Far away in the distance, is the town of Limasol, washed by the waters of its beautiful and rounded bay, behind this again a long line of coast, and then the eye just discerns the promontory of Curias, stretching its length far into the sea, where it terminates in Capo delle Gatte. Cesnola gives an amusing account of the origin of this name, which is too interesting to be omitted. “On one occasion,” he says, “my mule was terrified by a sudden leap from a bush, of what appeared to me to be a cat; my guide assured me that both at this cape, and near to Acrotiri, there are wild cats, which hunt and destroy the asps abounding there. I at once recollected having read that the ‘Caloyers’ of the convent of Acrotiri raised and trained a superior breed of cats, which they imported from Constantinople, to kill the asps in their neighbourhood. That at the tolling of a particular bell in the convent, these cats would come in to be fed twice a day, and then return to their work of destruction. I suppose that it is called Capo delle Gatte in reference to these cats.” When we had descended the mountain and were once more on the shore, I observed a number of black and half-black Egyptian sailors, all in rags, who were busily employed in carrying stones to their ships which were anchored in the roads. Their captain looked on, smoking his pipe, and shaded from the sun by a small tent. Stones from the oldest city in Cyprus, going over to Port Saïd, to help in the construction of the newest town on the opposite continent, near which a harbour is in course of construction, destined to receive the ships coming from every quarter of the globe; whilst here at my feet lay the ancient harbour of Amathus, of which nothing remains but its natural basin, formed by rocks which extend some distance into the sea. CHAPTER XXVIII. KARUBIEH AND MAZOTOS.