THE LADIES OF CYPRUS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5465, 2 October 1878, Page 3

THE LADIES OF CYPRUS.

Next to inquiring what are the natural features of his new territory, the modern Briton exercises his mind on the great question of what are the ladies like ? The Pull Hall shall reply; “The Cyprian woman is a curious compound of fascinations and oddities. Seen at her best, on one of those innumerable saints' days when she doe* not work beyond tricking herself out in fine clothes, and assisting her mother to dispense hospitality, she looks like a masquerade heroine, whatever her station. She weaves up her hair with gold coins, twists it, plaits it, aud contrives, with a red and yellow kerchief, a head-dress, which looks like a turban, but is made, top heavy by being surmounted with an embroidered muffin cap and tassel- She wears baggy- breeches, sky blue or pink, which descend to the knee, the rest of the legs and feet being bare, except when, to honor company, she reluctantly dons a pair of cabouches, in which she feels uncomfortable. She is generally fat, and wears a short jacket, profusely braided, which does not reach to her waist; she rouges aud whitens her creamy complexion till it looks like the face of a wax imago; aud paints her eyebrows deep black, aud, by some cunning pencil touches at the corners of her eyes, contrives to piake them twice their size. Then she feels happy, and giggles when complimented. She cannot road or write, but she can sing, play on a triangular guitar, and spin round in a fantastic dance, which takes her breath away, and makes her cry * Hoo !’ while the stranger who watches her turns giddy from sympathy. . . . On ‘working days the Cyprian girl dresses loosely in cotton breeches and chemise, and lets her hair fall down her back, tying it just below the neck with a string of beads. She is surprisingly active, despite her plumpness, and races about after goats, pigs, aud fowls with a ness which would do credit to a boy. If of a marriageable age, she will not beg, but at sight of a stranger halloos to her younger sisters to come forth and claim backsheesh, the ‘ which having been duly obtained (for those little Greeks are wonderful coaxers), she levies her shave, which is expended iu buying finery off tho pedlar.”