middle of the day, few animals are seen in motion, except the lizard, seeming to sport with greatest pleasure where the sun is most powerful, and a species of long black serpents, abounding in Cyprus: one of these we killed, four feet three inches in length. Sometimes, also, a train of camels may be noticed, grazing among dusty thistles and bitter herbs, while their drivers seek shelter from the burning noon. We found at anchor, in this bay, the Iphigenia, Captain Stackpole, from the fleet, with several transport ships, waiting for supplies of cattle and water. On the following morning, June the seventh, about ten o'clock, we landed, and carried our letters of recommendation to the different consuls residing at Larneca, about a mile from Salines, toward the north. Here the principal families reside, although almost all commercial transactions are carried on at Salines. We dined in Larneca, with our own consul: collecting, during our walk to and from his house, beneath the shelter of umbrellas, the few plants that occurred in our way. In our subsequent visits, we soon found that the malaria we had witnessed from the deck of the Ceres, veiling all the harbour with its fearful mist, could not be approached with impunity. Our lamented friend, and exemplary commander, captain Russel, was the first to experience its baneful influence; being seized with a fever, from which he never afterward recovered.* Indeed, the fevers of Cyprus, unlike those caught upon other shores of the Mediterranean, rarely intermit; they are almost always malignant. The strictest attention is therefore paid by the inhabitants to their diet. Fortunately for them, they had no butter on the island; and in hot weather they deem it fatal to eat fat meat, or indeed flesh of any kind, unless boiled to a jelly. They likewise carefully abstain from every sort of pastry; from eggs, cream and milk. The island produces abundance of delicious apricots, from standard trees, having a much higher flavour than those of Rosetta, but equally dangerous to foreigners, and speedily causing fever, if they be not sparingly used. Those of Famagosta are the most celebrated. They are sent, as acceptable presents to The salt lakes in the neighbourhood of Salines contribute much to the insalubrity of the bay, and of the surrounding territory. For an account of them, see Drummond's Travels, p. 141. Travellers should be particularly cautioned to avoid all places where salt is made in the Levant; these are generally called lagunes. "Some authors," says the Abbé Mariti, vol. i. p. 6. " tell us that the air of this island is bad and unhealthful. This prejudice prevents many stranges from remaining in it long enough to make the experiment themselves. But people who have lived here a year, have been convinced of the wholesomeness of the air, and of the error of the ancient writers." With similar effrontery Touruefort maintained, " Quot• qu'en aient dit anciens, les la mer noir n'a rien de notr." Nicotia, the capital. The apricots of Larneca are also fine, and may be purchased in the market at the small price of three shillings the bushel. Many different varieties of the gourd, or pumpkin, are used in Cyprus for vegetables at table. The young fruit is boiled, after being stuffed with rice. We found it refreshing and pleasant, partaking at the same time the flavour of asparagus and artichoke. We noticed also the beet root, melons, cucumbers, and a very insipid kind of mulberry of a white colour. The corn of the island, wherever the inha bitants have courage or industry enough to venture on the cultivation of the land, in despite of their Turkish oppressors, and the dangers of the climate, is of the finest quality. The wheat, although bearded, is very large, and the bread made from it extremely white and good. Perhaps there is no part of the world where the vine yields such redundant and luscious fruit. The juice of the Cyprian grape resembles a concentrated essence. The wine of the island is so famous all over the Levant, that, in the hyperbolical language of the Greeks, it is said to possess the power of restoring youth to age, and animation to those who are at the point of death. Englishmen, how ever, do not consider it a favourite beverage, as it requires nearly a century of age to deprive it of that sickly sweetness which renders it repugnant to their palates. Its powerful aperient quality is also not likely to recommend it, where wine is drunk in any considerable quantity, as it sometimes causes a disorder of the bowels, even after being kept for many years. When it has been in bottles for ten or twelve years, it acquires a slight degree of effervescence; and this, added to its sweetness and high colour, causes it to resemble Tokay more than any other wine. This, however, is not the state wherein theinhabitants of Cyprus drink their wine. It is preserved by them in casks to which the air has constantly access, and will keep in this manner for any number of years. After it has withstood the changes of a single year, it is supposed to have passed the requisite proof, and then it sells for three Turkish piastres the gooze. Afterward, the price augments in proportion to its age. We tasted some of the commanderia, which they said was forty years old, and was still in the cask. After this period it is considered quite as a balm, and reserved, on account of its supposed restorative and healing quality, for the sick and the About twenty one pints. The value of the piastre varies continually. It was worth about twenty pence when we were in Turkey. dying. A greater proof of its strength cannot be given, than by relating the manner in which it is kept; in casks neither filled nor closed. A piece of sheet lead is merely laid over the bung hole; and this is removed almost every day, whenever persons visit their cellars to taste the different sorts of wine proposed for sale. Upon these occasions, taking the covering from the bunghole, they dip a hollow cane or reed into the li quor, and, by suction drawing some of it, let it run from the reed into a glass. Both the commanderia and the muscad are white wines. When new, they have a slight tinge of a violet hue; but age soon removes this, and afterward they retain the colour of Madeira. Cyprus produces also red wines; but these are little esteemed, and used only as weak liquors for the table, answering to the ordinary "vin du pays" of France. If the people of Cyprus were industrious, and capable of turning their vintage to the best account, the red wine of the island might be rendered as famous as the white; and perhaps better calculated for exportation. It has the flavour of Tenedos; resembling that wine in colour and strength; and good Tenedos not only excels every other wine of Greece, but perhaps has no where its rival in Europe. This island, that had so highly excited, amply gratified our curiosity, by its most interesting antiquities: although there is nothing in its present state pleasing to the eye. Instead of a beautiful and fertile land, covered with groves of fruits and fine woods, once rendering it the paradise of the Levant, there is hardly upon earth a more wretched spot than it now exhibits. Few words may forcibly describe it: Agriculture neglectedinhabitants oppressed-population destroyed-pestiferous aircontagion poverty-indolence-desolation. Its antiquities alone render it worthy of resort; and these, if any person had leisure and opportunity to search for them, would amply repay the trouble. In this pursuit, Cyprus may be considered as yet untrodden. A few inscribed marbles were removed from Baffa by Sir Sidney Smith. Of two that the author examined, one was an epitaph, in Greek hexameter and pentameter lines; and the other commemorated public benefits conferred by one of the Ptolemies. But the Phoenician reliques upon the island are most likely to obtain notice, and these have hitherto been un regarded. The inhabitants of Larneca rarely dig near their town without discovering either the traces of ancient buildings, subterranean chambers, or sepulchres. Not long before our arrival, the English consul, signor Peristiani, a Venetian, dug up, in one place, about thirty idols belonging to the most ancient mythology of the heathen world. Their origin refers to a period long anterior to the conquest of Cyprus by the Ptolomies, and may relate to the earliest establishment of the Phoenician colonies. Some of these are of terra cotta; others of a coarse lime stone; and some of soft crumbling marble. They were all sent to our ambassador at Constantinople, who presented them to Mr. Cripps. The principal figures seem to have been very ancient representations of the most popular divinity of the island, the pantamorpha mater; more frequently represented as Ceres than as Venus, (notwithstanding all that poets have feigned of the Paphian goddess,) if we may safely trust to such documents as engraved gems, medals, marbles, and to these idols, the authentic records of the country. Upon almost all the intaglios found in Cyprus, even among the ruins of Paphos, the representations are either those of Ceres herself, or of symbols designating her various modifications. Of these, the au thor collected many, which it would be tedious to enumerate. In their origin, the worship of Ceres and of Venus was the same. The Moon, or Dea Jana, called Diana by the Romans, and Astarte," daughter of Heaven," by the Phoenicians, whether under the name of Urania, Juno, or Isis, was also the Ceres of Eleusis. Having in a former publication pointed out their connexiou, and their common reference to a single princi ple in nature, (a subject involving more extraneous discussion than might be deemed consistent with the present undertaking,) it is not necessary to renew the argument further, than to explain the reason why the symbols of the Eleusinian Ceres were * De la Roque was in Cyprus in May, 1688. At that time, a relation of his, Monsr. Feau, the French consul at Larneca, showed to him sundry antiquities recently discovered in sepulchres near the town. He particularly mentions, lachrymatories and lamps. Voy. de Syrie et du Mont. Liban, par De La Roque, tom. i. p. 2. Par. 1722. The Latin Diana (Vossius de Idolat lib. ii. c. 25.) is the contract of Diva Jana, or Dea Jana." See also the erudite dissertation of Gale (Court of the Gentiles, p. 119. Oron. 1669.) "They styled the moon Urania, Juno, Jana, Diana, Venus, &c.; and as the sun was called Jupiter, from IT ja warp, and Janus from the same, so also the moon was called first Jana, and thence Juno, from Tjah, the proper name of God." So Vossius de Idolat. lib. ii. c 26. "Juno is referred to the moon, and comes from T Jah, the proper name of God, as Jacchus from " ja Chus. Amongst the ancient Romans, Jana and Juno were the same." According to the learned Gale, our word Easter, considered of such doubtful etymology, is derived from the Saxon goddess ESTAR, or Astarte, to whom they sacrificed in the month of April. See Gale's Court of the Gentiles, b. ii. c. 2. "Greek Marbles," p. 74. also employed as the most ancient types of the Cyprian Venus.* A very considerable degree of illustration, concerning the history of the idols discovered at Larneca, is afforded by the appearance of one of them, although little more of it remains than a mere torso. It belonged to an androgynous figure, represented as holding, in its right hand, a lion's cub, pendent by the tail, upon the abdomen of the statue. We might in vain seek an explanation of this singular image, were it not for the immense erudition of Athanasius Kircher, whose persevering industry enabled him to collect, and to compare, the innumerable forms of Egyptian deities; while his learning qualified bim for the task of exploring every source, whence indisputable testimony might be derived, touching their bidden meaning. According to the different authorities he has cited,† the momphta or type of humid nature.‡ (that is to say, the passive principle,) was borne by Isis in her left hand, and generally represented by a lion. In her right she carried the dog Anubis.§ Either of these symbols separately denoted the magna mater; and may thus be explained. The leonine figure, as employed to signify water, was derived from the astronomical sign of the period for the Nile's inundation. Hence we sometimes see the momphia expressed by a sitting image with the lion's head.** Plutarch gives to Isis the epithet momphiwan.†† Her double sex is alluded to by Orpheus, who describes her as at once father and mother of all things. By the figure of Anubis, Isis was again typified as the Hecate of the Greeks. It is a symbol frequently placed upon their sepulchral monuments;§§ and was otherwise represented by the image of Cerberus, with three heads, or with fifty, as allusion is intended either to the diva triformis, or to the pantamorphic nature of the goddess. Among CUJUS NUMEN UNICUM, MULTIFORMI SPECIE, RITU VARIO, NOMINE MULTIJUGO, TO TUS VENERATUR ORBIS. Vid. Kircher. Edip. Egypt. tom. iii. pp. 98, 184, 221, 323, 504. Rom. 1654. Synt. 17. See the engravings in Kircker. Edip. Egypt. tom. iii. p. 502. Also tom. ii. pars 2. p. 259. "Pingitur leonino vultu, quod Sole in Leonem incrediente incrementa Nilotica seu inundationes contingant." Kircher, Edip. Egypt. tom. iii. p. 323. ***A beautiful colossal statue of this description is now in the British muscum. It was among the antiquities surrendered by the French, at the capitulation of Alexandria. + Plut. de Isid. et Osir. Kirch. Obel. Sallust Syntag. 4. cap. 4. Also as Luna, according to Plutarch (De Is. et Osir. c.43.), Isis bears the same de scription with regard to her double sex. "They call the moon," says he," Mother of the World, and think it has a double ser. Διὸ καὶ Μητέρα τὴν Σελήνην του Κόσμο καλοῦσι, καὶ φύσιν ἔχειν ἀρσενόθηλυν οἴονται. See the author's "Greek Marbles," p. 10. No. XII. S |