THE ARMENIANS.
The whole population of Turkey may be estimated at over 35,000,000 of souls, including the principalities and other tributary states, which, if deducted, leaves 27,000,000 in Turkey proper, half of whom are Mohammedans, and the rest Christians and Jews.
The Christians are of various denominations, each denomination constituting a separate community, governed by their own municipal regulations, and guided by their respective spiritual heads.
Hitherto the Europeans have regarded the Greeks as the predominating Christian population of the East; the truth is, among the different communities the Armenians stand most prominent, because not only next to the Bulgarians they rank high in numbers, but in reality supersede all others, politically and morally, in their relations with Turkey.
Although the Bosnians, Bulgarians, and the Greeks profess the same religion, they do not surrender their respective nationalities. The Greeks themselves are not, therefore, so numerous as is generally supposed, but have erroneously been confounded with the others.
The Armenians, of whom there are 3,500,000 in Turkey, like other nations, have evinced their pride in national pedigree, by tracing their origin to Haig, the grandson of Noah, and they call themselves Haiks even at the present day.
In the year of the creation of the world, 1757, Jewish chronology, soon after the flood, and even during the lifetime of Noah, Haig, or Haicus, with his sons and daughters, resided in the country of Senaar, in Mesapotamia.
While they lived in those regions, the famous Tower of Babel was erected, and the Babylonian Empire was founded by Belus.
Haig, unwilling to submit to the authority of Belus, returned with his family, of about 300 persons, to the country of Ararat, where he incorporated himself with the earliest settlers in those regions, who had never wandered thence, and retained all the undisciplined habits and freedom of their utter seclusion from the progress of civilization.
It is more than probable that he and his descendants continued to speak the language of their father Noah, and in that case there is no more ancient tongue than the Armenian. Besides, while the descendants of Shem and Ham emigrated to other lands, those of Japhet who begat Gomer who begat Togarmah, the father of Haig remained in the vicinity of Ararat, and there is no reason to suppose ever changed their language. The Biblical history records the confusion of languages of those who were in the land of Shinar.