The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-12-12
Departed Days and Which Flour
ished When the Human Race Was
Young Sculpture Made When
Moses Was Boy.

rious inscriptions of untold antiquity,
which the prying eye has not yet been
able to read; rivers whose courses are
yet to be explored; petrifying lakes
more silent in their awful solitude than
the sea which covers the ruins of
Sodom; caves scooped out of massive
rocks which led through endless wind
ingS of mysterious halls and recesSes
where men carved their thoughts on the
walls around-nen whose names were
household words before Babylon be-
came Semitic, and when the simple law
of Accad was still administered within
its walls; slabs of stone on which are
carved the boasts, the hopes and the
sentiments of Darius, the great king;
towns paved over with the wreck of
days departed and which fiourished
when the human race was young; stu
pendous columns and wild images of
more than man.; plains, the native
home of that fear-dispelling wine
which has drowned more human lives
and wrecked more human hopes than
the pillows of the tempest tossed
ocean; snow-capped mountains, hurled,
mayhap, by the angry Titans in their
wars with gods; yes, he would see from
that gigantic Mount Ararat the most
fascinating, the most mysterious, the
most ancient country in the world-Ar-
menia, hoary with age.
There are cities in Armenia as famous
in the twilight of history and far more
old than those of Greece and Italy; but
they are now dead cities, or nearly so,
Ami, the sacred capital of ancient kings,
the city of stupendous ruins in which
the treasures of the kings of kings were
preserved; BayaZid, the streets of which
are paved with fragments of sculpture
made at the time when Moses was a boy
and Pharoah heir-aparent to the throne
OF Egypt; Takht-i-Soliman, whose an
cient ruins are reflected in the clear
waters of a small lake, the birthplace
of ZoroaSter, the city in which was
jealousy guarded for ages the holy fire
descended from heaven, at which were
periodically lighted all the fires and
flames that blaZed throughout the
world of Magi; ErZeroum, in the valley
once occupied by a lake, the city whose
streets ran more than once with the
blood of countless victims: Vagharsha-
bad, built by King Erovand l., 600
years before our era. and now shrunk
UP to the dimensions of the solitary
Monastery of Etchmiadzin, the residents
of the Catholics of all Armenia; Kemak,
whose walls show the style of architect
ure not seen anywhere else in the world !;
Armavir, formerly the residence of
Armenian Kings, where the holy plane
tree grew, the rustic of whose leaves
was the language of the gods OF old
TO make known their behests to men or
good-will; Egin, IN deep valley OF the
Fuphrates, surrounded by mountains
1000 feet high, whose slopes are
covered with gardens of such beauty
that they would have gladdened the
heart of Hafiz himself; and finally Van,
amidst scenery of grandeur which sent
the great Semiramis into ecstacies, and
which she forthwith embodied in archi-
tectural fancies not deciphered as yet
remaining there like awful spells des-
tined perhaps to save the human race
from a second deluge or a universal
confiagration-tha Van, with its lake
of bitter salt water nearly 5000 feet
above the sea level, with its citadel on
a dizzy summit of an immense rocE,
one of the wonders in the world, with
its bursts and groves that subdue into
soft twilight the glare of the midday
and with rugged Subhan Dagh, on
whose crest Noah and his companions
are said to have rested after their SIX
weeks sojourn in the ark. Van is the
center of Armenia, and whlthersoever
we turn our steps from ito the north,
south, east or west-the ground we
t1od is holy.
1t is history-stratified.
Armenians were an ancient people
before the Slav or the Englishman, the
German or the F'renchman, was dreamt
of. The ethnologist is still in doubt as
70 which branch of the great Indo-
European family the Armenian people
belong; the phiIologist has not yet
classified their language; the antiquari-
an knows next to nothing of their early
history The Armenians proper call
themselves Haiks, from traditional
ancestor. Haig or Haicus, whom they
represent as the son of Togarmah, VINO
was a great grandson of Noah, through
the line of Japheth and Conner. From
his son Armenag, or from Aram, the
seventh son of the dynasty, the name OF
the country took place. Before the
Persians established their sovereignty
over the country it seems certain that
from one quarter or another Armenia
had been Arianized; the ola Turanian
character had passed away from it; i'm
migrants had flocked in, and new
people had been formed-the real Ar
menians of later times, and indeed OF
the present day, for this interesting
people has maintained itself I'M
changed from the times of the early
Persian kings till the present day.
They raised the standard of rebellion
against Darius Hystaspes, and he him
self informs us in his longest arrow
headed inscription what endless
trouble it cost him to drive them back
TO their allegiance. Among the BRAY
est of the troops of Xerxes in Greece
were Armenian warriors who served
faithfully the ill-starred monarch.
They submitted to Alexander of Mace
don and afterward they fell under the
yoke of the Seleucidae but gained in
dependence about b. c. 100. Under the
influence of Parthia, branch of the
Parthian royal family, the Arsacids,
was subsequently placed on the throne,
and thus a national dynasty estab-
lished, which reigned for nearly GOO
years. The fourth and greatest of these
kings. Tigranes, ruled with rod of
iron over Syria, Phoenicia, Ciiicia, Gal
alta. etc, transplanting whole colo
MES of Greeks from Cappadocia to
Mesopotamia and Arabs from their ma
tive places to the banks of the Euphra-
tes, executing insubordinate kings and
warning with the Romans and the Par
thians.
THE Armenians were the first nation
that uniformly embraced Christianity,
consequently the church of the Armen-
ians is the Oldest of all national
churches. They were converted by st.
Gregory. called The illumination, A. d.
276 who was a relative of Derrad of
Tiudates. their prince. They received
Without question the degrees of the
council of Nice, A. D. 325, and Ephesus,
431, but by an accident they were un-
represented at the council of Chalce-
don. twenty years later. Owing to a
regularity of their language they had
~ that time but one word for nature
and person. in consequence of which
they misunderstood the decision of that
council that Christ possessed two ma
lures. divine and human, in one person.
They rejected the DEGREES of the council
and their church is therefore anathe-
matized as heretical by both the Greek