Miss Alice Stone Blackwell was kind enough to put into English verse
for me the following ballad. In some districts of Armenia this tragic
story of Sia-Manto and Guje-Zare is told as a prose tale as are the
other tales of this volume. In some other districts, especially
near the foot of Mount Ararat, it has the form of a versified
ballad and is sung with great relish by both the Armenians and the
Kurds. According to the tradition of the natives, Sia-Manto was an
Armenian youth and Guje-Zare a Kurdish maiden. They were both of
noble birth. The Armenians and the Kurds, although close neighbors,
never intermarry owing to their religious differences. The Kurds,
however, very often kidnap Armenian girls, and as they are professed
Mohammedans they find protection from the Turkish authorities, instead
of being punished for their crimes. The Armenians, on the other hand,
being despised as "Christian infidels," never dare to kidnap or elope
with Kurdish girls. This is the only instance on record of a Kurdish
maiden's elopement with an Armenian youth, and this is a mere tale.