This
is not from any sense of indecent exposure, but from their absolute
dislike to the operation. I had subsequently in my service a remarkably
fine man who was always carefully dressed, and in fact was quite a dandy
in exterior, but during the hot weather when he on one occasion saw my
Abyssinian Amarn swimming in the sea, he declared that, "rather than
bathe, he would prefer to cut his throat."
I had arranged the camp close to a hawthorn-tree, which was already
green in its first spring leaves, and had formed blossom-buds that would
open in a few days. There were a considerable number of the same species
scattered in the vicinity, but they had been defaced by the mutilations
usual throughout Cyprus. If a man requires a stick or a piece of wood
for any purpose, he hacks unsparingly at the first tree; whether it
belongs to him or to another proprietor. The ground sloped gradually to
the lowest level of the hollow about four hundred yards distant, all of
which was in cultivation; the broad-beans were in blossom, and a species
of trefoil was already eight or nine inches high (22nd February); this
was in anticipation of a lack of natural pasturage.
It was pitiable to see the wretched condition of the cattle throughout
this district; the absence of rain had prevented the growth of the usual
herbaceous plants, and the animals were forced to seek unnatural food
produced in the stagnant swamps; these were full of skeletons and
carcasses of oxen, that afforded bones of contention for the numerous
village dogs who acted as scavengers.
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