An extempore market—Carbonate of soda—The population—The
Pacha's salary—The Commander's pay—The Hungarian doctor's
contract—The Armenian church—An inscription—A heathen
temple—The Armenian clergy—Their different grades—The
monks—The two Patriarchs—The Catolicos—The _meira_—The
miraculous power of the Catolicos—The miracle turned into £
_s._ _d._—Baptismal and burial fees—Prayers for the dead—A
curious tradition—King Abgar the leper—The journey from
Van—The mirage—Gull—Paz—Tishikoomlekui—Ardisch—A Kurdish
girl—A strange custom.
I now walked to an extempore market which the Armenians are making use
of until the old one is reconstructed. With the exception of quantities
of rough silk brought from Persia, raw cotton, and carbonate of soda,
which had been taken from the lake, there was literally nothing to see.
It was said that there were 20,000 inhabitants in the town; I
am inclined to believe that the number has been exaggerated. The
market-place which had been destroyed by fire stood on a very small area
of ground. The impression conveyed to my mind was that the whole town
did not contain above 16,000 inhabitants. The Pacha receives a yearly
salary of 2200 liras, and is paid in gold. The other officials are not
so fortunate; the pay of the commander of the garrison only amounted
to 20_l._ a month, and was always several months in arrear; in addition
to this he was paid in Turkish banknotes. The Hungarian had a contract
with the Government; his pay amounted to 17_l._ per month, and had to
be given him in gold; in consequence of this, he was quite as well off
as the commander.
From the market-place I went to the Armenian church, which stands in
the middle of the town. It consists of several rooms, one of them being
very much like a wooden barn, the others are built of stone with arched
roofs. There was nothing to be seen in the building save a few tawdry
pictures of saints; it was carpeted in the same way as the Turkish
mosques. The priest who accompanied us, raising a curtain, showed me an
inscription in cuneiform characters cut in the stone.
"This part of the building is very old," he said; "it was formerly a
heathen temple."
"How old?" I inquired.
"One thousand eight hundred years," said the priest.
"Nonsense, brother," said another. "It is two thousand."
"Say three thousand, and you will be nearer the mark," added a third.
It was evident that none of these gentlemen had any data to go upon for
their calculations, I left the church rather disappointed. I had hoped
that some of the divines might be able to give me information as to the
antiquities of the city. The Armenian clergy do not trouble their heads
about such matters; their time is so taken up in the performance of
idolatrous rites, and in looking after the welfare of the fairer portion
of their flock, that they have not a moment to spare for the study of
the ancient history of Armenia.
The Armenian who wishes to be a priest must serve in six different
grades before he can be ordained. He must be an exorcist, porter,
reader, sub-deacon, candle-lighter, and deacon. If he has any interest
with his bishop, he can pass through all these grades in one day.
As a priest, he is allowed to marry; however, like the clergy belonging
to the Greek Church, if his wife dies, the Armenian cannot take unto
himself a second spouse. He then may become a monk, and live, free of
expense, in one of the monasteries. Next in order, but above the monks,
are the bishops and the two patriarchs—one residing in Constantinople,
the other at Jerusalem—the patriarch at Constantinople being looked
up to by the Armenians as a sort of civil head, besides being their
spiritual guide. We now come to the Catolicos, who is first of all in
the ecclesiastical hierarchy. He lives in Russia, near Mount Ararat,
and is the chief personage of the Armenian Church.
All bishops and priests have to wear beards. The bishops are ordained
by the Catolicos, and a council of bishops consecrates the latter. The
Armenian Christians worship pictures; confess to their priests; offer
prayers for the dead, and ask for the intercession of their saints.
An oil is used for the baptism of children. It is called _meira_. The
Armenians believe that this oil has boiled without any fire having been
placed under it, and they think that this has been effected through the
miraculous power of the Catolicos. Whoever and whatever touches this
oil is made holy, and is looked upon as having been sanctified.
The Catolicos sells the _meira_, and makes a very large sum by the sale
of the oil. The other revenues of the Church arise from baptismal and
burial fees, prayers for the dead, taxes imposed upon the people by the
ecclesiastics, voluntary contributions, and money left in the wills of
devotees.
According to an American missionary at Erzeroum, the Rev. Moses
Parmelee, who has published a work which treats of the Armenian clergy,
"many of the higher ecclesiastics become very wealthy at the expense of
the poor people whom they cheat and oppress."
He also remarks that the Bible of the Armenians is in their ancient
language, which is not understood by the masses of the people.
They were a free nation till the beginning of the eleventh century, but
later on the Moguls and Turks devastated Armenia, and the inhabitants
have never raised their heads since.
There is a curious tradition connected with the Armenian faith. It is to
the effect that, at the beginning of our era, some envoys from Abgar,
King of Armenia, happened to be in Jerusalem. Whilst they were in the
city they saw Jesus Christ, and afterwards informed their sovereign of
the miracles which our Saviour was performing throughout Syria. The
monarch was a leper, and, thinking that the same supernatural being
who had saved so many lives in Jerusalem might be able to do something
for him, the king wrote, say the Armenians, the following letter to the
Saviour:—
"Abgar, son of Arsham, Prince of this land, to Jesus the Saviour and
benefactor of man. Greeting. I have heard of Thee, and of the cures
wrought by Thy hands without remedies and without plants. For it is
said that Thou makest the blind to see, the lame to walk. The lepers are
healed, and spirits are cast out. Thou healest the unfortunate afflicted
with long and inveterate diseases. Thou dost raise the dead. As I have
heard of all the wonders done by Thee, I have concluded that Thou art
either God come down from heaven, or the Son of God, to do such things.
I therefore have written beseeching Thee to deign to come to me and
cure my disease. I have also heard that the Jews use Thee ill, and lay
snares to destroy Thee. I have here a little city pleasantly situated,
and sufficient for us both."
Jesus replied: "After I have gone I will send one of My disciples, who
shall cure thy malady, and give life to thee and thine."
Some Armenians say that Christ caused the imprint of His face to be left
on a handkerchief, and gave it to the envoys, telling them that it would
cure their master. This is cited to justify the adoration of pictures,
which is part of the Armenian faith. According to another tradition,
the handkerchief never reached the leprous king; for the envoys who were
carrying it to their master were attacked by brigands, and it was stolen
on the way. This version tells us that Thaddeus subsequently healed the
leprous sovereign.
It was the 7th of March. I had already spent several days in Van,
and, contrary to my hopes, had not benefited by the rest. I was still
suffering from dysentery; instead of the complaint getting better, it
had become worse. By all account we should be able to find milk in most
of the Kurd and Yezeed villages between Van and Kars; so I determined
to start for the latter place and try what a milk and rice diet would
do towards restoring my health and strength. We rode for two hours by
the side of the lake; then, leaving the blue water, ascended a low range
of hills. The sun's rays were very powerful; a mirage was formed before
us. Miles upon miles of water were reflected in the sky. Presently we
crossed a little stream known as the Mahmod Tchai, and after a short
march halted at Gull—a small village with thirty houses, half belonging
to Armenians, half to Mohammedans.
The morn breaks. We ride over some high table-land, and then return to
the lake. Our route lies along its shores. Sand-hills slope down to the
water's edge; myriads of starlings flit about the beach; pelicans and
other wild fowl sail along the surface of the deep. After a six hours'
journey we rest at Paz—a small Kurd village with only ten houses.
The following day we marched along a good track to Tishikoomlekui, a
devil-worshippers' village. Then crossing the Bendimah river—here about
thirty yards wide—on a stone bridge, we continued to Karahana, and so on
to Ardisch, an Armenian village with 200 houses and a resident Caimacan.
A pretty Kurdish girl, whom I had seen at Paz, accompanied us to the
latter place. I now learnt that the females in some parts of Kurdistan
have a strange custom. This is to beset any stranger who is about to
enter or quit their village. The girls dance round the wayfarer, and
take the opportunity to divest him of his apparel. When he is in a nude
state, they seize their victim and carry him with them before some old
matron,[18] complaining to her that their prisoner has grossly insulted
them. The man is lucky if he escapes with his clothes minus the cash in
the pockets.