Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-09-06

| "6 sho 'o"ioni anu ciappihB their uauuS
the brightest sunshine over all in the day, an,
at night the masheals-large bundles of famin,
rags, saturated with bitumen, crammed int
iron baskets raised on poles-casting floods o
rich red light on the scene. Arabs, stripped tt
their waist, shout their war-cries girls in gay
silk robes, and matrons all in white, add theil
share to the excitement; but the veiIed. bride
must sit out her three days in darkness and in
stifiing heat. On the third day, the bridegroom
is sought for early in the morning, and led from
house to house to receive the presents of his
friends. Then, placed in o circle of dancers,
the guests and bystanders wet small coins and
SUCK them on his forehead as they pass. The
money is caught in handkerchief, which two
OF his groomsmen hold under his chin. And
thus ends tho BRIDES purgatory of darkness and
suffocation; and the guests disperse to their
own homes, the songs all sung, the masheals all
burnt out and the money ali spent.
The Ycsid girlsdress with great elegance !
generally in a white shirt and drawers, over
which they wear colourd zabouns, or long silk
dresses, open in the front and confined round
the waist with girdle, embroidered, so to So eak
with silver pins. Over this kind Of apron oil
grey or yellow check, is tied to one shoulder,
and falls in front Of the gay silk robe. They
wear flowers in their hair; and black turbans,
wreathed with single sprig of myrtle, or scull.
caps, covered with gold and silver money and
strings of coins, and beads, and old Assyrian
relics round their throats The married women
only wear whites their heads and necks covered
with white kerchisf.: Thssgirls Keep their
necks bare
From marriage to- death, though long, is a
natural step; only there is not SO much excite
ment at the last as at the first. Whens q Yezid
dies, his wife comes out to meet the ,Inourners,
surrounded by her female friends, and carrying
the sword or shield of her husband in one hand
and in the other long locks of her own hair
Her head is smeared with clay, and dust is
thrown upon it, just as was done in old Egypt
and Assyria many thousand years ago. The
corpse is washed in running water, and buried
in the presence Of a cawal, or priest--the face
turned to the north star; for there are strange
snatches of an extinct faith in this peculiar
sect and mystic reverence betray far-off time,
when worship for the heavenly bodies and fol
fire formed the religion of the then wisest of the
world.
As Yusuf and his party, bearing the imperial
6rman, passed from village to village, their way
became like triumphal procession Youths
dressed in their gayest robes, all with flowers or
leaves in their turbans; fakirs, in dark coarse
dresses and red and black turbans-one with a
nounced the world and all its pomps and vani-
ties /; women and children carrying green boughs,
and holding jars of fresh water and bowls Of
sour milk bishop and priest; o chief arm
ed to the teeth, and wearing figured Indian
silk robe, with cloak Of precious fur-hit
Arab mare beautifully decorated; Persian
deryish, clothed In the fawn-coloured gazellt
skin, and wearing conical red cap edged with
fur, and braided black with sentences from the
Koran, or invocations to his patron Ali; horse
men galloping to and fro; footmen dschargin;
their Recommendations and women shout
ing their peculiar cry; these were the accom-
paniments that surrounded the Preacher an
the Frank as they journeyed through the vii
lagos and settlements.
Christians are scattered about among the dey
il worshipping congregations, in perfect harmc
ny with each other, as fellow sufferers for til
cause Of religion. The Christian bishops do nc
live in very bishoplike style. One old man an
his two priests were found in low, damp, di
ty room, with its one solitary window plastere
up with oiled paper; and a carpet, in shred
and rags, lay on the rotten floor for the bed
sandy bread, coarse and hard, sour curds, mar
gy meat and beans, were the jubilee det--an
not too much even of that and an old woman
like the hag of fairy tale, was the complemer
of the prelatic establishment. Here was priin
tive poverty with vengeance, if not pfimiti,
purity-the social simplicity, if not the relil
ious subtlety, of the early Christians. Ye
with all its poverty, our Aremenian establis
ment may not be unfavorably contrasted viii
the splendor of more civilized episcopates, whel
perhaps, the glare Of the world has sometim
put out the light of the Gospel.
One day the party came upon group
girls, and old Kurd, baking bread at the e
trance of a village. The travellers were hui
CRY, and thought they might break their fa
tolerably well here, and better than with Il
) fiery raki, the glass Of spirits everywhere pr
sentcd. /" Have you any bread!" they aske
" No, by the. Prophet - "Any butter milk
" No, by my faith " "Any Fruit! =" No,
a Allah - trees were laden down with fru
of the most delicious kind. The oil man tn
took up the queries. i" Whence do you come
" From.afar. What is your business y.
" What God commands" :" " Whittier are "
going," AS God wills" With which ar
, wer the Kurd was perfectly satisfied and
s gave them bowl.of curds, u basket filled wi
the finest fruit, and fresh-baked bread.
0 At one Of the villages a good story was tol
: The Pasha went to Baasheikhah. On the MOI
q ing after his arrival the Pasha angrily complai
s ed that tho braying of the donkeys, in the v
, lage, had disturbed his nights rest. The dc
keys were incontinently banished. The ne
=, morning the Pasha complained yet more angr
i. of the growing of cocks. The cocks were slade
= tered by the troops. Some hope now Of q 60
Q nights rest But the third morning the Pas
| swore many round oath against the inf
r population of Baasheikah and to prevent tn
cries from again piercing the pashalic ears.