Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-28

An Armenian Maiden.
He cursed it after he got over his spree.
and 1t has borne no grapes unto this day.
NoahS wife is said to be buried on Mount
Ararat. ard the Armenians trace their an
cestry back to Japhet in one long genoa
logical tree. They have tradition that
the Garden of Eden was located in Ar
menia. 1t was situated almost in the
center of the region where the worst mas
sacres have occurred, and it is now one of
the barren parts of the country. The Ar
menians believe that the wise men of the
east, who followed the star of Bethlehem
to find the young Christ, came from Ar
menia, and that the star first appeared in
the heavens not far from Mount Ararat.
How Adam Lost His Nails.
Another curious Armenian tradition Is as
TO Adams fall. According to this, when
Adam was in the Garden of Eden his body
was covered with nails, Ike those which we
have on our fingers and toes. These nails
overlapped each other like the scales of a
fish, thus giving him an invulnerable ar
NOR. After the fall the nails all dropped
off except from the end of his fingers and
toes, where they remain to this day to re-
mind man of his lost immortality. The Ar
menians say that when God made Adam of
clay he had a little piece left over. He
threw this upon the ground, and it fell
it became gold and formed all the gold of
the world. The Armenians believe IN the
people.
Land of Pretty Girls.
The condition of the women of Armenia
is now terrible. They have no refuge, from
the Turks, and outrages of all descriptions
are perpetrated, ending in death. The Ar
menian women are among the most at
tractive of the far east. 1 saw a number of
them during my trip through Asia Minor.
They have large, dark, luminous eyes, with
long eyelashes, and their complexion Is that
of rich cream. Many of them have rosy
and straight. They are very intelli-
gent, and not few of them are mar
ried to Turks. These women have dress
of their own. They wear red fez caps with
long taSsels, much like some of the country
girls of Greece. The richer ladies wear
loose jackets lined with fur, and long. plain
skirts of silk or fine wool. In the province
of Van, where some of the outrages have
occurred, the girls wear trousers under
their skirts, which are tied at the ankles.
Some have long, sleeveless jackets, or
cloaks, reaching almost to the feet and open
at the sides up to the waists. and others
wear gorgeous head dresses, covering the.
front of their caps with gold coins, which
hang down over their fcreheads Girls often
wear their whole dowry on their persons,
and in massacres like those which have &C.
Cured rings are torn from the ears, arms
are cut off for bracelets and many woman
IS killed for her jewelry. The poorer women
are hard workers. Nearly every household
has some kind of labor by which it adds to
Its income. Some of the finest embro.deries
we get from Turkey are made by Armenian
women, the best of the work being done by
hand in novels.
Armenian Houses.
The houses in which the Armenians live
are different in different countries In
many of the cities of Turkey there is an
Armenian quarter, and the older Armenian
houses of Smyrna are built like forts. They
have no windows facing the street. ard it
has only been of late years when the peo-
pie have considered themselves safe from
religious mobs such as have lately oc-
CURED, that they have built houses more
like the Turks. In Armenia proper, where
the Outrages are going on, the poorer
classes have homes which would hardly De
considered fit for cows ir America The
COW. in fact, lives with the family. The
houses are all of one story, and 1t is not
uncommon to build a house against the
side of hill, in order to save the making
of a back wall. The roofs are fiat, and are
often covered with EARTH upon which grass
and flowers grow, and upon which the
sheep sometimes are pastured. The floors
are usually sunken below the level of -he
roadway, and the ordinary window is of
about. the size of a port hole. You go
down steps to enter the house, and you
find a COW stable on one side and on the
other the kitchen and private apartments
of the family. Each room has stone fire.
place, and the cooking is done with fuel of
cow dung mixed with straw. There are no
tables and very few chairs. The animal
heat of the cattle aids the fire in keeping the
family warm. and all of their living arrange
ments are of the simplest and cheapest ma
ture. The houses of the better class are
more comfortable. and in the big Turkish
cities some of the rich Armenians have
beautiful homes. The Armenian women are
good housekeepers. They are much more
clearly than the Turks, and even their
novels are kept clean.
Queer Marriage Customs.
They have a better home life than the
Turks. A man can have but one wife, but
the families of several generations often
live in one house, in which case the daugh-
ter-in-law Is, to a large extent, the SER
want of her husbands family. She has to
obey her father-in-law, and during the first
days of her married life she is not allowed
to speak to her husbands parents, or any
of the family who are older than herself
until her father-in-law gives her permits
sion. Up to this time she wears red VEIL
badge of her subsection, and this veil
is often kept on until her first baby is
born. Armenian girls are married very
young. Eleven or twelve Is considered
quite old enough, and women still
young when they have sons aged twenty.
Marriages are arranged by the parents or
by go-betweens The usual wedding day
is Monday, and on the Friday before the
marriage the bride is taken to the bath
with great ceremony. On Saturday she
gives big feast to her girl friends. On
Sunday there is feast for the boys, and
on Monday the welding takes place. 1t
usually occurs at the church. where the
priest blesses the ring and makes prayers
over the wedding garments. There are nu-
merous other ceremonies, making the we'd
ding last from three TO eight days. One
curious custom is that shortly after her
return from the church the children pres
ent rush to pull off the brides stockings,
in which have been hidden some coins Of
money fer the occasion, and another Is
the placing of a baby boy on the knee Of
the bride, as she sits beside the groom on
the divan, with the wish that she may be-
come a happy mother.
How MahOmmcdan Fanatics Rule
Turkey.
The real cause of these outrages Is to a
large extent, religious fanaticism. The bet
ter classes OF the Turks and the more in
telligent of the Mahommedans would prob
ably stop them If they could. The sultan
has, l am told, tried to do so, but he is
afraid of his life. He realizes that If the
common people get the idea that he is
false to his religion he Is almost sure of
assassination. The Imans and the Sheiks,
or, in other words, the Mahommedan
priests. to large extent rule Turkey to-