The Armenian Quarter of Broussa—Catholics and
Schismatics—Armenian Church—Ugly Saints—Burial Place of the
Bishops—Cloisters—Public School—Mode of Rearing the Silk
Worms—Difference between the European and the Asiatic
Systems—Colour and Quantity of the Produce—Appearance of the
Mulberry Woods.
It is a singular fact, that although the Armenian quarter of Broussa
contains upwards of a thousand houses which are all inhabited, the
number of Catholic families does not amount to fifty; their place of
worship is consequently small, and unworthy of description, being merely
the chapel attached to a private house, while the Schismatic Church is
proportionably handsome. The difference of faith between the two sects
hangs upon a single point—the Schismatics deny the double nature of
Christ, and are accordingly denounced as heretics by their more orthodox
brethren; although they worship the same profusion of Saints—weep over
the wounds of the same blessed martyrs—and build altars to the same
Virgin under all her multitudinous designations.
The Armenian Church of Broussa is very elegant. The altar, which extends
along its whole width, is of white marble, highly polished, and divided
into three compartments, merely separated from the aisles by a simple
railing, and is arranged with considerable taste; the sacerdotal plate
being interspersed with vases of white lilies. The roof is supported by
ten fine columns, and the floor covered, like that of a mosque, with
rich carpets.
The Saints, whose portraits adorn the walls, (which are covered with
Dutch tiles to the height of the latticed gallery,) have been most
cruelly treated. I never beheld “the human face divine” so caricatured!
A tale is somewhere told of a susceptible young Italian, who became
enamoured of the Madonna that adorned his oratory; he might kneel before
the whole saintly community of the Armenian Church of Broussa, without a
quickening pulse—they would haunt the dreams of an artist like the
nightmare! At the base of the pictures, crosses of white marble are
incrusted in the masonry, curiously inlaid with coloured stones; and a
portable altar, whose plate was enriched with fine turquoises, stood in
the centre of the aisle, surmounted by a hideous St. Joseph, glaring out
in his ugliness from beneath a drapery of silver muslin.
The church is surrounded on three sides by a noble covered cloister,
lined with marble, partially carpeted, and furnished with an altar at
each extremity. That on the right hand is the burial place of the
Bishops, who lie beneath slabs of marble, elaborately carved; the left
hand cloister, into which flows a noble fountain, serves as a sacristy;
and the third, situated at the extreme end of the church, is decorated
with a dingy Virgin, and a congregation of Saints in very tattered
condition, to whom their votaries offer the tribute of lighted tapers,
whose numerous remains were scattered about in their immediate vicinity.
The women’s gallery is handsome and spacious, and is partially
overlooked by the windows of the Bishop’s Palace; a fine building
erected a year ago at an immense expence.
From the church we passed into the public school, where three hundred
boys were conning their tasks under the superintendence of a single
master. Though we were perfectly unexpected, we did not hear a whisper;
every boy was in his place; and the venerable Dominie, with a beard as
white as snow, and a head which would have been a study for a painter,
rose as we entered, and courteously invited us to take our seats upon
the comfortable sofa that occupied the upper end of the hall. The most
beautiful cleanliness pervaded the whole establishment; and the boarded
floor was rubbed as bright by the constant friction of six hundred
little naked feet, as though it had been waxed.
The number of Turkish children now receiving their education in Broussa
we could not ascertain, as they are divided among the different mosques;
but the Greek Rector, who, in the absence of the Archbishop, interested
himself in our comfort and amusement, told me that they had but fifty in
their school, although the Greek population of Broussa is tolerably
numerous. There is, however, a second description of free-school or
college, attached to the Greek and Armenian Churches, wherein the pupils
advance a step in their studies, and prepare themselves for the
Priesthood, and for commercial pursuits.
Our next object of inquiry was the mode of feeding the silk-worms, which
produce in the neighbourhood of Broussa an extraordinary quantity of
silk. We accordingly visited the establishment of a Frenchman, who
exports the raw material to Europe. I was struck by the colour of the
silk, which was of a dingy white; and learnt that, despite all the
efforts of the feeders, they seldom succeeded in producing any other
tint, although the worms are themselves of different qualities and
colours, varying from a dead white to a dark brown, and are fed with the
leaves of both the red and the white mulberry indiscriminately. The most
experienced feeders, however, give a decided preference to the wild
white mulberry, of which most of the plantations about Broussa are
formed. The silk, when first spun, is of a clear, silvery, brilliant
tint; but submersion in the highly mineralized water of the
neighbourhood robs it of its gleam, and reduces it to the dead, dingy
colour I have mentioned; and I was assured that in some hundreds of
pounds weight of silk, not more than two or three could be met with of
yellow.
The Asiatic method of rearing the worm is totally different from that of
Europe, and, according to the account given to me, much more profitable
in its results, as well as simple in its process. The insect has a
natural dislike to being handled, which is inevitable where it is fed
day by day, and the withered leaves of the previous morning cleared
away; the discomfort produced by the touch rendering the worm lethargic,
and retarding its growth. The Asiatics never approach it with the hand:
when it is hatched, the floor of the apartment is covered with layers of
mulberry branches to about three or four inches in depth; and upon these
the insects are laid, and suffered to feed undisturbed until their first
sleep, when they are covered by a fresh supply of boughs similar to the
first, through which they eat their way, and upon which they subsist
until their next change. This operation is repeated four times, always
at the period when the worm casts its skin; and on the first appearance
of an inclination to spin, boughs of oak, of about four feet in length,
stripped of their lower leaves, and planted, if I may so express it, in
close ranks in the bed of mulberry branches, form a pigmy forest in
which the insects establish themselves, and wherein they produce their
silk. Every crevice of the apartment is carefully stopped to prevent the
admission of air, and a fire of charcoal ashes is kept up constantly
throughout the day and night.
Whether the mode of feeding operates on the colour of the silk, I could
not ascertain, though it struck me that the experiment would be worth
trying; but meanwhile it appears to be certain that it greatly increases
its quantity, and diminishes the labour of the feeders. There is
scarcely a house in the neighbourhood of Broussa which does not contain
several apartments filled with silk worms, whose produce is disposed of
to the spinners, of whom there are a considerable number in the city;
and the far-spreading mulberry woods assume in the height of summer the
appearance of stretches of locust-blighted landscape, every tree being
left a branchless trunk without a sign of foliage.