, and I left it there undisturbed." Near it I observed a fine marble basin or fountain, with figures in high relief, much mutilated, which may also have been dug up at Catalima, or more probably at Throni. It is much earlier, in my opinion, than the Christian era.
Nothing remains standing of the ancient village once occupying the site of Catalima except a curious monolith, so worn by time and exposure to the elements as to make it difficult to say whether it was originally round or quadrilateral. Its present height above ground is six feet seven inches, but digging round it
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I found that it extended some way below the surface. There is an oblong hole through the centre, g inches high and 5 inches wide. In this hole was a heap of broken glass, bracelets, some elass earrings, and two or O O 7 - -- c
three partially consumed votive candles. I asked my guide, Captain Andrea, a very intelligent Greek who lives at Sta. Napa, why these objects were placed there, and whether any superstition \vas connected with it. He explained that the young girls of his village came there and broke their glass jewellery, either when they got married, or had been betrayed by their lovers. Old women also came to that mysterious monolith to light tapers, in the hope of being cured of bodily ailments. Is it to the relic of a pagan temple dedicated to Venus, or to the relic of some Greek saint, that these women, whether young or old, resort in their distress ? I was unable to determine.
I found three similar monoliths, with an oblong hole in each, in different localities further east, towards Cape St. Andrea. One, in the neighbourhood of a little headland called " Elea," near the village of Gastria, lies chipped and half buried in the ground ; the second is beyond a village called Galinoporni, where I remarked several air-shafts belonging to an ancient aqueduct ; and the third is at Cape St. Andrea, where are the ruins of a small town opposite the u Kleides," and many rock-cut tombs, all opened long ago. I met with none of these monoliths on the northern coast of the island. They may represent the symbolic cone of Venus, under which form she was worshipped in Paphos.
The burying-ground belonging to Cataiima, and probably also to Throni, is some ten minutes east of Sta. Xapa towards Cape Greco, and quite close to the
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sea-shore. The greater part of the tombs are roughly hewn in the rock, and shaped like those at Dali. I found in them many terra-cotta coffins, decorated with garlands of flowers painted in red. The lids are formed
Terra-cotta Coffin.
of three terra-cotta slabs placed side by side, and cemented together by plaster poured upon them after the body had been deposited inside. In these tombs I found also a great many terra-cotta lamps, glass objects, and a few gold ornaments, including the specimens of iridescent glass now in the Xew York Museum, which surpass in brilliancy of colour anything of the kind I have ever seen.
The summit of Cape Greco has a flat rocky surface,
but there are no indications of its having had a temple or other building upon it. East of this promontory, which gradually slopes into the plain of Salamis, and
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where trie sea forms a natural haven, I discovered the ruins of an ancient Greek town. After digging a few days at random, I came upon the foundations of a building, from which I brought out some large heads and fragments of stone sculpture, all bearing a decidedly
C"1'issal Stone Head of Cybcle. Found at Leucolla.
Greek character. From the geographical situation of these ruins they can be no other than those of Leucolla, a town which was in a flourishing condition at the time of Alexander the Great, and gave its name to the famous naval battle fought in its neighbourhood between Demetrius Poliorcetes and Ptolemv. Its
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harbour, some 130 feet below the level of the city, was reached by a road cut in the rock, still partially visible. From the small extent of these ruins, Leucolla must have been a town of no great importance.
From this point to Salamis there are no ancient ruins near the sea-shore that can be identified with the city of Arsinoe, said to have had a harbour, and placed by Strabo between Leucolla and Salamis. Famagosta, which occupies the site of Ammochostos, one of the ten royal cities which paid tribute to Esarhaddon, possesses the only harbour between Salamis and Leucolla, and may have been called Arsinoe under the Ptolemies.
North-east of Leucolla lies the plain of Salamis, where the army of Darius defeated Onesilos, and where subsequently another Persian army of more than 300,000 men spent nearly ten years in vanquishing the highspirited Evagoras. It was also in this plain that Demetrius, after crossing the mountain range of Carpass, gave battle and defeated Menelaus, the brother of Ptolemy.
This plain is reached after a few minutes' descent from the flat-topped promontory mentioned before, now called Cape Greco, and through the little village of Paralimni, built near Lake Para, which is now quite dry, and during the Lusignan and Venetian occupation was used as a rice field. Between Paralimni and the sea-shore are a number of ancient tombs, which obviously belonged to Leucolla. Their content:; had the same character, and were of the same period as those found in the ruins before referred to. Most of these tombs, however, had been previously opened, and I found in them only fragments of glass and a few Roman lamps. Less than half an hour's ride east of Paralimni. and within a stone's throw ot Famagosta, is Varossia, a thriving little town founded bv the Christian population expelled from Famagosta at the time of its capture by the Ottoman armv.
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It has a fine Greek church with a new belfry, which is a fair representative of modern local architecture, a good bazaar, several manufactories of pottery, and some houses built of stone, as good as any in Larnaca or Nicosia, with orange and lemon groves and very extensive gardens, studded with mulberry trees for the cultivation of the silkworm. The appearance of Varossia presents a marked contrast to the gloomy quarters of Famagosta, occupied by the Turks. Indeed, throughout the island the places inhabited solely by Turks are as a general rule dirty, miserable, and showing every sign of decay, and this result is what must be expected from a race who neither know nor care to learn any profession or handicraft by which to earn their livelihood, but prefer to spend their time in idleness at the cafes, drinking and smoking, while their families and household matters are left to take care of themselves as best they can. In Cyprus the race of the Osmanlis is fast disappearing. This I had opportunities of remarking during my residence there, and I have been assured by competent persons that only 40 years ago the capital of the island contained more Turks than Christians ; at the present clay the latter are in a large majority. The crime of abortion is extensively practised among the Turkish population, and the Turkish midwives flourish everywhere. I have spoken of this to Turks who were intelligent and upright enough to condemn the system, but they invariably added that the Turk was too poor to allow himself the expensive luxury of having children ! If such a state of things exists also in the other provinces of Turkey, there is no need of anything but time to rid Europe of this degenerate race.
The devoted city of Famagosta, built by the Christians 800 years ago, from the ruins of Salamis, and destroyed by the Turks in 1571, after the terrible siege in which the Venetian soldiers so heroicall defended
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their position, once counted its beautiful churches by hundreds, and its palatial dwellings by thousands. Once it had been one of the principal commercial cities of the Levant, with a harbour in which rode large fleets, but which now through neglect has become filled with sand, and is able to float only vessels of small draught. It was just outside the mouth of this closed harbour that the vessels containing the Venetian families and their most precious personal and household effects were sunk by the faithless Mustafa Pasha after he had killed the Venetian generals.
As you approach the massive walls of the city, which are nearly 17 feet thick and of solid stone, all taken from the ruins of Salamis, you see how impossible it was to take such a city except by famine or treachery. The walls stand now as impregnable and intact as when raised by the Lusignans. The old bronze guns of the Republic of Venice are still on the bastions in their original place, looking formidably towards the sea and the plain of Salamis, but spiked and out of service since 1571. There are a half dozen rusty iron guns of Turkish manufacture pretty much in the same condition.
The ruins of Famagosta are not grand and imposing, yet to me they are most beautiful and touching. It is impossible to see the still existing walls of many of its fine mediaeval churches, with frescoes plainly visible on the interiorshere a rectory built in keeping, there evidences of elegant homes --without a feeling of intense sadness. Only two out of the three hundred churches which are said to have existed in Famagosta were left standing. The principal one, formerly the Cathedral and now used as a mosque, is paved with mortuary marble slabs engraved with the names and arms of Italian noblemen once buried beneath them, whose bones were exhumed and thrown into the sea bv order
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of the fanatical and ferocious Mustafa Pasha the day after he captured the city. The other church, used as a granary and a stable by the Turks, contains also a few tombstones, now all worn out by the horses' hoofs. There I discovered the inscription mentioned in the Introduction, recording the day on which by the abdication of Catherine Cornaro the Venetians became the rulers of Cyprus. Within the city walls resides the Caimakam of the province of Carpass, with the Cadi of Famagosta and the usual Mejilis. There is also a military Governor of the fortress, and a company of artillery. This Governor resides with his troops in a small fort overlooking the sea, and flanked by a large round tower called by the natives " Torre del Moro " (Tower of the Moor). Tradition asserts that in this tower were the head-quarters of the Venetian LordLieutenant of Cyprus, Cristoforo Moro, during the years 1506-1508. In the latter year, on the 22nd of October, Cristoforo Moro was recalled from Cyprus and returned to Venice ; and from documents which I have been allowed to peruse, it would appear that this man was married four times, and that his private life was not very exemplary. This Cristoforo Moro was the "Othello" of Shakespeare, and must not be confounded with his namesake the Doge of Venice, to whom he was not even related, who in July 1469 wrote to the King of Cyprus a stringent letter in regard to Catherine Cornaro, mentioned in the Introduction.
The fortress of Famagosta contains some of the worst criminals of the Turkish Empire. Many of them are condemned for life, others are sentenced on an average to from 15 to 25 years' imprisonment, and all are heavily shackled Near the eastern wall, where the prisoners are confined, are two casemates filled with arms taken from the Venetian garrison. On the handles of some of the rapiers I observed the crests of
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the owners inlaid with gold and the Jerusalem Cross. My friend, Mr. Hiram Hitchcock, who accompanied me on one of my visits to Famagosta, had expressed a desire to possess one of these interesting weapons, and I succeeded in obtaining several for him. On that occasion Mrs. Hitchcock and my wife were of the party. On leaving the armoury Mrs. Hitchcock pointed out some trailing crimson flowers which overhung a parapet, remarking on their contrast to the surroundings. To our astonishment a short broad-shouldered man who had remained always near our part}-, and with whose commanding presence and fine manly face we had all been struck, sprang to the parapet with the agility of a cat, broke off some of the blossoms, and returning presented a spray to each of the ladies with all the grace of a courtier. To their horror, as he did so, they observed for the first time that he was shackled with heavy iron links from the wrist to the ankle. His large sad blue eyes, and hair prematurely streaked with gray, seemed to plead in his favour, and on inquiring his crime we learned that he was no less a personage than the celebrated Kattirdji Janni, the Robin Hood of the Levant. Many are the romantic stories told of this robber chief, who it is claimed never committed a murder or permitted one to be perpetrated by his band 30 long as he was at the head of it. It is said that while in the service of a gentleman in Smyrna, he fell in love with his master's daughter, and having planned an elopement was betrayed by a fellow servant ; he was overtaken and thrown into prison. Escaping from thence into the mountains near the ruins of Ephesus, he entered upon the wild career which finallv brought him to Eamagosta. He and his band would lie in wait for persons whom they knew were transporting large sums of money and kindly relieve them of the trouble of carrying it further ; or they would capture
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persons of wealth and detain them until a ransom had been paid. Kattirdji Janni, having very crude notions of right and wrong, would often give this money in alms to the poor, and it is related that he endowed nearly a thousand young Greek girls with marriage dowries. Xo one ever dreamed of informing against him, certain that should he do so some retributive evil would infallibly be his fate. All efforts on the part of the Turkish authorities to take any of the adventurous band proved futile as long as Janni was at its head. At the time of the Crimean War, when a part of the English army was at Smyrna, five hundred soldiers, I have been told, went out, assisted by the Turks, in order if possible to secure him and to destroy his band, but were entirely unsuccessful. The hills around Ephesus and in the neighbourhood of Smyrna are admirably suited to the professional brigand. To give some idea of the boldness of this robber and of the terror in which he was held by the inhabitants of Smyrna, I may give the following incident which I heard of from a relative of the family in which it occurred. One evening, when this family were sitting at supper, they were amazed beyond description to behold twelve men armed to the teeth enter the apartment (houses in the East are all easy of access), headed by this bold outlaw. These uninvited guests, after quietly seating themselves, remarked, 'We will wait until you have finished, and then we also wish some supper." The family immediately rose in great trepidation and gave them whatever they desired. When Kattirdji Janni had finished eating he told his trembling host that he and his family were henceforth free to hunt or travel where they liked without fear of being molested, as Kattirdji Janni never forgot a kindness ! At last, tiring of this wild life, or perhaps some better feeling coming over him, he determined to deliver himself up to the Turkish authorities
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on the promise often held out to him, that he should be exiled in Cyprus, but not otherwise punished.
He was taken to Constantinople, and I am inclined to believe that the Turks would have kept their promise, as they too love bold spirits and courage, even in a bandit, but unfortunately, a young Frenchman in some \vay officially connected with the French Consulate at Smyrna had been very badly treated by his band, and on that account the French Ambassador insisted on Kattirdji Janni being imprisoned and treated in a most rigorous manner (this I heard from the robber's lips). He was then taken to a prison, and there, in a small cell, was chained to the wall like a wild beast for seven years. He was afterwards removed to the fortress of Famagosta, where he now resides. Through the intercession of some influential Turk, the Sultan, Abdul Aziz, was induced to have him treated with more lenity, and in 1869 he was allowed the same freedom as other prisoners of lesser note, though shackled with a chain the links of which are five inches long, three wide, and half an inch thick.
Through the entreaties of my wife, Aziz Pasha applied in 1875 to Constantinople and obtained authority to have these heavy chains replaced by much lighter ones. Such was the man to whom our ladies were indebted for their Moral souvenirs of Famagosta.
Leaving Famagosta and continuing my journey in the plain, I arrived after three-quarters of an hour's ride at the ruins of the ancient city of Salamis. From the position of this city towards the eastern end of the island and facing the coast of Phoenicia, one would expect to find in it more than elsewhere traces of early Phoenician settlements. But this is not so. On the contrarv, Salamis, of all the cities ol Cyprus, is the most famous for its inclination towards the Greeks and for its resistance of the Persians. Its history
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seems to justify the tradition of its having been founded by a colony of Greeks under Teucer, the son of Telamon, king of the island of Salamis, who, the story goes, refused to receive Teucer on his return from Troy because he had not sought to prevent the suicide of his brother Ajax. Upon this Teucer set sail with his companions, and perhaps also captives from the Trojan expedition, and arriving in Cyprus selected this site for a town, and from affection to his native island called it by its name of Salamis. According to Virgil (^Eneid, i. 621), Teucer went first to Sidon and there obtained the authority of the king Belus to settle in Cyprus. But this is not m accordance with the other legends, and it is impossible now to say whether it may not have been an invention of the poet's. Strabo says that the colonists landed on the north coast, and if that is correct, they would probably have crossed over the mountains to Salamis. At this point the island is narrow. The legend says that Teucer married Eune, a daughter of Cinyras, and that from them sprang the line of kings of Salamis. Another characteristic feature of Salamis was its devotion to the worship of the great Hellenic god Zeus, who was there styled Splanchnotomos, with reference to the ceremony of inspecting the entrails of victims offered for sacrifice.
Of the history of Salamis almost nothing is known till we come to the time of the Persian wars, but from that time clown to the reign of the Ptolemies it was by far the most conspicuous and flourishing of the towns of Cyprus. I have already in the Introduction given a short sketch of how Onesilus seized the government of Salamis from his brother Gorgus, and set up an obstinate resistance to the Persian oppression, under which the island was labouring about B.C. 500. In the end he was defeated bv a Persian armv, and fell in
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battle, and it was about this time, if not also in consequence of this defeat, that the dynasty of Teucer was for a period removed from the government of Sal amis. As to the length of this period there is great obscurity. It seems, however, to be certain that with the help of the Persians, a Tyrian named Abdemon had seized the throne, and not only paid tribute to Persia, but endeavoured to extend the Persian power over the rest of the island. To Salamis itself he invited Phoenician immigrants, and introduced Asiatic tastes and habits. So that apparently all previous efforts to give a firm Hellenic character to the town were rendered futile. But meantime there was growing up a spirited boy, who traced his descent from the line of Teucer, and in whom were combined the highest natural gifts. Bodily he had no rival in beauty, or strength, or skill ; mentally he was endowed with all that was necessary for a great leader. Such is in brief the description which the ancients have left us of Evagoras. Abdemon, the Tyrian usurper, saw how the presence ol this youth captivated the people of Salamis, and took measures to be rid of him effectually. But the scheme was discovered and Evagoras escaped to Cilicia, where he gradually collected round his person a band of fifty faithful friends, ready for any service to which he might call them. Crossing from Cilicia they obtained, during the darkness, entrance at one of the gates of Salamis, and amid general alarm and confusion, fought their way against great odds to the citadel and seized it. There appears to have been little further resistance. Evagoras became king, and from the beginning to the end of his reign, spared nothing to make Salamis a flourishing and powerful city, among other things fortifying it, and improving its harbour.
The ten years of war which followed, with its great victories and equally severe defeats, must have tnec.
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even the large resources of such a town. Evagoras died or was killed by a eunuch, B.C. 374.
The next period of interest in the history of Salamis, was when, on the partition of the Empire of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy and Antigonus made each extraordinary efforts to obtain Cyprus. Ptolemy was represented byMenelaus, who held Salamis. The leader on the opposite side was the son of Antigonus, young Demetrius, who from his conduct of the siege of Salamis on this occasion, obtained the title of " Poliorcetes," by which he has since been known. Menelaus trusted to the fortifications of the town, but Demetrius constructed a colossal engine, known as the " Helepolis" or "citytaker," 75 feet wide, and 150 feet high, moving on four great wheels, having nine storeys, and containing over two hundred men. With this and battering-rams, he succeeded in making a breach in the wall. But the defenders made a stubborn resistance, and during the night managed to set fire to the huge engine of war. Demetrius was now obliged to turn for assistance to his fleet. A naval engagement followed in which he was victorious, and in consequence of this, Menelaus surrendered inSalamis. From this time the town appears to have lost its prosperity as well as its high position, and to have gradually declined. A large part of it was destroyed during the revolt of the Jews in the time of Trajan. Afterwards, in the reign of Constantius Chlorus, part of it sank into the sea, from the effects of an earthquake. This emperor is said to have erected in it many new public buildings, and to have changed its name to Constantia. In the middle ages it was eclipsed by Famagosta.
At present it is nearly covered by sand drifted from the sea-shore, where it lies to a depth of some ten feet. The harbour and that portion of the wall fronting the sea, are still easily traced. I measured the length of the
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wall, and found it to be nearly 6850 feet. The area of Salamis is thickly overgrown with thistles and tall weeds, which, together with the sand, render the task of inspecting it very difficult. The ground also abounds with snakes, some of which are venomous, such as the asp and others. I spent large sums of money at this place on three different occasions, but with no result in any way satisfactory. The ruins of Salamis furnished building material for some of the mosques and many dwelling-houses in Adrianople.
North of Salamis are two tumuli, the base of one of which I reached by means of vertical shafts, and there found a plain white marble sarcophagus, but so damaged as to be worthless. A pickaxe had been left behind by the diggers who had previously opened the tumulus, perhaps some hundreds of years ago. North of these tumuli are shown the prison and tomb of Sta. Catherine, which have all the appearance of having been an early Phoenician tomb, like that of Phaneromene at Larnaca. A little distance further north is the church of St. Barnabas, built, it is said, upon the spot where the body of the saint was discovered, with the Gospel of St. Luke on his breast. This church is held in great veneration, and kept in good repair, although there is now only one of the twelve original monolithic columns standing, their want being supplied by columns made of small stones and plaster, the original capitals being retained in use.
Leaving Salamis, I rode eight hours along the seashore, and reached the foot of the mountains of Carpass, where I stopped near a village called Gastrudi. It consists of about fortv families. A small stream runs near bv. On the north side of a hill east of Gastrudi are the circular ruins of an amphitheatre or temple, and on another, near the sea-shore, a watch-tower. From this point to Cape St. Andreas there are evidences of a dense
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population. Many of the hills near Carpass are crowned with ruined castles, but those which I visited had all been erected in the middle ages. I found on these hills several air-shafts and remains of aqueducts, similar to those met with elsewhere in the island. Along the shore are many cemeteries, the tombs of which are among the oldest in Cyprus. Some are cut in the rock, and others merely excavated in the earth. From Cape St. Andreas as far as the village of lalussa, the ancient remains which I observed seem to belong to a very early period in the history of the island, and have a certain oriental character, but from lalussa along the coast to Kormakiti the ruins are all decidedly Hellenic, consisting of fluted columns of Ionic and Corinthian capitals in pure white marble, which had been imported, traces of piers, docks, artificial harbours, and other remains of public works, evidently Greek. Eight years ago on this side of the island I saw, half way up a hill, two colossal lions, which had probably adorned the gateway of a temple, but the last time I passed one of the lions had disappeared, and the other lay broken in pieces.