CYPRUS. 10 
for ten or twelve years, it requires a slight chap. 
degree of fermentation upon exposure to the air; 
and this, added to its sweetness and high colour, 
causes it to resemble Tohay more than any other 
wine : but the Cypriots do not drink it in this 
state; it is preserved by them in casks, to which 
the air has constantly access, and will keep in 
this manner for any number of years. After it 
has withstood the vicissitude of the seasons for 
a single year, it is supposed to have passed the 
requisite proof, and then it sells for three 
Turkish piastres the gooze ' . Afterwards, the price 
augments in proportion to its age. We tasted 
some of the Commandefia, which they said was 
forty years old, although still in the cask. After 
this period it is considered as a balm, and 
reserved on the account of its supposed restora- 
tive and healing quality for the sick and dying. 
A greater proof of its strength cannot be given, 
than by relating the manner in which it is kept ; 
in casks neither filled nor closed. A piece of 
sheet lead is merely laid over the bung-hole ; 
and this is removed almost every day, when 
customers visit their cellars to taste the diiferent 
sorts of wine proposed for sale. Upon these 
occasions, taking the covering from the bung- 
(l) About twenty-one pints. The value of t\\e.'ir piastre varies conti- 
nually. It was worth about twenty-pence, when we were in Turkey. 
VOL. IV. C 
