Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-11-19
AZ KOOrdistan---the Dirty DweIIerr
about VT. Ararat.

The shades Of evening are beginning TO
settle down over the wild mountainous
country round about. 1t is growing uncom-
fortably chilly for so early in the evening
and the prospects look favorable for a sup
PEERLESS and most disagreeable night, when
| descry a village perched in an opening
among the mountains a mile or whereabouts
off to the right Repairing thither find it
to be a Koordish village, where the novels
are more excavations than buildings buff
falOes horses, goats, chickens and human
beings all find shelter under the same low
roof their respective quarters are nothing
but a mere railing of rough poles, and as
the question of ventilation is never even
thought of, the effect upon ones olfactory
nerves upon entering is anything but reas-
surfing. The filth and rags of these people
is something abominable on account of the
chilliness of the evening they have donned
their heavier raiment; these have evident
ly had rags patched on top of other rags for
years past until they have gradually devel-
oped into hick-quilted garments, in the in
Vulnerable seams of which the most disgust
ing chronological specimens, bred and en-
gendered by their wretched mode of exist
ence, live and perpetuate their kind. How
ever, repulsive as the outlook most assured
ly is, | have no alternative but to cast my
lot among them till morning.
l am conducted into the sheikh's apart
ment, a small room partitioned off with IA
pole from a stable full Of horses and buffa-
loes, and where darkness is made visible by
the sickly glimmer of a grease lamp. The
sheikh, a thin sallow-faced man of about
40 years, is reclining on a mattress in one
corner smoking cigarettes "A dozen ill-con-
ditioned ragamuffins are squatting about in
aript att xt.bi ha hOh
tail of the population crowd into the buffalo
stable and survey me and the bicycle from
outside the partition pole.
A circular wooden tray, containing an
abundance of bread, bowl of yaort and
a small quantity of peculiar stringy cheese
that resembles chunks of dried Goldfish
warped and twisted in the drying, is
brought in and placed in the middle of the
floor. Everybody in the room at once gath
ers around it and begins eating with as lit
tie formality as SO many wild animals the
sheikh silently motions me to do the same.
The yaort bowl contains one solitary wood
en- spoon, with which they take turns at
eating mouthfuls. One is compelled to draw
the line somewhere, even under the most
uncompromising circumstances, and nat
urally draw it against eating yaort with this
same wooden spoon making small scoops
with pieces of bread, dip up yaort and eat
scoop and all together. These particular
Koords seem absolutely ignorant of.bSiei
thing in the shape of mannerliness, or of
consideration for each other az the table
When the yaort has been dipped into twice
or thrice all round, the Sheikh coolly coniis-
Gates the bowl, eats part of what is left,
pours water into the remainder, stirs it up
with his hand and deliberately drinks it all
up one or two others seize all the cheese,
utterly regardless of the fact that nothing
but bread remains for myself and their
companions, who, by the by, seem to re-
gard it as a perfectly natural proceeding
Thomas Steuens in November outing