Читать книгу The Journey: How an obscure Byzantine Saint became our Santa Claus - David Price Williams - Страница 62

and down one of the side streets into the city. At first the people of Paphos looked no different to the various nationalities I saw in Patara, but as we walked further into the centre there were some men I’d never seen before, wearing full length dark brown robes and a finely woven head covering held in place by a black head-ring.

“Arabs!” Polios said, seeing me eyeing them with curiosity. “They come from the deserts of the south-east. We’ll see a lot more of them in Egypt when we get there.”

We turned sharply left into a small alley behind the main market, which I could make out at the end of the street. Pulling me into a doorway Polios knocked quietly on the panelling. After a minute or so the door was opened a crack and an eye appeared, viewing us suspiciously, before it was thrown wide and a huge man stood there beaming at us.

“Polios!” he shouted. “How are you old friend? Come in, come in. You are welcome in Christ’s name.”

After they had embraced, we were shown into a small shady anteroom opening at the far end onto a small courtyard full of wild flowers growing in pots.

“This is John,” said Polios. “He is a very good friend and one of the leaders of our faith here in Cyprus. We have shared many adventures together, both on the island and also in Egypt. This here is my friend Nicholas.”

THE JOURNEY