no part of the world where the vine yields such redundant CHAP. X. and luseious fruit. The juice of the Cyprian grape resem

bles a concentrated essence. The wine of the island is so Wine of

famous all over the Levant, that, in the hyperbolical lan- Cyprus. guage 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, however, 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 other wine. This, however, is not the state wherein the inhabitants 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 piasters the gooze(292.) Afterwards, 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 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 bung-hole, they dip a hollow cane or reed into the liquor, 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 afterwards they retain the colour of Madeira. Cyprus produces also red wines; but these are

CHAP. X. little esteemed, and used only as weak liquors for the table, answering to the ordinary "Vin da 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.

Wretched
Condition of

This island, that had so highly excited, amply gratified, the Country. 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 fruit 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 neglected-inhabitants oppressed-popu- 1 lation destroyed-pestiferous air-contagion-poverty

Phoenician
Idols.

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 Phœnician reliques upon the island are most likely to obtain notice, and these have hitherto been unregarded. The inhabitants of Larneca rarely dig near their town without discovering either the traces of antient buildings, subterranean chambers, or sepulchres (293). Not long before.. our arrival, the English Consul, Signior Peristiani, a Venetian, dug up, in one place, above thirty idols belonging to the most antient mythology of the heathen world. Their origin refers to a period long anterior to the conquest of Cyprus by the Ptolemies, 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, CHAP. X. very antient representations of the most popular Divinity Nature of the of the island, the PAMTAMORPHA MATER; more fre- Cyprian quently represented as Ceres than as Venus, (notwith- Venus. standing 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 author 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 (294,) and Astarte, "daughter of Heaven," by the Phoenicians (295), whether under the name of Urania, Juno, or Isis, was also the Ceres of Eleusis. Having in a former publication (296), pointed out their connexion, and their common reference to a single principle 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 sysbols of the Eleusinian Ceres were also employed as the most antient types of the Cyprian Venus (297). A very consid erable 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 adrogynous 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 him for the task of exploring every source, whence indisputable testimony might be derived, touching their hidden meaning. According to the different authorities he has cited (298), the Momphta, or type of humid nature (299) (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 (300). Either of these

Antient
Gems.

CHAP. X. symbols separately denoting 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 (301). Hence we sometimes see the Momphta expressed by a sitting image with the lion's head (302). Plutarch gives to Isis the epithet Momphtæan (303). Her double sex is alluded to by Orpheus, who describes her as at once father and mother of all things (304). By the figures of Anubis, Isis was again typified as the Hecate of the Greeks. It is a symbol frequently placed upon their sepulchral monuments (305); and was otherwise represented by the image Cerberus, with three heads, or with fity, as allusion is intended either to the Diva triformis, or to the pantamorphic nature of the Goddess. Among the gems found inCyprus,we noticed intagliated scarabaei with similar symbols; and obtained one whereon Isis was exhibited holding the quadruped, precisely according to the appearance presented by the statue discovered at Larneca. Since these antiquities were found, the inhabitants have also dug up a number of stone coffins, of an oblong rectangular form. Each of these, with the exception of its cover, is of an entire mass of stone. One of them contained a small vase of terra cotta, of the radest workmanship, destitute of any glazing or varnish (306). Several intaglios were also discovered, and brought to us for sale. We found it more difficult to obtain antient gems in Larneca than in the interior of the island, owing to the exorbitant prices set upon them. At Nicotia, the goldsmiths part with such antiquities for a few paras. The people of Larneca are more accustomed to intercourse with strangers, and expect to make a harvest in their coming. Among the ring stones we left in that town, was a beautful intaglio representing Cupid whipping a butterfly; a common method, among antient lapidaries, of typifying the power of love over the soul. Also an onyx, which there is every reason to believe one of the Ptolemies had used as a signet. It contained a very curious monogram, expressing all the letters of the word IITOA EMA JOY, according to the manner here represented :

Signet Rings.

The use of such instruments for signature is recorded in the books of Moses, seventeen hundred years before the Christian æra; and the practice has continued in Eastern countries, with little variation, to the present day. The signets of the Turks are of this kind. The Romans, Greeks and Egyptains, had the same custom: indeed, almost all the antient intaglios were so employed. In the thirty-eighth chapter of Genesis, it is related that Tamar demanded the signet of Judah; and above three thousand years have passed since the great lawgiver of the Jews was directed(307) to engrave the names of the children of Israel upon onyx-stones, "like the engravings of a signet; "that is to say, (if we may presume to illustrate a text so sacred, with reference to a custom still universally extant,) by a series of monograms, graven as intagos, "to be set in "ouches of gold, for the shoulders of the ephod." That the signet was of stone, set in metal in the time of Moses, is also clear from this passage of Sacred History: "With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones. Thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold." Signets without stones, and entirely of metal, did not come into use, according to Pliny (308), until the time of Claudius Cæsar. The most antient intaglios of Egypt were graven upon stones, having the form of scarabæi (309). This kind of Signet was also used by the Phoenicians, as will further appear. The characters upon them are therefore in hieroglyphical writing, Phoenician letters, or later monagrams derived from the Greek Alphabet. Alexander at the point of death, gave his signet to Perdiccas (310), and Laodice, mother of Seleucus, the founder of the Syro Macedonian empire, in an age when women profiting by the easy credulity of their husbands, apologized for an act of infidelity by

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