Cyprus, as I Saw It in 1879Baker, Samuel White, Sir
History
Cyprus, as I Saw It in 1879
Baker, Samuel White, Sir
Cyprus -- Description and travel
By the time we had completed our permanent camp a certain degree of
improvement had taken place in the people, as well as in the actual
cleanliness of the locality. Everybody washed his, or her, face and
hands. The customs of the monks had so far reformed that the immediate
neighbourhood was no longer offensive. When strangers with mules arrived
the road was immediately swept, and upon Saturday evenings a general
embellishment took place in honour of the approaching Sunday. The young
clergy were remarkably good and active; they worked in my little garden
at a shilling a day, went on errands to Platraes and the camp at
Troodos, and made themselves generally useful for a most moderate
consideration. I can strongly recommend all young curates who are
waiting in vain for livings to come and work upon the holy soil of
Trooditissa at one shilling per diem; and should they (as curates
frequently are) be poor in this world's goods, but nevertheless strong
in amorous propensities, and accordingly desirous of matrimony, they
will find a refuge within the walls of this monastery from all the
temptations of the outer world, far from garden-parties, balls, picnics,
church-decorations assisted by young ladies, and all those snares of the
Evil One; and the wholesome diet of the monks, including a course of
soaked broad-beans and barley bread, with repeated fastings upon
innumerable saints' days, will affect them sensibly, both morally and
physically; under this discipline they will come to the conclusion that
a wife and large family upon an income of 500 pounds a year in England
would not confer the same happiness as one shilling a day with the
pickaxe, broad-beans and independence, at Trooditissa, which is true
"muscular Christianity."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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