190 
clarke’s travels. 
Ni'cotia, the capital. The apricots of Larneca are also fine, and 
may be purchased in the market at the small price of three 
shillings the bushel. Many different varieties of the gourd, or 
pumpkin, are used in Cyprus for vegetables at table. The 
young fruit is boiled, after being stuffed with rice. We found 
it refreshing and pleasant, partaking at the same time the fla¬ 
vour of asparagus and artichoke. We noticed also the beet 
root, melons, cucumbers, and a very insipid kind of mulberry 
of a white colour. The corn of the island, wherever the inha¬ 
bitants have courage or industry enough to venture on the 
cultivation of the land, in despite of their Turkish oppressors, 
and the dangersof the climate, is of the finest quality. The 
wheat, although bearded, is very large, aud the bread made 
from it extremely white and good. Perhaps there is no part 
of the w orld where the vine yields such redundant and luscious 
fruit. The juice of the Cyprian grape resembles a concentrated 
essence. The wine of the island is so famous all over the Le¬ 
vant, that, in the hyperbolical language of the Greeks, it is said 
to possess the power of restoring youth to age, and animation 
to those w ? ho are at the point of death, Englishmen, how¬ 
ever, do not consider it a favourite beverage, as it requires 
nearly a century of age to deprive it of that sickly sweetness 
which renders it repugnant to their palates. Its powerful 
aperient quality is also not likely to recommend it, w here wine 
is drunk in any considerable quantity, as it sometimes causes a 
disorder of the bowels, even after being kept for many years. 
When it has been in bottles for ten or twelve years, it acquires 
a slight degree of effervescence ; and this, added to its sweet¬ 
ness and high colour, causes it to resemble Tokay more than 
any other wine. This, however, is not the state wherein the inhab¬ 
itants of Cyprus drink their wine. 11 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 
changes of a single year, it is supposed to have passed the re¬ 
quisite proof, and then it sells for three Turkish piastres the 
goozeA Afterward, the price augments in proportion to its 
age. We tasted some of the - commanderi'a ?"which they said 
was forty years old, and was still in the cask. After this period 
it is considered quite as a balm, and reserved, on account of its 
supposed restorative and healing quality, for the sick and the 
>* About twenty-one pints. The value of the piastre varies continually. It was 
worth about twenty pence when we were in Turkey. 
