The Holy Land and Syria

by Frank G. Carpenter

The condition of the women of Armenia is said to be terrible. They have no refuge from the Turks, who perpetrate all sorts of outrages upon them. In some of the Armenian cities during one of the massacres the girls were collected into the churches and kept there for days at the pleasure of the soldiers before they were murdered. One statement described how sixty young brides were so treated and how the blood ran out under the church doors at the time of their massacre.

These Armenian women are among the most attractive of the Near East. I have seen a number of them during my trip through Asia Minor. They have large, dark, luminous eyes with long eyelashes, and rich, creamy complexions. Many of them have rosy cheeks and luscious red lips. They are tall and straight, but become fat soon after marriage. Not a few of them are married to Turks. These women have a dress of their own. They wear red fez caps with long tassels much like some of the country girls of Greece. The richer ladies wear loose jackets lined with fur, and long plain skirts of silk or fine wool. In the province of Van, where many atrocities have been committed, the girls wear under their skirts trousers which are tied at the ankles. Some have long, sleeveless jackets, or cloaks, reaching almost to the feet and open at the sides up to the waists, and others wear gorgeous headdresses, covering the front of their caps with gold coins, which hang down over their foreheads. Like the Jewesses, these girls often wear their whole dowries on their persons, and in massacres like those which have so often occurred rings are torn from the ears, arms are cut off for bracelets, and many a woman is killed for her jewellery. The poorer women are hard workers. Nearly every household has some kind of home industry whereby it adds to its income. Some of the finest embroideries we get from Turkey are made by these clever Armenian women, the best of the work being done by hand in hovels.

The houses in which the Armenians live are different in different countries. In many of the cities of Turkey there is an Armenian quarter, and the older Armenian houses of Smyrna are built like forts. They have no windows facing the street, and only of late years, when the people have considered themselves safe from religious riots, have they built houses more like the Turks. In Armenia itself the poorer classes have homes which would be considered hardly fit for cows in America. The cow, in fact, lives with the family. The houses are all of one story, and it is not uncommon to build a house against the side of a hill in order to save the making of a back wall. The roofs are flat, and are often covered with earth upon which grass and flowers grow, and upon which the sheep are sometimes pastured. The floors are usually sunken below the level of the roadway, and the ordinary window is about the size of a porthole. You go down steps to enter the house, where you find a cow stable on one side and the kitchen and living quarters of the family on the other.

All the living arrangements are of the simplest and cheapest description. Each room has a stone fireplace where the cooking is done with cow dung mixed with straw. There are no tables and very few chairs. The animal heat of the cattle aids the fire in keeping the family warm. The houses of the better class are more comfortable, and in the big Turkish cities some of the rich Armenians have beautiful homes. The Armenian women are good housekeepers and much more cleanly than the Turks. Even their hovels are kept clean.

They have a better home life than the Turks. A man can have but one wife, but the families of several generations often live in one house. If the daughter-in-law lives with them, she is, to a large extent, the servant of her husband’s family. She has to obey her father-in-law, and during the first days of her married life is not allowed to speak to her husband’s parents or any of the family who are older than herself until her father-in-law gives her permission. Up to this time she wears a red veil, as a badge of her subjection, which is often kept on until her first baby is born.

Armenian girls are married very young. Eleven or twelve is considered quite old enough, and women still young often have sons twenty years old. Marriages are arranged by parents or by go-betweens. The usual wedding day is Monday, and on the Friday before the marriage the bride is taken to the bath with great ceremony. On Saturday she gives a big feast to her girl friends. On Sunday there is a feast for the boys, and on Monday the wedding takes place. It usually occurs at the church, where the priest blesses the ring and makes prayers over the wedding garments. The numerous other ceremonies make the wedding last from three to eight days. Shortly after her return from the church the children present rush to pull off the bride’s stockings, in which have been hidden some coins for the occasion. Another curious custom is to place a baby boy on the knee of the bride, as she sits beside the groom on a divan, with the wish that she may become a happy mother.

While one reason for the hatred of the Armenians is envy of their shrewdness and their wealth, the chief cause of the Turkish outrages is religious fanaticism. The better classes of the Turks and the more intelligent of the Mohammedans would probably stop them if they could. Many of the high officials are afraid of the religious zeal of the people. They realize that if the common people get the idea that they are false to their religion, they are almost sure of assassination. The Imams and the Sheiks, or, in other words, the Moslem priests, are, to a large extent, the rulers of Turkey. They are in most cases ignorant and intolerant.

Among the Mohammedan fanatics there are a large number known as dervishes, who roam about from place to place stirring up trouble. They are walking delegates, as it were, for the killing of Christians. They stimulate the religious zeal of the people and make violent speeches against unbelievers. They fast much and they have strange forms of worship. One class, known as the whirling dervishes, may be seen in Constantinople any Friday going through their devotions. They dress in long white robes fastened at the waists with black belts, and wear high sugar-loaf hats. They sing the Koran as they whirl about in the mosques. As they go on the chief priest makes prayers and they whirl faster and faster, until at last their long skirts stand out like those of a ballet dancer. Their faces become crimson, and some finally fall to the ground in fits.

Another class of these fanatics are the howlers, who have a great organization in Turkey, and have probably been largely concerned in inciting feeling against the Armenians. I have visited their mosques, but I despair of adequately describing their religious gymnastics. They work themselves into a frenzy, jumping and bending, and gasping and howling out the name of God. The dervishes of the interior parts of Turkey often take knives and cut themselves and each other in religious ecstasy. They go into fits and foam at the mouth, and most of them think that the killing of a Christian is a sure passport to heaven. I would say, however, that these people are the cranks of Mohammedanism, and that they are not a fair sample of the Moslem world. Nevertheless, they have had no small part in bringing about the miseries of Armenia.