CHAPTER XVII.M. Perrot—Armenian customs—Man and wife—We keep our wives for ourselves—My host's niece—Law about divorce—Shutting up the wives—Turkish husbands—How to get a divorce—Marrying a divorced woman—Population of Yuzgat—Crime—Mines in the neighbourhood—Tax paid in lieu of military service—The Circassians—Their promise to the Turkish Government—Tax on land; on house-property; on corn—Cattle—Collectors of taxes—Jealousy about religious matters—Dissensions amongst Christians—American Missionaries—A loyal address—The market—A bazaar two stories high—A walk through the town—Gipsy women—An elderly dame—Obstreperous young ladies—The old woman dances.My host now returned, and informed me that M. Perrot, a French author who wrote a book about Asia Minor, had resided beneath this roof. On turning over the leaves of the work, which had found its way to Yuzgat, I came to a page in which M. Perrot observes that "one day I inquired of my host whyhe did not introduce me to the lady of the house?""It is our custom," was the reply. "And I find it a wise one. What good does it do me if other men see my wife? I took her for myself; she is my property. I have heard that you Europeans spoil your wives; mine is educated properly. When I enter my harem, she comes to kiss my hand, then she stands upright before me in a respectful attitude, and she only opens her mouth when I address her."On showing my host the paragraph, he observed, "When M. Perrot was here, my father owned this house. I remember the circumstance well. I was in the room when M. Perrot asked my father to introduce him to my mother. I suppose my parent was under the impression that in Europe you keep your wives for your guests; but anyhow we keep our wives for ourselves.""What!" I inquired, "would you not introduce me to your sisters or mother?""No, certainly not."Mr. Vankovitch here interposed with the remark that on the following day my host's niece was to be affianced to her future husband; that the bridegroom had not set eyes upon the faceof his intended, and no one in Yuzgat, save her own immediate relatives, had ever seen the young lady."Well," I inquired, "and if the wife of an Armenian is unfaithful to him, can he obtain a divorce?""No," replied my host; "our religion does not allow of such a step; he does not even see his wife's face before marriage.""Then he has no opportunity of studying her character, and she has no opportunity of studying his.""No.""They are a set of fools," said Vankovitch to me in Russian, this language not being understood by the proprietor. "They think that by shutting up their wives, they can keep them out of mischief, but the husbands are very much mistaken.""We need not be surprised at it," he continued; "an Armenian lady is in no way educated. She is confined in a harem. She is the slave of her husband, and has to do all sorts of menial work for him—wash his feet, rub them dry, and wait at table. From her earliest childhood a girl is brought up to consider herself as a slave in her father's house; until theArmenians abandon these barbarous customs, their so-called Christianity will not do them much good. A Turkish husband has no difficulty in obtaining a divorce—in fact he is not even put to the expense of going to a court of law. All he has to do is to say, in the presence of a witness, 'I renounce you,' and he is at once freed from his wife, who is at liberty to go where she likes, and marry whomsoever she pleases.""If a Turk," added Mr. Vankovitch, "once renounces his wife before a witness, he cannot withdraw his renunciation. There is a story that a woman, who wished to be divorced from her husband, dressed up one of her female slaves in man's clothes and provided her with false whiskers and beard. On entering the harem late at night the husband found this disguised figure lying by the side of his wife. He was furious, and at once renounced the, as he thought, faithless lady. There is a curious law about marrying a divorced woman which is not generally known by Europeans," continued the speaker. "If a Turk has divorced his wife, but she wishes to return to him and he to take her, the lady first of all must be married to some other man, and the rites in their entirety be accomplished; the new spousethen divorces her. After this process she can return to her former husband."A husband who wishes to take to himself again his divorced wife, generally chooses some beggar, almost always a very old man; he then offers this elderly individual a sum of money to marry the lady and afterwards renounce her. Sometimes, however, there are difficulties in carrying out these arrangements. The lady takes a fancy to the beggar, and the beggar to the lady. The pauper will not divorce her, and the original husband is laughed at by the rest of the community."There were 10,000 inhabitants in Yuzgat, but there was very little crime. Only one execution had taken place during the last fifteen years, and this had been for murder.The town itself is, comparatively speaking, of recent date, its construction dating back 130 years. The neighbourhood abounds with mines, and I was assured that iron, silver, and coal had been found near the city.The Armenians did not serve in the army as soldiers; but in lieu of military service, paid the Ottoman Government twenty-eight piastres thirty-two paras every year for each male child, from his birth to his death.The Circassians, of whom there are a great many in this part of Turkey, are not compelled to join the army; but they have promised the Government that every able-bodied man amongst them shall turn out as an irregular horse or foot soldier, should his services be required.The people in the province of Angora are taxed as follows:—If ground is cultivated, the proprietor gives the Sultan the tithe of the crop.The owner of a house pays 4l.per 1000l.of the estimated value of his abode, that is to say, if he is living in it himself. If on the contrary he lets it, he must pay 40l.per 1000l.The tax for people engaged in trade or commerce, is 30 per cent. on their profits. If a merchant sells corn in a town, he has to pay a duty of two paras for every twenty okas of grain purchased from him, and should he dispose of a horse, sheep, or ox, in the market-place, he must give the Government 2½ per cent. of the proceeds of the sale. A farmer has to pay the Government four piastres a year if he is the owner of a goat, and three for each sheep he possesses. The collectors of taxes in almost every instance were Mohammedans; many of the Christians grumbled at the way they were assessed.If an Armenian girl expresses a wish to become a Mohammedan, this gives rise to great jealousy between the Turks and Christians. At the same time the Armenians who profess the Armenian faith detest any member of their community who has accepted the Roman Catholic or Protestant doctrines. The Christians being much more intolerant towards the dissenters from their respective creeds than the Turks are to the Christians.There has hardly ever been an instance of a Turk accepting Christianity, but the American missionaries in Asia Minor were said to have converted many Armenians to Protestantism.The Roman Catholic missionaries have not been idle. A number of Armenians no longer reverence the Patriarch in Constantinople, but look upon the Pope as the Head of their Church.The Turks laugh in their sleeves at the discord in the ranks of the Christian community. They cannot understand why so much hatred and ill-feeling should exist between people who worship the same Messias.This difference of opinion amongst the Christians is by no means displeasing to the Turkishauthorities; it renders any union between the Armenians and Russia exceedingly difficult.The following morning a servant brought a paper to my host for his signature. It was a loyal address from the principal people in Yuzgat thanking the Sultan for the Constitution. None of the Armenians believed in the reform. Most of them held the same opinion as the inhabitants of Angora, namely, that the projected Constitution was thrown out as a bait to catch some of the plenipotentiaries at the Conference, and that when the Conference was forgotten the Constitution would be numbered with the past.Vankovitch now called. I walked with him to the market which he was constructing for the townspeople. It was not a large building, being about eighty yards long by thirty wide; the houses were each of them two stories high, built of hewn stone and with glass windows; the latter a great luxury for the natives, glass having to be brought all the way from Samsoun, a port on the Black Sea. The difficulties of transport were very great, half the glass arrived in a fractured state, this, and the extreme difficulty of carriage, added enormously to its cost price.In the market there was literally nothing which would have attracted an observer's attention. Some of the Armenians sold dye, wood, and goat's hair; others traded in cotton stuffs and calicos, one or two American lamps to burn petroleum were in the window of a small shop which was kept by a Greek.The engineer had experienced considerable difficulty in persuading the townspeople to let him construct a bazaar two stories high. "Our fathers have always been satisfied with one story," remarked the tradesmen, "then why should not we?"In spite of the opposition, Vankovitch, with the Caimacan's assistance had managed to carry the day. The people who had grumbled the loudest about the new order of things, were the first to take apartments in the two-storied building.We continued our walk through narrow lanes, and by the side of tumble-down hovels, till we arrived on the summit of a hill, the outskirts of the town. Some good-looking gipsy women with brown complexions, large dark eyes, and long black hair, were standing at the door of one of these habitations."These are the dancers," said Vankovitch;"Dr. Gasparini telegraphed from Angora to ask me to arrange a gipsy dance for you. Let us go and talk to one of the old women, and choose the girls who are to perform."An elderly dame recognized my companion; she advanced, and invited us to enter her house. When our errand was known, great excitement ensued amidst the younger damsels of the gipsy community. Each one trusted that her good looks and skill in the Terpsichorean art would influence my companion in his choice."Be quiet!" said the old woman indignantly to some of the more obstreperous of her young ladies, who, to show my companion their agility, were performing a sort of cancan step, very different from those dances which I had hitherto seen in the East."Now, then, Effendi," to my companion, "how many girls do you require?""Three.""Well, three you shall have. The most beautiful and gazelle-like of our tribe. I will come myself," continued the old lady, "and I too will dance, if only to show the Frank Effendi what our dance is like."It was as much as I could do to keep my countenance; the old woman was very fat; some of the girls, catching my eye, went off into fits of laughter."Ah! you may laugh, children," said the old woman indignantly, "but none of you can dance like I can. They are not supple like I am, Effendi. They cannot move their hips. They cannot sway the lower part of their bodies. Look here!"And straightening her aged limbs, the old woman commenced wriggling her different joints, the girls applauding her, and beating time with their hands to each movement of the dancer's body."Very good," said Vankovitch, as she sank down on a divan, with a force which would have smashed any less strong piece of furniture. "Very good. You dance like a stag. You shall come too.""Thank heavens," he remarked in French, "that she did not throw herself on to my lap, for this is the custom of these wild dancers; if she had done so, there would not have been much left of me. But come along, let us return; it is very stuffy here."After making an appointment with the old lady for the dancers to come to us on the following evening, we descended the hill and walked towards the principal mosque in the town.
M. Perrot—Armenian customs—Man and wife—We keep our wives for ourselves—My host's niece—Law about divorce—Shutting up the wives—Turkish husbands—How to get a divorce—Marrying a divorced woman—Population of Yuzgat—Crime—Mines in the neighbourhood—Tax paid in lieu of military service—The Circassians—Their promise to the Turkish Government—Tax on land; on house-property; on corn—Cattle—Collectors of taxes—Jealousy about religious matters—Dissensions amongst Christians—American Missionaries—A loyal address—The market—A bazaar two stories high—A walk through the town—Gipsy women—An elderly dame—Obstreperous young ladies—The old woman dances.
My host now returned, and informed me that M. Perrot, a French author who wrote a book about Asia Minor, had resided beneath this roof. On turning over the leaves of the work, which had found its way to Yuzgat, I came to a page in which M. Perrot observes that "one day I inquired of my host whyhe did not introduce me to the lady of the house?"
"It is our custom," was the reply. "And I find it a wise one. What good does it do me if other men see my wife? I took her for myself; she is my property. I have heard that you Europeans spoil your wives; mine is educated properly. When I enter my harem, she comes to kiss my hand, then she stands upright before me in a respectful attitude, and she only opens her mouth when I address her."
On showing my host the paragraph, he observed, "When M. Perrot was here, my father owned this house. I remember the circumstance well. I was in the room when M. Perrot asked my father to introduce him to my mother. I suppose my parent was under the impression that in Europe you keep your wives for your guests; but anyhow we keep our wives for ourselves."
"What!" I inquired, "would you not introduce me to your sisters or mother?"
"No, certainly not."
Mr. Vankovitch here interposed with the remark that on the following day my host's niece was to be affianced to her future husband; that the bridegroom had not set eyes upon the faceof his intended, and no one in Yuzgat, save her own immediate relatives, had ever seen the young lady.
"Well," I inquired, "and if the wife of an Armenian is unfaithful to him, can he obtain a divorce?"
"No," replied my host; "our religion does not allow of such a step; he does not even see his wife's face before marriage."
"Then he has no opportunity of studying her character, and she has no opportunity of studying his."
"No."
"They are a set of fools," said Vankovitch to me in Russian, this language not being understood by the proprietor. "They think that by shutting up their wives, they can keep them out of mischief, but the husbands are very much mistaken."
"We need not be surprised at it," he continued; "an Armenian lady is in no way educated. She is confined in a harem. She is the slave of her husband, and has to do all sorts of menial work for him—wash his feet, rub them dry, and wait at table. From her earliest childhood a girl is brought up to consider herself as a slave in her father's house; until theArmenians abandon these barbarous customs, their so-called Christianity will not do them much good. A Turkish husband has no difficulty in obtaining a divorce—in fact he is not even put to the expense of going to a court of law. All he has to do is to say, in the presence of a witness, 'I renounce you,' and he is at once freed from his wife, who is at liberty to go where she likes, and marry whomsoever she pleases."
"If a Turk," added Mr. Vankovitch, "once renounces his wife before a witness, he cannot withdraw his renunciation. There is a story that a woman, who wished to be divorced from her husband, dressed up one of her female slaves in man's clothes and provided her with false whiskers and beard. On entering the harem late at night the husband found this disguised figure lying by the side of his wife. He was furious, and at once renounced the, as he thought, faithless lady. There is a curious law about marrying a divorced woman which is not generally known by Europeans," continued the speaker. "If a Turk has divorced his wife, but she wishes to return to him and he to take her, the lady first of all must be married to some other man, and the rites in their entirety be accomplished; the new spousethen divorces her. After this process she can return to her former husband.
"A husband who wishes to take to himself again his divorced wife, generally chooses some beggar, almost always a very old man; he then offers this elderly individual a sum of money to marry the lady and afterwards renounce her. Sometimes, however, there are difficulties in carrying out these arrangements. The lady takes a fancy to the beggar, and the beggar to the lady. The pauper will not divorce her, and the original husband is laughed at by the rest of the community."
There were 10,000 inhabitants in Yuzgat, but there was very little crime. Only one execution had taken place during the last fifteen years, and this had been for murder.
The town itself is, comparatively speaking, of recent date, its construction dating back 130 years. The neighbourhood abounds with mines, and I was assured that iron, silver, and coal had been found near the city.
The Armenians did not serve in the army as soldiers; but in lieu of military service, paid the Ottoman Government twenty-eight piastres thirty-two paras every year for each male child, from his birth to his death.
The Circassians, of whom there are a great many in this part of Turkey, are not compelled to join the army; but they have promised the Government that every able-bodied man amongst them shall turn out as an irregular horse or foot soldier, should his services be required.
The people in the province of Angora are taxed as follows:—If ground is cultivated, the proprietor gives the Sultan the tithe of the crop.
The owner of a house pays 4l.per 1000l.of the estimated value of his abode, that is to say, if he is living in it himself. If on the contrary he lets it, he must pay 40l.per 1000l.The tax for people engaged in trade or commerce, is 30 per cent. on their profits. If a merchant sells corn in a town, he has to pay a duty of two paras for every twenty okas of grain purchased from him, and should he dispose of a horse, sheep, or ox, in the market-place, he must give the Government 2½ per cent. of the proceeds of the sale. A farmer has to pay the Government four piastres a year if he is the owner of a goat, and three for each sheep he possesses. The collectors of taxes in almost every instance were Mohammedans; many of the Christians grumbled at the way they were assessed.
If an Armenian girl expresses a wish to become a Mohammedan, this gives rise to great jealousy between the Turks and Christians. At the same time the Armenians who profess the Armenian faith detest any member of their community who has accepted the Roman Catholic or Protestant doctrines. The Christians being much more intolerant towards the dissenters from their respective creeds than the Turks are to the Christians.
There has hardly ever been an instance of a Turk accepting Christianity, but the American missionaries in Asia Minor were said to have converted many Armenians to Protestantism.
The Roman Catholic missionaries have not been idle. A number of Armenians no longer reverence the Patriarch in Constantinople, but look upon the Pope as the Head of their Church.
The Turks laugh in their sleeves at the discord in the ranks of the Christian community. They cannot understand why so much hatred and ill-feeling should exist between people who worship the same Messias.
This difference of opinion amongst the Christians is by no means displeasing to the Turkishauthorities; it renders any union between the Armenians and Russia exceedingly difficult.
The following morning a servant brought a paper to my host for his signature. It was a loyal address from the principal people in Yuzgat thanking the Sultan for the Constitution. None of the Armenians believed in the reform. Most of them held the same opinion as the inhabitants of Angora, namely, that the projected Constitution was thrown out as a bait to catch some of the plenipotentiaries at the Conference, and that when the Conference was forgotten the Constitution would be numbered with the past.
Vankovitch now called. I walked with him to the market which he was constructing for the townspeople. It was not a large building, being about eighty yards long by thirty wide; the houses were each of them two stories high, built of hewn stone and with glass windows; the latter a great luxury for the natives, glass having to be brought all the way from Samsoun, a port on the Black Sea. The difficulties of transport were very great, half the glass arrived in a fractured state, this, and the extreme difficulty of carriage, added enormously to its cost price.
In the market there was literally nothing which would have attracted an observer's attention. Some of the Armenians sold dye, wood, and goat's hair; others traded in cotton stuffs and calicos, one or two American lamps to burn petroleum were in the window of a small shop which was kept by a Greek.
The engineer had experienced considerable difficulty in persuading the townspeople to let him construct a bazaar two stories high. "Our fathers have always been satisfied with one story," remarked the tradesmen, "then why should not we?"
In spite of the opposition, Vankovitch, with the Caimacan's assistance had managed to carry the day. The people who had grumbled the loudest about the new order of things, were the first to take apartments in the two-storied building.
We continued our walk through narrow lanes, and by the side of tumble-down hovels, till we arrived on the summit of a hill, the outskirts of the town. Some good-looking gipsy women with brown complexions, large dark eyes, and long black hair, were standing at the door of one of these habitations.
"These are the dancers," said Vankovitch;"Dr. Gasparini telegraphed from Angora to ask me to arrange a gipsy dance for you. Let us go and talk to one of the old women, and choose the girls who are to perform."
An elderly dame recognized my companion; she advanced, and invited us to enter her house. When our errand was known, great excitement ensued amidst the younger damsels of the gipsy community. Each one trusted that her good looks and skill in the Terpsichorean art would influence my companion in his choice.
"Be quiet!" said the old woman indignantly to some of the more obstreperous of her young ladies, who, to show my companion their agility, were performing a sort of cancan step, very different from those dances which I had hitherto seen in the East.
"Now, then, Effendi," to my companion, "how many girls do you require?"
"Three."
"Well, three you shall have. The most beautiful and gazelle-like of our tribe. I will come myself," continued the old lady, "and I too will dance, if only to show the Frank Effendi what our dance is like."
It was as much as I could do to keep my countenance; the old woman was very fat; some of the girls, catching my eye, went off into fits of laughter.
"Ah! you may laugh, children," said the old woman indignantly, "but none of you can dance like I can. They are not supple like I am, Effendi. They cannot move their hips. They cannot sway the lower part of their bodies. Look here!"
And straightening her aged limbs, the old woman commenced wriggling her different joints, the girls applauding her, and beating time with their hands to each movement of the dancer's body.
"Very good," said Vankovitch, as she sank down on a divan, with a force which would have smashed any less strong piece of furniture. "Very good. You dance like a stag. You shall come too."
"Thank heavens," he remarked in French, "that she did not throw herself on to my lap, for this is the custom of these wild dancers; if she had done so, there would not have been much left of me. But come along, let us return; it is very stuffy here."
After making an appointment with the old lady for the dancers to come to us on the following evening, we descended the hill and walked towards the principal mosque in the town.