Modern division of Armenia.--Population.--Manners and Customs of
the Christians.--Superiority of the Mohammedans.
The country which was called Armenia in ancient times is now divided
into two portions; the smaller of the two belongs to Persia, but
the larger part is contained in the Turkish province or pashalik of
Erzeroom. It does not possess any communication with the sea, and is
a wild and mountainous district. Although not of any high importance
for mercantile productions, it has continually been an object of
jealousy to the neighboring empires of Persia and Byzantium--or, in
our time, Persia and Turkey--from the high road between those empires
necessarily passing through it; the power of cutting off supplies,
and permitting the passage of caravans laden with the rich productions
of other lands, being vested in the hands of the military governor of
Erzeroom. The number of inhabitants of this pashalik is estimated at
1,000,000; there were probably more in earlier times. The principal
cities are--Erzeroom, the capital, containing about 30,000 souls. The
population of Kars is considered to be about 20,000, Van 20,000, Moosh
and Beyboort about 8000 each. The Turkish governor of the pashalik
has generally an armed force of 25,000 regular soldiers; but it would
be easy for him, with sufficient funds, to raise a more considerable
force of irregular cavalry, and infantry armed with rifles, the use of
which weapon is well understood by the hardy mountaineers and hunters,
whose manners in some respects resemble those of the Tyrolese. The
greater half of the population are Mohammedan Turks or Osmanlis,
followers of Osman. The word Turk is never used in this country, and is
more generally applied to the Turkomans and some of the tribes on the
Persian border, who are of Calmuc or Tartar origin, and a completely
different sort of people from those whom we call Turks. The Christian
population consists of a small number of Greeks, Nestorians, and Roman
Catholics, the greater part being descendants of the ancient possessors
of the soil, and professing the Christianity of the Armenian Church,
which I have attempted to describe above. Their manners and customs are
the same as those of the Turks, whom they copy in dress and in their
general way of living; so much is this the case, that it is frequently
difficult to distinguish the Turkish from the Armenian family, both
in Armenia and at Constantinople; only the Armenian is the inferior
in all respects; he would be called in China a second-chop Turk. He
is more quick and restless in his motions, and wants the dignity and
straightforward bearing of the Osmanli. More than 100,000 Armenians
are settled at Constantinople. These are not so ignorant, and are,
even in appearance, different from those of their original country,
who are a heavy and loutish race, while the citizens are thin, sharp,
active in money-making arts, and remarkable for their acuteness in
mercantile transactions. Each Turkish village elects its cadi, a
sort of mayor; an Armenian Christian village elects its elder, who is
called the Ak Sakal, or White Beard; he is the responsible person in
all transactions with government, and sometimes holds an arduous post.
The women live in a harem, like the Turkish women, separate from the
men. The mistress of the house superintends the kitchen, the making
of preserves, and salting winter stores; they wear the yashmak,
or Turkish veil, at Constantinople, where the Armenian ladies are
celebrated for their beauty, and their fine eyes, and black, arched
eyebrows. In Armenia, the women, when they go out, wrap themselves
up in a large piece of bunting, the same kind of stuff that is
used in Europe for flags; being of wool, it takes a fine color in
dyeing. The ample wrappers of the women are sometimes of a bright
scarlet, sometimes a brilliant white or blue. The effect of this veil
is much more pleasing than those of Constantinople or Egypt. The
Armenians are not bad cooks: some of their dishes are excellent;
one of mutton stewed with quinces leaves a very favorable impression
on the recollection of the hungry traveler. The country people live
underground in the peculiar houses which I have described; they are
an agricultural peasantry, tilling the ground, and not possessing
large herds of sheep or cattle, like the Turkomans, Koords, or Arabs;
they are a heavy-looking race, but are hardy and active, and inured
from youth to exercise and endurance, but even in these respects they
are excelled by the Mohammedan mountaineers.
The superiority of the Mohammedan over the Christian can not fail to
strike the mind of an intelligent person who has lived among these
races, as the fact is evident throughout the Turkish empire. This
arises partly from the oppression which the Turkish rulers in the
provinces have exercised for centuries over their Christian subjects:
this is probably the chief reason; but the Turk obeys the dictates
of his religion, the Christian does not; the Turk does not drink,
the Christian gets drunk; the Turk is honest, the Turkish peasant is a
pattern of quiet, good-humored honesty; the Christian is a liar and a
cheat; his religion is so overgrown with the rank weeds of superstition
that it no longer serves to guide his mind in the right way. It would
be a work of great difficulty to disentangle the pure faith preached
by the Apostles from the mass of absurdities and strange notions with
which Christianity is encumbered, in the belief of the villagers in
out-of-the-way places, among the various sects of Christians in the
dominions of the Sultan. This seems to have been the case for many
centuries, and it has produced its effect in lowering the standard
of morality, and injuring the general character of those nations who
are subjects of Turkey and not of the Mohammedan religion. For, of
two evils, it is better to follow the doctrines of a false religion
than to neglect the precepts of the true faith.