CHAPTER XXIV.Osman Bey—A Circassian feud—Will there be a rising in the Caucasus?—If England were to help us—A wonderful servant—Mohammed—His Captain—An Armenian doctor—Business is flat—The Christian population to be armed—Visitors asking favours—Your reward will be in heaven—A subscription—Promotion through favouritism—A sad story—A cruel father—A servant arrested for debt—Failure of justice.Soon afterwards I met Osman Bey, my acquaintance of the previous day. He was on the point of leaving for a Circassian hamlet in the neighbourhood. It appeared that a feud had arisen between the people of this village and another one in its vicinity; the Bey was going there to calm, if possible, the angry feelings of the inhabitants.He remarked that in the event of war breaking out between Turkey and Russia he should go to the Caucasus."Will there be a great rising in that country?" I inquired."It is very doubtful," was the answer; "our people have risen several times;[17]no foreign power has assisted us, and the result is that we have been decimated by our enemy. My countrymen are afraid of doing anything, unless they feel certain that they will be aided in their attempt. If England were to help us," he continued, "and could only capture one Russian port on the Black Sea, the Circassians would have confidence, and there would be a rising throughout the length and breadth of our land."On returning to my house I found the Zaptieh who had been defrauded by my late servant. He was awaiting me with a candidate for Osman's place."Effendi, I have brought you a wonderful fellow," said the gendarme; "if you send him with a message, he will fly; he will guard your purse more carefully than his own."It appeared that the wonderful man's name was Mohammed; he was a redif soldier. His battalion would march in the course of a week or soto Erzeroum. To avoid going with the troops he proposed that he should engage himself as my servant until we reached that town, and then he could join his battalion."But will your commanding officer give you leave to accompany me?" I inquired."If the Effendi asks him," interrupted the Zaptieh.Mohammed was apparently not above twenty-five years of age. He had a pleasant, frank expression, and I determined to engage him, that is, if I could obtain the sanction of his captain.I now went to see this officer. He at once agreed to the proposal; that is, if I would pledge myself to give up Mohammed at Erzeroum."How can I pledge myself?" I remarked, "he may run away on the road.""That is true," said the officer; "but he is a straightforward fellow—he will not do so. If I had the power, I would let you take him as a servant for all the time that you remain in the country; but I have no authority to do this, I am merely a captain."The matter was settled. Returning to my house, I informed the man of his officer's consent.Mohammed was to have the same wages as Osman,and as he had a horse of his own, which he wished to take to Erzeroum, I was to pay for the forage of the animal, and could make use of him for the baggage. This would be very useful; hitherto I had been obliged to hire a horse, owing to my loss of Obadiah. Up to this time I had been travelling on the postal track. It was possible to find horses. After leaving Sivas, the next town I should reach, there would be no more postal-stations; I should then have to trust to my being able to hire animals from the peasantry, or be obliged to purchase another horse."I have a wife," said Mohammed; "will my lord give me a little money?""How much do you want?""Two liras.""I wonder if he will bolt with the money, like the Tartar I engaged last winter in Orenburg." This idea at once occurred to my mind. On second thoughts, I remembered that he was well known to the Zaptieh, and to many of the other inhabitants of Tokat; so I acceded to his request.An Armenian doctor called to see me. He had been educated in the States, and spoke English with a most unmistakable Yankee drawl."How is business here?" I inquired."Very flat," said the medical gentleman; "the people do not put much faith in doctors, that is, until they are really ill, and then we have a busy time of it. They pill themselves," he continued, "and go in for herbs and old women's remedies; they get them cheap, and grudge the money which they must pay to a regular practitioner.""You do not look very well," said the doctor."Thank you, there is not much the matter," I replied. The fact was that I had a splitting headache, owing to the charcoal pan or mungo which warmed the apartment. The gas from the charcoal being lighter than the air, fills the upper part of the room. The Turks and Armenians generally squat on the floor. They do not feel the effects of the fumes so much as a person who is seated on the divan.Another Armenian now paid me a visit. He was the telegraph inspector in Tokat, and he informed us that orders had just been sent from Constantinople to buy up all the available horses in this neighbourhood."Things look warlike," he continued, "and the doctor," pointing to his compatriot, "will have plenty of practice before long. The whole Christian population is to be armed. It is clear that the Government has not much faith in the Conference,and is doing its best to prepare for war."The Armenians in Tokat complained of the slack way in which justice was administered throughout that district. According to the doctor, if a man committed a crime, and could get away for a year or two and then return to his home, he would not be pursued by the authorities; that is, unless the aggrieved parties made a formal complaint."Yes," said another visitor, "three months ago fifty-four malefactors escaped from the prison. Forty of them shortly afterwards surrendered; the rest made their way to the mountains. Their ringleader, who is a murderer, has been recently seen in Tokat: no one has cared to arrest him."Four young Turks entered the room; the eldest could not have been more than three-and-twenty."What do you want?" I inquired."We do not wish to go to the war," replied one of them, who took upon himself to be spokesman for the party."Why not?""Because we are married men and have children.""I cannot help you.""Yes, Effendi, you can; you might speak tothe Caimacan, and he could free us from military service.""His duty is to send you to the front," observed the doctor."Yes, but he evidently likes the Frank, for we saw them riding together, and if the Effendi would only ask him, he could not be so inhospitable as to decline."I was a little annoyed at this remark, and observed,—"I certainly shall not ask for anything of the kind. Other people who have wives and children are obliged to go, then why not you?""But they did not love their wives so much as we love ours," persisted the man.The Caimacan now called. Upon his arrival the four visitors, after grovelling almost in the dust before him, took their departure."What did they want?" said the Governor.I told him."It is very unpatriotic of them," he observed. "The cunning little dogs, to ask you to intercede on their behalf! But they shall all go with the next battalion!"I was evidently destined to have a succession of visitors on that afternoon, for no sooner had the Caimacan gone than another official arrived. Heat once commenced a conversation by saying that he had been employed in collecting the redif soldiery from the different villages in the neighbourhood, and had also started a subscription amongst the wealthier inhabitants to provide the men with warm shirts."You have acted very kindly, and doubtless with the best motives," I remarked. "Your reward will be in heaven.""Yes," said the man, who did not seem quite to relish the idea of his reward being so indefinitely postponed; "but the Effendi is going to Sivas?""Yes.""He will see the Pacha there.""Very likely.""Then will he tell the Pacha of my great merits, and ask him to give me some higher employment?""If it pleases Allah, you will receive some higher post," I piously observed. "Our destinies are in his hand.""Yes," said the man, "so they are. But for all that, I wish that you would speak to the Pacha for me."From the two examples I have here cited, it will readily be seen that a system of promotion throughfavouritism is very deeply rooted amidst the Turks. I had been seen riding with the Caimacan. It was thought that I might see the Pacha at Sivas—this was quite sufficient to induce some of the inhabitants of Tokat to believe that any request I might make to the Pacha or Caimacan would necessarily be granted."It was fortunate," here remarked the engineer, "that you told Osman to give the baksheesh to a Corporal, and that a Turkish servant heard you give the order. If the fellow had been a Christian, the servant would never have taken the trouble to mention it to him. But the fact of the Corporal being a co-religionist was too much for the servant. It has enabled you to detect the fraud.""This is one of the worst features of the country," he continued. "The Turks will not do anything to aid a Christian at the expense of a Mohammedan, even if the Mohammedan is most clearly in the wrong. And it is much the same with the Christians in respect to their co-religionists. The result is that the Armenians and Turks do not pull well together. The law, too, is faulty, and requires amendment.""Let me give you an example," continued Mr. Gasparini, "and one which has come immediatelyunder my notice, for it affected my own servant. It sounds like a romance, but, alas! is too true! My servant's name is Karatel Mermenk Ovooloo. He is an Armenian; his mother died when he was a child; his father remarried, but behaved very badly to his second wife, continually ill-treating her, and making his son bring another woman to the house. The lad was very fond of his stepmother, who was at that time seriously ill; at last he refused to bring his father's paramour to their home. The father beat him severely and apprenticed the lad to his own trade, that of a coppersmith. The mother soon afterwards died, with an anathema on her lips at her husband's paramour. The latter, strange to say, died herself three weeks afterwards. In the meantime, the father gave the boy three piastres a week for his clothes. The lad could not clothe himself for that sum, he left his home and went into service. The parent succeeded in having the boy turned away from several situations, but at last I took him. Now, only the other day, the father went to the Cadi, and swore that his son was in a coppersmith's business with himself, and in consequence must pay half the tax on his trade. There is no truth whatever in the statement, but the father's word has been taken,and my servant arrested, and kept in prison for three days. The sum is only twenty-six piastres, I would gladly pay it myself, but I have no money; the government will not give me my salary; so here we are at a dead-lock."
Osman Bey—A Circassian feud—Will there be a rising in the Caucasus?—If England were to help us—A wonderful servant—Mohammed—His Captain—An Armenian doctor—Business is flat—The Christian population to be armed—Visitors asking favours—Your reward will be in heaven—A subscription—Promotion through favouritism—A sad story—A cruel father—A servant arrested for debt—Failure of justice.
Soon afterwards I met Osman Bey, my acquaintance of the previous day. He was on the point of leaving for a Circassian hamlet in the neighbourhood. It appeared that a feud had arisen between the people of this village and another one in its vicinity; the Bey was going there to calm, if possible, the angry feelings of the inhabitants.
He remarked that in the event of war breaking out between Turkey and Russia he should go to the Caucasus.
"Will there be a great rising in that country?" I inquired.
"It is very doubtful," was the answer; "our people have risen several times;[17]no foreign power has assisted us, and the result is that we have been decimated by our enemy. My countrymen are afraid of doing anything, unless they feel certain that they will be aided in their attempt. If England were to help us," he continued, "and could only capture one Russian port on the Black Sea, the Circassians would have confidence, and there would be a rising throughout the length and breadth of our land."
On returning to my house I found the Zaptieh who had been defrauded by my late servant. He was awaiting me with a candidate for Osman's place.
"Effendi, I have brought you a wonderful fellow," said the gendarme; "if you send him with a message, he will fly; he will guard your purse more carefully than his own."
It appeared that the wonderful man's name was Mohammed; he was a redif soldier. His battalion would march in the course of a week or soto Erzeroum. To avoid going with the troops he proposed that he should engage himself as my servant until we reached that town, and then he could join his battalion.
"But will your commanding officer give you leave to accompany me?" I inquired.
"If the Effendi asks him," interrupted the Zaptieh.
Mohammed was apparently not above twenty-five years of age. He had a pleasant, frank expression, and I determined to engage him, that is, if I could obtain the sanction of his captain.
I now went to see this officer. He at once agreed to the proposal; that is, if I would pledge myself to give up Mohammed at Erzeroum.
"How can I pledge myself?" I remarked, "he may run away on the road."
"That is true," said the officer; "but he is a straightforward fellow—he will not do so. If I had the power, I would let you take him as a servant for all the time that you remain in the country; but I have no authority to do this, I am merely a captain."
The matter was settled. Returning to my house, I informed the man of his officer's consent.
Mohammed was to have the same wages as Osman,and as he had a horse of his own, which he wished to take to Erzeroum, I was to pay for the forage of the animal, and could make use of him for the baggage. This would be very useful; hitherto I had been obliged to hire a horse, owing to my loss of Obadiah. Up to this time I had been travelling on the postal track. It was possible to find horses. After leaving Sivas, the next town I should reach, there would be no more postal-stations; I should then have to trust to my being able to hire animals from the peasantry, or be obliged to purchase another horse.
"I have a wife," said Mohammed; "will my lord give me a little money?"
"How much do you want?"
"Two liras."
"I wonder if he will bolt with the money, like the Tartar I engaged last winter in Orenburg." This idea at once occurred to my mind. On second thoughts, I remembered that he was well known to the Zaptieh, and to many of the other inhabitants of Tokat; so I acceded to his request.
An Armenian doctor called to see me. He had been educated in the States, and spoke English with a most unmistakable Yankee drawl.
"How is business here?" I inquired.
"Very flat," said the medical gentleman; "the people do not put much faith in doctors, that is, until they are really ill, and then we have a busy time of it. They pill themselves," he continued, "and go in for herbs and old women's remedies; they get them cheap, and grudge the money which they must pay to a regular practitioner."
"You do not look very well," said the doctor.
"Thank you, there is not much the matter," I replied. The fact was that I had a splitting headache, owing to the charcoal pan or mungo which warmed the apartment. The gas from the charcoal being lighter than the air, fills the upper part of the room. The Turks and Armenians generally squat on the floor. They do not feel the effects of the fumes so much as a person who is seated on the divan.
Another Armenian now paid me a visit. He was the telegraph inspector in Tokat, and he informed us that orders had just been sent from Constantinople to buy up all the available horses in this neighbourhood.
"Things look warlike," he continued, "and the doctor," pointing to his compatriot, "will have plenty of practice before long. The whole Christian population is to be armed. It is clear that the Government has not much faith in the Conference,and is doing its best to prepare for war."
The Armenians in Tokat complained of the slack way in which justice was administered throughout that district. According to the doctor, if a man committed a crime, and could get away for a year or two and then return to his home, he would not be pursued by the authorities; that is, unless the aggrieved parties made a formal complaint.
"Yes," said another visitor, "three months ago fifty-four malefactors escaped from the prison. Forty of them shortly afterwards surrendered; the rest made their way to the mountains. Their ringleader, who is a murderer, has been recently seen in Tokat: no one has cared to arrest him."
Four young Turks entered the room; the eldest could not have been more than three-and-twenty.
"What do you want?" I inquired.
"We do not wish to go to the war," replied one of them, who took upon himself to be spokesman for the party.
"Why not?"
"Because we are married men and have children."
"I cannot help you."
"Yes, Effendi, you can; you might speak tothe Caimacan, and he could free us from military service."
"His duty is to send you to the front," observed the doctor.
"Yes, but he evidently likes the Frank, for we saw them riding together, and if the Effendi would only ask him, he could not be so inhospitable as to decline."
I was a little annoyed at this remark, and observed,—
"I certainly shall not ask for anything of the kind. Other people who have wives and children are obliged to go, then why not you?"
"But they did not love their wives so much as we love ours," persisted the man.
The Caimacan now called. Upon his arrival the four visitors, after grovelling almost in the dust before him, took their departure.
"What did they want?" said the Governor.
I told him.
"It is very unpatriotic of them," he observed. "The cunning little dogs, to ask you to intercede on their behalf! But they shall all go with the next battalion!"
I was evidently destined to have a succession of visitors on that afternoon, for no sooner had the Caimacan gone than another official arrived. Heat once commenced a conversation by saying that he had been employed in collecting the redif soldiery from the different villages in the neighbourhood, and had also started a subscription amongst the wealthier inhabitants to provide the men with warm shirts.
"You have acted very kindly, and doubtless with the best motives," I remarked. "Your reward will be in heaven."
"Yes," said the man, who did not seem quite to relish the idea of his reward being so indefinitely postponed; "but the Effendi is going to Sivas?"
"Yes."
"He will see the Pacha there."
"Very likely."
"Then will he tell the Pacha of my great merits, and ask him to give me some higher employment?"
"If it pleases Allah, you will receive some higher post," I piously observed. "Our destinies are in his hand."
"Yes," said the man, "so they are. But for all that, I wish that you would speak to the Pacha for me."
From the two examples I have here cited, it will readily be seen that a system of promotion throughfavouritism is very deeply rooted amidst the Turks. I had been seen riding with the Caimacan. It was thought that I might see the Pacha at Sivas—this was quite sufficient to induce some of the inhabitants of Tokat to believe that any request I might make to the Pacha or Caimacan would necessarily be granted.
"It was fortunate," here remarked the engineer, "that you told Osman to give the baksheesh to a Corporal, and that a Turkish servant heard you give the order. If the fellow had been a Christian, the servant would never have taken the trouble to mention it to him. But the fact of the Corporal being a co-religionist was too much for the servant. It has enabled you to detect the fraud."
"This is one of the worst features of the country," he continued. "The Turks will not do anything to aid a Christian at the expense of a Mohammedan, even if the Mohammedan is most clearly in the wrong. And it is much the same with the Christians in respect to their co-religionists. The result is that the Armenians and Turks do not pull well together. The law, too, is faulty, and requires amendment."
"Let me give you an example," continued Mr. Gasparini, "and one which has come immediatelyunder my notice, for it affected my own servant. It sounds like a romance, but, alas! is too true! My servant's name is Karatel Mermenk Ovooloo. He is an Armenian; his mother died when he was a child; his father remarried, but behaved very badly to his second wife, continually ill-treating her, and making his son bring another woman to the house. The lad was very fond of his stepmother, who was at that time seriously ill; at last he refused to bring his father's paramour to their home. The father beat him severely and apprenticed the lad to his own trade, that of a coppersmith. The mother soon afterwards died, with an anathema on her lips at her husband's paramour. The latter, strange to say, died herself three weeks afterwards. In the meantime, the father gave the boy three piastres a week for his clothes. The lad could not clothe himself for that sum, he left his home and went into service. The parent succeeded in having the boy turned away from several situations, but at last I took him. Now, only the other day, the father went to the Cadi, and swore that his son was in a coppersmith's business with himself, and in consequence must pay half the tax on his trade. There is no truth whatever in the statement, but the father's word has been taken,and my servant arrested, and kept in prison for three days. The sum is only twenty-six piastres, I would gladly pay it myself, but I have no money; the government will not give me my salary; so here we are at a dead-lock."