Esmé Scott-Stevenson, Our Home in Cyprus

Mrs Scott-Stevenson found the dress of the country people she saw in Lapithos (a small town in Kyrenia district) very picturesque and suitable, writing, ‘Yellow or crimson shoes, short white socks, loose white trousers fastened at the ankle, a skirt of bright cotton, and a richly embroidered bodice (generally in velvet) cut in a low square on the bosom, which is covered with a transparent piece of worked muslin. Innumerable glass bangles on the arms complete the costume. On their heads they wear a silk handkerchief tightly fastened across the top, and holding back two long plaits of hair. Bunches of jessamine and sweet-scented geranium-leaves are fastened on one side, and on the other a half-wreath of worsted and silk flowers on wire’. The costume struck her as very quaint and pretty, and becoming to the classic features and splendid black eyes of most of the local women. She adds, ‘A few had lines of khol painted round the rims, and all the babies had a black line on both upper and lower lids. This, it is supposed, keeps the eyes cool and preserves them from attacks of flies’. Of the village women, she makes the following comment: ‘Poor creatures! They had never left their villages except to visit some fair, and the sight of an English lady in European costume was one to be remembered for all time’ (Scott-Stevenson. 1880, 56-57). Scott-Stevenson’ s fairly detailed description does not leave any doubt that the costume she saw is made up of a dress or skirt above a shirt, a jacket (sarka), and a headscarf. This costume was established in urban centres by the mid-nineteenth century. It was linked with the name of Amalia, Queen of Greece (1836-62) and is known as 'the Amalia type' costume. In the urban original a fez (cap) was worn in place of the headscarf. This cap was different from the one used in mainland Greece; the Cypriot fez had a wide, black tassel which covered the whole cap and was decorated with fiora (flowers), garlands of flowers made of pearls and braided with silk. We see this type of clothing in various pictures, for example in women's portraits of the mid-nineteenth century (Mariou Pieraki in Larnaca, Iouliani Vondiziano in Nicosia). A noteworthy example of costumes of town women and which were on the verge of disappearing from the towns was exhibited in Athens in 1901 as the costume of 'a Cypriot town lady'. As Scott-Stevenson’s account shows, this one-time town dress began to spread in the countryside by the first days of British rule. In the countryside, in a less ornate and luxurious form, it served not only as a festive dress for a young village girl, but also as a bridal dress. The bridal version of this same style of dress is described by Mrs Scott-Stevenson, who had the opportunity to observe it when she accepted an invitation to attend a wedding in the village of Asomatos in the Kyrenia district. The women of the village welcomed the foreign lady with respect. They sprinkled her with rosewater and kissed her hand. When she asked to see the bride who sat speechless (kamarone) and covered with a long veil at her mother’s house, two women raised the veil and the bride stooped down and kissed her hand. Scott- Stevenson records that the bride . . . was dressed in a green silk petticoat, with a black velvet bodice, cut open in front, showing a worked chemisette and numerous rows of silver gilt chains. Her long rough hair escaped to her waist, with streamers of gold grass (like those in the fireplace of seaside lodging-houses) scattered through it, and over her head was a white muslin handkerchief, marked in coarse gold embroidery at each corner. Her costume was finished off by high yellow leather boots. The arms, which were bare to the elbows, were hideously painted over with daubs of henna, the finger-nails and the palms of the hands being dyed in the same way. Henna is much used in Cyprus. It is bought freshly pounded in the Nicosia bazaar, then mixed to a paste with a little water, and put on the place meant to be coloured. At first the henna has a greenish tinge, but if left on all night, turns to the red-brown shade they admire. The henna was a kind of cosmetic of natural extraction, particularly popular with Moslem women, and with the women of the Maronite community inhabiting the village of Asomatos. Henna was also used in the past by Greek women, particularly in the towns. The bodice (sarka), the most basic piece of festive and bridal attire, used to be part of the bride dowry, and was worn for the first time on her wedding day, together with a deep red cotton skirt with manypleats, which because of its colour was called roudgettin and was fixed with a belt on the waist. This combination is particularly cited for the Karpas area. The women of Karpasia wore a similar white skirt with pleats as a coat when they went to church. Clearly this was the doublettin, a cotton skirt which was worn as a cape. Mrs Scott-Stevenson also described the costume with the sayia as it was worn in Akanthou (given as 'Accatou' in the text, Akanthou is a village in the Kyrenia district), where natives in a body came out to inspect the foreigners. She wrote, ‘I saw some remarkably pretty girls, who, fortunately, were in their native dress, unspoilt by vulgar modern finery. Loose coarse canvas trousers made the stockingless feet, which they almost touched, look small by comparison; a loose skirt of cream-coloured Cyprus cloth; and over all a kind of long coat, cut very low on the bosom - in fact, merely secured at the waist with a couple of buttons, and encircled by a gay-coloured sash. As it is rare (I have hardly ever seen one) to see a stout woman of the peasant class, the dress is admirably adapted to their figures, and in very young girls and the more graceful of the women the effect is charming. They set great store on the little necklaces of coral and seed pearl, often extremely pretty, which are bought at the larger fairs, and mostly worn very becomingly’ (Scott-Stevenson, 1880, 262). Mrs Scott-Stevenson reached the conclusion that, ‘The women have no modesty. In England their dress would be considered indecent. Among the Greeks it is the custom to leave the gown open over the chest, often as far down as the waist’ (Scott-Stevenson, 1880, 130).