St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-08-05
LIFE IN ASSYRIA.
Girls Bought for Camels and
Sheep--Cheap Labor and Prod

Girls Bought for Camels and
Sheep--Cheap Labor and Prod
uctS.
Chicago Herald.
Men life on cents day in AssYIia.
Assyrian women, after 100 years of
Christian labor, are bought and sold;
are made to work with oxen at the
pillow, and have as little liberty as in the
DAYS of Cadmus. Men who pay Sc day
to live, and ladies who ride to shops in
victorias thought over these things as
they left the Lincoln Park Congrega
tional church Sunday night. Amen
Rasi. born on Mount Lebanon, told
these things in broken English.
Amen Rasi is a tall, handsome AS
syrian with a skin as rich as the CHINA
mon silks Wade at the foot of the noun
tain on which he was born. He looked
into the curious, bright eyes OF girls
and told them that, had they been born
Assyrians, in Assyria, they could not
20 upon the streets unless their faces
were concealed; that they could neither
receive nor make call among women
without their husbands consent, and
that if at any time, even by accident,
they were seen by any man or IN any
way recognized, no one would marry
them.
He said that once two cOuples-a tall
man and short woman and short
man and tall Woman-Stood before a
priest to be wed. The priest placed the
tall man and the tall woman and the
short man and the short woman tOgeth-
er. and none of the four knew whether
it was right OF not, neither of them
knowing the other. But the parents
hastily objected and placed the tall
man by the short woman and the short
man by the tall woman, as that was the
way of the contracts.
Then Mr. Rasi showed how these con-
tracts were made. He left the pulpit
and presently man wrapped up in
rich ASsyrian raiment went up and
sat upon the floor. Mr.. Rasi came back
and s1uatted beside him.
IL would very much like" he said,
''for girl who is yours to be wife to my
son Isaac"
Il would be honored," returned the
man, with a very unmistakable Ameri-
can accent.
"HOw many have you?"
Three"
elbow much years have they?"
''One is fifteen, one twenty and one
twenty-five"
Don't talk to me about the twenty
five, nor the twenty; they are never fit
to marry. How much do you charge
for the little one?'
Five camels, four horses, three sheep
and $50"
Bah! 1 can buy LOG women for so
much"
but no little one"
"Oh, I think So"
"Well, you can't have mine for cent
less"
II pay"
But even then Isaac did not get the
little one, because few minutes later
Mr.. Rasi returned as another man, and
by doubling the price secured the girl
for his son Jacob.
Then Amen Rasi looked at the young
men, whose patent feathers cost them
81, and told them that people i'll Assyria
paid 50 cents for suit of clothes. The
common people, he said. paid % cents
day for house rent, 8 cents for twenty
five pounds of cabbage and cents for
five pounds of turnIps. Fifty loaves of
bread were turned out at baking, and
men sometimes ate four and five loaveS
at meal. He waited for moment,
and then, turning to blackboard be-
hind him, said: They are so big" and
he drew a circle that would inclose a
Thanksgiving platter.
Speaking of Assyrian cities. he said
that when in the gardens of Sidon the
rain fell upon the orange and lemon
trees and knocked the fruit upon the
ground a hundred could be purchased
for five cents. He said that in Damas-
Gus there are 10000 Mohammedans.
10000 Christians and 5000 Jews. In
the city there is building haunted by
John the Baptist's ghost. The door of
the room in which he is said to have
been beheaded Is never opened. The
Mohammedans say that once long ago
some one opened it. and the Baptist's
blood flowed out over the city to depth
of five inches. 1t was the custom of
wOrshipers to leave their shoes outside
tie temple.