The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1898-10-15
CAVE JEWELLERS.
>tCont1nued from LIST. Paee.)


husband, her children, her chickens
and the other members Of her family, in
Guiding some dogs and sheep, in a
cave up the side Of the hill that had
been followed out of solid rock by
cave jewellers thousands of years be-
fore. We were approaching the White
Valley now, where are fifty miles of
these rockrooms that date from the dawn
of history.
In the morning took the interpreter
and climbed up the hill to see this
strange home. The husband was work
ing with some bags 81 grain, getting
ready to put them in the ground
against the winter. The woman was
helping him. But at my approach she
would not come out: knew better
than to insist, and, paying no more
heed to her, motioned the Turk to
stand against the wall. and held up a
piastre, (four. cents.)s For a plaster a
poor Turk will do almost anything, 80
trance to the cave, and made ready
to photograph him, delaying purposely
in adjusting. my camera.
And presently the woman did just what
I expected, came out to see what was do
ing to her husband And she stood there
side Of the cave, holding naked child on
one arm and looking like some splendid
Caryatid, so silent was her pose and so
fine. But her face was yelled now, all
save her eyes, wrapped with white
cloth, which she drew tight across the
mouth with one hand. Never shall for
get the dignity of that poor woman, that
wild queen of a cave, nor her yellow
trousers full at the hips and going down
IN narrowing folds to I've caught tight at
the ankles, nor the wide, red sash that
bound her waist, nor her bare feet not
too small, but perfect. AS she held the
little child she looked like Madonna.
So I took the picture, they not know
Ing at all what I was doing. They had
never heard of photography, nor Of rail-
roads, nor of Europe, nor of Christianity,
nor of anything except the happenings
in that mud-hovel hamlet in the heart Of
Asia Minor.
Then I gave the piastre TO the husband
and went inside the cave. 1t was clean
enough, save for sheep-dung at one side,
where the animals lay. There were
shelves and brackets followed in the rock
wall: and on these rested some little
earthen lamps, urn-shaped, like those the
Romans used At one side was a rock
fireplace, under en- upward passage
through the cliff, that served for a chin
ney. A fire was smoking here, and a.
broth stewing in a stone vessel.
''How do you live?" I asked the man,
throughS the Armenian.
locks round and round on the thresh-
ing floor, we fan the chaff, and what
the tax-gatherer leaves, that we eat,
We do as our fathers did,
So spoke the Turk and his wife
stood there holding the little one, never
moving. .-..
"Have you nothing to eat but that?"
asked, pointing to the stew.
1--WE have grapes and sometimes
chicken, and once in many days goats
flesh: We do not complain. 1t is as
Allah wills. - - E.s- 49,,
"And the woman, what does she do?"
"She drives the bullocks over the
threshing floor and milks the buffaloes
and bears me sons. Co. he said to her,
and the woman bent low and passed
into a second rock-chamber at the
back, the harem of the cave.
How long have you lived here?"
"Allah knows, a long time
"Will you always live here?'
"That must be as Allah Wills"
When we came outside I gave him
another 5piastre and wished him good
luck, but he spot on the ground and
went back into the cave.
''Why did he spit on the ground?' I
asked the Armenian.
Because you wished him we'll. He
Is afraid that will bring the evil eye
upon him. They do not like to have a
stranger wish them well. Besides, you
have blue eyes, and those are the worst
kind"
So we went our way, leaving these
care jewellers In their strange Isolation.