Basil trees etc

at 5:45
'στη σκαλα που ανεβαίνεις ν' ανέβαινα και γω
σε κάθε σκαλοπάτι να σε γλυκοφιλώ'

see also:

Sipsi / μπαντούρα

We were actually surprised to find a video of an instrument like this being played by Cypriots - we're at a loss as to what they call it in Cyprus and whether there might actually be a tradition of playing. It looks like a Turkish sipsi or Cretan bandoura.

Instruments: The tamboutshia (frame drum)

Frame drums exist in most cultures worldwide. Variants with different playing styles can be found e.g. in Irish, Native American, North African, Central Asian, Persian, Kurdish, Azerbaijani, Indian, Siberian, Hungarian, and other cultures (the list could possibly go on indefinitely).
They are often associated with various trance-inducing rituals (e.g. in Shamanism or in Kurdish Sufism).
Apparently, ancient Cypriot women played them, and this had some relation with ritual worship (see Doubleday, V. (1999). The Frame Drum in the Middle East: Women, Musical Instruments and Power. Ethnomusicology, 43(1), 101-134.)

The Cypriot tamboutshia (ταμπουτshιά) is a kind of frame drum. Usually the same structure was made in order to construct a sieve, and tamboutshia is also the name of the sieve that results when one pierces the frame drum's skin.
The tamboutshia was usually played together with pithkiavli, or also according to some sources with the tambouras (before it became extinct around the mid-20th century). According to Anogianakis, some time in the late nineteenth century it was coupled with the violin, and later with the violin and the laouto which is currently the usual setup for 'traditional' cypriot bands.