20 CYPRUS. 
CHAP, hole, they dip a hollow cane or reed into the 
^ /- ' liquor, and by suction drawing some of it, let it 
run from the reed into a glass. Both the Com- 
mander'ia and the Muscad are white wines. When 
quite new, they have a slight tinge of a violet 
colour; but age soon removes this, and after- 
wards they retain the colour of Madeira. Cyprus 
produces also red wines ; but these are little 
esteemed, and they are used only as weak 
liquors for the table, answering to the ordinary 
" Vin du Pays" of France. If the inhabitants 
were industrious, and capable of turning their 
vintage to the best account, the red wine of the 
island might be rendered as famous as the ivhite; 
and perhaps better calculated for exportation. 
It has the flavour of Tenedos; resembling that 
wine in colour and in strength: and good Tenedos 
not only excels every other wine of Greece, but 
perhaps has no where its equal in Europe. 
Wretdied This islaud, that had so highly excited, 
of the amply gratified our curiosity, by its most inter- 
"""^ '^' esting antiquities ; although there be nothing in 
its present state pleasing to the eye. Instead of 
a beautiful and fertile land, covered with groves 
of fruit and fine woods, once rendering it the 
Paradise of the Levant, there is hardly upon earth 
a more wretched spot than Cyprus now exhibits. 
A few words may convey all the statistical 
