Female and Male

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

The architect and draughtsman Edmond Duthoit arrived to Cyprus from Beirut on 28th of February 1862, in the company of Melchior de Vogué and Henry William Waddington. They were the three members of the Phoenician mission organized by the French Government in order to collect information and antiquities. Duthoit returned to Cyprus for a second time in 1865. Here he grasped the opportunity to become the most prolific French ethnographic artist of the island. Among many other aspects of traditional life, he drew Cypriots of both sexes and nations, and in some cases described their costumes. In his pencil drawing of a standing Turk, the man wears a long overcoat with wide sleeves and a turban, a long piece of narrow cloth wrapped around his head. Duthoit was amazed by the Turkish ceremony of receiving guests and described such a scene in detail, commenting also on the appearance of the participants: “On arrival at the Pasha we were made to sit or lie on the divan and they brought the tsibouk, long pipes 1.5 to 2.00 meters long. Here the pipe, its dimension, body of amber varying in thickness, have their significance and one kind of pipe is given to one type of person and not to another. One started with compliments and banalities… then a tray arrived covered with purple muslin embroidered with gilded stars and brought in by four officers. The coffee was followed at an interval by another tray and another cover and by another four officers. This tray contained quite large bowls full of lemonade or orangeade, it was the sorbet. Imagine four men dressed in various colours half in European manner, half in the Turkish, wearing pantaloons and without socks, bringing in all seriousness a tray holding what? Four cups of coffee as big as egg cups.” (Severis 1999, 87-89, 93, 97, ill. 62).]

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

Edmond Duthoit, a French architect and draughtsman, was one of the three members of the Phoenician mission organized by the French Government in 1862, with a view to collect information and antiquities, in particular inscriptions. Duthoit visited Cyprus twice, first in 1862, when he was 24 years old, and returned for the second time in 1865. During his visit to Cyprus he made a number of sketches, from which, in combination with his letters, a most complete picture of the island in the decade of 1860-70 may be developed. The wealth of information encompasses also social aspects of Cyprus, descriptions of customs, food habits, dress etc. A number of his linear quick and sketchy drawings are dedicated to the people of the island, and present a selection of Greek and Turkish attires. In addition to the visual representations, Duthoit also described or made comments on dress:

“The women resemble in their dress the pretty girls of Arles wearing with a lot of coquetry a small corsage very low cut that crosses under the breast, a muslin or dantelles cover the chest, the neck remaining bare. A veil covers the head and those who do not have magnificent plaits hanging down their backs, use artificial or natural flowers to cover them.” It was just before Easter when Duthoit reached Kykko monastery and gives a vivid description of scenes of feast: “The courtyard was full of animals: horses donkeys and mules that had brought a great number of pilgrims; the crowd was so big that one part was obliged to sleep in the open air… I saw Kykko as it should be seen with a crowd of people, women and children with the most brilliantly coloured costumes. All the pilgrims were celebrating: the women all wore jackets of velvet with gold embroideries and on their neck hung, made up in a necklace, all the coins of their fortune. I saw the Caramaniote women who wear their hair in numerous plaits almost like strings and attach a piece of gold in every one of the plaits. The effect of this hairstyle is striking and it has nothing unpleasant…” (Severis 1999, 87-91, 95).

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

William Turner, Esquire, left Constantinople on February 20, 1815, in a small Turkish vessel, and sighted Cyprus on March 22, travelled in Palestine, visited M. Sinai, and returned to Larnaca on October 8, sailing again on November 16 for Rhodes. In his Journal of a Tour in the Levant, which was published by John Murray in 3 volumes (London, 1820), this intelligent traveller offers valuable information about Cyprus and its people, including appearance, lifestyle and social behavior. As principal commerce items he presents cotton, wool, white and yellow silk, the local raw materials which were used for clothing. Most revealing are his remarks about dress, especially that of women, offering an ideal description of a variety of dress items, including jewellery:  “Having somewhere read (I believe in the Quarterly Review of Mr Clarke’s Greece) that the dress of the Greek women in Cyprus differs from all the others, and approaches more to the ancient model, I observed this point with particular attention, and am able to state with confidence that in all my rambles about the island, I have seen only two kinds of dresses that differed from the usual fashion of the Greeks, and of these but very few. One of these was a short yellow vest tight round the upper part of the body, with a red petticoat that came over it at the waist, round which it was tightened by a drawing tape; a handkerchief was carelessly tied round the head. This was worn by a villager whom I saw at Santa Croce, and by another near Paphos. The other, worn by a pretty young girl of Nicosia, was all of white cotton, a loose vest, with pantaloons fastened by a drawing tape round the waist, and descending to the feet below the knot with which it was tied at the ancle à la Turque. The general dress, like that of all Greek women, consisted of a white cap, sometimes with a red border or embroidered, according to the circumstances of the wearer, round which the hair flowed loose before on each temple, and terminated behind in one, two, six or even eight tails, generally lengthened by skeins of silk: strings of sequins, rubiehs or paras hung round the head and neck: a gown tightened at the waist, and bound by a simple handkerchief, or by a leathern girdle fastened by silver clasps which generally bore the shape of a circle or of a sloped heart, and an outer robe more or less richly embroidered, flowing to the feet: for this latter a red cloth is mostly preferred, they being here freely permitted to wear that colour as well as yellow shoes, contrary to the custom in Constantinople. They frequently throw a handkerchief loosely about the head to shade them from the sun, and none of them, even Turkish women, hide their face with scrupulous jealousy.” Turner also commented on the male peasants’ everyday dress: “Poverty seldom consults fashion in dress, but if I observed one habit more common among the Greek male peasants than the other, it was one of coarse cotton, all white, consisting of a short vest tight round the body, with loose trousers down to the feet, fastened round the waist by a drawing tape, or, if the wearer could afford it, by a girdle which was generally red. The turban was mostly of coarse white cotton, they being freely allowed to wear this colour on the head.” On his way from “Thali” [Dali/Idalion] to Larnaca, Turner met “several peasants on the road driving large flocks of sheep and goats: their prevailing dress was a white turban, white jacket and white shalwar (trousers): that of the women was the common Greek dress, with a large white vest to shade them from the sun.”  Most exciting, however, is Turner’s description of his “visit to a lying-in Cypriote lady”, in Larnaca: “We found her sitting up in bed, and in good health and spirits, though it is only the second day since her delivery. She was gaily and splendidly dressed, and wore a garland of flowers round her cap (at Constantinople the costume in these cases is a small embroidered white handkerchief on the head): the only sign of her indisposition was the room being darkened.” (Cobham 1908, 424-426, 430, 435, 448-449).

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

The Rev. Edward Daniel Clarke, who visited Cyprus between June 6 and June 16, 1801, in the wide range of information about several aspects of life in the island, included some notes about the Turks of Cyprus:

With reference to the goldsmiths of Nicosia, he noticed that their main occupation consisted in making coarse silver rings for the women, and “in setting signets for Turks of all denominations. There is hardly a Mahometan who does not bear upon one of his fingers this kind of ornament. The Turkish signet is generally a carnelian stone, inscribed with a few words from the Qoran, a proverb in Arabic, or a couplet in Persian.” (Cobham 1908, 388-389).

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

Henry Light, Captain of the Royal Artillery, was in garrison at Malta in the year 1814, and obtained leave to travel in Egypt, Holy Land, parts of the Lebanon and Cyprus. His stay in Cyprus was short. Regarding the appearance of the people he met on the island, he comments: “The costume of the Franks is, for the men, generally that of Europe. The consuls have an uniform, which they make as rich as possible with embroidery. I saw them all in grand gala on the birthday of the Emperor of Austria, whose consul received a visit of ceremony from all the others. The costume of the women is Greek, and almost similar to that which the late travels in Greece have rendered so familiar to all readers.” Light also noticed the dress of the peasants: “The peasantry is ill looking. The men were dressed in a white canvass vest over a waist-coat of the same material, and a white linen turban on their heads. They wore the Albanian petticoat, similar to the Highland kilt, or the usual shalwar or breeches of the Turks, and high boots, used, as I understood, to avoid the fatal venom of the serpents of the island.” (Cobham 1908, 421, 422).

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

During his stay in Cyprus from March 4 to May 12, 1806, Ali Bey el Abbassi,  paid a visit to the Turkish Governor at Nicosia, who “was splendidly dressed, with a superb fur coat…” The six pages, who treated the guests, were “fifteen years old, all of the same height, beautiful as angels, and richly clothed in satin with superb cashmere shawls…”. He also noticed that Greek women in the street “were covered and hidden by a white sheet, just like Turkish women.” (Cobham 1908, 394, 396).

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

Under the fantastic designation Ali Bey el Abbassi, was veiled a Spaniard, long resident in Paris, Don Domingo Badia-y-Leyblich. He visited Cyprus from March 4 to May 12, 1806.

He commented on the character and the appearance of the natives of both nations and sexes: “The Greeks are quite as jealous as the Turks, and keep their womenkind in such out of the way places that it is impossible to see them. Those whom I met in the street were covered and hidden by a white sheet, just like Turkish women… Their costume is not ungraceful, but a kind of conical cap which they wear on the head displeases me immensely. The men have often good figures, and generally good complexions. Persons of any position always wear long coats, like the Turks, from whom they are distinguishable only by their blue turban: but many wear other colours, and even white, without offending the Turks…. The Greeks all wear moustaches, and shave their chins like the Turks; but oldish people and priests often grow beards. They are forbidden to carry arms, but they all have a knife or dagger concealed about them… Many natives place themselves under the protection of some European consul, who is allowed to grant this favour to a certain number. These protégés enjoy all the immunities of the subjects of the nation which protects them. They are distinguished by a tall black cap of bear’s skin, called calpàc. I have however seen Greeks who were not protégés wearing the calpàc unnoticed by the Turks.” (Cobham 1908, 396-397).

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

The Rev. Edward Daniel Clarke, LL.D., Fellow of Jesus College, and Professor of Mineralogy at Cambridge, visited Cyprus in H.M. frigate Ceres between June 6 and 16, 1801.

According to his notes, on the way to Nicosia they “were detained at Larneca until the evening, by the hospitality of the English Consul, Signor Peristiani, who had prepared a large party of ladies and other inhabitants… The interesting costume presented in the dress of the Cyprian ladies ought not to pass without notice. Their head apparel was precisely modelled after the kind of Calathus represented upon the Phoenician idols of the country, and upon Egyptian statues. This was worn by women of all ranks, from the wives of the Consuls to their slaves. Their hair, dyed of a fine brown colour, by means of a plant called Henna, hung behind, in numerous long straight braids; and in some ringlets disposed near the face were fastened blossoms of the Jasmine, strung together upon slips from leaves of the palm tree in a very curious and pleasing manner. Next to the Calmuck women, the Grecian are, of all others, best versed in cosmetic arts. They possess the valuable secret of giving a brown colour to the whitest locks, and also tinge their eye-brows with the same hue; an art that would be highly prized by the hoary courtezans of London and of Paris. The most splendid colours are displayed in their habits; and these are very becoming to the girls of the island. The upper robe is always of scarlet, crimson or green silk, embroidered with gold. Like other Greek women they wear long scarlet pantaloons, fastened round the ankle; and yellow boots, with slippers of the same colour. Around the neck and from the head, were suspended a profusion of gold coins, chains, and other trinkets. About their waists they have a large belt or zone, fastened in front by two large and heavy polished brass plates. They endeavour to make the waist appear as long as possible, and the legs, consequently, short. Naturally corpulent, they take no pains to diminish the size of their bodies by lacing, but seem rather vain of their bulk; exposing their bosoms, at the same time, in a manner highly unbecoming. Notwithstanding the extraordinary pains they use to disfigure their natural beauty by all sorts of ill-selected ornaments, the women of Cyprus are handsomer than those of any other Grecian island. They have a taller and more stately figure; and the features, particularly of the women of Nicotia, are regular and dignified, exhibiting that elevated cast of countenance so universally admired in the works of Grecian artists. At present, this kind of beauty seems peculiar to the women of Cyprus; the sort of expression exhibited by one set of features may be traced, with different gradations, in them all. …”.    

Clarke visited also the goldsmiths of Nicosia, and mentions that “their chief occupation consists in making coarse silver rings, of very base metal, for the women, and in setting signets for Turks of all denominations…”. Furthermore, Clarke refers to the gems found in Cyprus, and to the semi-precious stones, which were used by the goldsmiths as ring stones: “The signet stones of Cyprus, although cut in a variety of substances, were more frequently of red carnelian than of any other mineral. Some of the most diminutive size were finely executed in red garnet, the carbuncle of the antients. Others were formed of plasma, onyx, bloodstone, topaz, jasper, and even of quartz. Of all these the most antient had the scarabean form.” (Cobham 1908, 378, 384, 388, 381).

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

Michael de Vezin, of French origin but born in London, was during 16 years His Britannic Majesty’s Consul for Aleppo and Cyprus. He died at Larnaca in 1792, aged 51. In his notes, de Vezin bequeathed various accurate and most important testimonies about Cyprus:

In his records on the yearly produce of the island, the consul reckons cotton as the chief article of produce, the price of which depended chiefly on the orders from Europe. The best cotton was produced in “Lapitho” (Lapithos). Another product related to dress making, was silk. According to de Vezin, Cyprus produced about 9,000 okes of white silk, the finest of it in “Citherea” (Kythrea). In 1745, 40,000 okes of silk were collected. At Paphos and the neighbourhood fine yellow silk was produced to the extent of 4,000 okes, but it was worth from 3 to 4 p. less than the white. Most of it was sent to Cairo in Egypt. De Vezin refers also to manufactured, coarse silk stuffs, which were sought after chiefly in the Greek islands, also to ordinary linen, as well as to printed cottons and calicos.

On the other hand, bales of the cloth called Londrins seconds were imported from France; gold-embroidered stuffs were also imported, as well as lace from Lyon. Among various goods, which Venice sent to Cyprus, were cloth and headkerchiefs of all kinds (Cobham 1908, 368, 371-373).

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

Alexander Drummond, Esquire, His Majesty’s Consul at Aleppo, started from London May 11, 1744, and reached Larnaca March 6, 1745, leaving Cyprus again on May 15 for Alexandretta and Aleppo. He returned for a short tour in the island in April, 1750.

In his most important account on Cyprus, published in a series of letters, Drummond included some interesting comments about the appearance, especially of ladies: “As the ancient dames of this island were so remarkably distinguished”, he thought that he “should say something of the modern Cyprian ladies”. He observed that “even the Franc, or European, ladies dress in the Grecian mode, which is wantonly superb, though, in my opinion, not so agreeable as our own. Yet the ornaments of the head are graceful and noble; and when I have seen some pretty women of condition sitting upon a divan, this part of their dress hath struck my imagination with the ideas of Helen, Andromache, and other beauties of antiquity, inspiring me with a distant awe, while the rest of their attire invited me to a nearer approach.” (Cobham 1908, 276).

Furthermore, Drummond records in detail the fabrics, which were manufactured locally: “Of cotton dimities, with a little silk, they make about 10,000 pieces, of ten pics each, the pic being equal to 27 inches: of qutuni and basma, coarse kinds of cotton-satin, about 15,000 pieces: of bitani, or broad cotton cloth, about 1,000 pieces: of coarse silk handkerchiefs very bad, 20,000 pieces: of skimity, which is a kind of cotton-linen, about 40,000 pieces; and of a thin coarse, cotton shirting a great quantity..” (Cobham 1908, 282). As far as exports were concerned, Cyprus sent abroad mainly agricultural products and raw materials. Among other exports, Drummond mentions “40,000 okes of silk, 3,000 quintals of cotton, and 500 quintals of sheep’s wool” (Cobham 1908, 281). He also informs us that  “The import consists in broad-cloth, by far the greatest part of which is from France, and some from a new manufactory at Venice; a few bales come from Great Britain, but none, as yet from Holland;”. He adds that all sorts of silk manufactures were imported, but there was “no great quantity of any article consumed”, due to the poverty of the inhabitants (Cobham 1908, 282).