The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-12-25
LIFE IN AssYRJA.
Quantity Described by a Native
Of That Land.
Girls Bought and Sold for Camels and
sheep-Choapncss OF tho Prod
nets OF Nature and
Labor,


Labor.
Men live on six cents day in Assy-
ria. Assyrian women, after one hun
dred years of Christian labor, IRE
bought and sold; are made to work
with oxen ut the plow, and have as
little liberty us in the days of Cadmus.
Men who pay six dollars day to live
and the ladies who rido to shops in
victorias thought over these things as
they left the Lincoln Park Congrcga-
tional church the other night, says the
Chicago Herald. Amen Rasi. born on
Mount Lebanon, told these things in
broken English. Amen Rasi is tall,
handsome Assyrian with q skin as rich
as the cinnamon silks made at the foot
of the mountain on which he was born
Lie looked into the curious, bright eyes of
girls and told them that, had they been
born Assyrians, in Assyria, they could
not go upon the streets unless their
faces were concealed; that they could
neither receive nor make q call among
women without their husbands con-
sent, and that if ut any time, even by
accident, they were seen by any man
or in any way recognized one, no one
would marry them. lie said that once
two couples, Il tall man and tall
woman and Il short man and Il short
woman, stood before q priest to be we'd.
The priest placed the tall man and the
tall woman and the short man and the
short woman together and none of the
four knew whether 1t was right or 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 raimcnt went up and sat
upon the floor. Mr. Rasi camc back
and squatted beside him. ~ would
very much like" he said, "for girl
who is yours to be wife to my son
Isaac" 81 would be honorcd," re-
turned the man, with very unmis-
taxable American accent. Glow many
have you?" "Threc." "IIow much
years have thcy?' "Onc is fifteen. one
twenty and one twenty-five" Don't
talk to me about the twenty-five, nor
the twenty; they arc never fit to mar
ry. How much do you charge for the
little onc?" Give camcls, four horses.
three sheep and fifty dollars" bah!
l buy one hundred women for so much"
But not little ones" ooh. I think
So" "Wcll, you can't have mine for a
cent less" Il 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 ut young
men whose patent feathers cost them
seven dollars and told them that people
in Hssyria paid fifty cents for suit of
clothes. The common people, he said,
paid twenty-five cents day for house
rent, three cents for twenty-five pounds
of cabbage and four cents for fifty
pounds of turnips. Fifty loaves of bread
were turned out at baking and men
sometimes ate four and five at meal.
lie waited for n moment, and then turn
ing to n blackboard behind him said:
"They are SO big" and he drew cir
Gle that would inclosc 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 hundred could be purchased
for five cents. He said that in Damascus
there are one hundred and thirty thou
sand Mohammedans, one hundred and
fifty thousand Christians and five thou
sand Jews. In the city there is build
ing haunted by John the Baptists
ghost. The door of the room in which
he is said to have been bchcadcd is
never opened. The NIohammedans
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 for worship
ers to leave their shoes outside the
temple. There were sometimes three
or four hundred pairs standing in a row,
and the poorer people hurried through
their prayers first and then carefully
selected the finest footwear in the row,
thereby illustrating the great clever
ness of the Assyrians
'f go SaD,oop Tux,,.t.