At Ayios Yiannis Quarter , Nicosia

Nicosia of old

 'The Cypriots are the most subtle and artful people in all the Levant , nor have they more veracity than their neighbours , so that their words are not to be depended upon , as they make use of all means to deceive . The women are little superior to their ancestors with regard to their virtue ; and as they go unveiled , so they expose themselves in a manner that in these parts is looked on as very indecent . They go every Whit Sunday in procession to the sea in remembrance of Venus's coming out of it , which was antiently attended with some other circumstances .'

 Richard Pococke

Description of the East and some other countries (1738)