CYPRUS INTERLUDE 



somewhat different from that which the villagers had given to 

 the two surveyors. He had been showered with stones and abuse, 

 for it was known that he had come to assess the tobacco crop and 

 it was further rumoured that he had invented a machine for ex- 

 tracting small pebbles and other dross from the wheat crop before 

 it was weighed by the government buyers. But such a reception 

 was only that which he had come to expect and he accepted it 

 as a normal part of the Customs officer's life. 



For many days a haze lay across the waters dividing Cyprus 

 from Turkey and there was nothing to do but sit in the beautiful 

 garden at the police station which had won first prize in an island- 

 wide contest the previous year. It was tended by a man who was 

 under open arrest and awaiting trial for stealing some poles. The 

 local chief of police prayed that the garden judges would reach 

 Rizo-Karpaso before the visiting magistrate. 



The mist did not lift, so the little party decided to move 

 westward and the village turned out to see them on their way. 

 They were made to promise that they would send a message if 

 they were returning so that a sucking pig could be prepared for 

 the occasion. They travelled to Yialousa and then on to Acanthou. 

 There is no police station at the latter place, which has a very 

 great and magnificent church to which pilgrims come from all 

 over the island. The surveyors spent the night in the pilgrim's 

 rest-house in company with a host of bed-bugs. Next day, with 

 little hope of visibility increasing over the sea and with a longing 

 now for comfortable, uninhabited beds, they journeyed on to 

 Kyrenia and moved into Catselli's luxurious Dome Hotel, the 

 bedroom windows of which look conveniently out towards the 

 Turkish mountains. 



A slight improvement in the weather a day or so later en- 

 couraged the General and Geoff to take to the mountains once 

 more, and after a brief visit to Nicosia to buy more stamps for 

 the letters, and send a message to Rizo-Karpaso that they were 

 on their way, they motored on with the certain assurance that 

 they would have sucking pig for supper. 



Unlike Gordon's many letters, the telegram failed to reach its 

 destination and the villagers stared in consternation as the two 

 dusty travellers drove unannounced into the village square. The 

 lack of the sucking pig must be made up for with wine, and the 



