Hagop and Garabet live at the foot of Mount Ararat in a small village.
Their father is very poor and cannot afford to build a house, so they
live in a hut, built of mud, with walls three feet thick.
The inside of the house is plastered with chopped straw and mud mixed
together. The mud roof is flat and is kept smooth by rolling it often
with a stone, or treading it with bare feet. Hagop and Garabet think it
is great fun to go up on the roof after it rains and tread the soft mud
with their bare feet. Then their father rolls it with a big round stone
until it is smooth and firm.
There are many huts like this in Armenia, and they are often half under
ground, with the earth that has been dug out piled up around them. A
village of such dwellings looks a good deal like a village of huge
ant-hills.
There is only one door for the people and animals. Animals? Yes,
animals. For in winter the poor people let the animals come into the
room with them, and almost every family has at least a few goats.
There is a fireplace in the middle of the earth floor for cooking, but
there is no chimney, and the room is very smoky.
The mother makes big thin sheets of blanket bread and bakes it before
the fire. Sometimes she makes little cakes of the bread and spreads
them with thick cream.
The children drink goats’ milk with their bread, and once in a long
while they have a few raisins.
There are no windows in the hut, instead there are a few holes for
light; and there are no tables, no chairs, no beds, no bureaus. In fact
there is no furniture except some mats and blankets. Hagop’s mother
weaves the mats and blankets herself. The children like to watch the
patterns grow on the rugs as the mother weaves the colored threads back
and forth.
The people sit on the mats in the daytime and at night they roll
themselves in the blankets and sleep on these same mats.
Of course the rich people in the towns and cities have much more
comfortable houses, and they often have beautiful carved furniture and
handsome rugs. But these houses have flat roofs, too, and in summer
every one, rich or poor, lives on the roofs.
[Illustration]
There all the work is done; the women weave rugs or make beautiful
lace; the little girls play with their dolls; and at night the mats are
spread and the family sleep under the stars.
I do not believe I should like to live in Armenia, but I should enjoy
sleeping out of doors on the warm summer nights, watching the twinkling
stars until I fell asleep.
* * * * *
Describe the house where Hagop and Garabet live.
What does a village of these huts look like?
Where do the goats live?
What makes the house smoky?
What do the children have to eat and drink?
Describe the inside of the house where Hagop and Garabet live.
Where do the people live in the summer time?
Where do they sleep in summer? In winter?
Tell all the things you can that Hagop’s mother has to do.