John Heyman: ravellers’ accounts concerning Cyprus in: Excerpta Cypria Materials for a History of Cyprus translated and transcribed by Claude Delaval Cobham

John Heyman, Professor of the Oriental languages in the University of Leyden, who visited the East in the years 1700 to 1709, left some interesting notes of his voyage to the island of Cyprus: “It is supposed to be owing to the warmth of the climate that the Cyprians do not exceed a middle stature, are rather lean than fat, and rather brisk than strong. They are of a brown complexion, like the rest of the Greeks; and both their eyes and hair black. They are also of a quick and piercing genius… The women here, especially at Lernica, are not the most beautiful I have seen; but allowance must be made for the climate, and manner of living. They dress in the same manner as those of Rhodes, except that in Cyprus they wear no veils. Their hair is covered before, but hangs down behind in curls. They also wear those large wide plaited gowns I have already mentioned at Scio” (Cobham 1908, 246). “The chief trade of the island at present is in flowered silks and cottons little inferior to those of the Indies.” (Cobham 1908, 248).