The pears
and plums are of several varieties, some will ripen late, others are now
fit to gather, but nothing can be touched until the valuer shall arrive;
he is expected in ten days; by which time many of the plums will have
fallen to the ground, and the swarming rats will have eaten half the
pears. The shepherds' children and the various monastery boys live in
the boughs like monkeys, and devour the fruit ripe or unripe, from
morning till evening, with extraordinary impunity; women who arrive from
the low country with children to be christened place them upon the
ground, and climb the pear-trees; neither colic nor cholera is known in
this sanctified locality. The natives of the low country who arrive at
the monastery daily with their laden mules from villages upon the other
side of the mountains, en route to Limasol, immediately ascend the
attractive trees and feast upon the plums; at the same time they fill
their handkerchiefs and pockets with pears, &c., as food during their
return journey. "There will not be much trouble for the valuer when he
arrives," I remarked to the monks, "if you allow such wholesale robbery
of your orchards."
"On the contrary," they replied, "the difficulty will be increased; we
never sell the produce of the gardens, which is kept for the support of
all those who visit us, but we have much trouble with the valuation of
the fruits for taxation.
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