Throughout these vicissitudes, Armenian life centered mainly around its mountain home. Nevertheless, altitude alone does not suffice to explain the characteristics of the people. Climate must also be taken into account. Armenians are distributed in a belt extending one degree on either side of the line of north latitude 39°. Within this zone the products of the soil as well as the customs are those of temperate regions bordering on the warm. The narrow highland valleys are wonderfully fertile. Wheat is harvested before July at an elevation of 3,600 feet in many districts. The country enjoys fame for the variety and excellence of its fruits. Little wonder, then, that traits which distinguish populations reared in sunny lands should also prevail among the dwellers of this rugged mountain zone. Voluble in the extreme, endowed with a highly developed imaginative sense and with an innate tendency to aggrandize and glorify the facts of ordinary life, the Armenian is often an eastern counterpart of the celebrated Tarasconese created by Daudet’s genial fancy. But a rocky environment is equally reflected in the minds of the Armenians. Harshness of manner and a certain degree of uncouthness are present along with tenacity of purpose and moral fortitude. Through the latter, endurance of Turkish persecution, which has generally assumed exceedingly savage form, was made possible. Armenians are also known for their martial spirit. Dwellers of many of the less accessible recesses of the Tauric or Armenian highlands held their Turkish foes in check for centuries and managed to maintain a state of semi-independence in their conqueror’s land until confronted by modern artillery. Again, the influence of the mountain home of the Armenians is expressed in their art. Poems and songs often extol the fairness of the valleys where rest will be found after descent along interminable slopes. Sometimes the beauty of lakes, embosomed in high plateaus, fires the poet’s fancy. Towering summits figure in legend as steeples from which melodious chimes send forth their tones. Armenian music, too, resounds with echoes that seem to reverberate from valleys cut deep in the sides of their mountains. Perhaps it is these varied influences which convert the rough and mannerless mountain boors into the most polished and cultured citizens of Turkish cities. Armenians have the reputation of being energetic business men. Their honesty was proverbial among the Turks, who generally intrusted the management of estates or domains to their hands. Among them alone throughout the inland districts of Asiatic Turkey, western progress found receptive minds.