# Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened/Chapter X

CHAPTER X.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ARMENIAN RACE.
1. Armenians Are an Exceedingly Religious People. You cannot find a single member in that communion who has not been baptized in the sacred fount of the church and in the name of the Holy Trinity; not one in ten thousand whose marriage is not performed under the authority of the church. If there be any they are refused to approach the Lord's table and their children are not admitted to baptism, and their dead are not buried with christian ceremonies. In every Armenian town the best building is the church, with the sign of the cross on its top. The choicest lamb in the flock is offered at the threshold of the holy convent; the highest seat in the house and the best portion on the table is for the priest. The most secret affairs and sorrows are entrusted to the fatherly confidence of the pastor. On each visit all the members of the family are glad to hold his hand and reverently kiss it while he utters "God bless you." The aged men and women, in many instances deprived of sight, with remarkable regularity attend the services in the church, which are performed twice a day, very early in the morning and late in the afternoon, repeating silently all the way the beautiful psalms which they learned in their youth. When they meet a friend on their way from ​the church the ready blessing of their mouth is "God be merciful unto your soul."
On Sunday mornings the great assembly of men and women in the church reverently stand up while the priest is officiating the holy sacrament; and the children, arrayed in white robes with red crosses on them, and holding lights in their hands, turn around the main altar sweetly singing: "Lift up your heads, O, ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the king of glory shall come in." In the presence of such a scene one is reminded of the heavenly seraphin and cherubin which turn day and night around the throne of the Almighty.
2. The Passion Week in the Armenian Church. After celebrating the glorious entrance of our Saviour into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and following the events of the first part of the week, on Thursday afternoon twelve priests and deacons sit together before the main altar, and imitating the significant events of the upper room in Jerusalem, one of them, the highest in rank, girds the apron, a sign of humility, and approaches the company of twelve, and one by one wash their feet, at the same time repeating portions of the farewell speech of our Lord. One of them taking Peter's part seems too humble to let the Great Master wash his feet, but being persuaded of its necessity, submits himself to the will of the Master.
At midnight of the same evening, while the scene of the crucifixion is represented with ideal solemnity and sincere piety, all the candles are put ​out, and Mary, the afflicted mother, clinging to the foot of the cross, begins to weep and wail through the melodious voice of the best singer in the choir. All the women in the galleries burst into tears of grief, and words of repentance are heard on every side until the blessed mother submits herself to the divine will, and the last word of the bleeding Saviour is heard upon the cross, "It is finished." The name of this ceremonious night is "Come and Weep."
When the service of the crucifixion is over, about two hours before sunrise, many people go right away to the cemetery and put candles over all the graves in order to illuminate the valley of death. The outward appearance, how impressive and silent! the spiritual meaning is more instructive and full of comfort. The sweet remembrance of the passed friends is more sweet with the meditation of "the new sepulchre in the garden." The rest of the day passes in reverent quiet.
The Easter services begin on Saturday evening, and at the end of the long and ceremonious services the officiating priest gives the good tidings of the day: "Christ has risen from the dead," and the attendants respond: "Blessed is the resurrection of Christ." Friends meeting with each other during the three days of Easter use the above two sentences for their salutation. The priest is sure to visit each home in his parish, holding a very brief service in each.
3. Armenians Have Always Been Industrious and Progressive, and kept the highest position among the ​Eastern races in regard to their ability in commerce, trade, agriculture and letters. Their language, with its somewhat difficult pronunciation, excels all the dialects of the East, and in its syntax and word-making capacity equals Greek or Latin. Its adaptation to the Christian ideas is remarkable. It is a proverbial saying that "the Arabic is fit to swear, Kurdish to quarrel, Turkish to curse, while the Armenian is to pray." Soon after the conversion of the nation to Christianity, the Armenian young men flocked into the highest institutions at Athens, Constantinople, Edessa and other centers of education. While Mohamet was spending his solitary hours in shaping the immense mouths of the ugliest demons, or describing the devil-headed fruits of the infernal plantation, the Armenians were struggling for prosperity and development. Upon the fertile land and among the largest rivers they always clung to the plough, and led their flocks in the green pastures of Armenia. Grains and varieties of fruits were exchanged for the other necessities of life, and their commercial enterprises extended to the foreign countries. In spite of ceaseless persecutions and spoils, Armenia has always had her princes, wealthy and able merchants and very skillful traders. Each father regarded his essential duty to train his son in his own trade and perpetuate the source of wealth. Each mother taught her daughter economical housekeeping and industry. There has been no time in the history of Armenia when her children assaulted her neighbors, or gave themselves to luxury and idleness. ​After so much trouble and suffering their existence and position must and does have some significance.
4. One of the Characteristics of the Armenian People is very strong attachment to the family life and "fatherland." The type of the family is patriarchal. The old father and mother, with their grown sons and their families, sometimes numbering altogether forty to sixty, live in the same house, the grandfather being the ruler and the grandmother the manager. Young and modest brides, being taught from their early childhood, are always obedient and diligent, too modest to speak aloud before the grandfather and elder brothers-in-law. When the old father eats, the brides are eager to wait on him. When he wants to go out they bring his out-door shoes and help him to put them on and take them off when he comes in, and get his good words of blessing for all these services. When the morning work is done and the men leave the house for their field or shop the young mother sits beside the cradle and sings softly as she sews, knits or spins:
Awake, and open thy beauteous eyes, my child, my little one! Thy mother sees therein her life, her glory and her sun. Thou shalt grow up, grow tall and strong, as rises in the air a stately palm tree; how I love thy stature tall and fair! The heroes of Mount Ararat, their ghosts shall strengthen thee with power and might that thou as brave as Vartan's self mayst be. Awake and ope thy beauteous eyes, my child, my little one! Thy mother sees therein her life, her glory and her sun.
And no wonder if these first impressions pressed upon the mind of the baby and make him attached to his "good mother," the "dear home" and "sacred ​fatherland." He is the joy of his mother, the protector of his sister, the lover of his wife, the server of his church and the martyr of his fatherland, so full of charming scenery and sacred memories.
The ideal and the highest ambition of the Armenian is, and always has been, and always will be, Liberty in his home-land. The accumulation of wealth is not their highest desire, though they have rare chances and natural ability for that. The luxuries of life are not the greatest attraction for them, though they have the worst example before their eyes. The theory of fatalism has never been a favorite idea with the Armenians, though it broods all over Asia. The ambition has never stirred them to aggress the rights of their neighbors, though they have had many chances in their long national life to do so. They are, and always have been contented, temperate, practical and peaceful. They loved liberty, they were always ready to protest against a despotic spirit. This spirit of protest caused them to be superficially called "Anmiapan," "Discordant," but every freedom-lover knows that
The path of freedom is thorny all the way,
So many trials and strifes do happen every day;
Too straight and narrow is this world for thee
If thou art a lover of Liberty.