THROUGH CYPRUS. THROUGH CYPRUS AGNES SMITH, AUTHOR OF 'glimpses OF GREEK LIFE AND SCENERY,' ETC. ^'i|f^-_ |(lustr;itcb, luitj) IJtnjj. LONDON : HUKST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 13, GREAT MAELBOEOUGH STEEET. 1887. AU Hi'ihts reserved. w ^OJuJJ^ SqJCUjl^ CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. London to Suez 1 The Start — Amenities of Travelling — Unpleasant Precedents— Very- Miserable — At Lyons — Marseilles — Port Said — The Shaloof — Arrival at Suez — ^Expedition to 'Ain Mousa — ' I am a Moslem.' CHAPTER II. In Cairo 19 Little Difficulties — Said's Trick — Taken for Moslem Ladies — Tel-el- Kebir — A Motley Crowd — Shepheard's Hotel — Climate of Cairo — I Try to Learn Colloquial Arabic — My Plan — Arab English — Arab Teachers — Wheat the Forbidden Fruit— Incivility of some English Travellers — A Mistake of Simplicity — Excessive Gaiety — Noble Exceptions. CHAPTER III. The Sights of Cairo 39 The Boulak Museum — ^Mummy of Rameses II. — The Tomb of the Caliphs — The Great Pyramid — Its Construction — View from the Top — Spurious Coins — The Sphinx — Description — The Mosque El Azhar — Conversations with 'Qlemas— The Kuran— The Great Hall or Uni- versity — Moslem Students. CHAPTER IV. The Sights of Cairo (Continued) .... 49 The American Mission — Evangelization its Work — Miss Whately's School — All Mohammedan Children — A Native Congregation — Most Picturesque — In Native Houses with Miss Thompson — Dining with 385593 VI CONTENTS. Coptic Families — Coptic Priests — A Coptic Family — A Coptic Mar- riage — ^The Coptic Cathedral — A Boys' School — Reflections. CHAPTER V. Alexandria to Beyrout 72 Miss Eobinson's Soldiers' and Sailors' Homes — On Board the La Seyne — Fellow-passengers — Jaffa — Difiiculty of Finding Servants for Cyprus — Tents or no Tents ? — Risks of Travel in Cyprus — Roads in Cyprus — A Storm — Delay in Departure — Opportunity for Learning Language — A Roman Catholic Teacher — Beyrout Schools — Work of Americans — Mrs. Bowen Thompson — School of Society of Friends — Excursion to Nahr-el-Kelb. CHAPTER VI. Beyrout to Cyprus 91 The ' Rio Grande ' — Fellow-Passengers — Tripoli — Off Larnaca — The Custom House — CUmate of Cyprus — The Tents— Origin of Name Cy- prus — Mr. Hamilton Lang's Views — Mr. Watkins' Opinions on the Cy- priots — Disturbed Slumbers — Our Cavalcade — George, the Dragoman — Peculiar Greek and More Peculiar English — Mangled Italian — George's Character—Salim — Constantine the Cook — A Confusion of Georges — Ibrahim the Arab. CHAPTER VII. Cyprus DESCRIBED 104 Messaria — Mountainous in the West — Larnaca to Famagousta — The March — Village of Ormidia — Rain — A Perfect Little Oasis — Homoeo- pathic Medicine — A Cypriote Church — A Service — Great Plain of Famagousta — First Sight of the Town — Varoschia — Famagousta — Torre del Moro — Fall of Famagousta — Bragadino's Fate — We Leave Fama- gousta. CHAPTER Vni. Trikomo to Kytherea 124 Interview with a Priest — Dress of Cypriots— A Stroll into the Town — Britons or Greeks? — A Gathering — A Great Place for Birds — -The Monastery of St. Andreas — Lefkoniko — Marathobouno — Locusts— Visi- tors — Improvements — Destruction of Locusts — Locust-trap. CONTENTS. Vll CHAPTER IX. Kytherea to Leucosia 141 In a Labyrinth of Hills — Perplexity — Trusting to a Boy-guide — The Convent of St. Chrysostom — Interior — History — First View of Leucosia — Besieged by a Crowd — Leucosia Improved under British Rule — A (Jreek Priest — Still Besieged — A Prison — Cathedral of St. Sophia — A Tragedy — A Priest Photographer. CHAPTER X. From Leucosia to Lefka 156 The Turk, Mustapha — Nicosia, very Warm — The Dreaded Kofi — Lovely Landscapes — Bellapais Abbey— Kyrenia — Mr, Maurogordato — Crime in Cyprus — The Fort — Country Round Kyrenia Lovely— Along the Coast — Lapithus — INIonastery of St. Pantalemoui — Encampment and Sunday Rest — The Bishop — Prospects of Union between Greek and Anglican Churches — The British Government and the Schools — At Morphou — An Archimandrite— Lefka — The Feast of St. George — Queen Victoria's Mistake — The Queen's Birthday. CHAPTER XI. From Lefka to Kykko 177 A Case of Overloading — Deep Solitudes — A Pleasant Resting-place — A Testimony to British Rule and Improvement — Campos — Polite Re- ception — A Pleasant Road — Kykko — The Monastery — Reception there from Monks — Conversation with Them — Present of Wine —Monks come to Tea in the Tent — ' Resurrection of the Virgin ' — The Monks Chanting — A Scene of the Middle-Ages. CHAPTER XII. From Kykko to Chrysoroghlvtissa . . . 192 Bad Roads — Arabic for the Mules — Chrysoroghiatissa — The I\Jonks' Welcome — Heavy Rains — Conversations with the Monks — Collapse of Tents — Lodgings in the Monastery — High Winds — ^The Village School — Advice to the Children — ' Time is Money ' — A Glimpse of Sunshine. CHAPTER XIII. From Chrysoroghiatissa to Paphos . . .204 Baffo— Highly Picturesque — Paphos— AVelcomed by Mr. Thompson — ' Aphroditissa ' — History of Neo- Paphos— Temple of Paphos — Hiero- Vlll CONTENTS. skipos— A Cave— De Cesuola's Views— Apples of Cyprus— Old Papbos —Legend of Cinyras— A Ruined Castle—' The Great Temple of Venus ' — Claudian Quoted — Augustine Quoted — Virgil. CHAPTER XIV. From Paphos to Colossi 228 The Cypriots and Cruelty to Animals— Pretty Village of Piscopi — A Storm— A Babel— Retreat from Tents— Still Unsheltered — Ruins of the City of Curium— Colossi— The Commanderia Wine — De Cesnola's Discoveries. CHAPTER XV. Last Days in Cyprus 240 'Canning Street' — Limasol— Many Invitations — Hot Winds — The Oldest City in Cyprus— The God ISIalika— Human Sacrifices— Heathen Miracle Plays— Vases— Sculptures — Pretty Hamlet of Zee— Visitors— Citi— Larnaca— The Royal Hotel— On Board the AlpJiec. CHAPTER XVI. Gleanings from the History of Cyprus . . 255 First Notice of Cyprus — Divinities — Worship of Aphrodite— The Nine Kingdoms— Subject to Egypt— To Persia— The Cyprus Contingent for Invasion of Greece — Greek Influence — Evagoras — Abdemon's Plot — Sparta Supreme— Evagoras— Freedom Against Tyranny — Evagoras' Situation Becomes Desperate— Plots— Luxury— Menander's Satire on the Cypriots. CHAPTER XVn. History of Cyprus (Continued) .... 285 Alexander— Cyprus a Persian Province — Cyprus and Alexander — His Gratitude — Part of JNIacedonian Empire — A Lapse of Years— A Pro- vince of Egypt— The Ptolemies — A IMonster — Short Dream of Honour- able Independence— Cato — Introduction of Christianity — Thirteen Bishoprics— Four Centuries of Peace — Rinaldo of Castile — The Crusades —Richard Cceur de Lion— Cyprus Sold to Knights-Templars— Guy de Lusignan — Saracen Ravages — Venetian Supremacy — Turkish Rule- British Occupation and Rule. CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER XVIII. Conclusion 313 Capabilities of the Island — Products— Caroub -tree — The Olive — Wheat — Cotton — Wine — Grapes — Fruit — Copper — Henna — Salt — Pro- ducts of Cyprus and Malta Compared — Character of Turks and Greeks — Desire of Greeks for Cyprus — Advantages of Speaking Greek — Greek Aspirations for Political Unity. APPENDIX. Climate of Cyprus 341 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Our Travelling Party (see p. 99) AZaptieh Church of St. Sophia, Nicosia Ruined Monastery of Bellapais . Courtyard of Monastery at Kykko Map of the Author's Route . Frontispiece. Vignette. To face p. 153. 158. 190. At end of Vol. Come travel ; soon thy friends ■will be replaced. Come work ; and life's true sweetness thou shalt know. Success and fame are never found in rest ; But cares are. Leave thy native land, and go. For water, that by standing waxeth foul, Is sweet and good if once it 'gin to flow. No eye of watcher will observe the moon, Unless her wondi'ous changes she doth show ; The hunter starts before the lion dies ; The arrow hits not ere it leaves the bow ; Tlae world hath mines where gold is common dust ; And climes where scented woods as fuel glow. How rich the lore that some by travel seek ! How great the gains of some by travel grow ! From tlie Arahic. THROUGH CYPRUS. CHAPTER I. LONDON TO SUEZ. The Stait — Amenities of Travelling — Unpleasant Precedents— Very- Miserable — At Lyons — Marseilles — Port Said — The Shaloof — Arrival at Suez — Expedition to 'Ain Mousa — ' I am a Moslem.' Ever since the clever coup by which Lord Beacons- field induced the British lion to place his foot upon Cyprus, an island which, from its position, might easily be made the key of the Levant, the pubhc have been more or less anxious to know what our acquisition really is. Within eighteen months after the cession, several excellent books on the subject were published. It savours somewhat of presump- tion for anyone to venture upon ground trodden by an experienced observer like Sir Samuel Baker, a learned explorer like Franz von Lciher, and a resident possessing the unequalled opportunities and the practical sense of Mr. Hamilton Lang. But several years have elapsed since their works saw the light ; Cyprus has undergone a few changes, and it is just possible that the eyes of two lady travellers may H have been able to discern something new and worth ' B 2 THROUGH CYPRUS. telling, albeit they cannot pretend to vie in depth of research with Mr. Lang, nor in antiquarian know- ledge with De Cesnola. As our journey from London to Cyprus presented some remarkable features, we think we can best interest the reader by beginning our narrative with an account of it. We started from home on Tuesday, January 1 1, with the intention of sleeping in Paris, and of con- tinuing our journey the next night to Marseilles in a coupe-fauteuUs, or a coiqye-Iits. This, ho^^^ever, would have debarred us from sleeping at Marseilles previous to embarking on the steamer of the Mes- sageries Maritimes, and we adopted the suggestion of a lady whom we met in the train betwixt London and Dover, that we should continue our journey without sleeping in Paris. So, on arriving at the Paris station, we telegraphed to Marseilles to secure rooms, and drove to the Gare de Lyons, for- getting that coupes are not to be secured at a mo- ment's notice. LTnfortunately we arrived only a few minutes before the train started, and we did not know before we registered our luggage that there Avas no chance of a coupe. We were asked to o-et into a first-class carriao^e in which six men were blowing clouds of tobacco- smoke from their pipes. However much one may tolerate cigars in the open air, the prospect of being shut up with such an abundance of tobacco perfume for the whole of a Avinter's nio;ht was not an invitino; one. The conductor assured us that it was not a smoking-carriage, and that we had the right to make the gentlemen extinguish their pipes. We thought, r LONDON TO SUEZ. 3 however, that they would not be too pleasantl}^ dis- posed towards us in consequence, so we insisted on "7 being put somewhere else. The train was quite full, and only two empty seats could be found anywhere. At the door of the carriage which contained these stood an English lady. The guard politely requested her to mount, as the train would start in two minutes. She gave a very silly laugh, and replied, ' Ma foi, je ne suis pas pressee, j'ai encore une demi-minute.' The guard then desired us to enter without Avait- inof for her convenience. Two French ladies were seated near the windows at the further end. Next them was a very stout Frenchman, and next him an English lady, who was keeping the empty seat near the window for the lady outside, her daughter. Opposite the young lady's seat was a young English- man, and thus two vacant seats were left for us in the centre of the carriage. Alas ! we would have done better to have travelled with the smokers. Our entrance was the signal for all the passengers to rise at once, and declare that as they meant to pass the night there, they needed room to sleep, and that they would on no account allow us to intrude on their privacy. They tried to prevent our sitting down anywhere, or placing our rugs on the rack above. We tried to get out, but the conductor handed in all our small things, and shut the door. Then ensued a scene I shall never forget. The big, burly Frenchman seized my rug- case, which happened to contain nothing except Wahrmund's Arabic dictionary, I having carried the B 2 4 THROUGH CYPRUS. rug over my arm from the cab. He tried to pitch it out of the window, saying, ' Nous mettrons tout 9a sur la voie.' The carriage was certainly full of small packages, but few of them were ours. My own share was a little black hand-bag and the almost empty rug-cover. Violet's packages Avere more numerous ; she had a rug-cover similar to mine, well filled with a rug and a warm cloak, a little dressincj-bao- and a small flat basket contain- ing medicines. Our fellow-passengers had enormous packages of rugs, huge dressing-bags, and locked Gladstone bags or portmanteaus, each of w^hich would have been sufficient luggage for a gentleman on a Swdss tour. Our rug-cases were, however, waterproof, and were furnished with straps in Mr. W. J. Adam's latest style, which possibly our fellow- passengers had not then seen, and which gave them an excuse for insisting that they ought to have been in the van. Nor would they allow that we had a right to the part of the rack immediately above the seats which we occupied. "When the French gentleman rose for the purpose of pitching my rug-cover out of the window, I rose also, and tried to remonstrate Avith him as quietly as 1 could, but I received a blow on the head from his arm, which knocked my hat off, and made me sit doAvn quite helpless. He did not succeed in his purpose, the conductor being at the door, and the train moving very rapidly. Violet then appealed to the kindlier feelings of the English ladies, saying that I Avas not A^ery strong. The elder lady replied that the Frenchman AA^as an iuA^alid, and required a seat on Avhich to place his feet Avhilst travelling all LONDON TO SUEZ. 5 night. For this statement, as she afterwards con- fessed, she drew entirely on her own imagination, not having had the honour of his acquaintance till that night. The Frenchman sat down, as if tired with his efforts, and Violet pacified him by saying that she would have her rugs and her medicine-basket re- moved to the luggage-van, and registered on our arrival at Laroche. Seldom have I felt so miserable in my life as at the prospect of spending the night in such unfriendly company. Their conduct to us was brutal, and I could almost have preferred being exposed to the bitterness of the cold, which covered the carriage windows with a sheet of ice, and induced our fellow- travellers to keep them closely shut. Before ^ve reached Laroche, one of the English ladies discov- ered that Violet's medicine-basket could be turned into a footstool for herself, and that it would slip under the seat if she got tired of using it ; so the decree went forth that it should remain. No sooner had the train stopped than Violet's bundle of rugs was handed to the conductor, with the request that he would register it. This he peremptorily refused to do, saying that the lady had a right to keep it beside her. Such a storm of words arose, however, at the bare suggestion that he was glad to take the package. Our fellow-travellers were all enveloped in their own wraps, and it seemed to me ex- tremely cruel in them to deprive Violet of a similar comfort. But what most irritated me was the tone of patronage with which the French gentleman said to 6 THROUGH CYPRUS. the conductor, ' Nous avons concede a ces dames d'entrer ici a condition qu'elles mettent dehors toutes leurs petites bagages,' As he had himself a ticket for one seat only, I failed to see what right he had to concede anything of the kind. No course was open to us, however, but silence and submis- sion ; neither of us feeling equal to the task of contradicting him. When the train had again started, we pointed out to the English lady that they had all acted unjustly in not allowing us to speak to the guard about regis- tering our own packages ; every effort which we had made to do so having been frustrated by her interruptions and those of the Frenchman. She exclaimed indignantly that a large Gladstone bag ought also to have been removed. ' But it is not mine,' said Violet. The young Englishman thereupon confessed that it was his, and the incident produced an agreeable diversion, for the English ladies immediately con- stituted themselves its protectors, and suggested that the things on the rack over our heads should be re-arranged, so as to allow of its being placed there. Whilst effecting this, the young man allowed a heavy bag to drop. It struck Violet on the chest, and caused her almost to faint. We were very miserable, but the darkest cloud has its bright side, and there was one fact which gave me unspeakable satisfaction. It was this : that none of the party were my relatives. The morning would relieve us entirely from their pres- ence. It seemed, too, as if they might afford us a little amusement, for we could not help noticing LONDON TO SUEZ. 7 that a flirtation was going on between the young English lady and the gentleman, they often talked so confidentially ; in fact, I more than suspected them of being a newly -married coujdIc, and there- fore framed a slight excuse in my own mind for their dislike to our presence. As the night wore on, however, the lady talked of her husband, and the gentleman of his wife. The reader, therefore, mil not wonder if we found their conversation hardly so amusing as we had anticipated. The guard made a point of presenting Violet's rugs at every station, and of demanding that she should take them. Her efforts to make him register them prevented her getting any of the nice hot coffee with which our fellow-passengers all regaled themselves. They had no compunction whatever in regard to this, although, in the high country about Dijon and Macon, it was intensely cold. When the train reached Lyons about 8.20 a.m., I managed to get a bowl of coffee. I had to walk through deep snow when procuring this, and had some difficulty in finding the carriage. Our English, fellow-travellers, who sat next the window, made no effort to direct me ; I felt, indeed, as if they would have rejoiced had I been left behind. Whilst Violet was speaking to the guard at one of these stations, a man suddenly shut the carriage door, and SL[ueezed two of her fingers into it. This was, of course, accidental ; but though one of her nails was plainly black, and the finger much swol- len, the English young lady checked the gentleman's expression of sympathy by declaring that Violet was ' pretending it.' The nail came off about a month 8 THROUGH CYPRUS. later, and several medical men Avho saw it said that it must have caused intense pain. We felt somewhat strengthened by the bread and coffee we had enjoyed at Lyons, and were hardly so much disposed as we had formerly been to submit to being snubbed. The two English ladies re- marked on our waterproof rug-covers, saying that these were ridiculous things to travel with. Their way of doing was much better and much cheaper ; they bought a piece of American cloth and fastened it round their rugs with a strap, and had contrived to put a pillow and everything requisite for the night inside of this. They told us that they were much more experienced travellers than we were, and that we ought to take a lesson from them. We I replied that they were only going to spend the winter in Mentone, whilst we intended to move about with horses and tents, a mode of transit which they had never tried ; so that possibly a different kind of prej)aration from what they had made might ^ be suitable for us. Violet remarked to me that she thought of speak- ing to the station-master at Marseilles about the treatment we had received. 'You need not do so,' I replied, 'for I mean to write to the Times about it.' The English ladies from that moment began a series of small coaxings, which became more effu- sive as daylight advanced. Perhaps conscience whispered that they had acted unj ustly to us : per- haps they were really afraid of their conduct being made public, but they were changed as if by magic. They took the deepest interest in the smallest article LONDON TO SUEZ. 9 belonofins to us, and the mother declared that she had not understood that the Frenchman wished to pitch our things out of the window. This was strange, for he expressed his intention in very good English, as well as in French. The French people seemed much perplexed at the unaccountable friendship which had apparently sprung up be- tween us. I did not write to the Thnes^ and I have since regretted this, as public attention was just then forcibly drawn to the subject of the safety and com- fort of railway-passengers. Two nights afterAvards Monsieur Barreme, Prefect of the Eure, was mur- dered in a train between Paris and Cherbourg. We came safely out of our disagreeable adventure, but it indicates a real danger to which travellers are ex- posed, and which is intensified as the means of transit between one country and another become more and more rapid. On the line betwixt Paris and Marseilles the trains are always as full as they can possibly be, because tbe government levies a tax on every railway-carriage which leaves the Paris stations, and the station-masters decline to put on an extra carriage till every seat is occupied. Many people who appear quite amiable in ordinary society, often get unreasonably cross when travel- ling at night ; many, too, consider that there is an unwritten law which gives to the first occupant of a railway-carriage the right to treat later arrivals as intruders. Suppose that some irritable traveller uses violence to another, what is the aggrieved party to do ? In our case we were two against six, who made common cause against us, and none of 10 THROUGH CYPKUS. Avhom would, in the event of an action for damages, have represented the facts exactly as they happened. On reaching Marseilles we were too tired to com- plain to the railway authorities ; moreover, we did not wish to do anything which would have made us lose the steamboat on the day following. Our fel- low-travellers were carried away with express speed, and, except in the case of the two English ladies, we knew not whither. It seems to us that the day is not far distant when some kind of international police will have to be instituted for the especial protection of travellers. Our haste to reach Marseilles did not profit us. The weather was so stormy that we were advised not to take the Thursday boat to Alexandria, but to wait till Sunday for the ' great China boat,' which would convey us to Port Said or to Suez. We therefore embarked on board the Saghalien, bound for the Indian seas. The passengers were a motley company, consisting of Englishmen, French- men, Dutchmen, Chinese, Malays, Japanese, and Javanese. There Avere also a few Burmese, chief of Avhom was Theebaw's late ambassador to Paris, going home after his master's deposition, and Mr. Cope Whitehouse, an American archaeologist full of projects for the improvement of the Fayoum by the re-filling of Lake Moeris, and of the delta by the drainao-e of Lakes jMenzaleh and Mareotis. We stopped for a few hours at Port Said, and then entered the canal, which at first is fringed by the salt-water expanse of Lake Menzaleh. The o-olden hues of sunset were reflected in this won- drous mirror ; then came the moonlight, casting its LONDON TO SUEZ. 11 glory over the sandy desert, and glittering in the canal close to our cabin window. The banks Avere continually being washed down by the rush of water caused by the steamers, the protection of stones and stakes availing little. A few months of neglect, such as Turkish governors well know how to apply, would be sufficient to destroy much of M. de Lesseps' laborious work. We remained stationary during the night. In the morning we had desert views on both sides, a plain sprinkled with sand-hills stretching far as the eye could reach. We passed an arm of the salt- water lake, whose surface was almost covered by flocks of white birds ; then a hamlet named Kantara, consisting of a hut shaded by palm-trees on one bank, and the rudiments of a wooden village on the other. Near the hut was a large placard, similar to those at railway stations, with the inscription, ' Siphon.' The word Kantara being nowhere visible, I not unnaturally took ' Siphon ' to be the name of the place. Some of our fellow-passengers, who were amused at this, tried to make me believe that the next place was named ' Magasin.' ' Siphon ' referred to the supply of sweet drinking water. We stopped between very high sand-banks to let another steamer pass. A gentleman, bound for Singapore, told us that this was the spot where a dredger fell in and stuck fast in June of last year, stopping all the traffic for eleven days. The dredger had not been securely fastened, and the wash of a passing steamboat loosened one of its ropes as it swung into the stream. Just then a second vessel struck it, causing it to sink. Our informant had 12 THROUGH CYPRUS. the misfortune to be in o]ie of the steamers which were detained. The difficulty was got over only by a fresh channel beina; made for the water of the canal, which now tabes a curve at this spot. The banks are everywhere very precarious. The best way of holding them together would be by planting grass or some desert shrub ; but it is very difficult to make anything grow in the absence of sweet water. Some of our Smss fellow-passengers were resi- dent in Japan. They said that it is an exceedingly beautiful country, and that Miss Bird's descriptions of it are accurate ; but they thought she might have seen all she did without going through so many privations. We anchored for the night in the Bitter Lakes. Early in the morning we steamed through the Shaloof, a part of the canal which is cut in the rock, and caught sight of the rocky cliffs above Suez, a white town standing in a wide sandy j)lain, at the foot of hills which show no vestige of ver- dure. The colourino; of the sea in the 2:ulf was something extraordinary. It was a brilliant green with a strip of purplish blue nearer us, and a fringe of white on the barren shore just below the bare cliffs, over which many purple shadows were flit- ting. I had seen these effects of colour in pictures of Eastern subjects, but never before in reality. At eleven o'clock we steamed out of the canal, and then came leave-takings and exchanges of cards. We got down a steep ladder into a tiny steamer, no larger than an ordinary fishing-boat, which was rocking about on the waves, and offered us shelter from the glaring heat in the shape of a tiny cabin. LONDON TO SUEZ. 13 Suez stands at the head of a long, shallow gulf, whose waters are hardly more than four feet deep ; rendering it impossible for sea-going vessels to come near the town. We secured our rooms at the Hotel de Suez, and then went to find our boxes at the custom-house, where, as the officer could not speak English, I tried Arabic, and found that he under- stood me. But, much to my disappointment, I could not make out a word that the common natives said to each other. Some of them struggled and fought for the honour of carrying our boxes, and were hard to satisfy in the matter of bakhsheesh. We made inquiries at once about the best way of accomplishing an excursion to 'Ain Mousa, those brackish wells where the Israelites are supposed to have raised their song of triumph after crossing the Red Sea. A friendly old German colonel, who sat next us at the tahle-dhote^ tried to dissuade us from the attempt by saying that the wind might be against us in a sailing boat, that we might be de- tained for hours on the return journey, and get a dip in the water ; also that 'Ain Mousa was not worth seeing. Violet believed him, and we resolved to give up the excursion. We, however, engaged a dragoman to remain with us during our stay in Egypt, and protect us from the attacks of rough men and boys desirous of carrying our luggage. His name was Said Mohammed ; he had excellent testimonials, and was a Moslem. Mr, Sutherland, the manager of the hotel, told us that, in the event of our being dissatisfied, he had the power of making Said refund any money of which he might cheat us. This was, happily, unnecessary, as Said proved 14 THROUGH CYPRUS. himself quite honest and exact in his accounts. Next morning, when we descended to breakfast, the old colonel told us that the wind was remark- ably favourable for 'Ain Mousa, so we hurriedly determined to go. We engaged two boats, one for ourselves, the other for our donkeys. It was a lovely morning ; there were clouds in the sky, but they did not seem to threaten rain. Our boat was a deep one, with a big sail. Two men in white and blue shirts propel- led it by running along the ledge of it from bow to stern and pushing their oars against the ground, singing a rhymed chant. Said steered and talked Arabic to me, promising that he would make me speak fluently in a fortnight. I had great difficulty in understanding him until I suddenly discovered that there exists a great difference in pronunciation between the Egyptian and the Syrian dialects, that the consonant ^, especitilly, became in Said's mouth hard, like g in give, whereas I had been taught to pronounce it like a j. Having found this clue I hoped that I should understand the natives better ; and I saw that Said purposed arrogating to himself the credit of my being his pupil. He professed to like the English, for they were much better than the inhabitants of Egypt, who were mostly ' nas batil,' rubbish ! Violet protested that no human being could be exactly rubbish, and she inquired what religion Said professed. ' I am a Moslem,' he answered, ' but I read the New Testament in English. I read some of it every morning. The Kuran and the Bible are both good, LONDON TO SUEZ 15 for they both came down from heaven, only Jesus Christ he better than Mohammed, because he was the Son of God.' Having said this, in English^ Said asked me in Arabic if I knew the Fatha, and, on my replying in the affirmative, proceeded devoutly to repeat it, ostensibly for my benefit, but doubtless to impress the two boatmen with an idea of his own orthodoxy. I perceived that he keeps two strings to his bow ; he is a kind of Christian when speaking or reading English, and a Moslem when speaking or thinking in Arabic. He was evidently shutting his ej^es to the fact that the Kuran expressly denies the possi- bility of Jesus Christ being the Son of God.* We soon reached the canal, and, after touching once or twice on sandbanks, landed exactly at the same time as a party of gentlemen who had started an hour before us. We all mounted on donkeys, and the gentlemen soon got far ahead of us ; for I checked the impetuosity of the donkey-drivers by quoting an Arabic proverb which states that ' haste is from Satan, and leisure from the Merciful One.' We passed over a wide expanse of hard, stony sand, and over little hillocks where nothing grew except a few tiny clumps of a low, thorny shrub. The Arabs were much pleased at finding I could talk to them ; only they said that my language was ' kallam Bagdad,' speech of Bagdad, and not of Egypt ; the latter being in their eyes, and in those of Said, the standard of everything classical and correct. One of them tried a little Greek, another Italian, their accent in both being pure, but their stock of words * Im Surat-el-Ikhlas. 16 THROUGH CYPRUS. meagre. There was something delicious in the extreme dryness of the air, with the pure, sapphire sky above, and the cloud-shadows which flitted over the distant hills before us ; beyond which hills is the road to Sinai. After a ride of two hours we came in sight of 'Ain Mousa, an oasis of palm-trees, consisting of three or four gardens enclosed by low walls. We took lunch under a shed close to the chief fountain, which looked like a reservoir of stag- nant green water with something bubbling up inside of it. We then partook of coffee in tiny cups, and wan- dered under the leafy palms amid patches of wheat, lupins, and potatoes. We visited two other gardens, each containing a spring, and tried to speak with an old, grey-haired Bedawee woman, a perfect picture of neglect and misery. The proprietor of the garden was quite shocked when Violet asked if she were his wife, and I if she were his mother. ' She is a Be- dawee and I an Arab,' he indignantly exclaimed. We were not very clear as to what is the difference. It is, perhaps, more in habits of life than in race. Said tried his best to persuade us into undertaking the journey to Sinai. We told him that we might try it another year, and that I wished to ascertain if I were fit for it by riding on a camel. One was accordingly led up, and I got on to the part of its back on which Arab women generally sit, and held on to the two sticks which formed its rudiment of a saddle. I kept my balance without difficulty whilst it rose from its knees, and, when it began to walk, I found its motion very pleasant, easier, indeed, than LONDON TO SUEZ. 17 that of a horse or a donkey. I would have ridden on it down to the canal, a distance of five miles, had not the clouds suddenly broken into a heavy shower of rain and hail. It was a curious sensa- tion to feel the strong wind of the desert in our faces, with the consciousness that we were getting thoroughly wet, and that miles of sand lay betwixt us and shelter. The camel was led by a Bedawee, clad in a robe that had once been white ; Said was walking by my side, and, as Violet had got far before me on her donkey, I saw that it would be imprudent to continue on such a slow-paced animal, in the face of an advancing storm ; and, by so doing, to get separated from Violet. The camel growled horribly when it was made to kneel. I leaned back as well as I could, and got off quite easily. I then mounted my donkey, and galloped after Violet. We had no waterproofs, so we soon got very wet, and were well pelted with hailstones. We at length perceived that the storm was pass- ing over us on to the sea, shrouding Gebal el Attaka, the mountains on the African side of the gulf, in clouds, and deepening the brilliant blue of the water which lay between these two continents. We had a good view of the traditional spot where the Israelites crossed, and we thought that the theory held by some of our fellow-travellers — which accounts for their passage by the ebb and flow of the tide — is a perfectly untenable one. The tides are, no doubt, greater in the Red Sea than in the Mediterranean. Still, a tide which could leave the bed of such a gulf uncovered, even for a few minutes, would be as miraculous as the facts narrated in Exodus. c 18 THROUGH CYPRUS. The sky gradually cleared, and nothing could exceed the delicious lightness and transparency of the air. The wind was a little cold, and we galloped fast, till it dried our damp clothes. On reaching the canal, the stalwart Arabs lifted us into our boat, and we found that we had more difficulty in returning than in going, the wind being against us. The two boatmen ran up and down the ledge, propelling the boat with their oars and singing a chant, of which I made out : ' Hua am;11i sidi, hua amali sidi habibi, banat 'arab.'* This, I suppose, referred to the Almighty, for I frequently caught the word 'Allahi.' I should like to know why it is that Moslems bring their religion, imperfect as it is, into their daily life so much more than Christians do. This was the more strongly impressed upon us as we noticed a man in another boat saying his prayers, and prostrating himself under difficulties, he being alone, and ha^ing to contend with wind and wave. I wondered also if the Arab Avord habibi (my beloved,) may not be the origin of our word baby? No sounds are so likely to be transmitted and retained as those of endear- ment from a mother's lips.f We ran aground several times, and signalled in vain for a little passing steam-tug to tow us. But at length our sail caught the wind, and we glided up to the pier at Suez. * ' He is my hope, niy Lord, He is my hojDe, my Lord, my beloved, daughters of the Arabs.' f Dr Ogilvie, in the ' Imperial Dictionary,' gives the derivation of ' babe ' from the Syriac and Arabic, but connects it with the root ' habah,' from which we have our ' paj^a,' the Germans their ' Bube,' and the Americans their ' pappoos.' 19 CHAPTER II. IN CAIEO. Little Difficulties— Said's Trick— Taken for Moslem Ladies— Tel-el- Kebir — A Motley Crowd — Sheph card's Hotel — Climate of Cairo — I Try to Learn Colloquial Arabic — My Plan — Arab English — Arab Teachers — Wheat the Forbidden Fruit — Incivility of some English Travellei'S — A Mistake of Simplicity— «-Excessive Gaiety — Noble Excej)tious. Next day we went hy rail to Cairo. There was a scene of confusion at the station, although it was evidently under European management. We had been forewarned that we should find the jour- ney very dusty, also that the carriages would be over-crowded. We instructed Said to secure for us, if possible, a compartment where we should be alone ; but we were hardly prepared for the way in which he obeyed our orders. We two were placed in a first-class carriage, seated for eight. Our small packages were laid in the empty places, quite in the orthodox manner. But we were surprised to see that Said had also put in two large leather bags, with brown water- proof covers (which Avere very useful in the cabin of a steamboat, but Avhich we always considered luggage to be registered when we went by rail). ' You have made a mistake. Said,' we said. ' These bags ought to have gone with our heavy things.' c 2 20 THROUGH CYPRUS. 'No, no,' replied Said. 'Why shotdd you pay so much for over-weight ? They are better here.' ' But they fill up the space at the door,' we urged. ' You may try to keep other passengers out of this compartment, but, if anyone should insist on enter- ing, he will have a right to complain of these things, and you will get us into difficulties.' 'Now, don't be cross with me,' said Said. 'No one wdll object, for no one else shall come into this carriage.' ' How can you be sure of that ? There is a great crowd of travellers.' ' Leave that to me. I tell 5'ou it's my business, and I understand my business better than j^ou do.' ' Said, you must take away these things.' Said, however, pretended to be deaf, and said, ' Anti ghadbanat ' (' Thou art cross to me ') in such a coaxing way that I was obliged to laugh. We could see other European ladies and gentlemen going about distractedly in search of seats, and had a conviction that every carriage, excepting ours, was as full as it could hold. Each time that we stopped at a station, Said appeared at the door, his presence alone seeming to deter anyone from entering. We felt far from comfortable, however, as we dreaded a repetition of the scene Ave had had betwixt Paris and Marseilles, and we knew that the presence of these great bags would effectualh^ debar us from havino- the rio'ht on our side. W^hen we stopped at Ismaila, there was a rush of fresh passengers. Yes ! They were making for our carriage. Said IN CAIRO. 21 planted himself before the door, and shouted, in a voice of authority, ' Hareem !' The effect was magical, but on the first comers only. There really was too little room in the train, and some adventurous spirits wished the guard to let them have a look at us. Then Said got excited. He flung up his arms, shouting, 'Hareem, hareem, hare-ee-ee-m!' till every- one was fain to beat a retreat. The illusion as to our being Moslem ladies was kept up, not only by the blinds being drawn down, but by my looking out of the \\andow once or twice with a silk hand- kerchief on my head. We felt that Said's trick was in no way j ustifiable, but, as we had not suggested it, we were highly amused, and took the benefit. We passed JSTeiiche, where the first shots were fired in the conflict with Arabi, and concerning which I recollect writing : ' " Our loss has been slight," was the message that flew With the flash of the liglit o'er the billowy blue ; Two wounded, whom patitncc and love may restore, Two dead, who shall follow our banners no more. ' " Our loss has been slight." It is manhood's proud grace, With the mark of his Maker on form and on face, 'Tis the half of two lives when for labour most fit, 'Tis the gleam of two lamps that can ne'er be re-lit. ' In a far Highland valley two mothers must weep For those in the ditch of Rameses who sleep ; Two brides must be widowed, two homes must be bare, And vain to all seeming the pleadings of prayer. ' Oh, bold be the warriors our rights who defend ! And wise be the chiefs whom to battle we send ! But ne'er let them say, when they rest from the fight, "The cost was as nothing, our loss has been slight." ' Alas ! these were only the first drops of that river 22 THROUGH CYPRUS. of blood which Britain has since poured out upon the deserts of Egypt ! We got a glimpse of the fort at Tel-el-Kebir, and we found that we had formed an accurate idea of its position from reading the newspaper descriptions. All French people and some Americans with whom we have conversed insist that Lord Wolseley won the victory by means of ' La cavallerie de St. George,' meaning the colonial sovereigns which bear the impress of St. George and the dragon. Said, on the other hand, informed Violet that ' four thousand English officers were killed at Tel-el-Kebir.' This statement, outrageous as it is, shows that the Egyptians do not think the battle was easily won. The railway offered us nothing but desert views until we reached the valley of the Nile. Then the country became beautiful, for the young green crops were pleasantly dotted with mud villages, all shaded with feathery palm-trees and enlivened by the leanest of kine and smallest, but liveliest of hens. Nowhere does one see the ribs of all kinds of animals more clearly defined than in Egypt. There was of course a motley crowd at the Cairo station. A man was laying a courbash, or native whip, rather heavily on the shoulders of the people outside of it. I suppose they had no business to be there ; but one hardly likes to see such a pro- ceeding in a city which is under British protection. It is the symbol of authority, and its use is per- haps as much needed as was the application of Ulysses' sceptre. We went to Shepheard's Hotel, where Mr. Suther- land s telegram had secured us the nicest possible IN CAIRO. 23 bed-room, looking out directly on the verandah. The old square, formerly so dusty, is now covered with handsome houses, but we missed the pictur- esqueness of the crowd who used to assemble in front of the hotel, and the amusing chaffering of the donkey-boys with their would-be employers or victims. The donkeys are now relegated to a side street, Eno-lish ladies having decreed that a ride on them is somewhat infra dig. There are still travellers, and residents too, Avho steal round the corners, so that the grancle monde may not see them in the act of mounting. Otherwise, the appearance of Cairo is much improved since our visit to it in 1869. The streets are in better order, and the animals, though by no means well-used, do not present so revolting a spectacle of mute suffering. There is now a beautiful public garden, containing a miniature lake, pretty grottoes, trees, and plants of luxurious growth. Here the Khedive's band plays every afternoon, and here one can always find a welcome refuge from heat and dust. The climate was, how- ever, colder than Ave had anticipated. We stayed from January 25 till March 15, and during that time there were few days in which a little rain did not fall either during the night or in the early morning. The Suez Canal is said to have brought more moisture into the air. The climate, too, is variable. I believe that the changes of temperature during the twenty-four hours of a spring day will be found more numerous in Cairo than in England. The sanitary arrangements of the city are radi- 24 THROUGH CYPRUS. cally bad. For some weeks in winter the water supplied to private houses was so offensive that one ludy of our acquaintance could not summon courage to approach the ewer in her bed-room after it had been filled. Not only did this water filter through a cemetery, but a large sewer was discovered flow- ing into the chief conduit. One Sunday afternoon some time in April, while the Khamsin winds were blowing, the water supply of Cairo ceased altogether, causing great alarm. The man in charge of the Nile Barrage had allowed the river above the Barrage to sink to a lower level than the mouth of the conduit. But that is not all. ■ Cairo is declared by the Egyptian Gazette to stand on a ' heaving mass of rolling sewage.' An English general, having taken the lease of a house, and being determined to purify it, had no less than eighty tons of this material re- moved from around its basement, and in this were the bodies of several infants, and one body of a full-grown man. Many instances of a similar kind might be cited. The Esbekieh quarter, before it was built upon, was a marsh, some of whose malarious vapours may still possibly find their way to the surface. Cairo, in short, could not be put into a healthy condition without an expenditure of at least half-a- million sterling. All Eastern cities are, I strongly suspect, in much the same state. The natives, being to the manner born, do not feel it so much as Europeans, yet they too pay the penalty in a high rate of infant mor- tality, in cholera and in plague, whenever the IN CAIKU. 25 atmospheric equilibrium is much disturbed. The true remedy in the case of very ancient cities like Teheran, Damascus, and Cairo would be to remove them to another site. This, we may safely assume, will not be done by the present generation. Yet Providence sometimes does for man what he will not do for himself, and we who know of these things must feel as if Nineveh and Babylon have been destroyed quite as much in mercy as in judgment. Enteric fever was, of course, prevalent. We could describe many sad instances of its ravages, but to do so would be to make our pages too melan- choly. It spared neither the young, the strong, the wealthy, nor the highly placed. We arrived, as I have stated, in January. We did not care to make the Nile trip, having done so years before in a dahabeah from Boolak to Wady Halfah. We did not wish to spoil our romantic memories of the river by going in one of Cook's steamers, which were, moreover, so overcrowded that the best of them, having berths for fourteen, brought twenty-four first-class passengers down from Luxor, with what results as regards comfort and cleanliness may be imagined. It was far too early to start for Cyprus, so I employed my time in trying to gain a colloquial knowledge of Arabic, a language whose grammar I had studied with some diligence, and which I hoped would prove useful to us in our future wanderings. My plan was this. Rising early, an hour before Violet did, I took a walk, accompanied by Said, in the Esbekieh gardens, conversing with him as I did so. I then went to a school for native girls, and, as 26 THROUGH CYPRUS. Miss Whately's was somewhat distant, I chose that of the American Mission, within a few yards of the hotel. I sat with the pupils in their classes for arithmetic, spelling, grammar, Bible history, and astronomy, taking my turn in reading and answer- ing questions, and making myself a source of much amusement to the girls. I talked also with a pro- fessional teacher for an hour and a half, telling anecdotes and listening to them by turns. In the afternoon I learnt a little writing and read a book on astronomy with an intelligent girl from the Fayoum, she reading and I repeating every sentence after her with the view of acquiring a correct pronunciation. I, of course, in the space of seven weeks, got to know all the school-girls, and to estimate their mental powers pretty accurately. I found no differ- ence whatever between them and the generality of English girls — yes, even of those girls who were once my own school-fellows. Many of them were boarders in the house of Miss Thompson, the head teacher, and were being trained to habits of cleanli- ness and order. Some of them were learning French, music, and painting, whilst all had daily instruction in English and needle-work. The Arabs pride themselves not a little on the ease with which they acquire our language, as com- pared with our slowness in comprehending theirs. But, as I pointed out to some of them, their advan- tages are quite exceptional. In the American schools, and doubtless also in Miss Whately's, the pupils get a lesson in English every day, and are made to speak it all day, even when learning other IN CAIRO. 27 things. In the American one they have the aclvan- tage of hearing it from the lips of two ladies whose mother tongue it is, and who put their whole hearts into the effort to make their pupils understand it. For these advantages they pay a very small sum, and some reeeivc their instruction gratis. Tliis continues with them for many years of childhood and youth. An Englishman, on the other hand, who wants to learn Arabic, and who is not residing at a university, has the initial difficulty of finding a teacher. If he prefers a native, on account of the 2)ronunciation, he will find most of the Arabs who come to this country quite ignorant of their own grammar. If he seek instruction from an English university professor, he may no doubt acquire a thorough knowledge of the language from a literary point of view, but will have no facility in speaking it. And it may perhaps not be convenient for him to change his place of residence. I myself was exceptionally fortunate in studying under Mr. Habib A. Salmone, of University College, who is a learned man and a native ; but I had some- times to be content with a lesson once a fortniofht, or once in three weeks, owing to the pressure on his time. Practice in conversation was thus out of the question, and when I tried to supply the want by getting native teachers who knew no European language to converse with me when in the country, they were so afraid of saying anything I might not like, that I actually had four of them, and had ac- quired considerable fluency in talking before I found out that qaf is pronounced differently from kaf, or 28 THROUGH CYPliUS. the first ha from the second ha. Need I say that the teacher who drilled me in these thint^s, Mr. George El Hage, of Beyrout, was esteemed by me more than his predecessors. • If you Moslems,' I said to Said, ' will send mission- aries and teachers to England to teach us the Kuran, and to teach us Arabic, you will see that we shall learn your language quite as easily as you do ours.' ' We cannot do that,' replied Said. ' You and the Americans are rich, that is why you can do these things.' 'Not at all,' I replied. * If you will only believe me, it is not the rich people who send you the mis- sionaries, either in England or in America. It is people of all classes, who love the Gospel, and want you to know and love it too. You are always tell- ing me that the Kuran is the " mother of books, the property of the Avorld." If you loved it as much as we love the Gospel, you would have sent us mis- sionaries years ago.' Said made no answer, and I did not tell him, as I might have done, that while there are English places of worship all over. Europe, Africa, and Asia, there is not a single mosque in England, nor, I suspect, in France, and this notwithstanding the numbers of Moslems, rich and poor, who visit our shores. I had often curious discussions with him. One day we spoke of the fall of Adam, and Said insist- ed that the forbidden fruit was wheat. I replied that we in England generally believed that it was an apple, although the Towrah gives us only the indefinite word ' fruit.' ' It was not an apple,' persisted Said, ' it was IN CAIRO. 29 wheat. Since then Allah has decreed that man shall live principally on wheat, and that he shall wander in search of it ; and he does not always find it where he seeks it, and so he has to ^o all round the globe and never rests.' I lauo'hed. ' You think that the love of travel was sent to us as the punishment of sin,' I said. ' Then we English must be much worse than other people. But you know. Said, that we don't all travel in search of bread ; some of us do so to gain know- ledge.' ' What sort of knowledge can you gain ?' * Well, you know there are remains of antiquity in other countries, a sight of which enables us to understand better the history of our forefathers. Besides, in Italy, for example, there are works of art, statues, and paintings which are finer than any- thing we see at home.' ' But that is a sin !' exclaimed Said. ' God has forbidden us to make a likeness of anything !' There was no use in arguing the point. I con- tented myself with explaining that we understand the second commandment to refer only to the use of images in worship, a use which tends to lower the worshipper's conception of God. The Moslems are decidedly in the right on this point, but we may feel sure that the Almighty, who has endowed man with imitative and creative faculties, never in- tended to forbid their rational use; Said informed me that the Mohammedans pray every day, and the Christians only upon one day in the week, viz., Sundays. I of course informed him that he was in error, 30 THROUGH CYPRUP. his mistake arising from the fact that we Christians obey our Lord's command, ' But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door,' etc. I confessed at the same time that many of us err in concealing our religion, while the impulse of the Moslems is to make it as public as possible. ' Does the Kuran teach you,' asked Violet, ' to be kind to animals ?' ' No,' replied Said, ' it says nothing about it.' ' Then Mohammed was very careless,' said Violet, ' for he might have seen how much his countrymen need the lesson.' I was surprised with one idea of Said's. I hap- pened to hear one Sunday, in the American mission church, a native preacher discourse from the text, ' A prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto yon of your brethren, like unto me.' On Monday morn- ing, by way of practising my Arabic, I gave Said a sketch of this sermon, stating, of course, that Moses referred to our Lord Jesus Christ. ' No, he did not,' said Said. ' He meant our Lord Mohammed.' I was still more astonished to find that he con- sidered our Lord's promise of the Comforter to refer to the Arabian prophet. I was told that many Arabs believe the word ' paraclete ' to belong to their own tongue, and get quite angry if you tell them it is Greek. On another point Said was very obstinate. Cher- ishing an intense hatred to the Copts, he would never allow that they were Egyptians. In vain did we point out that the name of the country and IN CAIRO. 31 the name of the people are from the same root, ' Copt ' being the ' gypt' of the Greek word Atyv7rTo