Mrs Esme Scott-Stevenson

Over the next few weeks I would like to present some extracts from these important texts. You may not agree with the content or even some of the terminology used – but you would have to agree that these British travellers have provided us with a valuable resource like no other. As far as I’m concerned, these amazing individuals have helped to enrich our understanding about the past.

So to begin this journey, the following extract includes some of the observations made by Mrs Esme Scott-Stevenson in 1879 about the local people (or natives as she calls them). I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when I first read her book ‘Our Home in Cyprus’.

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Some of the servants are amongst the blackest I have seen and wear the gaudiest and brightest coloured clothes. They serve the highest class of Turks and receive no wages, receiving instead – food, shelter and their clothes. To all purposes they are slaves, for they never leave their masters and pass on their service from father to son. The masters they serve wear long fur-lined robes and white turbans and resemble a cast straight out of The Arabian Nights. There are of course Turks who prefer to wear a more European-style costume consisting of a longer coat and a red fez. Their women look ridiculous in their French boots and shrouded from head to toe in a white sheet with a small hole exposing a single eye peering out.

The Greek women with the unbecoming way of arranging their hair with a hideous gauze handkerchief and wearing fashion of twenty years ago with much fullness around already abundant hips were in stark contrast to the picturesque-looking men. As a rule the Greek men are tall and finely made and have a certain grace about them. Their brigand costume greatly enhances their appearance. Although fierce to look at, they are the most courteous of fellows.

The dress of the peasants in the village of Lapithos is picturesque and certainly most becoming to young women. They wear yellow and crimson shoes, short white socks, loose white trousers that are fastened at the ankles, a skirt of bright cotton and a richly embroidered bodice (generally in velvet) which is cut in a low square on the bosom and covered in a transparent piece of muslin. The young women wear many glass bangles on their arms. Bangles are a specialty of Cyprus; all the natives wear them, from the baby to the great-grandmother. They are real bangles, all sizes and colours, some rough and some smooth, but made entirely of glass. On their heads they wear a silk handkerchief tightly fastened across the top and holding back two long plaits of hair. Also fastened to their hair are bunches of jasmine and sweet=scented geranium flowers. Many of the girls have splendid dark eyes with dark lines of khol painted around the rims. Kohl is an ancient eye cosmetic, traditionally made by grinding the mineral stibnite. Even the babies wear khol eyeliner as supposedly, this keeps the eyes cool and preserves them from the attacks of fleas.

Most of the women who lived in the rural areas had never laid sight on an English lady in European costume. Many had never left their village, except perhaps to visit some fair.

It was interesting to note that many locals revered the Royal photographs that were presented to them by the English. The Princess of Wales was a particular favourite. Many locals were often seen kissing her portrait the way they would kiss the icon of a saint in church.

Cypriots have a love of flowers. Every child you may meet on the roadside has a bouquet of flowers to offer you; even the poorest girl may wear a little bunch in her hair. In fact, on fete days, men and women alike cover themselves with flowers.

Apart from the pleasing climate, Cyprus has the most grateful, docile subjects ever possessed by the British crown. All the Cypriots want is to be advised and led – and surely England can afford to do this much.

The Cypriot, like other Turkish and indeed most Oriental villages, is under the charge of a head-man, called a Mukhtar who is assisted by a Council consisting of three or more members belonging to the village. In larger villagers there may be two Mukhtars (usually one Christian and the other Moslem) or simply Greek and Turk. The primary task of the Mukhtar is to collect taxes on behalf of the Government as well as keeping records of the number of inhabitants, the administration of property and providing for the entertainment and safety of strangers. The Mukhtar however has no voice in police or matters of general policy. Whenever a stranger or traveller arrives in a village they are immediately presented to the Mukhtar who is supposed to provide refreshment and if required, lodgings for the night. This is a difficult proposition as many Mukhtars are quite poor and cannot ask for payment. It is therefore advised that a would-be traveller should insist on paying the Mukhtar for services provided.

When the British first arrived in Cyprus it was noted that the local police force were wearing a uniform that looked ragged and old and a sorry remnant of the old Turkish uniform served out to them a dozen years earlier. The new uniform issued to the men was composed of Lincoln green cloth, braided with red, baggy trousers, and a short jacket all to match, while at the waist, knees and ankles, the snow-white undergarments were allowed to protrude. A crimson fez was worn for the head-gear. Some of the Greeks objected to wearing a white turban round their fez, declaring that it turned them into Turks. The commissioner responded with ‘wear it or be dismissed.’ In fact, the Greeks turned out unsatisfactory to form part of the policing force on the island. They were found by the British officers to be utterly incapable of learning their drill and were of such dirty habits, and so entirely without an idea of discipline or respect for their officers. The majority of zaptiehs (police) were therefore Muslims. In stark contrast to the Greeks, the Turks are regarded as fine, brave, obedient fellows who are most loyal and devoted to their commanders.

Many of the zaptiehs come from Asia Minor where probably they were brigands (a gang member). Some of them still retain their curious old guns and daggers, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and Damascene work. In becoming zaptiehs, they seemed to lay aside all bad practices from their past.

The Cypriots are a people not easily governed because there exists at present, three distinct nationalities, each equally jealous of one another.

The British commanding officers have decidedly concluded that the Greek portion of the population is not to be trusted. As one Commissioner once stated, “they dislike us and the Turks equally, are discontented and treacherous, are fond of secret societies and generally employ craft and deceit to gain their ends.” But these remarks apply only to the so-called educated Greek.

Certain educated Christians of the well-to-do classes have tried without much success to create a feeling in the island in favour of union with Greece. They are encouraged in this foolish agitation by Greek professors and Athenian agitators who look upon the Cypriot Christian and a brother Hellene. They tell him he is as much oppressed under the English rule as under the Ottoman rule and generally endeavour to make him as discontented and disloyal as possible. At the centre of this feeling is a society named ‘The Cypriot Brotherhood’ which headquarters at Alexandria and with branches at Larnaca, Limassol and Nicosia.

The Cypriot himself, whether Muslim or Christian is a quiet, docile creature, most hospitable to strangers and giving with an ungrudging hand the best fare and accommodation his house may possess. The genuine natives are devoted to their homes and villages and will not leave them even for the highest amount of money. This carelessness about money is the most curious feature of their character. If they have sufficient food to support life, then they do not have the slightest wish to gain more by trade.

The fondness for their children, especially by the fathers is very touching. Not only do they share all their property amongst them when grown up but they will also shield them from disgrace at personal risk to themselves.

Although some of the Greeks have large families, it is rare to find a Muslim with more than four children. If asked, he will say he is too poor to have many children and it is to be feared that ‘infanticide’ is a common practice in Cyprus.

Every Friday in Kyrenia – the Moslem (Muslim) Sunday, the local Turkish women could be observed squatting under trees, their faces carefully covered by a ‘yashmak’ or white veil. Their bodies are completely covered from head to foot with only their dark eyes being the only part of them visible. The finer Turkish ladies would bring their handmaidens with them, who would sit at their feet and roll their cigarettes. Tin pots of jam would be served on wicker trays along with little cups of Turkish coffee.

On Sundays the Greek ladies would wander about. It is noted that many of the Cypriot women, after turning twenty in age became so fat as to be almost shapeless. The contrast between the Christian and Moslem (Muslim) women is very striking. The Greeks in their gaudy attire look vulgar side by side with their Turkish sisters.

There were great beauties sighted in Cyprus such as a young village girl named Tispharie who was regarded as the belle of her village. She was only twelve but looked about eighteen with a sweet, but sad, faraway look in her wonderful eyes; such eyes! – Jacinth-coloured, that looked all pupil, like those of a deer, with long lashes that curled half an inch upwards and pencilled eyebrows in a straight line across the forehead. Her skin was perfection, as white as snow and as smooth as satin, but still not unhealthy looking. Her nose, pure Grecian like that of some ancient statue. Her delicate little mouth with scarlet lips drooping ever so slightly at the corners gave her a melancholy and dreamy expression.

In Kyrenia, a slim little creature that might have been eight or fourteen in age wearing a garment so poor consisting of a loose tattered robe of a golden yellow colour fastened around the waist by a piece of string. Poor as she was she was still able to afford some henna dye for the nails on her hands and toes on her bare feet. The skin of this child, although originally fair was burnt to a faint brown, like a soft warm gipsy-like colour. Her eyes were her great charm – large wide-open orbs, of the truest blue colour. On her head she wore a white coarse linen veil fastened squarely across the forehead. She was the child of Turkish parents who used to work in the fields all day. Thus it came about that she had unusual freedom for a Muslim girl. She was often seen skipping alone by the roadside or tripping along to the beach. Sometimes she was observed looking wistfully at the neighbourhood boys but would never dare to join them or talk to them. Indeed the two sexes on the island never seem to consort with one another as they do in England. In fact, it is very rare to see little girls running about freely as this privilege is apparently only reserved for the boys.

There is no religious fanaticism in Cyprus. The Greeks, Turks, Catholics and Maronites all live amicably together. Of the latter, there is only about two thousand left. They came over from Syria and Mount Lebanon in great numbers during the Lusignan period but have gradually diminished in numbers.

The Greek priests on the island, as a rule are regarded as the most grossly ignorant lot. Most can neither read nor write; and certainly their dirty appearance, with the raggedness of their clothes is most repulsive. In fact, the richest amongst them, the priests and monks of Kykkou (Kykkos Monastery) are amongst the dirtiest of all.

Many of the mud-roofed homes to be found in Cyprus become green in the spring, roof gardens – full of iris and anemones grown from seeds sown by the birds and the wind. As the sun dries up the vegetation and the flowers wither, the inhabitants set fire to the roofs, which they declare prevents them from letting in the rain during the winter. After the fire has burnt itself out, the roofs are well soaked with water and flattened by a wooden roller.

Many of the mothers observed by the author seemed too young to have babies while other mothers again seemed much more like grand mothers. Mothers in Cyprus generally seem to nurse their young to a far later age than is usual in England. In one case, a young girl, evidently around five or six was seen standing and receiving breast milk at the same time as a baby sibling. The women appear to have no modesty. In England, their dress would be considered very indecent. Amongst the Greeks, it is the custom to leave the gown open over the chest, often as far down as the waist.