and as their creed scarcely hesitates to give the appropriation of the
goods of a _Kafir_ a place among the virtues, they prey upon the
Syrian and Armenian peasants with clear consciences. To rob them by
violence and "demand," month after month and year after year, till
they have stripped them nearly bare, to cut their throats if they
resist, to leave them for a while to retrieve their fortunes,--"_to
let the sheep's wool grow_," as their phrase is,--and then to rob them
again, is the simple story of the relations between Kurd and
Christian. They are well armed with modern rifles and revolvers. I
have rarely seen a Kurd with an old-fashioned weapon, and I have
_never_ seen a Christian with a rifle, and their nearly useless long
guns have lately been seized by the Government. The Kurds hate and
despise the Turks, their nominal rulers; but the Islamic bond of
brotherhood is stronger than the repulsion either of hatred or
contempt, and the latent or undisguised sympathy of their
co-religionists in official positions ensures them, for the most part,
immunity for their crimes, for the new Code, under which the evidence
of a Christian has become nominally admissible in a court of law,
being in direct opposition to the teaching of the Koran, to the
practice of centuries, to Kurdish fanaticism, and to the strong
religious feelings and prejudices of those who administer justice, is
practically, so far as the Christians are concerned, a dead
letter.[59]
I am writing in an _odah_ in the village of Harta, after a wild
mountain ride in wind, sleet, and snow. The very long marches on this
journey have been too much for me, and I made a first and last attempt
to travel in a _maffir_ or covered wooden pannier, but the suffering
was so great that I was glad to remount my faithful woolly _Boy_. We
had a regular snowstorm, in which nothing could be seen but the
baggage horses struggling and falling, and occasional glimpses of
caverned limestone cliffs and precipitous slopes, with a foamy torrent
at a tremendous depth below. On emerging from the pass, Moussa,
Suleiman, and I came at a good pace through the slush to this _odah_,
and I arrived so cold that I was glad to have to rub my horse dry, and
attend to him. Murphy describes him thus: "That's a strange horse of
yours, ma'am; if one were to lie down among his legs he'd take no
notice to hurt one. When he comes in he just fills hisself, then he
lies down in the wettest place he can find, and goes to sleep. Then he
wakes and shakes hisself, and hollers, he does, till he gets his
grub"--an inelegant but forcible description of the excellences of a
travelling horse. _Boy_ is truly a gentle pet; it afflicts me sorely
to part with him. A few nights ago as I took some raisins to him in a
dark recess of the stable, my light went out, and I slipped and fell
among the legs of some animal. Not knowing whether it was a buffalo or
a strange horse I did not dare to move, and said, "Is this you, my
sweet _Boy_?" A low pleasant snuffle answered "yes," and I pulled
myself up by the strong woolly legs, which have carried me so sturdily
and bravely for several hundred miles.
The Christians appear not to have anything analogous to our "family
worship," but are careful in their attendance at the daily prayers in
church, to which they are summoned before dawn, either by loud
rappings on their doors or the striking of a wooden gong or
sounding-board. The churches differ very little. They usually have an
attempt at an outer courtyard, the interior of the edifice is
generally square, the roof is supported by two rows of poplar pillars,
and the rough walls are concealed by coarse pictures and dirty torn
strips of printed cotton. Dirty mats or bits of carpets cover the
floor, racks are provided for the shoes of the worshippers, and if
there is not a gallery a space is railed off for the women. The
prayers are mumbled by priests in dirty vestments, while the women
knit and chatter. Candle-grease, dust, and dirt abound. There is such
an air of indifference about priests and people that one asks what
motive it is which impels them to leave their warm stable dwellings on
these winter mornings to shiver in a dark and chilly church. They say,
"We will tread the paths our fathers trod; they are quite good enough
for us." Two nights ago, in an _odah_ full of men, the Kurdish
_khanji_, at the canonical hour, fell down on his forehead at prayer
in the midst of us, all daggers, pistols, and finery as he was. In
which case is the worship most ignorant, I wonder?
I. L. B.
FOOTNOTES:
[56] Akhlat was a place of immense importance in ancient days, and its
history epitomises the vicissitudes of Armenia; Abulfeda, Bakani,
Deguignes, Ritter, and Finlay in his _History of Greece_ are among the
best-known authorities on its history, and Mr. Tozer in his work on
_Turkish Armenia_, p. 318, etc., gives an interesting popular sketch
of the way in which it was conquered and reconquered by Saracens,
Greeks, Kurds, Turks, Khoarasmians and Georgians, till eventually the
Turks reconquered it from the Kurds. Its ancient Armenian name of
Khelat is altogether unknown to its present inhabitants.
[57] Xenophon in his _Anabasis_ describes the Armenian dwellings of
his day thus:--
"Their houses were underground, the entrance like the mouth of a well,
but spacious below; there were passages dug into them for the cattle,
but the people descended by ladders. In the houses were goats, sheep,
cows, and fowls, with their young. All the cattle were kept in fodder
within the walls." I have not seen the entrance by a well, but have
understood that it still exists in certain exposed situations.
Xenophon mentions buried wine, and it is not unlikely that the deep
clay-lined holes in which grain is stored in some of the villages are
ancient cellars, anterior to the date when the Karduchi became Moslems
and teetotallers.
[58] It was not possible to ascertain the accuracy of these
narratives, and though many of them appeared to be established by a
mass of concurrent and respectable testimony, I forbear presenting any
of them to my readers, especially as the report presented to
Parliament in January 1891 (_Turkey_, No. 1) not only gives, on
British official authority, a mass of investigated facts, but states
the case of the Armenian peasantry in language far stronger than any
that I should have ventured to use.
[59] In a Minute by the late Mr. Clifford Lloyd (_Turkey_, No. 1,
1890-91, p. 80) the condition of the Christian peasant population of
Kurdistan is summarised thus:--
"Their sufferings at present proceed from three distinct causes--
"1. The insecurity of their lives and properties, owing to the
habitual ravages of the Kurds.
"2. The insecurity of their persons and the absence of all liberty of
thought and action (except the exercise of public worship).
"3. The unequal status held by the Christian as compared with the
Mussulman in the eyes of the Government."
LETTER XXXIV
ERZERUM, _Dec. 1_.
I left Harta in a snowstorm without the caravan, and wherever the snow
was well beaten got along at a good pace, passing on the right the
fortress of Hassan-Kaleh, with several lines of fortifications and a
town at its base, which, with the surrounding district, consumes, it
is said, an amount of strong drink equal in value to its taxation. The
adjacent Pasin Plain, watered by the Araxes, has suffered severely
from the Kurds. A short time ago all its Christian villages were
plundered, and _at least_ 20 horses, 31 asses, 2282 sheep, and 750
head of cattle, nearly the whole pastoral wealth of the people, were
carried off by these marauders, while the Moslem villages were exempt
from their attacks. After winding among uninteresting hills crowned
with forts, along valleys in which military posts occur at frequent
intervals, and making a long ascent, the minarets and grim
fortifications of the unhappy town of Erzerum loomed through the
snow-mist; the city itself lying on a hill slope above a very
extensive plain at a height of over 6000 feet. It was a solemn scene.
The snow was deep and was still falling, the heavens were black, and
swirls of mist driven by a strong wind blotted out at times the
surrounding mountains. A dead calm followed, and snow clouds hung
suspended over the city.
My first impression of Erzerum was of earthworks of immense size
extending for miles, with dismounted guns upon them looking very black
in the snow; of a deep ditch, and a lofty rampart pierced by a fine
granite tunnel; of more earthworks, and of forts crowning all the
heights directly above the city, and of many flags drooping on their
staffs. Between the fortifications and the town there is a great deal
of open ground sprinkled with rifle pits, powder magazines, and
artillery, cavalry, and infantry barracks, very solidly built and
neatly kept up. After passing through cemeteries containing thousands
of gravestones, we abruptly entered the principal street, wide and
somewhat European-looking, in which are some of the Consulates and the
Protestant Armenian church and schools. The houses in this street are
very irregular, and most of them have projecting upper fronts.
I was received with the utmost kindness at the American Mission House,
where it has seemed likely that I might be detained for the winter! I
understood that when I reached Erzerum I should be able to drive to
Trebizond in a _fourgon_, so I sent Murphy to Van on _Boy_, and
thought with much satisfaction of the ease of the coming journey. Then
I was ill, and afterwards found that the _fourgons_ were long rough
waggons without springs, in which one must lie or sit on the top of
the baggage, and that I should never be able to bear the jolting.
There was another heavy snowstorm, and winter set in so rigorously
that it was decided that driving was out of the question, and that I
must hire a horse. After the matter had been settled thus, Murphy and
_Boy_, both in very bad case, were found in a low part of the town,
and though Murphy asserts that he encountered Kurds near Hassan-Kaleh
who robbed him of everything, it is not believed that he ever passed
through the city gate. He looks a pitiable object, and his
much-frogged uniform, and the blanket, revolver, and other things that
I had given him are all gone. In spite of his fatal failing, I have
re-engaged him, and shall again ride my trusty pet. The Vali, ignoring
my official letter, has insisted on a number of formalities being
complied with, and though the acting-Consul has undertaken all the
formal arrangements, the delays have been many and tiresome. There are
two bugbears on the Trebizond road,--the Kop and Zigana mountains,
which are liable to be blocked by snow.
As compared with Persian towns, Erzerum looks solid and handsome, and
its uncovered bazars seem fairly busy. The through traffic between
Trebizond and Tabriz, chiefly in British goods, is very heavy. The
Custom House is in sight from my windows, and in one day I have
counted as many as 700 laden camels passing through it, besides horse
and mule caravans. There are about 2000 Persians in the city, and the
carrying trade is mainly in their hands. The present population is
estimated at from 20,000 to 24,000. The Armenians are not very
numerous, but their enterprise as traders gives them an importance out
of proportion to their numbers. The Armenian cathedral, the "Pair of
Minarets," the "Single Minaret," and the castle, which stands on a
height in the middle of the city, and contains a small Saracenic
chapel, are the chief "sights."
Nothing is talked about but "the troubles,"[60] and the European
Consuls, who possess trustworthy information, confirm my impressions
of the seriousness of the present latitude allowed to the Kurds. The
Turkish Government has just taken a step which is regarded as full of
hazard. Certain Kurdish Beys were summoned to Erzerum, nominally for
the purpose of being reprimanded for their misdeeds; but they were
allowed to enter the gates with a number of armed followers, and
afterwards went to Erzingian, where, from the hands of Zeki Pacha, the
Commander of the Fourth Army Corps, they received commissions as
officers of irregulars. The Christians (but I hope erroneously) regard
this step as a menace, and the Kurds appear to think that it gives
them license to maraud.
These Beys, after receiving their commissions, went through the
Christian quarter of the Erzingian bazars, making gestures as of
cutting throats, and saying to the Christian merchants, "Your time has
come now; hitherto we have not had the co-operation of the Government,
but we have it now." It remains to be seen whether the Porte will
succeed in bringing these men and their wild followers under the
conditions of military discipline.
The excitement following upon the "troubles" last June has only
partially subsided, and I learn from the Europeans that the state of
suspicion, fear, distrust, and repression within the city has
undergone little diminution. Every day brings fresh reports of robbery
and outrage, and for murders of well-known Christians no arrests are
being made.[61] Trade among the Armenians is suffering, for those
merchants whose transactions are with Kurdish districts dare not
collect their debts for fear of losing their lives. Arrests of
Christians on frivolous and worthless pretexts are being made daily,
Armenian houses are being searched continually, and individuals are
being imprisoned for long terms of years for having books in their
possession containing references to the past history of Armenia, and
the Government is, or affects to be, in constant dread of an
insurrectionary rising among the Christians. The accounts from the
country districts are so very bad that one of the ablest and
best-informed of the European Consuls, a very old resident in Asia
Minor, remarked indignantly, "It's no longer a question of politics
but of humanity."
One of the most interesting sights in Erzerum is the Sanassarian
College, founded and handsomely endowed by the liberality of an
Armenian merchant. The fine buildings are of the best construction,
and are admirably suited for educational purposes, and the equipments
are of the latest and most complete description. The education and the
moral and intellectual training are of a very high type, and the
personal influence of the three directors, who were educated in
Germany and England, altogether "makes for righteousness." The
graduation course is nine years. The students, numbering 120, wear a
uniform, and there is no distinction of class among them. They are,
almost without exception, manly, earnest, and studious, and are full
of enthusiasm and _esprit de corps_. Much may be hoped for in the
future from the admirable moral training and thorough education given
in this college, which is one of the few bright spots in Armenia.
I have seen Erzerum under very favourable circumstances, for, since
the last snowstorm, the weather has been magnificent, and everything
that is untidy or unsightly has an unsullied covering. The winter
sunsets reddening the white summits of the Deveh Boyun and other lofty
ranges, and the absolute purity of the whiteness of the plain, between
thirty and forty miles long and from ten to twenty broad, which lies
below the city, exercise a witchery which the scorching heats of
summer must utterly destroy.
I. L. B.
FOOTNOTES:
[60] The reader will recollect that the "Erzerum troubles" so
frequently referred to consisted of riot and bloodshed following upon
a search for arms which was made under the floors of the Armenian
Cathedral and the Sanassarian College, on the strength (it is said) of
an anonymous telegram in June 1890. The lucid account given of this
deplorable affair and of the subsequent inaction of the local
Government by Her Britannic Majesty's Consul-General for Kurdistan, in
the "White Book," to which allusion has been made, should be studied
by all who are interested in the so-called "Armenian Question."
[61] In a despatch in the "White Book" (_Turkey_, No. 1, 1890-91) Mr.
Clifford Lloyd sums up the condition of things in Kurdistan thus: "In
a country such as this is, lawlessness is to be expected; _but
unfortunately in nearly every instance armed and ungoverned Kurds are
the aggressors, and unarmed and unprotected Armenian Christians the
victims_."
LETTER XXXV
TREBIZOND, _Dec. 13, 1890_.
The journey from Erzerum to Trebizond in the winter season occupies
from ten to twelve days, and involves a transition from an altitude of
6000 feet to the sea-level, and from treelessness, aridity, and
severities of cold to forests and moisture, a temperate climate, and
the exquisite greenness of the slopes which descend upon the Black
Sea. There is a well-made waggon road, carefully engineered, for the
whole distance, with stone bridges in excellent repair; many of the
_khans_ are tolerable, supplies can be procured, and the country is
passably safe.
I left Erzerum on the 2d of December, escorted by my kindly hosts as
far as Elijeh, having an Armenian _katirgi_, who in every respect gave
me the greatest satisfaction, and the same servants as before. The
mercury fell rapidly the following night, was 2 deg. below zero when I
left Elijeh for Ashkala the next morning, and never rose above 15 deg.
during the whole day. The road follows the western branch of the
Euphrates, the Frat, a reedy and winding stream. The horsemen and foot
passengers were mostly muffled up in heavy cloaks with peaked hoods,
and the white comforters which wrapped up their faces revealed only
one eye, peering curiously out of a cavern of icicles. Icicles hung
from the noses and bodies of the horses, it was not possible to ride
more than half an hour at a time without being benumbed, and the snow
was very deep for walking. After crossing the Euphrates twice by
substantial stone bridges, I halted at Ashkala, a village of _khans_,
at a clean but unfinished _khan_ on the bank of the river, and in a
room with unglazed windows and no possibility of making a fire
experienced a temperature of 5 deg. below zero. My dinner froze before I
could finish it, the stock of potatoes for the journey, though wrapped
in a fur cloak inside my _yekdan_, was totally spoilt, and my ink
froze. The following day was cloudy and inclined to snow rather than
frost, and the crossing of the much-dreaded Kop Dagh was managed
without difficulty in five hours, in snow three feet deep. There is a
refuge near the summit, but there are no habitations on the ascent or
descent. It is a most dangerous pass, owing to the suddenness and fury
of the storms, and only last winter sixty fine camels and ten drivers
perished there in a blizzard. My _zaptieh_ was left behind ill at the
refuge, and I made the remainder of the journey without an escort. The
Kop Dagh, 7500 feet in altitude, forms the watershed between the
Euphrates valley and the Black Sea, and on such an afternoon as that
on which I crossed it, when wild storms swept over successive mountain
ranges, and yet wilder gleams lighted up the sinuous depression which
marks the course of the Frat, the view from its lofty summit is a very
striking one.
It was dark when I reached the very miserable hamlet on the western
side of the Kop, and as earlier caravans had taken up the better
accommodation, I had to content myself with a recess opening out of a
camel stable. The camels sat in circles of ten, and pleasant family
parties they looked, gossiping over their chopped straw, which, with a
ball of barley-meal dough in the morning, constitutes their slender
but sufficient diet. Nothing gives a grander idea of the magnitude and
ramifications of commerce than the traffic on the road from Erzerum
to Trebizond. During eleven days there has scarcely been a time when
there has not been a caravan in sight, and indeed they succeed each
other in a nearly endless procession, the majority being composed of
stately mountain camels, gaily caparisoned, carrying large musical
bells, their head-stalls of crimson leather being profusely tasselled
and elaborately decorated with cowries and blue beads. The leader of
each caravan wears a magnificent head-dress covering his head and
neck, on which embroidery is lavishly used in combination with tinsel
and coloured glass, the whole being surmounted by a crown with a plume
set between the ears. There is one driver to every six animals; and
these men, fine, robust, sturdy fellows, are all dressed alike, in
strong warm clothing, the chief feature of which is a great brown
sheepskin cap of mushroom shape, which projects at least nine inches
from the head. The road is a highway for British goods. The bales and
packing cases are almost invariably marked with British names and
trade marks. The exception is Russian kerosene, carried by asses and
horses, of which an enormous quantity was on the road.
I was glad to leave Kop Khane at daybreak, for caravan bells jingled,
chimed, tolled, and pealed all night, and my neighbours the camels
were under weigh at 3 A.M. The road descends gently down the wide
valley of the Tchoruk, the ancient Acampsis, and then ascends to
Baiburt, a town with a population of about 12,000 souls, 1800 being
Christians. It is very picturesquely situated at the junction of two
or three valleys, the houses rise irregularly as at Bitlis tier above
tier, and the resemblance is heightened by a great reddish-yellow rock
which rises in the centre, the long and varied contour of which is
followed by the walls of a fortress imposing even in its ruins, round
and square towers cresting the remarkable eminence. A handsome
military college on a height, wide streets lined by well-built houses
with projecting upper stories, and well-supplied and busy markets, in
which an enormous quantity of mutton is exposed for sale, are among
the chief features of this very striking town. A domiciliary visit
from a courteous chief of police, who assured me that an escort was
not needed, and re-sealed my passports, was my only contact with
Turkish officialism between Erzerum and Trebizond.
After leaving Baiburt I diverged a little, in spite of very deep snow,
to visit the ruined Armenian ecclesiastical edifices at Varzahan, a
village from which a mountain road to Trebizond passing near the Greek
monastery of Sumelas branches from the main road. The most interesting
and best-preserved of these buildings is an octagonal chapel of a very
elaborate design, with remains of a circle of slender shafts, a very
fine west window, round arches, and some curious designs in fresco. In
another a pointed arch, and a fragment of a blind arcade with niches
on its outer face, remain, along with some very carefully-executed
cable and twisted moulding. It was truly refreshing to come upon such
very beautiful relics of Christian art in so wild a country. These
edifices are attributed to the eleventh or twelfth century. In an
ancient and adjacent cemetery there are several monumental stone rams,
very much like the stone lions of the Bakhtiari country.
I quite broke down on that march, and was obliged to bribe the Turkish
occupants of a most miserable hovel to vacate it for me, and on the
following day was only able to ride three hours to Getchid. The sky
was grim and threatening, and the snow deep, and when after a long
ascent we descended into a really magnificent defile, so narrow that
for a long distance the whole roadway is blasted out of the rock, a
violent snowstorm came on, with heavy gusts of wind. There were high
mountains with a few trees upon them dimly seen, walling in the
wildest and most rugged part of the defile, where some stables offered
a shelter, and I was glad to be allowed to occupy the wood house, a
damp excavation in the mountain side! No words can convey an
impression of the roughness of Asia Minor travelling in winter!
It was lonely, for the stable where the servants were was a short
distance off, and the _khanji_ came several times to adjure me to keep
the bolt of the door fastened, for his barley was in my keeping, and
there was a gang of robbers on the road! I fell asleep, however, but
was awakened at midnight by yells, shouts, tramplings, and a most
violent shaking of my very insecure door. It was the Turkish post,
who, being unable to get into the stable, was trying to bring his
tired horses into my den for a little rest! Fine fellows these Turkish
mail riders are, who carry the weekly mail from Trebizond into the
interior. The post drives two horses loaded with the mail bags in
front of him at a gallop, urging them with yells and his heavy whip,
the _zaptieh_ escort galloping behind, and at this pace they dash up
and down mountains and over plains by day and night, changing at short
intervals, and are only behind time in the very worst of weather.