The nomad element of the Anatolian plateau is represented mainly by the Yuruks, whose wanderings range from the northern landward slopes of the Cilician Taurus to the mountainous tract surrounding Mt. Olympus. They are divided into tribes of varying size, some not exceeding twenty tents. Their number is estimated at about 200,000. Roving over barren districts, the members of this group are half-starved human products bred in areas of defective food supply. The men know no other occupation than that of tending their sheep and horses. The women are noted carpet-weavers. Strangers passing within sight of their tent settlements can generally rely on finding the nomad’s proverbial hospitality under their felt roofs. In common with kindred plateau communities, the Yuruks hold severely aloof from the Turks. But they have adopted Turkish speech, and it is gradually replacing their ancient vernacular. They have sometimes been connected with European gipsies, although the little that is known concerning their history and traditions hardly warrants such an assumption. A promising field for ethnographic research still awaits exploitation among their settlements. They call themselves Mohammedans and circumcise, but have no priests or churches.[229] The Aptals of the lofty valleys of northern Syria also have nomadic habits and appear to be closely related to the gipsies. Although they claim to be Sunnis they rarely intermarry with settled Mohammedans. Their roaming life carries them from village to village, generally in the capacity of musicians and entertainers. According to their traditions they were expelled from the lower Tigris regions in the ninth century.[230] THE ARMENIANS The table-land on which Armenian life unfolded itself was faulted into blocks and covered by flows of huge volcanoes after the Miocene. Pontic ranges fringe it on the north and thereby forbid access to the Black Sea.[231] On the south, the folds of the Anti-Taurus mountains likewise act as successive barriers. But no mountain obstacles intervene to the east or west of Armenia. Close racial, linguistic and historical relations can therefore be traced between Armenians and Persians today. Furthermore, the existence of important Armenian communities scattered all the way west of Armenia to the coasts of the Ægean becomes intelligible. The very crowning of Armenians as Byzantine emperors may ultimately be explained by this east-west extension of relief in western Asia.