traveller with scant time at his disposal, to follow the exact configuration of this temple of Apollo and its courts, nor indeed if he knew them, would these details be of any great assistance to the imagination. Everywhere are tumbled stones, shattered pillars, some of them elegantly wreathed, overthrown altars and cavernous holes, in the depths of which underground cisterns and passages become visible. In short the cult of the worship of Apollo and his brother and sister divinities—always excepting that of Venus who is immortal-is not more ruined, neglected, and forlorn than this unvisited place, once its splendid sanctuary. Apollo was a joyous god, but evidently he had his stern side. At any rate not far away a headland runs out into the sea, and from its precipitous bluff those who had offended against his majesty or had differences of opinion with his priests— were hurled to expiate their crimes by a terrifying death. At least so says tradition.

Leaving the temple of the lost Apollo our animals scrambled on through the stones till at last these ceased and we came to a stretch of bush-clad country. This is now one of the Government reserves kept thus to enable the timber of which the Turks denuded the island to spring up again safe from the ravages of man and beast. In such reserves goats are not allowed to graze, for of all animals these do the most damage to young timber, which they gnaw persistently until it perishes. It is not too much to say that where there are many goats no forest can arise. Cyprus in bygone ages was a densely wooded land. Strabo, writing in the first year of the Christian era, says of it:

"Such then is Cyprus in point of position. But in excellence it falls behind no one of the islands, for it is rich in wine and oil and uses home-grown wheat. There are mines of copper in plenty at Tamassos, in which are produced sulphate of copper and copper-rust, useful in the healing art. Eratosthenes talks of the plains as being formerly full of wood run to riot, choked

in fact with undergrowth and uncultivated. The mines were here of some little service, the trees being cut down for the melting of copper and silver; and of further help was shipbuilding, when men sailed over the sea without fear and with large fleets. But when even so they were not got under, leave was given to those who would and could cut them down to keep the land they had cleared in full possession and free of taxes."

Alas! far different is the case to-day. The Turks suffered the timber to be destroyed in all save the most inaccessible places, and the wasteful habits of the peasants who, if allowed, will cut up a whole tree to make a single sheep-trough, completed the ruin. So it came

about that at last the land which used to supply Egypt with all the wood necessary to build her fleets was almost denuded save on the mountain peaks of Trooidos, with the result that the rainfall lessened alarmingly. Since its advent the British Government has done its best to remedy this state of affairs. As it has no money to spend in planting it has adopted another and perhaps on the whole a more effective method. Although the trees have vanished in Cyprus, by the wonderful preservative agency of nature their seeds remain in the soil, and if goats can be kept off the hills where forests stood, forests will again arise. Thus, although to speak of it anticipates my story a little, it was with a most real pleasure that in travelling from Nicosia to Cyrenia I saw the tops of great mountains which fourteen years ago I remembered naked as a plate, covered to-day with a thick growth of young firs that must now be fifteen or twenty feet in height. A generation hence and those mountain tops will once more bear a splendid forest. Care, however, is required which I do not think is always exercised. The new-formed forest should be thinned, as the wise woodman knows how to do, and the peasants allowed the use of the thinnings. This would prevent their destroying the trees by secretly firing the country, either from

irritation and spite, or to get the benefit of the young grass which springs up afterwards.

In this particular reserve near Curium of which I speak, however, to my surprise I saw a flock of sheep and goats in the charge of a herd. On asking how this came about, Mr. Michell, the commissioner for the Limasol district, who kindly accompanied us and gave us the advantage of his knowledge and experience, told me that the owners of these animals claim ancient rights of which they cannot be dispossessed. These rights endure until the man dies, or sells his flock. They are however untransferable, nor may he add to the number of the animals which he grazes. Thus by degrees the matter

mends itself.

In the midst of this bush-clad plain stands the ancient stadium of Curium, where according to tradition the old inhabitants of classic times celebrated their chariot races. In considering the place I was much puzzled by one detail. The course is about two hundred yards or six hundred feet long, but according to my rough pacings it never measured more than eighty-four feet at the end where the chariots must turn. I could not understand how three or four vehicles, harnessed with four horses abreast, could possibly manage to. negotiate this awkward corner at full speed without more smashes than would tend to the success of the entertainment. On reflection I am convinced that chariot races were not run in this place. It has never, I think, been a hippodrome, but was intended solely for athletic games and foot-running. To this supposition its actual measurements give probability, as they tally very well with those which were common in old days.

This stadium is still singularly perfect; its walls being built of great blocks of stone which here and there, however, must have been shaken down by earthquakes, for nothing else could have disturbed masonry so solid. The visitor can see also where the spectators sat, and in

the midst of that desolate scrub-covered plain it is curious to think of the shouting thousands gathered from Curium, Amathus, and perhaps Paphos, who in bygone generations hailed the victor in the games and hooted down the vanquished. Now the watching mountains above, the eternal sea beneath, and the stone-ringed area of their fierce contests remain--nothing more. All the rest is loneliness and silence. Dust they were, to dust they have returned, and only wondering memory broods about the place that knew them. These relics of a past which we can fashion forth but dimly, seem to come home with greater vividness to the mind when a traveller beholds them, as on this spot, in the heart of solitudes. Seen in the centre of cities that are still the busy haunts of men they do not impress so much.

So we turned back to Limasol, riding by another road along the headlands which overhang the ocean, and pausing, as I did now and again, to watch the widewinged vultures sweep past us on their never-ending journeys. Very solemn they looked hanging there upon outstretched pinions between the sky and sea, as they hung when the first Phoenician galley rowed to the Cyprian shores, as they will hang till the last human atom has ceased to breathe among its immemorial plains and mountains.

CHAPTER X

LIMASOL TO ACHERITOU

HOPE, almost eclipsed off the Italian shores, rose again like a star at Limasol, for thither came post-cards from the Brindisi Cook saying that our lost luggage had actually been discovered and despatched to the care of the Alexandria Cook, who would forward it at once. Indeed it was time, for one feels, however generoushearted may be the lender, that it is possible to wear out a welcome to a borrowed dress-suit. The Flora came in; we rushed to meet her, but nobody on board had even heard about our luggage. Then followed expensive cables and in due course a fateful answer from the deluded Alexandria Cook: "Cyprus quarantine restrictions forbid shipment."

I confess that at this point I nearly gave way, but recovering, commenced the study of the maritime regulalations of Cyprus, to be rewarded by discovering that the importation of "rags and worn clothing was prohibited until further notice." The "worn clothing" referred to, I may explain, are the cast-off garments that have clad the pilgrims to Mecca, or the donkey boys of Cairo. Applied in any other sense no traveller or inhabitant could appear in a presentable condition on the island, since that which they carry on their backs would be "worn clothing." Yet, such is the inexorable stupidity of officials in the East, thus was the clause-none too clearly drafted, I admit-rendered by I know not whom in Alexandria.

Then followed more telegrams, letters of mingled threat and entreaty, and so forth, till many days after