St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-07-13
ST. c5uhnsburp Galedoniarr.
Notes from Turkey.
Among the BuIgarians.-VI.

We ndu plduucu " ~ VI
from Eski Zaghra to Philippopolis' the
principal Bulgarian city south OF the
Balkans, but a meeting of the 'Bulga-
rian Evangelical Association" called us
some sixty miles east, to Yamboli. We
we're accompanied by Mr.. Bond, and by
Mr.. Locke of Samakoo, and obtained by
this means view of the gospel work
in Bulgaria that would otherwise have
escaped us.
Yamboli lies at the terminus of the
railroad, and as Turk can see no rea-
son WHY the train should reach there
before sunset it was quite dark when
we arrived. The station is about a mile
from the town as usual, to give employ
ment to the talegaiS.
We were met at the station by Pastor
BOyadjieff of the Yamboli church, who
is a man of much energy and influence
in the city. 1t was fortunate for us.
In our original plan we had not intend
ed to come to Yamboi, and so the place
was not mentioned in our travelling
teskerehs. Up to this time we had had
no difficulty, our papers not having
been demanded at all, except in one
instance when a Turkish Bin-bdshi, af-
ter eyeing us while, sent a soldier to
ask for our cards.
Here at Yamboli, however, we found
that the officials were more careful in
the discharge of their duty, and Yus-
BASH was going to stop us to explain
ourselves, when Mr.. Boyadjieff inter
fered, promising to be bail for us him
self, and we were allowed to proceed.
Mr.. Weber and myself were taken
with Mr.. Locke to the house of a
wealthy Bulgarian not exactly a
Protestant, but well disposed towards
the cause,-to be entertained during
our stay. Our host was young man,
the owner of khan aud wine shop,
and did all that was possible to make
our stay pleasant. We were very glad
of the opportunity to see the home life
of Bulgarian family. All the mem
bers of the family received us very
cordially, but aside from that, the
women were seen only as servants.
Only the men remained in the room
with us, and sat at the same table.
Our host and his wife were evidently
quite at a loss how to entertain us, be-
ing anxious lest we should miss some
thing which we were accustomed to
have, and not knowing quite how to
care for us Ia franco. The result was
mixture of native and foreign custom
People do not get hold of the idea that
we rather see them in their home dress,
l have often been looking for Turkish
curiosities in the bazaars, and been
shown things whose greatest recon-
mendatiOn in the eyes of the dealer was
that they were made in Paris.
l have before spoken of the entertain
ment with sweetmeats and coffee on
entering house to make call. We
saw it here in Yamboli to its full extent.
As soon as we were up in the morning,
and whenever we came into the house
from walk. little Tsannie, the youngest
daughter of the family, brought around
the sweetmeat tray with Il pleasant
ada tee yeh slatkO," to each one. When
a meal was ready to be eaten, Tsannie
came around to each one of the guests,
bringing two towels and a lOngnecked
pitcher of water, and followed by a ser
want bringing a stool, on which was a
wash basin and soap, which was placed
before us. She first carefully spread
poured the water over our hands to
wash. She then gave us the other towel
to wipe our hands and faces on, taking
the first to the next one in order. The
same process of washing was repeated
after eating.
To one familiar with Western modes
of eating, this double washing might
seem superfuous, but where a large
portion of ones food is to be taken with
his fingers he sees at once the desirable
ness of washing them before the meal,
and the need of doing so after. We
were supplied with knives and forks
and spoons, as the head of the house
hold was a man of some pretensiOns,
but great deal of eating is done in
Turkey with only such utensils as ma
ture has provided. If a chicken comes
on to the table, the head of the family
dismembers it and hands around the torn
fragments with his fingers. If this pro-
cess of primitive carving is done before
it reaches the table, the family help
themselves from the common platter,
and it is far more convenient not to use
a fork, for with ones fingers he can
with much greater ease dip his meat
into the common gravy bowl. For
every day family use, plates also may
easily be dispensed with, as the soup,
the rice, the macarOni,- the honey and
preserved fruit, is taken from common
bowl, each person dipping into his own
corner, with his own spoon or fragment
of bread. "The sop when he had dip
ped il" represents the common way of
eating in the East to-day, as well as
one of the marks of hospitality. The
viands set before us were very palata-
BILE, some being gotten up in Frank,
Others in native style.
As the family did not understand a