Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-07-24
THE CONE JEWELLERS
A Primitive People Of Modern Times
Nature Made Houses Their Habitation

"Who will be the mandatory OF the
cone jewellers Of Asia Minor. or will this
curious people remain a part Of dwind-
ling Turkey"
That question" says a bulletin from
the National Geographic society, is an
other of the curious ramifications of the
treaty, whose scope extends even to such
minutia as the restoration of the skull
of the mysterious Okwawa.
These cone-dwellers. technically known
as the Troglodytes Of Cappadocia are
harrassed not at all by the housing prob
lem, for they live in nature-made apart
ment houses. fashioned BY trickling
streams and volcanic violence.
Nor is it likely that they are con-
cerned in the least about their political
fate, for, though they inhabit what is
characterized as the cradle of cviliza-
ton they are more primitive in some
particulars than the most benighted
tribes of Africa or the South Pacific"
The bulletin quotes from a communica-
ton of J. r. Stlington Sterrett. who de-
scribes the Cappadocians as follows
Residing within a stones throw meta
phorcally speaking. of the wonderful
civilization which iourished on the banks
of the Nile G,00O years ago; Of the mighty
| kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia which
arose in the valleys of the Euphrates and
the Tigris, their power and splendor daz-
! zlng the world 1000 years before the
Christian era; and at the very threshold
| Of ancient Greece, with its unrivaled
culture and political advancement, the
Trogiodytes Of Cappadocia still retain to-
ward their felow-men an attitude of mind
! akin to that which obtained in the stone
| age. when there was no such thing as
! human society, but every man was his
own law and the mortal enemy Of his
| neighbor.
The only difference between the So
cicty of these Troglodytes and that OF
primitive man consists in this, that prlm
tive man did not brook the presence Of
any other man, while here the isoa-
! ton of the clan takes the place of the
isolation of the individual.
| The caves. cones. and cliff dwellings
of the Cappadocian Troglodytes Of both
ancient and modern times are to be found
in the greatest number in the shadow Of
Asia Minors loftiest peak, snow-clad Mt
Argaeus called by the Turks Erjas
Dagh), an extinct volcano whose erup-
ton in the dim past laid the foundations
and supplied the material for these re-
markable habitations, while the Hays
river of the ancients NOV known as XIII
| Irmak) IN succeeding centuries became
| their tireless architect.
| THE practice OF living in caves, in
cliffs, or in excavated cavities in the open
plain is to be traced to state Of So
ciety which we of to-day have some diff
Guilty in depicting to ourselves. And Yet
the central thought of the Troglodytic
habit is the basic principle upon which
ancient civilization was founded.
THAT basic thought was absolute iso-
lation-a thought which is wholly antag-
onistic to our modern conceptions Of So
ciety. whether we have in mind the COM
munity of a countryside, a village. a
town. or a State: because, where abso-
Lutte isolation is the dominant obsession
Of man, there can be. strictly speak
ing. no such thing as a united State.
They have sought and found for them
selves complete isolation. They seem 10
have none Of the instincts OF agricultural
men and they are wholly inhospitable.
THE entrances to their dwellings are
high up in the almost perpendicular walls
OF the cliffs, and they are reached solely
by means of long poles, which are light
enough to be drawn up when the lord
of the den and his family are safely
housed. And when housed they really
are safe from intrusion, for 1t would re-
quire a host to force an entrance against
the will OF the family,
zone ancient writer tells us that some
Troglodytes made a practice of killing
all those who were not in first rate ply
steal condition, on the ground that man
who cannot earn his own living has ne
right to live; and when one sees these
dwellings. one can imagine still another
reason for killing off the aged and the
lnfirm-because of their inability to get
| in or out of the house.