In the court of the palace stands a high pillar, which tradition says criminals used to be compelled to mount before receiving their sentences. I could fancy this ancient pillar, ornamented with winged lions, must resemble that in the market-place in Venice. I observed also the shattered remains of another Venetian lion, which, a few years ago, was wantonly destroyed by one of the pachas. Near the pillar above alluded to are reared three gravestones, decorated with knightly escutcheons and Latin inscriptions.
In the evening I dined with the pacha, a gentleman of great intelligence, who has had a most thorough European education. Our conversation happened to turn upon those interesting relics of past ages. My host spoke with much regret of the damage constantly and wantonly done to them by Turkish soldiers, and bitterly deplored his own inability to check their destructive propensities, which are all the more difficult of restraint, as they proceed from religious enthusiasm; followers of Mahommed being strictly prohibited, by the Koran, to make any image; this prohibition being not only confined to works of wood and stone, but including the precious works of the sculptor and the painter. Before quitting this interesting city, I cannot refrain from adding the testimony of a writer of the fourteenth century to the salubrity of the climate around this city. “Nikosia,” he tells us, “lies beneath the shelter of surrounding hills, and is noted for the healthiness of its air and the purity of its balmy breezes. For this reason it was selected as the residence of the court, nobility, bishops, and in fact all such as were free to choose where they might settle. Tournaments and hunting formed Their chief amusements; leopards and a species of mountain goat being the favourite objects of chase.” The same authority states that the nobility of Cyprus were at that period the richest in the world, an income of 3000 gulden being regarded with no more respect than a few shillings would be in other places. All these fine fortunes seem to have suffered severely from the heavy expenses attendant on their favourite pastimes. We are told of a count of Jaffa, that he kept five hundred hounds and a servant for every two dogs. Many of these nobles did not have less than two hundred men as falconers and huntsmen. During their hunting excursions it was no uncommon thing for them to camp out in the woods and mountains for a month at a time, sleeping in their tents and taking camels and mules with them, ladened with all the necessaries of life. These nobles, we are told, were men of education and experience, speaking many languages and hearing all the news of the world from the intercourse they had with the constant stream of travellers who visited this richly endowed and famous land, from all parts. The same writer tells us that the city of Famagusta was still more noted than Nikosia for its riches, and enumerates the following instances of reckless expenditure and rich possessions.