The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-04-12
An Armenian Interior in Winter.

Let us take a peep into an Armenian
interior on December evening.
Three months the snow has been in
possession of mountain and valley: for
more than four months more it will
remain. Abroad it is light enough.
though night has fallen, for the moon
shines down in wonderful BRIGHTNESS
| upon the lce-bOund earth. On the hill.
slope various little unevenness are dis.
cernable, jutting out from the snow
like mushrooms. In one part the
ground is cut away perpendicularly for
a few feet, this is the front of the
| homestead, the body of which lies bur-
rowed in the slope Of the hill. When
| the house was made the floor was dug
out some five feet underground, while
the ceiling beams rose three or four
feet above it; but all the dug-out soil
was thrown about the roof and back
and side walls, and thus the whole is
now embedded in the hillock. The
roof was neatly turfed over when the
house was finished, so that in summer
the lambs and children play upon it,
and not unfrequently, in the great
heats. the family sleep there sat the
moons inn.''
What look like mushrooms are in
reality the broad-topped chimneys on
which the Summer storks build their
nests. The homestead hasebut one en-
trance; large front door which leads
through long dark passage to a Sec
ond door that swings to after you, and
is hung with a rough red-dyed sheep
skin. This door opens upon the en-
trance-hall, from whence you mount 4
dozen steps to a raised platform, under
which the house dogs ore located. On
two sides this platform is bounded by
solid stone walls, from which are sus-
pended saddles, guns, pistols, and one
or two pictures representing the deeds
of some Persian hero, and bought of
Persian HaWkers. On the other two
sides an open woodwork fence divided
the platform from vast stable. Near
est the grating are fastened the favor
tie horses of the clan-chief; next are
the donkeys, then the COWS; sheep and
chickens find places where they can.
The breath of these animals mate
rally contributes to the:warmth of the
house, which is at times almost like an
oven, even in the coolest weather. A
clear hot fire burns on the hearth; the
fuel used is teZek, preparation Of cow
dung pressed into a substance resem-
bling peat turf. By day the habitation
is obscurely lighted through a small
aperture in the roof glazed with oiled
silk, and supplemented by sort of fun
mel, the wide opening downward. Now,
in the evening, the oil burning in a
simple iron lamp over the hearth, af-
fOrds a dim illumination.
This platform is the salemlik or hall
Of reception. It contains no chairs,
but divansi richly draped with Koordish
stuffs; the floor is carpeted with tekeke,
a kind of gray felt. TO the. right of
the hearth sits the head of the family,
a venerable old man, whose word is in
controvertible law to every member in
the house. He is also Al Sakal, or
''white beard'' of the village, a dignity
conferred on him by. the unanimous
voice of his neighbors and constitut-
ing him intermediary in all transac-
lions with Government. When i'm
portant matters are at stake, he meets
the elders of the surrounding hamlets,
who, resolved into committee, form
the Commune. This ancient usage
bears witness to the essentially pa
triarchal and democratic basis of Ar
menian society. Our family party
consists of three dozen persons, the
representatives of four generations.
The young married women come in and
out from directing the preparations of
- h.. l.