The valley and slopes are highly
cultivated with cereals, and plantations of mulberry-trees for the
support of silkworms; numerous caroub-trees throughout the district give
an agreeable and prosperous appearance. Although there is no actual
town, native dwellings are dotted over the face of the country for some
miles, ornamented by three churches, which present an air of
civilisation and prosperity. The inhabitants were, as usual, very
polite, and as Lady Baker and myself were sitting upon a rug beneath a
tree which we had selected for the evening's halt, and waiting for the
arrival of our camels, a crowd of women and children arrived with the
ugliest and most witch-like old hag that I have ever seen. This old
creature had brought fire and dried olive-leaves in a broken pot, with
which she immediately fumigated us by marching round several times, and
so manipulating her pot as to produce the largest volume of smoke. This
custom, which is so general throughout Cyprus, is supposed to avert the
evil-eye; but I imagine that it originated during a period when the
plague or some other fatal epidemic was prevalent in the island, and
fumigation was supposed to act as a preventative.
There is no medicinal property in the olive-leaf, but as the tree is
practically undying, I attribute the use of the leaves as incense to be
symbolically connected with the blessing of a long life expressed to a
welcomed guest.
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