Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/111

 THE SITUATION, SOIL AND CLIMATE OF THE ISLAND. 89 now, while the graceful buds of the eglantine are allowed to spread their delicate scent over the fields, the rose is cultivated in the gardens of the rich Moslems, who are great lovers of horticulture. The ancients call Cyprus the sweet-smelling island (evwSrfs), and there Homer made the graces anoint the limbs of their mistress with a scented oil, while they steeped their own garments in the vapours exhaled by the spring flowers. 1 The island possessed several plants from which the materials for a profitable trade could be extracted. From one of these it seems to have taken the name by which it is still known. The shrub called kopper by the Hebrews, was named by the Greeks kypros (tcvTTpos), a word formed of the same elements, 2 and in it, by the help of the descriptions given by Pliny and Diodorus, the plant called el hanna by the Arabs has been recognised. El hanna, or the henna plant, is the Lawsonia alba of botanists. A valuable scent is obtained from its flowers by boiling them in oil, while its leaves give that greenish powder which is offered for sale in every bazaar of the Levant. Prepared in various ways, this powder serves to dye horses' manes, tails, and hoofs yellow, to colour the nails, lips, eyelids, and hair of women, and, when mixed with lampblack, to lengthen their eyebrows, and enhance the size and brilliancy of their eyes. In all this the harems of Cairo, Damascus, and Stamboul, do no more than continue the traditions of Memphis and Thebes, of Babylon and Nineveh, of Ecbatana and Susa. The henna plant is common also in Egypt and Syria, as the Semitic origin of its Greek name is enough to prove ; but Cyprus had the credit of enjoying the monopoly of another product of the same kind, namely, the ledanum or ladanum, to whose curative properties there is allusion in Herodotus. 3 This substance comes from a plant which is to be found elsewhere than in Cyprus, as its name (Cistus creticus) is enough to prove. Upon more than one mountain in Crete, and in other islands of the Archipelago, I have seen hill slopes covered with its red flowers. Each root forms a small shrub, which often reaches about three feet in height. The 1 Odyssey, viii. 362-366. 2 It might be suggested that this identity between the name of a plant and that of a metal, copper, is owing to the fact that the colouring principle obtained from the leaves of the Lawsonia alba gives a coppery tint to the skin. It would be difficult to decide, however, whether copper or henna were the first to be discovered. 3 HERODOTUS, iii. 112. VOL. II.