We have given in a previous chapter the “rules to govern the conduct of a gentleman in case of feud;” and the only occasion when these do not hold, is when a Jehad is proclaimed by Moslems. When you go to war in the name of Allah and religion, you are naturally entitled to commit any atrocity you like, and usually do so. The old courtesies, too, were further abrogated as the result of the Armenian massacres of 1895. The systematic outraging of the women then was part of the Turkish plan, and seems to have been the deliberate order of Abdul Hamid. When such acts had been once authorized by the Khalif, it was natural that the lower type of Kurd should not readily return to the better ways of his fathers in more ordinary raids.
Speaking generally, however, feuds are carried on with great lightness of heart, much gaiety, and very little malice. The writer has known men who were at open feud with one another meet in the household of the English Mission (where of course, truce was observed), and chaff one another in most friendly wise as they shared tea with the English “apostles.” In war time even “booby traps” (or something like them) were not unknown; and once the men of Tyari rejoiced in a score gained over an opponent, who feared to make any attack upon a position held in truth by a dozen men and boys, because they suddenly found themselves confronted with a formidable battery of artillery which they had not credited the Tyari men with possessing at all.
As a matter of fact, the cannon were mere dummies; and were neither more nor less than beehives (the local beehive is a long narrow thing, in shape much resembling an old-fashioned eel-trap), which had been artfully faked for the occasion and plastered all over with black mud!
The heroes of this exploit were so delighted with their score, that they set to work to make a cannon of their[{293}] very own. A hollow poplar trunk formed the barrel this time, and it was wrapped round with bands of iron on a system not unlike that on which a modern “wire-wound” gun is made at Elswick, though the materials were hardly such as Messrs. Armstrong’s inspector would have approved.
The engine was only meant to bluff their enemies, and did that well on at least one occasion; but the temptation to see what it could do got too much for its possessors, and they (with the wonderful courage of ignorance) charged the thing and fired it! Of course, it burst; but the providence that guards schoolboys guarded these boys too, and nobody was hurt.
Some years ago, the chances in these feuds and battles were about even; and had they continued so the writer could not have found it in his heart to advocate the abolition of so ancient and interesting a form of sport, nor would any of the combatants have wished it. It is true that the Christians had usually to face odds in numbers; but they had strong positions to defend, and such a reputation as fighting men, that the Kurds themselves admitted that when you went against the men of Tyari and Tkhuma, it was well to have odds of five to one in numbers on your side. Then, however, each side used old guns of much the same character; flint-locks to wit, with home-made powder and bullets. This, as noted elsewhere, is not the case now; for the Kurds have been equipped with more modern arms. The powder the folk of the mountains manufactured for themselves, being able to get sulphur in plenty in their hills, and burning their own charcoal. Nitre could always be gathered in some caverns where the sheep were folded, but our knowledge of chemistry does not enable us to say exactly how. Bullets were easy to come by, for lead crops out in thick veins in certain gorges, and can be absolutely cut out of the rock in chunks for the purpose. As for the casting, it is wonderful what unsuspected uses there are for a thimble! Nobody dreams of using it hereabouts as an assistance to sewing; but when set in a lump of clay, it makes a very tolerable bullet-mould!
One skilful old priest of our acquaintance earned quite a[{294}] good income by converting muzzle-loaders into “Martinis,” which is the general term for any sort of breech-loader. He was a very fair smith, and though his copies of the Martini lock and breech mechanism might not have passed the War Office standard, they were very satisfactory for their owners.
Some artists hope to improve the local brand of gunpowder. One of the first questions put to us during our wanderings in the mountain glens was, “Rabbi, is it oak charcoal or walnut that you English use for the making of your gun-medicine?” “Neither, but willow,” said we, that piece of unclerical information having somehow stuck in our mind from some old “book of useful knowledge.” Hence it would appear that the most unlikely things come in useful at times, for the answer materially increased our prestige.
Many a primitive practice and habit goes on in these mountains, but perhaps the most startling to a stranger is the taking of the bath coram publico; a custom which is common to both Christians and Kurds. The rationale of the habit is sound enough. Mud floors get damp and unhealthy with the weekly wash, and the much splashing of water that it entails; let it then be done in the open, by the spring or river, where a fire can be lit to heat the water and for the comfort of the bather.
It is a little disconcerting for the European at first, and seems a startling drop back through a good many centuries, when you turn a corner in the road suddenly, and find yourself confronted by a group of maidens, who have put all their clothes in the big copper to wash, and are engaged in performing that office for one another. However, if the stranger is embarrassed, they are not. It is not manners to stare of course; and they sit still undisturbed till the man has passed, without even interrupting their conversation. Good narrow-minded folk at home say that they have no sense of decency. That, however, is an absolute libel; and it is far more near to the truth to say that it is the sense of indecency that is absent, as it was in the Garden of Eden. Layard had experience of this custom[{295}] when he brought men of these tribes down to Mosul to work at his excavations. This he did for convenience’ sake, in that they, having only a mountaineer’s superstitions, were immune to those of the plain; and did not raise the same difficulties about digging in the mounds that the Arabs did. Naturally, his excavators brought their wives and daughters to cook for them; and naturally, those ladies brought their habits, and took their tubs as they had always done at home. When it was represented to them by their employer that they had scandalized the decent and respectable city of Mosul by so doing, they replied innocently, “But, sahib, if the Mussulmans object, they need not look.” A Saturday tub in Tyari is a solemn and proper ceremonial. All the family go down together, and the washing is carried out, in true Homeric style, by the ladies personally. The old women scrub the old men, and the damsels the youths. When the men have finished the girls take their tubs.