Heaps of rough crumbling rocks resembling cairns attracted my attention
on all sides; these were the rude lime-kilns, and at an elevation of
about a thousand feet above Kythrea we came upon the families of
lime-burners who for several generations have resided in these heights,
either in caves, or rude huts, according to the conditions of the
locality. Women and girls were hard at work with strong grubbing-axes,
digging out the roots of brushwood from among the rocks and making them
into faggots, as fuel for burning the grey limestone. The work was most
laborious, and I was struck by the great thickness of the roots of
comparatively small shrubs. Upon regarding the surface, no bushes
appeared sufficiently substantial for the use of fuel, but in fact a
they had for centuries been cut and hacked to a degree that reduced them
superficially to mere saplings, while the ancient roots had increased in
size. The great piles of limestone were only partially reduced to lime
by the rough method and the scant fuel employed, but I admired the
industry of these poor people, who were working like the Israelites for
Pharaoh, "making bricks without straw." Some of the girls were pretty,
but in figure they were mere rag-dolls in locomotion.
The lime was conveyed by donkeys to the lower country, and we presently
arrived at a snow-white heap lying in the centre of the path;--it was
explained, that, during the heavy shower of yesterday, a donkey was
carrying his usual burthen of quick-lime, when he was overtaken by the
rain, which slaked the load, and it was necessary to immediately abandon
it, to save the animal from burning.
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