Armenia and Her People; or, The Story of Armenia by an Armenian — John Shaqi
Armenia and Her People; or, The Story of Armenia by an ArmenianFilian, George H.
History
Armenia and Her People; or, The Story of Armenia by an Armenian
Filian, George H.
Armenia; Armenian question
An hour's journey in America in distance is a two days' journey
in Armenia, and it must be accomplished on horseback, muleback, or
foot; or perhaps in a wagon without springs. Almost all the horse and
mule keepers are Turks, Kurds or Circassians, all Mohammedans and of
the lowest types,--which does not increase either the comfort or the
security of a journey. The tenders and drivers of animals are never of
a very high order of men in any country; in Armenia they are specially
vulgar, dirty, and sometimes dangerous brutes. If you wish to travel
with your family, you must arrange with the horse-keeper several days
or even weeks beforehand; if he is ready when the time comes, he calls
at your house and tells you. If animals are used and the family large,
baskets will be needed to put the children in; they are put on the
animals like panniers, one on each side with the mother between. This
is attended with more or less danger from accidents of various kinds,
liable to occur on the unkept paths, which, rough in some places and
horribly muddy in others, are used for roads. As in the case of the
writer, who, when an infant, nearly lost his life before he could be
pulled out of the mud into which he had fallen from his mother's arms,
she being thrown from the stumbling horse she was riding.
A more modern way of travel is in springless carriages; which on the
rough roads means racking your body horribly, bones, nerves, and all,
into outright and often severe suffering, a pain and fatigue which the
traveler feels for a long time. At evening all travelers must go to a
caravanserai or khan; often they are all huddled into a single room,
men, women, and children, and the room is invariably filthy, and full
of every kind of vermin. Such getting about is constant torment.
There is no safety in traveling; Kurdish, Circassian, or Georgian
brigands may meet you on the roads anywhere, and plunder, torture,
or perhaps kill you. A few years ago, when traveling in Armenia with
a company of about forty persons of both sexes, we came to a forested
pass between two mountains. Suddenly three men leaped out in front
of us; they were Georgian brigands (Mohammedans), armed from top
to toe. They stopped the caravan, picked out the rich persons and
the Christians, and robbed them of all their valuables. They did not
search the writer, probably supposing that as a minister he was too
poor to be worth troubling. The women were dreadfully frightened, for
the robbers declared that if they did not give up their earrings their
ears would be cut off, and if they did not give up their bracelets
their hands would be cut off. It can easily be imagined that they made
haste to relinquish all their valuables. Such robberies take place
every day in Armenia, for there is no protection or redress whatever;
it is a matter of indifference at best, and probably of satisfaction,
to the Sultan and his governors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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