A CYPRIOT INNKEEPER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5475, 14 October 1878, Page 3

A CYPRIOT INNKEEPER.

(From the Pall Mall Gazette.) It is easy to imagine the state of mind into which the cheerful but impecunious Cypriots have been thrown by the hoisting of the British flag in their midst. That imposing symbol must bear to' the reflective among them many a fair promise for the fulfilment of which they have been long sighing. Patriotism has always burned strongly in the bosom of the Cyprian Greeks, who form the majority of the population, and who used, with the glowing verbiage peculiar to their nation,’ to dazzle all travellers with a vision of what their island might become if properly administered. At Laroaca, on the east coast, where the consuls and principal merchants live, there used to flourish some years ago—and possibly he is iu the flesh still—air innkeeper named Yassilopoulos, who, being most learned in the legehclry of Cypaus, took all strangers under his kind protection. To his house resorted the merchants who brought British goods from Beyrout, and took away with them salt, pitch, tobacco, and timber; aud also the ships’ captains from Trieste and Leghorn who traded in olive oil and the sweet, syrupy wine of the island. But to the lively Vaasiloponlos nothing was so delightful as to receive the visit of a tourist who had plenty of time on his hands,-with some little Crash, and no thoughts of doing business. To such, whether they cable in yachts of their own, intent upon sport rather than archeology, or in the Beyrout packets with sketch-books ;and easels among their luggage, the Greek inukeeper was proud to do the honors of an island which seemed to be all his own from the love he boro it. He was the most hospitable of men, aud his hostelry, but for the fleas which campaigned there during the summer months, would have been the most desirable of residences. A verandah overgrown with roses ran along the whole length of it in front, and a spacious courtyard with cool plashing fountain greeted you : as you passed through tho wide doorway, where a few Greek boys, whose costumes had not much troubled the Bewingraachincs,hungabout to beg errands. In a room downstairs, which smelt of tar and tobacco,the captains of merchant boats held a sort of local Bourse with local vintners and corn-growers, who screamed at-the top of their voices as they tried to overreach one another like good Christians ; bub a nobler chamber upstairs was for visitors of distinction who came merely to spend money. Here through tho open windows, shaded with pink and white awnings, agladaomo view could be had iuland of palms and mulberry trees mingling with the gilt minarets of mosques; while seaward the waters on which fishing smacks were gliding shone with shifty hues of pale green or turquoise bine. There'was no resisting the influence of this spectacle as‘you sat discussing a dish of the Lake Citti dabfish stewed with tomatoes ; and no believing in'the decadence of Cyprus when Vaaailopoulous, who had shaved himself and put on a clean fustanelle in your houor, poured! you out a glass of the topaz Baffo wine which ho had set to cool deep down in a well frigid as ice. Cyprus seemed then an island of unlimited possibilities ; and so it was. One of the- first' things Vassilopouloa used , to toll you in his purring voice, rendered gracious by an exquisite smile, was that if any British capitalist would buy the island ho would find it well worth his while. He maintained that every inch of ground in tho place could bo had for £200,000, and he was sure it might yield moro than double that sum per annum. He had heard tourists talk more than once of investing capital in the vineyards, and some:of them had occasionally come to settle in the island fora.few weeks; but tho exactions of the vali who lived at Nicosia'uaed to drive them off. Vassilopouloa gave the vali a most despicable character; aud this sedate Turkish gentleman seemed to have an equally bad opinion of Vasailopmilos.and of the latter’s countrymen, individually and collectively, alleging that it was they ,who scared strangers from Cyprus. A foreigner in the course of a few days’ sojourn, had no,time to see into the rights and wrongs of this., dispute ; for if the! Governor appeared the moat benign of men/so did; the Greek. innkeeper,'.’ who charged you about two, shillings a H day for most hospitable entertainment. /. ••• ; L ‘- But Vassilopbulos gave you something moro than board aud lodging for, your money. He and his two sun-baked sous, Dimitri and Pericles, owned a whole stud of yellow [donkeys,'most suitable for sightseeing excursions or shooting parties to the bills.; and Vassilopoulos was always ready;,to leave, hia inn in charge of hia‘stout, blackbyed wifoZareh, and to accompany you on a rumble through the ~ island. It took about a day’s journey on one of those yellow quadrupeds to reach the ruins ■of Paphos (Buffo); but with the Greek publican ambling in front and disbursing about * Pausauma and tho Byzantine Empire the time seemed shorter, Vassilopoulos wove the fez and (when riding) baggy-buff trousers, and.he earned ft white parasol over hia shoulder. When hia donkey did hot trot' fast-Chough, or swerved to got, a sniff of tho largo figs

which grow wild- by the roadside, Vassilopoulos would close his parasol aud useit as a whip with such effect that tho donkey would suddenly stretch out InVtail like a ; finger-post aud take to his heels ; whereupon Dimitri and Pericles would charge hallooing after their parent fco rCscue 1 him from destruction among pitfalls or rose brambles. The roads in Cyprus are wretched, and when you have reached Bnffd there is not much’to see there unless fancy aids you! Whether the two lonic columns standing upright in a field of parched grass surrounded by.boulders'of pink marble be really the ruins of the temple of Venus, or fragments of a. building reared during the Bzyantiue domination, it is difficult to say. Vassilopouloa was of course ready to show you the site of the grove where the Aphrodian mysteries were celebrated ; 'and was 1 disposed r to babble' 5 about virgins and doves,’ until Dimitri/who looked after.the wines, tugged at him for a corkscrew, while Pericles, who held, the frying-pan aud was cooking oysters over a fire ofthorns, screamed to’ask his advice about the modicum of pepper suited to 'English, tastes. While' the tourist ; was! preparing to picnic, crowds of beggars, naked children, and old .women .with, crutches would hurry up to 801 l relics In 1 the shape of little sculpturedknobs filched from alti-relievi; and sometimes half a dozen children wpiild roll up between them, like'a largo snowball, some!very! big head of a statue recently , disinterred from the sand, and looking, none the better as regards its nose and ears for its long sojourn under ground. AU these offers of relics, more or le-is apocryphal,- being , nothing but bids for backsheesh, Vassilopoulos used always to clear the ground by a generous scattering of copper money, amounting to something like tenpence, in half-farthings.//But when the beggars:and the old women had hobbled off, the undressed children used to dinger," hiding among the mine, to pick up the fragments of the,luncheon, over which they would fight hungrily as young dogs; or, if invited, they would come forth and dance to the sounds of their own shrill singing, or indulge in 'a bout of wrestling. Vassilopouloa used proudly to call these exploits remnants of the Pyrrhic dance aud of the ’Olympian sports; and it was best not to seek to disabuse his mind, for he was fcoogodda fellow to be contradicted.