CYPRUS. 
213 
Having dapped Ills hands, % a swarm of attendants, most.mag¬ 
nificently habited, came into the room, bearing glided goblets 
filled with lemonade and sorbet, which they presented to us* 
A high priest of the dervishes then entered, and prostrated 
himself before the governor, touching his lips with his fingers, 
crossing his hands upon his breast, and raising his thumbs af¬ 
terward to his ears. All these marks of reverence ended, he 
rose and took his station upon the divan, on the left side of 
the governor* Next came a fresh party of slaves, bringing 
long pipes of jasmine wood with amber heads, to all the party ; 
these were suddenly followed by another host of myrmidons in 
long white vests, having white turbans on their heads, who 
covered us with magnificeut cloths of sky-blue silk, spangled 
and embroidered with gold. They also presented to us pre» 
served fruits and other sweetmeats; snatching away the em¬ 
broidered cloths, to cover us again with others of white satin* 
still more sumptuous than before. Then they brought coffee 5 
in gold cups studded with diamonds; and the cloths were 
once more taken away. After this, there came slaves kneel¬ 
ing before us with burning odours in silver censers, which they 
held beneath our nose^; and finally, a man, passing rapidly 
round, spattered all our faces, hands, and clothes, with rose¬ 
water; a compliment so little expected at the time, and so 
zealously administered, that we began to wipe from our face 
and eyes the honours which had almost blinded us. The 
principal dragoman belonging to the governor next presented 
each of us with an embroidered handkerchief; “ gifts*” he 
said, “ by which infidels of rank were always distinguished in 
their interviews with his master.” The handkerchief consist¬ 
ed of embroidered muslin, and was enclosed in a piece of red 
crape. These presents we in vain solicited permission to de¬ 
cline ; adding, that “ as private individuals, meanly habited, in 
the view of travelling expeditiously through the island, we 
hoped he would not form his ideas of Englishmen of rank 
either from our appearance or pretensions.” Upon further 
conversation, we found that all intercourse with Balia and 
the western side of the island was cut off by the plague, which 
had begun to show itself even in the neighbourhood of Ni- 
cotia: we therefore resolved to return to our more humble 
host in the village of Attien the same night; when, to our 
great surprise, the governor requested that we would spend a 
* This method of summoning slaves to the presence of their master is common alt' 
the Turkish empire. 
