ATTICA. 



143 



as they call it, taken from the intestines of a lamb. The curd is 

 separated from the whey, put into a form, and pressed ; some salt is 

 then sprinkled upon it. The cheeses will continue sound for five 

 years. To make the butter, they take the whey separated from the 

 curd which was used in making the cheese ; this is mixed with a 

 large quantity of milk, then scalded over the fire. The cream which 

 rises is skimmed off, and beat or pressed in a large copper boiler, with 

 the feet. The scalded cream is called Kaimak. * 



The first year the calf is called uorxupt, the female ^off-^ira; the male 

 the second year is $a>pctXi<;, which name it retains until the fourth year, 

 when it is called @6ji ; the bull is rau^og. Only those oxen are killed 

 which are unfit for labour ; the number may amount in the year to 

 about 200. The labouring oxen are computed at 3000. The num- 

 ber of cows is something less ; they are not milked, but kept only for 

 breeding. In winter they are fed on straw. A good cow is worth 

 12 piastres ; calves are rarely killed, f Four or eight oxen are suffi- 

 cient for 100 stremata of land, according to the nature of the soil, 

 whether it be light or heavy. They are kept out during the summer; 

 in the winter they are put into the stalls, until the 10th of March. 

 A good ox, at six years old, is worth 50 piastres. 



Oct. 15. 1794. — At the Piraeus, while I was collecting the seeds of 

 some plants, the Haliaetos shot down with wonderful velocity, and 

 seizing a fish, carried it in its talons high in the air, devouring it in 

 its flight. The halcyon flew across the bay, and the sea-lark ran 

 along the wet beach. The ground rose with a gentle ascent on a 

 free-stone rock ; the rough lands which followed were covered with 

 Hedysarum^: Alhagi, Passerina Hirsuta, and a beautiful species of 



especially in the summer season, they turn the milk with the flowers of the great-headed 

 thistle, or wild artichoke. — E. 



* Kaimak is the word used in all parts of the Levant. The Arabic receipt for making 

 it is given in a translation in Russell's Aleppo, i. 370. 



f Veal is seldom brought to the table in any part of Turkey. Beef is sometimes killed 

 for the market. In Syria the flesh of the buffalo is occasionally eaten. 



t ^ is u P on this plant that manna is found in Mesopotamia. — Russell's Aleppo, ii. 259. 



