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407.  

Day in Nicocea, Cyprus. 

Sat, March 26'

by that early hour, I was dizzy with fatigue. I fell asleep five minutes after I reached my room.

[[strikethrough]] Saturday, March 26' 
Flea [[/strikethough]] Saturday, March 26'-

Wonderful day, up at dawn, breakfasted at hotel at 8 AM - Took cab for two hours & drove through the city, The old part. entered by the old city wall, is interesting. The winding narrow streets, peasants in kerchiefs & the black costume of the poor with black stockings, shoes, women working, sorting bundles of rags, everywhere. The poor & the humble - selling their little wares - but after the East - poverty is not poverty. It was all quite clean & orderly. Better to suffer hunger in the East, sleep in the streets with the rest of humanity, be at one with nature.


408

Sat. March 26 -  
 
Nicocea, Cyprus.

Spoke with the cab driver about social conditions. "The English do nothing for us." They are friends with the rich, for the poor, they do nothing." At best, I earn (the equivalent of 15.00 Amer. dollars weekly, working 100 hours a week. I have wife & children to support. How one can do it?"

Went also to see the Mosque of 'Sainte Sofia' 11th century, handsome old building, mixture of Gothic & Byzantine.

The little old Museum of Antiquities, which David had been enthused about, was fabulous. It's director has done a beautiful job of arranging the exhibits & cataloguing them. It is the most complete collection of potteries dated back to 300 B.C. & further - I have ever seen. All that is being done today, in ceramics, pottery stems to that influence.

Came back to lunch & shopped for a lovely skarf - only 4.00 - my total expense for taxi - only 2.00