Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/239

Rh hook at the top, ; the round part or whirl at the bottom, ; the distaff round which the cotton is wound is called, probably from the Italian rocca.

We arrived at Koskino at the end of a feast, and found the beginning of a fray. I saw the knife bran- dished high in the air, but there was no great harm done. Half the village took part in the original quarrel; the turbans were rolled in the gutters; at last, out came the women to drag their husbands and children out of the meleé.

"What does it concern us, Chellebi," said my philosophic muleteer; "it is the Sultan's busmess, not ours, to look after the lives and safety of his subjects. Let them stick knives into each other if they will a most Levantine sentiment. This village being much nearer Rhodes than Archangelo, it was curious to see how the indirect influence of European civilization was spoiling the costume. The Manchester printed cotton blended its tawdry patterns with the simple, classical colours of the original island dress. There was, too, a corresponding change in the manners of the people: they danced, but the scene was less idyllic., May 12, 1853. just returned from an excursion, in which I was accompanied by a Koskiniote mideteer, named Panga, a sort of Rhodian Gil Bias, witty,