The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924100210222 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 924 100 210 222 In compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1992 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 2005 Professor of th ItlTOev^itg pihrari. THE GlfX OF F. CRANE,, i Romance Languages and Literatures. 3Lgjm::|.o3 PiibLdlie/s Compliments, THE WOMEN OF TURKEY In the Press, and to be published on the ist October. THE WOMEN OF TURKEY AND THEIR FOLK-LORE. By LUCY M. J. GARNETT. WITH CONCLUDING CHAPTERS By JOHN S. STUART-GLENNIE, M.A. THE SEMITIC AND MOSLEM WOMEN. Contents. THE SEMITIC WOMEN. CHAl'. I. The Jewish Women — their Social Status and Activities ; Family Ceremonies ;"&c. II. The Dulme Women— their Social Status and Activities ; &:c. THE MOSLEM WOMEN. CHAP. T. The Kurdish Women — their Social Status and Activities ; &c. II. The Circassian Women — their Social Status and Activities ; &c- III. The Circassian Women — their Folk-poesy. IV, The Albanian Women — their Social Status and Activities ; &c. V. The Albanian Women— their Folk-poesy. VI. The Tatar Women— their Social Status and Activities ; &c. VII. The Gipsy Women — their Social Status and Activities ; Sic VIII. The Gipsy Women — their Folk-poesy. IX. The Ottoman Women — Serailis : Sultanas, Odalisks, and Menials. X. The Ottoman Women — their Social Status and Activities. XI. The Ottoman Women— their Family Ceremonies. XII. The Ottoman Women — their Beliefs and Superstitions. XIII. The Ottoman Women — their Folk-poesy. XIV. The Ottoman Women— Poetesses ; of the Rise, Decline, and Fall. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL PROSPECTS. Jn. - THE Q / / ■' Women of Turkey t AND THEIR FOLK-LORE BY LUCY M. J. GARNETT "Hfflitb an Etbnograpbical /Kap AND INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS ON THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF TURKEY ; AND FOLK-CONCEPTIONS OF NATURE BY JOHN S. STUART-GLENNIE, M.A. OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER- AT-LAW THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN LONDON DAVID NUTT, 270-271 STRAND, W.C. 1890 ID h^XZ6% D^ Plato, Kpar. 74. Facilius enim Miilieres incorniptam antiqiiitatem conservant. CiCKHo, De Orat. iii. 12. GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGK FBBt'ACB TO INTEODUCTION ... ... XV INTEODUCTOBY CHAPTEE I. The Ethnogeaphy of Tuekey . . ... xvii Note on the Ethnogeaphical Map lii Map . . faowg liv INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTER II. FOLK-OONCEPTIOKS OF NATUEE ... . . Iv Feefacb . Ixxvi Dedication Ixxix Chap. I.— Vlach Women : theie Social Status and Activi- ties — Family Ceeemonies — Beliefs and Supbe- STITIONS — AND FoLK-POESY .... „ II.— Geeek Women : theie Social Status and Activities „ III. — Geeek Womkn: theie Family Ceeemonies „ IV. — Geeek Women : theie Beliefs and Supbestitions „ V. — Geeek Women : theie Folk-poesy Note on the Identification of St. Gboege with HOEUS AND KHIDHE igi 3° 69 103 154 vi GENEKAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAor Chap. VI.— Armenian Women: their Social Status and Activities i94 „ VII. — Armenian Women : their Family Ceremonies 222 „ VIII. — Armenian Women: their Beliefs and Super- stitions . . 249 „ IX. — Armenian Women : their Folk-poesy . . 270 „ X.— Bulgarian Women : their Social Status and Activities 297 „ XI. — Bulgarian Women: the]E Family Ceremonies 315 „ XII. — Bulgarian Women : their Beliefs and Super- stitions 327 „ XIII. — Bulgarian Women : THEiE FoLK-poEST . . . 342 „ XIV. — Frank Women: their Social Status and Activi- ties— Family Ceremonies— Beliefs and Super- stitions — AND Folk-poesy 366 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. Peeface to Introduction, xv. INTKODUCTORY CHAPTER I. THE BTHNOGEAPHY OF TUEKEY. The Ethnological Theory of the Origin of Civilisation, xvii. :. The Eace-relatious of the Kurds, xxi. 2. The Eace-relations of the Cirassians, xziii. 3. The Race-relations of the Albanians, xxv. 4. The Race-relations of the Vlachs, xxvii. 5. The Eace-relations of the Greeks, xxix. 6. The Race-relations of the Armenians, xxxii. 7. The Eace-relations of the Jews, xxxv. 8. The Race-relations of the Bulgarians, xxxvi. 9. The Race-relations of the Franks, xxxix. 10. The Race-relations of the Gipsies, xl. 11. The Eace-relations of the Ottomans, xliii. The Deduced Theory of the Origin of the Aryans, xlvi. Note on the Ethnogeaphical Map, Hi. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER II. FOLK-CONCEPTIONS OF NATUEE. The Deduced Theory of the Origin of Mythology, Iv. 1 . The Primitive Theory of Mutual Influence, lix. 2. Dr. Tylor's Self-contradictory Theory of " Animism," Ix. 3. Mr. Spencer's Paradoxical Theory of "Stages," Ixi. 4. The Term " Zoonism " instead of "Fetichism," Ixii. 5. The Zoonist and Spiritist Conceptions of Nature, Ixiii. 6. Criticism of the Ghost Theory of Messrs. Spencer and Tylor, Ixv. 7. Zoonism and Spiritism possibly both Primordial, Ixvii, 8. The Essential Similarity of Zoonism and Kosmism, Ixviii. 9. Mr. Spencer's and the New Conception of Alatter, Ixix. 10. The Historical Relation between Zoonism and Kosmism, Ixx. 11. The Essential Similarity of Theism and Spiritism, Ixxii. The Deduced Theory of the Method of Folklore-study, Ixxiii. ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. VLACH WOMEN ; THEIE SOCIAL STATUS AND ACTIVITIES — PAMILY CEEE- MONIES — BELIEFS AND SUPBESTITIONS — AND POLK-POESY. Vlach Nomads, 3 ; An Encampment, 4 ; Moimtain Homes, 5 ; Vlach Centres, 6 ; A Vlaoh Household, 7 ; Social Status and Morality, 9 ; Industries, 10 ; Appearance, 10 ; Attachment to Homes, 1 1 ; Educa- tion, 11; The Eoumanian Propaganda, 12; Birth Customs, 13; Evil Spirits, 13; Baptism, 13 ; Wedding Customs, 13; The Preliminaries, 14 ; Announcing the Betrothal, 14 ; The Flamhoro, 14 ; The Bride- groom's Toilet, 15; Wedding by Capture, 15; Scrambling for the Cake, 15; The Procession, 16; Bringing Home the Bride, 16; Anoint- ing the Door, 16 ;■ Kissing Hands, 16 ; Death Customs, 17; The Feast of the Dead, 17; The Rosalia, 17; Religious Observances, 18; New Year's Day, 18; The " Feast of the Kings," 18; ViUiemi, 18; Stea, 19 ; The Filijn, 19; The "Fairy of Tuesday Even," 20; The Proces- sion for Rain, 20; The Klithona, 20; Christmas Customs, 21; The House Serpent, 21 ; A Preventive of Hydrophobia, 21 ; Folk-poesy, 22 ; Supernatural Beings, 22 ; The Doinas, or Ballads, 23 ; " The Ring and the Veil," 23 ; " The Cuckoo and the Turtle-dove," 25 ; " The Sun and the Moon," 27. CHAPTER II. GREEK women: THEIK SOCIAL STATUS AND ACTIVITIES. Appearance, 31 ; Someots, 32; Social Status, 32 ; Introduction of Divorce, 32 ; Respect for Parents, 33 ; Greek Heroines, 33 ; A Company of Amazons, 34 ; The Women of Missolonghi, 35 ; A Greek Authoress, 36 ; A Heroine's Funeral, 37 ; Marighitza, 38 : A Brigand Chieftain- ess, 38 ; Haidee, 39 ; Peasant Women, 39 ; Habitations, 40 ; Field and Farm Work, 40; The Shepherdess, 41 ; Indlustries, 42 : Spinning and Weaving, 43 ; Silkworm-rearing, 43 ; Cretan Women, 43 ; The Olive Harvest, 44 ; Cypriote Needlework, 44 ; Holidays, 44 ; Dress, 44 ; The Dance on the Green, 45 ; Dancing Songs, 46 ; Pantomimic Dancing, 47 ; The Swing, 48 ; A Swing Song, 48 ; The Harvest Home, 48 ; Married Life, 49 ; Rigidity of Morals, 49 ; A Terrible Expiation, 49; Domestic Virtues, 50; The Absent Husband, 51 ; Domestic Ser- vice, 51 ; Cooks and Nurses, 52 ; Thrifty Habits, 52 ; Slovenliness, 53 ; " Soul-Children," 53 ; Honesty and Sobriety, 53 ; Relations with Turks, 54 ; " Demos and the Turkish Maid," 54 ; A Perversion at Salonica, 55 ; Terrible Tragedy, 56 ; "A Turk I'll not Wed," 57 ; Greek Townswomen, 58 ; Dress, 58 ; Occupations, 58 ; Love of Display, 59 ; Family Ties, 60 ; Songs of Exile, 61 ; Education, 62 ; Increase of AISTALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENT,S. ix Girls' Schools, 62 ; Subjects, 63 ; Training Colleges and High gghools, 64 ; Munificent Ladies, 64 ; A Greek Mnemosynon, 65 ; Phanariote Women, 67 ; Their Culture, 67 ; Philanthropic Work, 68 ; Proposed Educational Changes, 68. CHAPTER III. GEEEK ■WOMEN : THBIE FAMILY CBBBMOKIES. Pagan Customs, 69 ; Salting the Baby, 69 ; Precautions against the Nereids, 70; Changelings, 70; The Libation, 71 ; Propitiating the Fates, 71; The Christening, 71 ; Godfathers and Godmothers, 71 ; Conventional Relationships, 72 ; The Procession, 72 ; Trine Immersion, 73 ; Infant Confirmation and Communion, 73 ; Dedication of Hair, 73 ; Bonbons and Crosses, 73 ; Wedding Customs, 74 ; Prohibited Degxees, 74 ; Go- betweens, 75 ; The Betrothal, 75 ; The Trousseau, 76 ; Marriage Por- tions, 76 ; Broken Engagements, 77 ; Observances at Yodhena, 78 ; The Week's Festivities, 78 ; Making the Wedding Cake, 78 ; The Ex- change of Presents, 79 ; The Bride's Toilette, 80 ; Wedding Songs, 80 ; Shaving the Bridegroom, 81 ; Lucky and Unlucky Days, 82 ; The Bridegroom's Procession, 82 ; The Libation, 82 ; The Second Betrothal, 83; Girding the Bridegroom, 84; The Wedding Dress, 84; "Bride, hast thou the Shoes ? " 84 ; The Religious Ceremony, 84 ; Emblems of Plenty, 85 ; The Bride's Farewell, 86 ; The Dance on the Green, 87 ; Taking Home the Bride, 88 ; Propitiating the Water Deities, 89 ; Final Festivities, 89 ; Death Customs, 90 ; Laying out the Corpse, 90 ; Dirges, 91 ; Lament for a Father, 93 ; For a House-mistress, 93 ; For a Daughter, 94; For a Son, 94, 96 ; The Fee for Charon, 97 ; The Pro- cession to the Grave, 97 ; The Beligious Eite, 98 ; The Funeral Feast, 98; Sweeping the House, 98; Mourning, 98; The Kdlyva, 99; Gifts to the Poor, 100; Exhumation of the Body, 100; The Sala, loi ; Pranks of the Turkish gamin, 102. CHAPTER IV. GEEEK WOMEN : BELIEFS AND SUPEESTITIOKS. The Orthodox Greek Church, 103 ; Dogmas, 103 ; Clergy, 103 ; Importance attached to Ritual, 104; Reform Impossible, 105; The Wives of the Clergy, 105; Greek Churches, 106; Convents and Nuns, 107; An Epirote Nunnery, 107; An Island Convent, 109; Morality of tiie Nuns, 109 ; The Ecclesiastical Year, 109 ; Fasting, 109 ; Church Festivals, ,111 ; St. Basil, iii; Epiphany, 112; The Feast of the Lights, 112; The Carnival, 112; Lent, 113; The Feast of St. Lazarus, 114; Palm ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. Sunday, :i4; Red Eggs, 115; Good Friday Superstitions, 116; Tlie Solemnity in the Church, 116; Turkish Guards, 117; The Resurrec- tion, 117 ; Easter Greetings, 118; The Feast of the Annunciation, 119; Nature Worship, 119; The Swallows' Greeting, 120; May Day, 120; St. John's Eve in Thessaly, 120; In Macedonia, 121 ; In Cappa- docia, 122; The Fishoti, 123; The Procession for Rain, 123; Pagan Gods and Christian Saints, 124 ; Their Annual Festivals, 125 ; Votive OflEerings, 125; Family Festivals, 126; Charity, 127; Sacred Fountains, 127; Their Festivals, 128; Classic Nymphs replaced by the Virgin, 128; The Genius, or Stoicheion, 128; The Widow's Sons and the Stoichelon, 129; The Battle of the Stoicheia, 130 ; The Stoicheia of St. Paul, 130 ; The Drakos, 131 ; Nereids, Lamias, and Sirens, 131 ; Pre- cautions taken against them, 132; Their Connection with Storms, 133 ; The Lamia and Yanni, 134 ; The Lamia as a Housewife, 135 ; The Fates, 135; The Vampire, 136; Not of Slav Origin, 136; Causes of Vampirism, 136; "Laying" a Vampire, 137; A Cretan Vampire Story, 139; A Vampire Panic at Adrianople, 141; Witches, 142; SiDells and Curses, 142 ; Fortune-telling, 143 ; Corpse Caudles, 144 ; Antidotes for the Evil Eye, 145 ; " The Envy of the Gods," 146 ; Pass- ing a Child through the Fire, 147 ; Antipathy to Grey Eyes, 148 ; Divinations, 149; Owls Heralds of Death, 150; Omens, 150; Things Lucky and Things Unlucky, 151 ; Exorcising Vermin, T52 ; Oriental Gestures, 152 ; Contemptuous Epithets, 153. CHAPTER V. GREEK WOMEN : THBIK FOLK-POESY. Religious Legends, 154; Histories of Saints, 154; St. George of Cappa- docia, 155; His -Martyrdom, 155; His Amenability to Bribery, 156; The Vow to St. George, 156 ; The Fox and St. George, 157 ; The Story of Kosma and Damianus, 159 ; The Head of St. John the Baptist, 161 ; The Peddler and the Serpent, 163 ; The Three Wonderful Dresses, 165 ; The Prince and the Foal, 178 ; The Just One, 185. Note on the Idbntieication of St. George with Hobus and Khidhe, 191. CHAPTER VI. ARMENIAN WOMEN ; THBIK SOCIAL STATUS AND ACTIVITIES. The Armenians in History, 194 ; The Last Armenian King, 195 ; Legend- ary Origin of the Armenians, 195; The Armenian Quarter, 196; Ancient Houses, 196 ; Modern Dwellings, 197 ; Middle-class Homes, ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi 197; Armenian Mansions, 198; Houses at Erzeroum, 199; The Ox Stable. 200 ; Erzeroum in Winter, 201 ; Dwellings of the Armenian Peasantry, 201 ; Social Status of Women in Armenia, 202 ; Patriarchal Customs, 202 ; The " Subjection of the Daughter-in-law," 203 ; Status in Smyrna and Constantinople, 205 ; An Armenian Ball, 206 ; The Travelled Armenian Lady, 206 ; Domestic Virtues, 207 ; " Pure " and "Coarse" Armenians, 208; Armenian Beauties, 208 ; "The Seventh Heaven of Mohammed," 209 ; Use of Cosmetics, 209 ; Home-made Rose-water, 210; Dress, 211 ; Fondness for Bright Colours, 211 ; Dis- habille, 212; Native Costumes, 212; The Cone-fruit Pattern, 213; Costumes at Kaisariyeh and Sivas, 213; Domestic Service, 214 ; Lace- making, 214; A School of Art Needlework, 214; Home Industries, 215; Fondness for Animals, 216; Cats with Dyed Tails, 216; Armenian Salutations, 217; Education, 217 ; Training Colleges, 218; Mission Schools, 218 ; Loss of Language, 219; Schools at Smyrna and Constantinople, 219; Literary Women, 220 ; Armenian Actresses, 220 ; Armenian Literature, 220 ; More Imitation than Creation, 220 ; Literary Revival, 221 ; Armenian Patriotism, 221. CHAPTER VII. ARMENIAN WOMEN : THEIE FAMILY CEREMONIES. Armenian Birth Customs, 222 ; Keeping away the Demons, 222 ; The Mother's Reception, 222 ; Irregular Training, 223 ; The Christening, 223 ; The Holy Chrism, 226 ; The Baby's Confirmation, 228 ; Its First Communion, 229 ; The Bath Feast, 229 ; The Forty Days' Ceremony, 229 ; Superstitions connected with the Forty Days, 230 ; Precautions against. the Djins, 231; Wedding Observances, 232; The Betrothal, 232 ; Courtship, 233 ; The Hars'nih, 233 ; Preliminary Festivities, 234 ; The Wedding Dress, 235 ; A Shower of Coins, 235 ; The Bridegroom's Toilet, 235 ; The Barber's Benefit, 236 ■, The Second Betrothal, 236 ; The Procession to Church, 237 ; The Religious Ceremony, 238 ; The Sacrifice, 239; Subsequent Festivities, 239 ; "Wearing the Crowns," 240; The Husband's Gift, 240; The "Veil of Silence," 241; The Ceremony at the Well, 241 ; Precautions against the Djins, 241 ; Blessing the Wedding Garments, 242 ; Propitious Days, 242 ; Mixing the Brides, 243 ; Funeral Customs, 243 ; Laying out the Corpse, 244 ; The Religious Ceremony, 244 ; Funeral Cakes, 246 ; Ancient Tomb- stones, 246 ; " Passage Money," 247 ; Journey of the Soul to Jerusalem, 248 ; Appropriating the Lost Life of the Dead, 248. xu ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. ARMENIAN WOMEN : THEIE BELIEFS AND SUPEESTITIONS. The Gregorian Church, 249 ; Its Three Periods, 249 ; Legendary Corre- spondence between Jesus and Abgar, 250 ; St. Gregory, "the Illumi- nator,'' 251 ; His Tortures, 252 ; The Story of Ripsimeh and Gaianeh, 252 ; Conversion of Tiridates, 253 ; Doctrines, 254 ; Fasts and Feasts, 254 ; May Day at Smyrna, 255 ; Holy Pictures, 256 ; Attendance at Church, 257 ; Wives of the Clergy, 257 ; Blessing the House, 258 ; Pilgrimages, 259 ; Armenian Churches, 259 ; The Monastery and Church of Etchmiadzin, 260; Its Legends, 261 ; Mount Ararat, or Massis, 261; The Abode of Supernatural Beings, 262; "Noah's Vineyard," 263; Erzeroum the Site of Paradise, 264; Legend of Khosref Purveez, 264 ; Flowers of Eden, 265 ; Catholic Missionaries, 266; "United Armenians," 266; Mekhitar, Theologian, Scholar, and Patriot, 267 ; Educational Work of the Mekhitarists, 26S ; The Armenian Bible, 268 ; Protestant Missions, 268. CHAPTER IX. ARMENIAN WOMEN : THEIE POLK-POESY. National Traditions, 270; Religious Legends, 271 ; The Story of the Fall, 271 ; Animal Stories, 276 ; "How the Tame Goose lost the Use of its Wings," 276 ; " How the Devil invented the Eudder,'' 277 ; " The King's Daughter and the Bath Boy," 278 ; Armenian Folk-songs, 293; The Stork's Welcome, 294 ; The Partridge, 295 ; Children's Song, 296. CHAPTER X. BULGARIAN WOMEN : THEIE SOCIAL STATUS AND ACTIVITIES. Physical Features, 297 ; Social Status of Townswomen, 298 ; Evening Parties, 298 ; Status of Peasant Women, 299 ; Patriarchal Customs, 300 ; Dwellings, 301 ; Thrift, 302 ; National Costumes, 302; Industry, 303 ; Field-work, 304 ; Arcadian Scenes, 304 ; The Harvest, 304 ; The Vin- tage, 304; "French Plums," 305; Rose Culture, 305; The Bose Harvest, 305 ; Silk Bearing, 306 ; Women-labourers, 307 ; An Old Servant, 307 ; Amusements, 309 ; The Dance, 309 ; The Bear-dance, 310; Women as Brigands, 310 ; Morals, 311; Education, 312 ; Irregu- larities of the Language, 312 ; Girls' Schools, 313; A Lyceum at Philip- opolis, 313; Foreign Education, 314. ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER XI. BULGARIAN WOMEN : THEIB FAMILY CBEEMONIBS. Birth Customs, 315 ; Salting the Baby, 315 ; A Strange Preventive of Sun- stroke, 315; Precautions against the Evil Eye, 316; Against the Powers of the Air, 316; Taking the Bread Shovel to Church, 316; Wedding Observances, 316 ; The Trousseau, 317 ; Buying a Wife, 317; The Betrothal, 317; Runaway Matches, 319; Preparations for the Wedding, 319 ; Invitation Cakes, 320 ; Inspecting the Trousseau, 320; The Bride's Toilette, 321 ; The Wedding Dress, 321 ; A Wedding near Salonioa, 321 ; The Eeligious Ceremony, 322; The Feast, 322 ; Taking Home the Bride, 323; Offering to the Water Nymphs, 324; Funeral Customs, 324 ; Laying out the Corpse, 325 ; The Religious Ceremony, 325 ; The Death Feast, 326 ; Food for the Dead, 326. CHAPTER XII. BULGAKIAN WOMEN : THEIE BELIEFS AND SUPEESTITIONS. The Bulgarian Church, 327 ; Religion a Practical Matter, 328 ; Pantheism, 328 ; Heathen Festivals and Christian Anniversaries, 329 ; The Kulada, 329 ; The Feast of St. Demetrius, 330 ; The Matrons' Day, 330 ; Lent, 330 ; " Mother March," 330 ; Why Fish may be Eaten on the Blagostina, 331 ; Legend of St. George's Day, 332 ; Assumption Offerings, 333 ; Nature Worship, 333 ; Supernatural Beings, 334 ; Pre- cautions against the Sun, 335 ; The Tellestim, 335 ; The Vampire, 336 ; His First Stage, 336; His Second Stage, 337; La3'ing the Vampire, 337 ; The Witch, 337 ; Her Medical Powers, 338 ; Antidotes for the Evil Eye, 339 ; Adets or Customs, 339 ; Exorcising Vermin, 340. CHAPTER XIII. BULGAKIAN WOMEN : THEIB FOLK-POESY. The Bulgarian Vernacular, 342 ; Historical Traditions, 342 ; Legend of Deli Marko, 343 ; The Story of Yanko the Wrestler, 345 ; Bulgarian Folk-poetry, 348 ; Dancing Songs, 349 : Native Collectors, 349 ; Char acter of the Songs, 349 ; Ballad of the Wife of Momir, 350 ; Fraternal Affection, 351 ; The Youdas, or Fates, 351 ; The Samodiva Married against her Will, 352 ; Casting Spells on Nature, 355 ; Eada carried off by a Dragon, 355 ; The Sun Bewitched, 357 ; Christ and the Samo- divas, 358; Penka's Adieu to her Brigand Life, 359; "There's but Niko in the World," 361 ; The Idle Reapers, 362 ; The Toilette, or the Helpful Mother-in-Law, 363. ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. OHAPTEE XIV. PRANK WOMEN : THBIE SOCIAL STATUS AND ACTIVITIES — FAMILY CBEE- MONIES — BELIEFS AND SUPEBSTITIOKS — AND FOLK-POESY. The Frank Quarters, 366 ; " Only Catholics," 367 ; Convent Schools, 367 ; Education, 368 ; Polyglots, 369 ; Appearance, 36c; ; Protestant Franks, 370; Curious Manners, 371 ; The Tandour, ■^•jo.; Consuls' Wives, 372; Their Influence for Good, 373 ; A Romantic Incident, 374 ; Amusements, 375 ; East and West, 376 ; Levies at the Windows, 376 ; Carnival Diversions, 377 ; A Conspiracy, 378 ; Borrowed Folk-lore, 379 ; The Franks in Greek Folk-poesy, 379 ; The YanneotopoiUa, 380 ; " A Frank I'll not Marry,'' 380 The Siren and the Seamen, 381. PREFACE TO INTRODUCTION. In perusing the proof-sheets of Miss Garnett's Women of Turkey and their Folk-lore, it seemed to me that such an unique collection of facts was presented as should not only be found entertaining by the general reader, but might also be found serviceable by the scientific student ; and I have written the Introductory Chapters to this volume, and propose to write the Concluding Chapters of the nest, in the hope, at least, that I may thus, perhaps, make this collection of facts more suggestively instructive in relation to current theories. But facts cannot but be regarded from the point of view ot some hypothesis or other, either formulated or anformulated. And naturally, therefore, there will be found in these Intro- ductory Chapters, not only the special ethnographical and other facts which it has appeared desirable to set forth, but outlines of that new ethnological theory of the Origin of Civilisation, and of the chief deductions therefrom, from the point of view of which I would myself regard the facts brought together in Miss Garnett's Chapters. I have thus been led to express views, not only with respect to the Origin of Civilisation, but to the Origin of the Aryans, the importance of Eace-relations and -intermixtures, the Origin of Mythology, and the Method of Folk-lore, which are in direct opposition to the views now generally current, and to which the works of Professor Max Mliller, Mr. Herbert Spencer, and Professor Edward Tyler have given a certain orthodoxy. But it must be noted, that the characteristic views of these xvi PflEFACE TO INTEODUCTION. eminent antliors were for tlie most part formed, and even formulated, a quarter of a century ago ; and that hardly any quarter of a centiiry can be named during which the results of scientific research have been so revolutionary in their bearing on formerly accepted theories. And if my present very narrow limits of space have obliged me, with an appearance of dogmatism which these limits made un- avoidable, to express views more in accordance, as I think, with the results of later research, I trust that I shall not be deemed guilty of any sort of disrespect to authors the perusal of whose earlier works formed epochs in my life. If, however, I must thus excuse my opposition to some scholars and thinkers, I must express my obligations to others for much encouragement and assistance, and par- ticularlj' to Professor Sayce and Professor De Lacouperie. For they have seen that the main drift of my researches is to generalise that derivation of later Civilisations from Egyptian, and particularly from Chaldean Civilisation, which Professor Sayce has so admirably demonstrated in the case of Semitic, and Professor De Lacouperie in the case of Chinese Civilisation, and which I hope to be able to demonstrate in the case of the European Civilisations. And if, without implicating Professor De Lacouperie in my shortcomings, I may give myself the satisfaction of expressing my gratitude, I would especially acknowledge the quite invaluable assist- ance I have received from that distinguished scholar ever since I had the honour of making his acquaintance, on reading my first paper, in 1887, on the ethnological theory of the Origin of Civilisation. J. S. S.-G. The Shealing, Wimbledon Common, June 20, 1890. THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. INTEODUCTORY CHAPTER I. THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF TURKEY. In the highest degree misleading is, T think, the hypothesis which dispenses with study of Ethnology as properly both an antecedent to, and a concomitant of, study of Folk-lore. This hypothesis, in the words of Professor Tylor, affirms that "it is both possible and desirable [in a scientific study of Folk-beliefs and -customs] to eliminate considerations of hereditary varieties or races of rnen, and to treat mankind as homogeneous in nature."' On this hypothesis are based all the presently popular collections of Folk- lore — collections of facts as to so-called " Primitive Culture," and the so-called " Origin of Civilisation," &c. And with this hypothesis is intimately associated another — " the thesis " which Dr. Tylor " sustains " — " that the savage state in some measure represents an early condition of mankind out of which the higher culture has gradually been developed or evolved by ^ Prliiiitive Culture, vol. i. p, 6, b xviii THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [int. processes still in regular operation as of old."^ These ' ' processes, "however, Professor Tylor nowhere defines, and he appears to regard them as of a spontaneous, certainly, at least, not as of an ethnological character. But, in an earlier book of Dr. Tylor's, there is a passage which the contradictory dogmatism of his later work" makes remarkable. " It does not seem," said Mr. Tylor, in his earlier Researches, "to be an unreasonable, or even an over-sanguine view that the mass of analogies in art and knowledge, mythology, and custom .... may already be taken to indicate that the civilisations of many races . . . .have. . . . derived common material from a common source. But that such lines of argument should ever .... enable the student to infer .... that the civilisa- tion of the whole world has its origin in one parent stock is ... . rather a theoretical possibility than a state of things of which even the most dim and distant view is to be obtained."^ This bare "theoretical possibility," however, as Professor Tylor esteemed it in 1865, and appears, since then, altogether to have lost sight of, I believe that I shall be able — by a mere co-ordination of the results of research during the last 1 Primitive Oidture, vol. i. p. 28. '^ I may refer particularly to Dr. Tylor's confident assertions that such "traditions" as those in which "the half-civilised races of South America traced their rise from the condition of the savage tribes around them " — {ibid. pp. 318 scq., and compare p. 35) — are mere Sun and Moon myths. " These legends," he continues, " have been appealed to even by modern vrriters " (as if the supposition were quite too ridiculous) " as gratefully remembered records of real human benefactors who carried long ago to America the culture of the Old World." But I venture to think that the facts which I have brought together in my Traditions of the Arcliaian White Baees {Trans. B. Hist. Sac. i88g), though not a tenth part of those which I have collected as bearing on the subject, give a rather different aspect to these Tylorian " Sun and Moon myths." 3 Early History of Manlcind, p. 368. INT.] THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF TURKEY. xix quarter of a century — to verify as an historical reality. It will then be shown that it is not the fact — as Professor Tylor, Mr. Spencer/ and Sir John Lubbock appear, in the words of the last-named, to believe — " that various races have independently raised them- selves from utter barbarism." ' On the contrary, not only will it be shown that eighty years of research have not disproved Niebuhr's assertion that no single savage race can be named which has risen inde- pendently to civilisation,' but it will be shown that aU the facts accumulated, during the last decade particularly of these eighty years, with respect to the Primitive Civilisations of the origins of which we know anything — those of Egypt and Chaldea — go to prove that the essential condition of such origins was the action of a Higher White Race on Lower Coloured and Black Races ; and that research is almost every week bringing forward new proof that all the Later Civilisations — as certainly the Semitic Civilisations of Assyria and Judea," the Chinese Civilisation,' and probably also the Aryan Civilisa- tions of both Asia" and Europe' — were either ' Compare Principles of Sociology — Tlie Factors of Social Phenomena, either in the original work, or in Mr. Collins's Epitome. ^ Origin of Civilisation^ p. 479. ' " Kein einziges Bey.spiel von einem wirklich wilden Volk aufzuweisen ist, welches frey zur Cultur iibergegangeu ware " — Bomisclie Gesckichie, Theil i. s. 88 (181 1). Comp. Whately, Origin of Civilisation, and Polit. Economy, p. 68. * See, e.g., Sayce, Babylonian Beligion, and Wellhansen, Proleg.to History of Israel. ' See De Laoouperie, 2'he Languages of China before tlie CJiinete, and his articles inthe-Ba5. and Or. Pecord, vols. i. ii. and iii., and partioularlythe last. ° See Hewitt, Early History of Northern India — J. B. Asiatic Soe. 1889-90. ' The results of research leading to this conclusion will be co-ordinated and summarised in my forthcoming work on Ancient Hellas. D'ArboisMe XX THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [int. directly or indirectly derived from one or other of these Primitive Civilisations. Nothing of a super- natural character, hov^ever, is — it should be un- necessary to say— attributed to the Higher White Races, the Founders of these Primitive Civilisations, nor in fact anything more, in the way of intellectual and practical ability, than an anatomist v\rould infer vs^ho compared an ancient Archaian, and an ancient Negroid or Mongoloid skull of the Nile, or of the Euphrates Valley, and who considered, at the same time, the conditions under which the brains in these respective brain-pans functioned. For not only is the Archaian type — and especially the earlier the skull or portrait is — as fine cerebrally as we believe our own Aryan type to be ; but the Archaian Colonists knew how to exact from their Coloured and Black subjects all the produce of their labour, save so much a,s was required to ensure the continuance of such labour ; and through the wealth thus obtained they enjoyed the fullest means of intellectual development in abundant leisure for observation and specula- tion. Such is the ethnological theory of the Origin of Civi- lisation which I venture to oppose to the theories, not essentially differing from each other, of Mr. Spencer, Dr. Tylor, and Sir John Lubbock ; and which I hope to be able, not only fully to verify, but directly to connect with the correlative physiological principles Jubainville {Premiers Habitants de V Europe, t. i. 1. i. chaps, iv. and v.) has shown the extent of the settlements of the Pelasgians, recognised their non- Aryan character, and even connected them with the Hittites. But, as he has "laissfi de oStfe " both prehistoric archaaology and ethnology, he has missed, as I think, the solution of the problem of European, and more particularly Hellenic, Origins. INT.] THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF TURKEY. xxi of Anabolism and Katabolisrn ; and hence, with the ultimate principles of the General Theory of Origins, and. with that, as I believe, most fundamental of scien- tific facts and philosophical principles : Every Existence has a determined, and determining Co-existence. Here, however, I need only point out that, with such a theory of the Origin of Civilisation, an Ethnographical Chapter must be considered a necessary introduction to any such comparative account of social activities, family ceremonies, beliefs, and superstitions, and folk- poesies as will be found in these volumes ; and especially as the Women of Turkey belong, not only to the oldest, and most historically interesting, but to the most diverse races of that White Variety of Mankind, the conquerors and civilisers of all other peo^ples. And in these ethnographical notes on the dozen peoples of Turkey, I shall deal with the various races in the order of their historical antiquity. I. Following the rule just stated, we must begin our notes with the Kukds. For the very name of the Kvirds, variously called by classic authors, KajoSa/ctc, Kapoovj^oi, Kopoi/atoi, Yopcvrivoi, Topcvawi, Kvprtoi, Gordiaei, and even XaXSatoi/ affords at least prima facie evidence for connecting them with the ancient Chaldeans, the initiators of Civilisation in the Euphrates Valley. It would here be out of place to set forth the various facts which corroborate this inference from the very name of Kurds.' Here I 1 See the classical authorities as cited by Lenormant, Origines de VSisioire, torn. ii. i'* partie, p. 4. ^ To the " nombreuses dissertations de la part des Srudits modernes," referred to by Lenormant {op. cit. p. 5, n. i), as treating of the " parents reelle ou supposee " of the Kurds with the Chaldeans, I may add the essay xxii THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [int. need only say that I believe that I have already verified/ and shall be able, in forthcoming vs^orks, still more conclusively, both from monumental and tradi- tional evidence, to verify the following generalisations. First, that the initiators of Civilisation in the two great River Valleys of the Euphrates and the NUe, belonged to a White Eace which, as pre-Semitic and pre- Aryan, and as a race, indeed, from which both Semites and Aryans were probably derived, may best, perhaps, be distinguished as the ArchaianWhite Eace ; secondly, that White Eaces may be ethnologically defined as Eaces vrith long or short heads, high noses, unprojecting jaws, long hair and beards, and light-coloured skins ; and, thirdly, that, save the mainly Aryan character now of the Kurdish language — a fact of little ethnological significance — there are, to say the least, no facts definitely disproving, while many facts may be adduced, from the later results of research, which distinctly coiToborate, that connec- tion with the Archaian White Eaces which appears to be indicated by the names given to the Kurds by Greek and Latin authors. Among such facts are, for instance, those recently set forth by M. Halevy, in his paper on The Nation of the Mards.^ For it is there shown that the w^hole of the vast chain of the Zagros, part of which has now the name of Kurdis- tan, and all the highland country between the plains of Eberhard Sohrader, Die Ahstammung der Chaldder, &c. in the Zeitschr. d. deustch. morgenl. Gesellsch., Bd. xxvii., though I here suggest a conclusion different to that which he maintains. 1 The Traditions of the Archaian White Eaces, in the Trans, of the Roy. Mst. Soc. for 1889. ^ See Babylonian and Oriental Record, March 1890 ; and compare Rev.des Mudes Juives, 1889, p. 174. INT.] THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF TURKEY. xxiii of the Euphrates and Tigris, and the ancient Aryana of Iran or Persia — in other words, Media and Susiana, Kossea and Elam — was, from the remotest historic times, inhabited by non-Semitic and non-Aryan, or, as I have ventured to distinguish them, Archaian tribes, forming the great nation of the Amardians, or Mards. And hence, to refer the Kurds ethno- logically to the Archaian Stock is but to suppose that they belong to the same Stock as that which, from the earliest historic times, and without any known break caused by extermination, has occupied the country of the Kui'ds. The independent position also of the Kurdish women, with the freedom and con- sideration they enjoy, is but one of the customs which might be cited in corroboration of this theory of the ethnological connection of the Kurds with the ancient Chaldeans.' Nor, seeing how very much an affair of blood Religion is, is it irrelevant to note that the Kurds have the reputation of being very bad Moslems, or, in other words, of being very little touched by the Semitic notion of Allah. And the national Kurdish characteristic of energetic enter- prise, though now chiefly manifested but in predatory raids, might also be held, if not to corroborate, at least to harmonise with, this theory of their Amardian descent and Chaldean kinship. 2. The Circassians, with the Georgians and other White Eaces of the Caucasus, are now grouped under the general name of Alarodians, derived from the 'AAojooStoi of Herodotus,^ which again was de- ■^ See Women of Turkey : Semitic and Moslem Women, ch. i., and Conclusion. " See Eawlinson, Herod., vol. iv. Essay iii. pp. 250 seq., " On the Alaro- dians of Herodotus." In accordance with the still current, though now xxiv THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [int. rived from the Semitic name Urardu, Alarud, or Ararat, given to the highlands north of Assyria, and about Lake Van and Lake Urumiyeh. And still more unquestionably than the Kurds do the Alarodians belong to the Archaian White Stock. For while the language of the Kurds appears, as I have just said, to be now of a distinctly Aryan character, the languages of the Georgians and Cir- cassians are not only non- Aryan, but can — or at least the Georgian can — be clearly related to the ancient non- Aryan and non-Semitic languages of Asia Minor, still preserved in cuneiform inscriptions,^ and even, perhaps, in certain words of unknown derivation, still current.^ Nor certainly do the national charac- teristics shown by the Georgians and Circassians belie this theory as to their ethnological connection with the Archaian founders of Civilisation. The somewhat discredited, " Turanian " theory, these Urardians or Aiarodians are declared by Ca,non Rawlinson to have been " closely connected with the Scythic inhabitants of Babylonia " (p. 252). But no reason is advanced against what, I believe, we shall find to be in every way more probable, that they were such White Eaces as we now distinguish by the term " Alarodian. " ' Compare Sayce, The Ilonuments of the Hittites, Trans. 80c. Bibl. Arch. , vol. vli. p. 285 ; and Tiie Decipherment of the Vannic Inscriptions ; Verhandl. der 5. Orient. Congresses, 1881, 2te Theile, where he says, "The language of the inscriptions is of the same semi-agglutinative, semi-inflexional character as that of the Georgian of to-day. In fact, the similarity between it and modern Georgian is remarkable, and I am inclined to believe wiU turn out to be the result of relationship " (s. 308). See also Zagarelli, Examen de la Littirature relative d la Grammaire Oeorgienne, 1873; andSmirnow, in Bev. d^Anthropologie, 15 Av. 1878; Von 'Erckha.rt, Der KauJcasusund seineVollcer^ 1887 ; and Abercromby, The Eastern Caucasus, 1889. - See below. Chap. IV. p. 123. Mr. Abercromby remarks that "Early Lesglan or Albanian has characteristics in common with Medic." It would have been better to have said Proto-Medic or Medo-Scythic. For Delattre has shown that the Medes of the centuries after the 9th B. c. were Aryans (Le Pewple et VEmpire des Jlides). INT.] THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF TURKEY. xxv Georgians, who, at a very early period, appear to have come down, from the Pambaki highlands in the south to the plain of the Kyros or Gurj' — from which they and their country (Gurjistan) are named in Persian — maintained their historic kingdom of Iberia, between the Caspian and the Euxine, for upwards of 2000 years (302 B.C.-1799 A.C.), till overthrown by the Russian Tzarate with a treachery and violence of a peculiarly un- scrupulous and remorseless character. As for the Circassians, their vigour as a conquering race is witnessed to by their rule in Egypt of more than 400 years, from the foundation of the Circassian Dynasty of Memlook Sultans (1382) to the treacherous massacre in the citadel of Cairo by Mehmet Ali (181 1) of the Circassian Beys, who still, after the overthrow of the Circassian Dynasty by the Ottoman Sultan, Selim I. (15 17), retained power as the real lords, while the Ottoman Pachas were but the titular rulers, of Egypt. And though the heroic Schamyl was taken prisoner in 1854, not till 1864 were the Circassians at length con- quered in their native land. About a century ago they were converted to Islam by the Dervish Mansiir. But, as their Folk-poesy shows, they are as little affected by the Semitic notion of Allah, as their kindred, the Kurds. 3. The Albanians — not, however, of the Albania on the Caspian, which lies beyond the Ottoman frontier, but of the Albania on the Adriatic— next claim a brief notice. For though their language ' Compare Abercromby, JEastern Caucasus, Conclusion. xxvi THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [int. was proved by Bopp to be Aryan, and is placed by Meyer' in a fifth Aryan family, of wbich it is the sole surviving member, its character is shown to be such as indicates a mixed race. This mixed race was not till the eleventh century called Albanians (to rwv *A\(3avojvi9vog), having previously been called 'IXXvpioi. " Illyrian " was equated with " Pelasgian " by Von Hahn.'' But I would regard the Pelasgians as an Archaian Race, and the lUyrians — of whom the Albanians may, perhaps, be the best representatives now in Europe — as a mixed Race of Archaian Pelasgians and Aryan Thrakians. That, however, generally, the Pelasgians were of a non-Semitic and non- Aryan White Race, ethnologically and historically connected with the founders of the civilisations of Egypt and of Chaldea ; and that, particularly, the Albanians are such an Archaian- Aryan race as I have suggested, has still to be proved. But this suggestion I believe that I shall be able fully to verify- in forthcoming works ; though I can here only note one or two minor ethnological indications. For in- stance : so far as the religious characteristics of the Albanians have any ethnological significance, they point in the same direction as those of the Kurds. ' Albanesisclie Stvdien, 1883. He also shows that, though an Aryan language, Albanian is not particularly closely related to Greek, while remark- able coincidences appear to connect it with North European languages. Compare Brugmann, Grundriss der vergleicJienden Crrammatik der indo- (jermanischen Sprachen, Bd. i. s. 7 ; Karl Pauli, Die Inscliriften des ixord- etricskischen Alphabets^ ss. 120-128 ; and Dozon, Liangue Chlzipe, ^ Albanesische Studien, "Illyrisch=Pelasgisch im weiteren sinne," s. 215. Compare Niebuhr, Lectures on Ancient Ethnography, &c., toI. i. p. 301 ; Ketzen, Ethnologische Schriften; Virchow, in the Berichte of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, 1877. As to the extension of the lUyrians, see D'Arbois de Jubainville, Premiers Habitants de V Europe, t. i, pp. 302-3. INT.] THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF TUEKEY. xxvii Like this other presumably Archaian Race, the AJbanians are notoriously bad Moslems. Almost all, indeed, belong to the Bektashi Order of Dervishes ; and many a Bektashi story have I heard, on hunting and other excursions, ridiculing, with a fine Oriental irony, the very notion of Allah. Besides, it will hardly be contended that the mountaineers of Pelas- gian Dodona, and of the neighbouring Tosk — or Tuscan (?) — country, are of pure Aryan race. And I can testifv, from what I saw of them in three different journeys in Albania, that they are of so splendid a physical type as to prove themselves, if a mixed race, still a mixture of exclusively White Races. And, confining myself to the peoples mentioned in the following pages, I believe that, of a similar Archaian-Aryan race will be found the Zeibeck Highlanders of the Asiatic Vilayet of Aidin. For their striking features often recall those of the " Peoples of the Sea," portrayed on the Egyptian monuments, and photographed by Mr. Flinders Petrie in his Racial Types from Egypt. 4. Next, perhaps, on the score of historical anti- quity, I may note the Vlachs, or Cis-Danubian RouMANS. For if the Archaian Pelasgians were the first White Conquerors and Civilisers of the Coloured Races of Europe, they wei'e, in their turn, conquered by the Aryan Thrakians — Thrace being certainly the first known historical home and centre of dispersion of the Western Aryans.' But if the Thrakians were the Western offshoot from the stock of the undi- vided Aryans, the Mother-tongue from which the ' See below, p. xlvi. n. 2. xsviii THE WOMEN OF TUEKEY. [int. Ke] to-Italic languages were derived was the first olFslioot from the speech of the undivided Aryans. And it would appear, not only that the Vlachs are the best representatives now to be found of the an- cient Thrakians ;' but that the name,Vlach,Wallach, and Walloon, Valais,Walsch, and Welsh, had a com- mon origin.^ If this is so, however, some, at least, of the various traits— linguistic, mythological, and cus- tomary — which the Roumans have in common with the Romans, may have a far more ancient origin than the Roman occupation of Thrace. But here I must pass on to note that of the ethnographical characteristics of the Thrakians, in at least the seventh century B.C., we have very clear though curious evidence in the description of the famous Thrakian beauty, Doricha, usually called " Rosy Cheeks " ('PoS^ttic), who infatu- ated with love of her the Greek merchant Khd,raxos, the brother of Sappho, by whom he was greatly ridiculed for his folly in a famous song.' Now, to 1 With this view Professor Freeman, among others, agrees. " They [the Vlachs] must," he says, "mainly represent the Thracian race in its widest sense '' ; Historical Geography, p. 364. '^ With reference to the question raised by Sohaffarik {Slavische Alter- thiimer, Bd. i. ss. 236*65.), Professor Rhys, of Oxford, has favoured me with a note from which I am kindly permitted to make the following extracts : — " No Celtist holds that the words VlacJi and Kelt are in any way related, /left is a word of unknown origin VlacJi I should suppose of the same origin as Welsh, Walloon, &c. ; and in point of origin these are now supposed to be derived by the early Teutons from the tribe name of the Gauls, called Fofcce Tectosages and Volcce Arecomioi — a Gaulish people which was widely spread at the dawn of Gaulish history. The meaning of the word Volcse is unknown, but it has nothing to do with Ijelgce, which is another word of obscure meaning and etym- ology." ^ See Herodot. ii. 134; Athenseus, Deipn. xiii. 596; and Grote, History of Greece, vol. ii. p. 505, n. INT.] THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF TURKEY. xxix this day, Vlach maidens frequently deserve the name of " Rosy Cheeks " as much as any Thrakian beauty of old couJd have done ; and, as numberless folk-songs' testify, " Vlachopoiilas " still infatuate Greeks, both old and young, as much as ever did Thrakian Dorichas. And to a Scottish traveller who so often enjoyed theirhospitality in their mountain villages, on Pindus and Olympus, it was interesting to reflect that, not only were Vlach and Kelt probably of the same Thrakian origin,^ but that in the now mixed blood of the Vlachs there was probably a not inconsiderable strain of a distinctively Keltic character. For the long domination of the Kelts in Thrace during that Classic Period in which their kingdoms extended across all Europe, from the British Islands to Asiatic Galatia,' having certainly, in Thrace, left traces in Keltic' names, has probably also left traces in Keltic blood. 5. Whether, however, the Vlachs, or Cis-Danubian E-oumans, may or may not be with probability re- garded as modern representatives of the ancient 1 See Greelc Follc-songs, 145, 146, and 191. ' With respect to the Thrakian kinship thus claimed for the Kelts, see Bacmeister, Allemaniaclien Wanderungen ; Coiitzen, Wanderungen der Kelten; Rhys, Celtic Britain; Koch, ^Iteste Geschichte (Esterreichs uiid Bayerns, and Celtische Alterthumer ; Robiou, Hist, des Oau'ois d' Orient; and Perrot, Exploration de la Oalatie. See also, Taylor, Origin, of the Aryans, ■who truly remarks (p. 256, n. 2) that "the theory that the Celts extended themselves, at a comparatively recent period, from Gaul down the valley of the Danube is now very generally abandoned." But com- pare the authorities for the Teutonic kinship of the Thrakians cited in Greek Folh-sonrjs, p. 33, n. 35. ' See D'Arbois de Jubainville, L' Empire Celtique au iv'"' siicle avantnotre ire — Bevue Sistoriqve, t. xxx. * See Renan, of their second migration, the Mongol conquest of Persia, in the thirteenth century ; the cause of a third westward and northward migration was the Ottoman conquest of South-eastern Europe, -in the fifteenth century. But notwithstanding this flight before the Ottoman conquerors, nowhere else in Europe are the Gipsies still to be found in such numbers as in those south-eastern lands of Euro- pean Turkey, in which they settled at the end of their supposed second migration. Nor does one find them only in tents in the woodlands, but in hovels in the towns — as, for instance, to name but two of the town-settlements where I have visited them — at Uskup, the former Skopia, the birthplace of Justinian, and at Vodhena, the former Edessa, tlie capital of Macedonia. This account, however, of the first appearance of the Gipsies in Europe is based on the hypothesis of their being representatives of the three inferior Panjab tribes of Djatts, Doms, and Luris, severally described as minstrels, thieves, and horsemen — occupations generally combined by the mixed tribes of European Gipsies. But I question whether this once generally accepted theory gives by any means the full solution of the problem of the origin of the Gipsies. No doubt the Ho many is an Aryan dialect related to xUi THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [int. that of the Panjab tribes just named. But I venture to think that these now Aryan-speaking tribes of the Panjab, though they have the high features and long hair specially characteristic of White Races, are far less probably of Aryan blood than of the blood of those pre- Aryan White conquerors of India now represented by the purer Dra vidian races.' And these facts may be worth considering. The calling of a tinker, or smith, still a distinctive occupation of Gipsies, has been exercised in Europe by nomad bands from time immemorial, and ages before the arrival of these, as supposed, Panjab Gipsies. Everywhere also throughout Europe, as I hope, at least, to be able to prove, the Aryan Civilisations were preceded by, and founded on, the pre-Aryan Civilisations of Archaian White Races — as we already know that the Semitic Civilisation of Assyria was. And hence the question arises whether we may nt)t verifiably regard the Gipsies who seem to have arrived in South-eastern Europe in the fourteenth, and in North-western Europe in the fifteenth cen- tury, as but adding to the probably then very much diminished numbers of the nomadic metal-workers ? verifiably regard the Scottish Tinklers, German Zigeuner, and Greek ' KTol-yavoi, &c., as descend- ants of the St'-yuvvai of Herodotos 1 '' and verifiably regard these metal-working nomads as remnants of the Archaian Race that carried bronze to West- ' See Caldwell, Draoirlimi (grammar, Introd. And with reference to his extraordinary contention that the Dravidians are Turanians, transformed into Caucasians by change of climate and mode of life, compare Ujfalvy on the Hungarians, in V Annie (/eographiqiie, 9, 10, 1872, and De Gerando, Origine des Honrjrois. - Terpsicliofd, 9. INT.] THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF TURKEY. sliii ern and Northern Europe ; maintained their power over the European Aborigines, by the immense advantages given them by the possession of metallic weapons ; and, by exclusive intermarriage, kept their knowledge to themselves, and made of metal-working not an art only, but a mystery ? ' II. We have now traced the descent of the various present populations of Turkey to a succession of invaders, beginning with those pre- Aryan and pre- Semitic White Conquerors ethnologically connected, as I hops to show, with the founders of the Egyptian and Chaldean Civilisations, and at the present day represented by Kurds and Circassians in Asia, and by Albanians in Europe — if, at least, as suggested, the Albanians have in them a Pelasgian element, and if this Pelasgian element is to be ethnologically con- nected with the Archaian Stock of White Races. And we come now to those last invaders of all, who have not invaded only, but have, for half a millennium, kept within the bond of a united Empire, the various peoples of these European -Asian lands, tJie so-called TcJBKS. No "Liberal" assumption, however — except that, perhaps, as to the universal " subjection of Women " — is in such utter contradiction to historical facts as the assumption that the Osmanlis are Turks in the sense in which that term, as likewise that of Turanian, is ordinarily used — namely, to designate not ' Compare the works of Bataillard, NoaveUes Recherches sur hs Bohemiens, &c. ; and Leland, The Original Gipsies and their Language (Congres des Orientalistes, Vienna, 1886). I would suggest not only the names of the Pictish localities, hut the words of the Tinkler language of Scot-, land should be examined, with a view to see whether they have any Alarodian or Proto-Medic affinities. xliv THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [int. only a non-Aryan, but a Coloured Race. For it is very doubtful whether even the small original foUow^ing of the Central Asian chief, Othman, who called themselves Osmanlis (or, as we now saCy, Otto- mans), were, save in their lower orders, what we commonly now mean by the term Turk, Tatar, and Turanian — doubtful whetlier, at least, the descend- ants of Othman, or " Bonebreaker," and Malkatoon, or "Treasure of a Woman" (1288), and their chief followers were not of such a White Eace, non- Aryan and non-Semitic, as ethnological research has shown to be stiU, as from the earliest historic times it has been, widely distributed over Central Asia, and as far even as to the eastern borders of Thibet.^ But however this may be, it is certain that the original small tribe of Osmanlis has, for more than six hundred years, increased, not only by inter- marriage with," but recruitment from, the best White blood both of Asia and of Europe. Nor has this recruitment from the subject Aryan populations been only forced, but also voluntary. The ranks of the Turks were for centuries recruited, not only by that profoundly statesmanlike scheme of forced con- versions which created the Janissaries (i 326-1 675), but by what Protestants ought surely to be able to understand — a moral revolt against an idolatrous Christianity which was but a paganism , with its ' I allude to Mr. Saber's remarkable discovery in this region of three millions of Lolos, whom he took, on iirst seeing them, for Europeans. See -H. Oeog. Soc. Supplementary Papers, 1882 ; and compare Gill, Biver of Golden Sand, vol. ii. p. 272. - Not predecessors only, as in the case of the Tzar, but direct ancestors of the Sultan took to wife Byzantine princesses. INT.] THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF TURKEY. ?clv gods renamed. Hence it has come to pass that, in many provinces of the Ottoman Empire — Bosnia, for instance, Albania, and Crete — the majority of the so-called Turks were, and are, of the purest Aryan, or at least White blood of the country, though they happen to be descendants of men who saw good — doubtless from as mixed motives as those which in- fluenced most Christian Protestants — to embrace the Protestantism of Islam. Aryan thus, in very great part, is the blood of the so-called Turks ; and so far as, in Asia Minor, it is not Arme- nian or Greek, it is, and predominantly perhaps, Circassian. And the Circassians of, at least, the higher orders, with whom alone the Osmanlis inter- married, are, as we have seen,' with the Georgians, the purest contemporary representatives of the Archaian White Stock.' As I have already had occasion to say, one finds a distinctly Tatar type among the Russians. No Tatar type, however, does one find among the Osmanlis. And hence the ethnological fact is precisely the reverse of that assumed by popular ignorance, misled, for party purposes, by " Liberal " politicians. ' p. xxiii. ■^ With reference to such a descent, the Crescent symbol of the Osmanlis becomes very significant. For the chief deity of the Chaldeans was the Moon-Goddess, of whose widespread worship we find topographical traces from Asia Minor to Arabia. Ai, the Turkish word for " Moon,", is, indeed, masculine, but this change of gender may be due to the linguistic, influence of Arabic. Note also that a Christian Greek, quoted by Pashley ( Travels in Crete, vol. ii. p. 36), distinguished himself as a Sun-worshipper from the Turk who was a Moon-worshipper. 'Eyuj TrpouKwCi tov tjXiov,, kuI 6 rovpKOQ rb tyydpi. It is also worthy of notice that, rich as Ottoman literature is in tales, there is no tradition or trace in it connecting the Osmanlis with Tatars. xlvi THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [int. But from the new ethnological theory of the Origin of Civilisation indicated in the introductory paragraph, three conditions may he deduced which must be fulfilled by any true solution of the problems of Semitic and of Aryan origins. First, the locality must be one in which such a new race could have ethnologically — and, secondly, philologically — arisen as a Variety of the Archaian White Race ; and, thirdly, it must be such as to make easily possible the historical facts of dispersion and early civilisation. Such conditions seem to be fulfilled by localising Semitic origins in Central and Northern Arabia. And as hardly any ethnological question can now be satisfactorily treated without more or less directly leading to the consideration of the problem of Aryan origins, I shall conclude these notes on the Eth- nography of Turkey with a brief indication of the gi'ounds of an hypothesis which appears to fulfil those deduced conditions of a true solution of the problem. The first set of facts to be considered are the following: — The Aryans, on our first historical knowledge of them, are in two widely separated centres — Transoxiana ' and Thrace^ ; to Transoxiana 1 The earliest local traditions of the Aryans are probably those of the^ Firdt Fargarcl of the Vendidad. The date, however, of the first Aryan settlements in Transoxiana is conjectural. But there were Aryan tribes in Kwarism (the modem Khiva) in 1304 B.C. See Central Asia (Sir H. Eaw- linson), Q. Rev., Out. 1866. 2 The date of the first settlement of the Aryans in Thrace may be as uncertain as that of their first settlement in Transoxiana. But it is ad- mitted not only that the Thrakians were Aryans ; but that, from the Thrakian stock the Greeks were derived, as, from the related Phrygian stock, the Armenians ; and this necessarily gives to the Aryan settlements. in Thrace the date of, at least, 1500 or 2000 B,o. And as Teutons ar& INT.] THE ETHNOGRAPHr OF TURKEY. zlvii as a Secondary Centre of Dispersion, the Eastern Aryans, and to Thrace, as a Secondary Centre of Dispersion, the Western Aryans, can, with more or less clear evidence, be traced; and the mid-region north-west of Transoxiana, and north-east of Thrace — and which may be more definitely described as lying between the Caspian and the Euxine, the Ural and the Dniester (or Pruth-Danube?), and extending from the 45th to the 50th parallel of latitude — suggests itself as such a Primary Centre of Origin and Dis- persion as would fulfil the above-stated conditions. For the second set of facts to be considered reveal a White Race of which, if the Aryans originated in this region, they might naturally be a Variety. Such are the facts which connect the Finns, both in their Tavastian and their Karelian branch, with that non- Semitic and non- Aryan White Stock which I have distinguished as Archaian'; which prove that, so late as the ninth century of the Christian era, these Finns extended south of Moscow ; and further, that they were, at an earlier period, probably in contact with the Archaian Races of the Caucasus, ^ though, at a still earlier period, they may have been separated unknown to history till eleven or sixteen hundred years later (the fourth century B.C.), there certainly appears to be a Chauvinism unworthy of men of science in German pretensions that Germans are the only real Aryans, Germany the only true Arj-an cradle-land, and Indo-German the only right name for Slavs and Kelts, so far as their being Aryan at all is admitted. See O. Sclirader, Sprachvergleichung, ss. 444-6. ' See Retzius, i^mM/.;e Kramer, and Y)& QnaAxeta^e's Eommes fosnlen et Hommes sauvages. - From one of these, the Mescliech of the Hebrews, Moirxot of the Greeks, and Meechag of the Armenians, the name of Moscow, and Muscovy may perhaps be derived. See Lenormant's dissertation on this people, Origines, I. ii., 2me ptie., pp. 181-249. xlviii THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. ■ [int. from them by that ancient Mediterranean formed by the junction of the Caspian and the Euxine.' So far as to ethnological, and now as to philological condi- tions. In the contemporary language of the Finnic groups, Professor De Lacouperie thinks that we may detect survivals of a former language presenting aiffinities with the general characteristics of Aryan (Speech ; " in the physical conditions of this Punjab — ,or rather, indeed, Region of Seven Rivers — there were the conditions necessary for the development of such tribes as not only Language but Archaeology show the Aryans to have been ; and in those great geological changes of, as would appear, comparatively Tecent date — the upheaval of the Urals, and the •draining off of the Central Asian Mediterranean ' — there would certainly have been further conditions naturally resulting in the formation of a new variety ,of the Archaian White Stock. A fourth set of veri- ' Even so late as two centuries ago there would appear to have been -water communication between the two seas. And M. Elisfie Reclus sug- gests the possibility of such a canal between the Euxine and the Caspian ■as would make it possible for a steamer sailing from Gibraltar to reach the Himalayan region of the Upper Oxus. — Geoff. Univ., L'Bitrqpe iscandinave ,et MiLsse. 2 This appears to be the form in which Prof. De Lacouperie would express ..at once his partial dissent from, and partial assent to, that theory of the .derivation of Aryan fr,om Finnic, which is now gaining currency among scholars. .^ With these geological events may also have been connected the rending .asunder of Asia and Europe, to form the straits of the .Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, and give issue to the Euxine ; and of Olympus and Ossa, to form the Vale of Tempe, and give issue to the lake formerly occupyin"- ■what are now the plains of Thessaly. And in a forthcoming paper in the Bahylonian and Orlental.Mecord I hope to show grounds for identifying the ■traditional Deluge with the actual Deluge which must have been the result of the.', geplogical events thus indicated, and all connected probably with \what French geologists distinguish as the /SoiUivement clu Tenure. INT.] THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF TUEKEY. slix fying facts are such links of relationship between the various Aryan languages, as geographically spoken in historical times, such links of relationship as ap- pear to postulate a corumon speech in that very area above indicated,' and where an ancient Aryan language still survives along with primitive Aryan Customs." For such a common speech would have a different class of differentiations on the Asiatic, and on the European side, caused by the different linguistic reactions of conquered non-Aryan tribes on primitive Aryan speech, or the dialects of it already developed in those great river-partitioned plains.^ And the fifth, and, as I venture to think, almost con- clusively verifying, set of facts are those which prove that, immediately on their separation from such a Primary Centre of Dispersion as that supposed by this theoi'y,the nomadic Aryan Shepherds would come into contact, in Thrace, with a Pelasgian, and in Trans- oxiana,with a Medic, or rather Proto-Medic, Archaian Civilisation derived from the Chaldean ; and hence, that such a Primary Centre of Dispersion as that indicated would fulfil the third of the above deduced ' See the map and diagram of Aryan languages in the Eer. Canon Taylor's admirable multum inparvo on Tlie Origin of the Aryans, pp. 253- 269. For this map and diagram appear to me to give incomparably more support to the here-suggested localising of Aryan Origins in the plains of Southern Eussla, than to that localising of the Aryan Home in the plains of Northern Europe, and particularly of Germany, contended for by Geiger {Zur Entwiclcelmigsgescliichte der Menschlieit, pp. 11 3-1 50, 187 1) and Cuno (Forsdmngen im Geiiete der alien VUkerhunde, 1871) and supported by Friedrich Miiller, and the learned Canon. - See Tlie Customs of the Ossetes in Journal of the R. Asiatic Soc., vol. xx., summarising the results of the Ossete Studies of Kovalefsky and V. Miller. ' Compare Delbriick, Einleitung in das Spracltstudium, ss. 131-7. d 1 THE WOMEN OF TUKKEY. [int. conditions of a true solution of the problem of Aryan Origins. But I cannot conclude even outlines of such a theory without mentioning the names of Latham, who, in 1851,^ first questioned, at least, the Central Asian Theory of Aryan Origins, overbearingly main- tained by Professor Max Miiller ; of Benfey,^ who, after Latham's questioning had been for seventeen years ignored or ridiculed, first supported it by the suggestion of a North Euxine Cradle-land ; ^ and of De Lacouperie, who, in 1888, made a similar but more definitely formulated suggestion." The solution, however, of the problem of Aryan Origins above out- lined was reached by me in ignorance of Benfey's, and previously to De Lacouperie's suggestion, and simply as a fulfilment of conditions of solution deduced from a far more general theory — that new ethnological theory of the Origin of Civilisation which I first published in the Spring and Autumn of 1887,^ and which my researches since then appear ^ In his Germania, Ixvii. p. cxxxvii. Compare his Native Races of the Bussian Empire, 1854 ; and Elements of Comparative Philology, 1862. ^ In his Vonoort to Tick's Worterh. der Indogerm. Grundsprache, s. ix. 1868. ^ Thus indicated by him in the AUg. Zeitung, 1875, p. 3270: — "In der Gegendnordwarts des Schwartzen Meeres, von den Miindungen der Donau bis zum Kaspisee verlegt." * " Should the former changes of climate and soil have permitted it some five thousand years ago, the region bordering the Caspian, north and west, may have been the seat of the Aryan formation, and therefore the Primi- tive Home of the Race."- — Academy, May 5, 1S88. ^ The Papers referred to were entitled respectively. The White JRaces, the Founders of the First Civilisations, read at the Meeting of the Eoyal Historical Society, April 21, 1887 ; and The Archaian White Maces, and their Place in the History of Civilisation, read at the Meeting of the British Association, September i, 1887. INT.] THE ETHNOGKAPHY OF TURKEY. li to have further verified. And this deduced solution of the 23i''oblem of the Origin and Primaiy Centre of Dispersion of the Aryans, I hope to verify — to prove, or disprove — not only from ethnological, philological, and historical facts already ascertained, but from a projected personal exploration of the North Caucasian region indicated. NOTE ON THE ETHNOGEAPHIOAL MAP. I. Yet another deduction from this new ethnological theory of the Origin of Civilisation has led to the Colour-scheme of the accompanying Ethnological Map. For — if the currently granted postulate of the original homogeneity of Mankind is not granted ; and if, on the contrary, our theory of the Origin of Civilisa- tion is based on the fact of — so far as we can say — the original heterogeneity of Mankind ; the fact of the extraordinary permanence, not only of the phy- sical, but of the mental characteristics of Races ; and, above all, on the fact that the foundation of the Earliest Civilisations was due to the action of a certain Higher White on Lower Coloured and Black Races, and that the Later Civilisations were either founded on Civilisations due to this same stock of White Peaces, or to these White Races themselves in their world-wide distribution — it will be seen to be of the highest importance, not only to gain knowledge of the Hybridism of Races, but to possess a Colour- scheme by which the results of investigation of this Hybridism may be ocularly presented. And this Map is presented as a first and faltering attempt at what, in even approximate perfection, is an achieve- ment of the future^ — a scientifically based Colour- representation of the Races of Mankind as what they now chiefly are— Hybi-ids of various Classes. INT.] NOTE ON THE ETHNOGRAPHICAL MAP. liii 2. The following are the general principles of this Colour-scheme. The three Primary Varieties of Mankind — or what may conveniently be provi- sionally assumed to be such — are represented by the three Primary Colours — Eed, Green, and Blue. These Varieties may be named: (I.) The Black- skin, or Melanochroan ; ' (II.) The Coloured-skin, or Poekilochroan ; ■•' and (III.) the White-skin, or Levkochroan." Following, so far, at least, the Colour-scheme of the Egyptian Ethnographers of three or four thousand years ago, I would indicate the White Races by red and its modifications ; the Coloured Kaces by green and its modifications ; and the Black Races by blue and its modifications. Hybrids of the Primitive Varieties I would indicate by the complementary or Secondary Colours — Sea- green (green added to bhie), for the cross between Coloured and Black Races ; Pink (blue added to red), for the cross between Black and White ; and Yellow (red added to green), for the cross between White and Coloured Races. And for what here more particularly concerns us — the White Races and the Coloured Ptaces without black blood — I would take the colours containing no Blue. Shades Red (Vermilion) may thus denote the Archaian White Races ; shades of Yellow Red (Orange) the Eastern ; and shades of Dark Red (Crimson Lake), the Western Aryans." ' MeXaj'6-xpi")!, as in Od. xix. 246. In folk-songs, blondes and brunettes are celebrated as " dawpais Kal /icXdxpoti'ats." ^ JloiKiko-xpoos, as in Arist. ap. Ath. 319 0. ' AeuK6-xpoo!, as in Eurip. Phcen. ^22. "■ See Benson, /Science of Oohur. Sections at right angles with the pri- mary axes of Eed, of Green, and of Blue, p. 27 and coloured plate. Uv THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [int. The following are the Maps I have chiefly used : — Language Map of the Turkish Empire (British and Poreign Bible Society), 1888 ; the Future Map of the Balkan Peninsula issued semi-officially by the Greeks, 1 886 ; Kiepert's Ethnographische Uebersicht der Europdischen Orients, 1878; Lejean's Carte ethnogra- phique de la Turquie d' Europe, et de ses etats vassaux autonomes, 1876; Carta d' Epiro compilata dietro gli studi fatti negli anni 1869-75, ^al E. Console De Gubernatis ; Ethnographische Karte vonRussland nach A. F. Rettich von A. Petermann. And as to my corrections from personal observations, I may say that I not only found the distribution of the Bulgarians in Macedonia far wider, and their numbers far greater, than I had been led to believe ; but that, along even the coast of Thrace, I found the Greek line far thinner than it is usually represented. Fishermen's huts on the shore were occupied by Greeks ; but farms, of which the fields ran down to the beach, were tilled by Bulgarians. My representation, however, of the ethnography of Bulgaria I desire to be considered as merely provisional. For even Dr. Kiepert's Map is practically worthless here, because, most erro- neously identifying Race with Language, he repre- sents Osmanlis and Tatars by the same colour. And still more provisional, unfortunately, must my repre- sentation of the ethnography of the Anatohan Peninsula be considered. For Dr. Kiepert's " Map of the Western Part of Asia Minor" is still an- nounced as only "nearly ready for publication;" while his Map of the whole of Asia Minor he only " hopes to be able to publish in the course of next year." JITHNO GRAPHICAL MAP of TURimY& THE ARIAN CRADLE-LAND? JOHN S.STUART GLENNIE M.A. ZanRsnj, Stanfet^ f>e^? S$taJ:)T London. : David Butt Ivi THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [int. the action and reaction of two different Ethnological Elements, or products of such Elements. In the case of Mythology, these reacting elements are Culture- lore and Folk-lore — the one, the product either of an ethnologically or economically Higher, and the other, either of an ethnologically or economically Lower Race. And in a true theory of Mythology, both these Elements will have such due weight attached to them as may be justified by the facts of Ethnology and of Histor3^ Hitherto we have had two great schools of theorists with regard to the origin of Mythology and Religion — first, that of. the Culture-lorists, and now that of the Folk-lorists — first, those who derived their facts from the records of Culture, and particularly from Vedic Hymns and Sanskrit Etymologies ; and now, those who derive their facts from the records of Folk-lore, and particularly from Savage Customs and Missionary-reported Beliefs. But if Civilisation originated, as everything we know of the historical origin of Civilisation leads us to believe that it did originate, in the action of intellectually Higher on intellectually Lower Races' — then, it will be impossible to follow the present school of Folk-lorists in attributing to the White Founders of Civilisation myths of no higher character than those of the lowest contemporary Negroids or Mongoloids — nay, it will become a question whether, 1 And considering that all the evidence points to the existence of at least more than one race at the earliest period at which we find any number of human remains (see, for instance, Hamy and De Quatrefages' Crania Mhnica), the persistency with which the postulate of a single sort of " Primitive Man " is maintained is certainly remarkable. INT.] FOLK^OONCEPTIONS OF NATURE. Ivii some, at least, of these contemporary Savage myths may not be mere distortions of misunderstood hiero- glyphic expressions of the cosmogonic ideas of the class of wealthy and leisured speculative thinkers which we know existed among the Archaian White Rulers of subject Lower Races. Nor, when one duly considers the numerical proportion between these White Colonists and the HoXv nXnOoQ avOpojiriLv, " the vast multitude of people," living ara/crwc." law- lessly," Kai loffTTEp TO 9Epia, " and after the manner of beasts,"' will it be supposed likely that the Other- world myths received their systematic elaborations without deliberate intention of making political use of so potent a means of terrorising into, and main- taining in subjection. For every tyrant has been of the opinion frankly expressed by Napoleon, " Priests are the ' most splendid gifts which Heaven can make to a Government." And thus we get three elements through the action and reaction of which we may explain the origin and history of Mythology and Religion. First, the higher ideas of Culture — not only the astronomical generalis'ations " which led to those successive theories of the Year, which have so profoundly influenced the Rituals of all Religions ; but also those ideas of the Oneness of the Universe, or, at least. Unity of God, and hence fictitiousness of the Gods of the popular Religions, which now and again partially escaped from the Colleges of Priests, and particularly, for instance, in the great Revolution of the sixth century B.C. : Secondly, ^ Berossos, XoXSaiKO. ■' See Epping, Astronomisclies au» Bahylon. Iviii THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [int. systematically terrorisina; elaborations, by Priestly Rulers, of popular superstitions, and especially with reference to the supposed Other- world ; and under this head may be included the reaction on thought of the hieroglyphic forms in which ideas were ex- pressed : And thirdly, the simpler Folk -superstitions of the Lower Eaces themselves, and of those of naturally higher endowment, reduced, in later times, to the intellectual level of the Lower Races by penury and oppression ; but with respect to these Folk- superstitions it must be noted that they are certainly, in many cases, but fancifully expressed traditions of historical facts — such, for instance, as the former existence of Giants and Dwarfs.' But just as we must distinguish Culture-concep- tions and Folk-conceptions of Nature, and take account of their perpetual action and reaction from the very origin of Civilisation ; so must we also distinguish at least two very different forms of Folk- conception. And seeing that three-fourths of the facts collected in these volumes with respect to the Women of Turkey are facts of Folk-lore, an Intro- ductory Chapter dealing with the characteristics and relations of Folk-conceptions of Nature may possibly be of interest to the scientific reader. For to char- acterise these Folk-conceptions in relation to later Culture-conceptions will define Strata of Human Belief which will give the same sort of interest and ^ My long cherished belief that the Northern Fairies were no mere crea- tures of popular fancy has been confirmed, not merely by the discovery of still existing Races of Dwarfs, but by finding that, in South-eastern Europe, where they would probably be sooner extirpated than in the North, there are apparently no traces of such beings in Folk-lore. INT.] FOLK-CONCEPTIONS OF NATURE. lix instructiveness to what would' otherwise be isolated facts, as the theory of Geological Strata gives to a collection of the fossils which at once define Strata, and have significance given to them by the theory of the succession of Strata. And, fortunately, what- ever theoretical differences there may be as to the nature of the Strata of Human Belief, and the causes of their succession, there can be none as to the general characteristics of the various Conceptions of Nature which define these Strata. I . The first of these Strata of Belief is characterised by a conception of all the objects of Nature as them- selves living ; not as living because they are the abodes of Spirits ; but as living because of their own proper powers, or because they are Self-powers.^ Certain theories, which I shall presently more particularly specify, tend unfortunately to make the realisation of this conception of Nature diffi- cult and obscure. A course, however, of the study of Folk-lore with an efibrt, at least, at sympathetic insight into the conceptions expressed in Folk-poesy, and given practical effect to in Folk- custom, can hardly, I think, but result in a realising understanding of this conception of Nature as living — this conception of it as made up of Will-powers, or say rather, perhaps. Self-powers — this undifferen- tiating conception of all things as possessed of sentiments and wills because of their own proper ' I am indebted to Professor De Lacouperie for the suggestion of this term as, 'perhaps, more clearly connoting what I mean by the conception of objects " as themselves Will-powers." Ix THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [int. nature, and not because of the indwelling of a sou], anima, or spirit. Realise this conception of Nature, and not only will there be gained a new understanding of, and delight in. Folk-poesy, but there will flash upon one new intelligence of in- numerable hitherto "unintelligible customs. Consider, for instance, the superstition of the Evil Eye. We are now beginning to see that behef in the Evil Eye has, like so many other superstitions, a basis in scientii^cally ascertained facts — the psycho-physical facts now generally, but inadequately, qualified as " Hypnotic." But apart from this basis in ascertained facts, is not belief in the Evil Eye, and in the efficacy of counter-charms, a quite intelligible, and, indeed, necessary, result of the above-defined conception of Nature? Suppose all the objects of Nature to be conceived as living, and as related to each other in mutual sympathies, and will it not necessarily follow that a malignant wish, accompanied by a sinister look, will be believed to have evil effects ? And will it not likewise follow that, in a world of which all the parts are conceived to be thus sympathetically connected, certain objects, words, and gestures will be believed to have the effect of counter- charms ? 2. This Folk-conception of Nature, as itself living, is usually designated " Fetichism." Professor Tyler, however, thinks that it will " add to the clearness of our conceptions " if we " give the name of ' Animism ' instead of ' Fetichism,' to the state of mind which sees in all nature the action of animated life, and the presence of innumerable spiritual beings." In other INT.] FOLK-CONCEPTIONS OF NATURE. Ixi words, Dr. Tylor thinks that it will "add to the clearness of our conceptions " if we give the name of " Animism " to two conceptions of Nature which are not only difiPerent, but which, according to the Professor's own contention, have two different origins — the origin of the one being a primitive tendency " quite independent of the Ghost-theory," and the origin of the other being entirely derived from the Ghost-theory. But I submit that the notion of an object " acting by its own will and force " is so distinctly different from "the action of some foreign spirit entering into its substance, or acting on it from without," that it is in the highest degree unscientific to give the same name to two notions thus utterly different. And hence I venture to think that the term " Animism," as used by Dr. Tylor, is one of the most contradictory in its different mean- ings, and the most inimical, therefore, to clear ideas that has ever been introduced into, and had a vogue ■ As I am passing these sheets for press, I have the satisfaction of finding a similar opinion expressed by Professor Max Miiller in his Gifford Tbectxiies on Natural Meligion, ■p. 1^8 : "Animism .... has proved so mis- leading a name that hardly any scholar now likes to employ it In itself it might not be objectionable, but unfortunately it has been used for a totally different phase of religious thought, namely, for the recognition of an active, living, or even personal element in trees, rivers, mountains and other parts of Nature. . . . Nay, Fetichism has been identified with Animism, and defined as the capability of the soul to take possession of anything whatsoever." It is, however, seventeen years now since I first entered my protest against this most disastrously confusing and obscurino- term, and proposed instead, as above, the plain word Spiritism, and that among other reasons, on the ground that it " explains itself at once as the doctrine of Spirits," and, therefore, as the direct antithesis of the Fetichist or, as I now prefer to name it, Zoonist conception of Nature. See The yew Phil, of History, p. il, note 2. Ixii THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [int. 3. The self-contradictions in which Professor Tylor involves himself while professing, on one page, a belief in Fetichism precisely as it was defined by Comte, and reducing it, on the next page, " to a mere secondary development of the doctrine of Spirits," were long ago exposed by Mr. Herbert Spencer.' Mr. Spencer's own theory, however, is, I submit, no less paradoxical than Dr. Tylor 's is self-contradictory. Three Stages of Intelligence are distinguished by Mr. Spencer : the " cirrhiped and seafly " stage, in which there is no discrimination between animate and inanimate ; a second — the -general animal stage — in which there is an almost perfect discrimination between animate beings and inanimate things ; and a third, or human stage, after the development of the Ghost-theory, in which there is again non-dis- crimination between animate and inanimate, even as in the first stage, but due now to that disastrous Ghost-theory, the consequence of speculation on dreams and shadows.^ The essential fallacy of this paradoxical theory will, I think, be found in the assumption that what every creature was compelled " under penalties of death by starvation, or destruc- tion " to discriminate between, was " the animate " and " the inanimate." For the fact, of course, is, that every creature is compelled to discriminate simply between things, whether " animate or inanimate," that the creature may eat, and the things, whether "animate or inanimate," that the creature may be eaten by. 4. I must here, however, pass on to suggest for 1 In Mind. - See Principles of Sociology, or Epitome, pp. 354 seq. INT.] FOLK-CONCEPTIONS OP NATURE. Ixiii that conception of Nature in whicli " animate " and " inanimate " are not discriminated, a better desig- nation, perhaps, than " Fetichism." For this con- ception of Nature, as may be further apparent in the sequel, is of the most general character, and has the most varied expression. But the term " Fetichism " cannot be well used in a highly generalised sense, because of the associations connected with its low origin in the Portuguese Fetico, and which still cling to it inseparably. Either in themselves, however, or in their English derivatives, the Greek words — Zaw, ZaJ, Ztoj?, Zojog, Zioov, k.t.X. — are sufficiently familiar to make "Zoonism" immediately understood as denoting some conception or other of life. And hence, it may very readily denote a conception of the objects of the physical environment as Self- powers, or as themselves "Will-powers, whether these objects are of the most sublime or of the meanest character : both such a higher Fetichism as that recorded by Pausanias' in the chant of the Peleiades Priestesses of Dodona — rf) KapTTOVQ (iv'iu, 010 K\ir}Z,tr(. firtripa Yaiav (Earth bringeth forth fruits, Mother, therefore, call Earth !) and such a lower Fetichism as that observed by Habakkuk^ — "They sacrifice unto their net, and bum incense unto their drag, because by these their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous." 5. But if we must recognise a stratum of Zoonist belief — a fact which is recognised by Mr. Spencer, notwithstanding his paradoxical theory ^ X. sii. 10. - Ch. i. 26. Ixiv THE "WOMEN OF TUEKEY. [int. of it as secondary, and by Dr. Tyler, notwith- standing his self-contradictory labelling of it as secondary — no less certainly must we recognise a stratum of what may, I think, in contradistinction to Zoonism, be most aptly, perhaps, termed Spiritism. As, by the former term, T would denote the conception of the objects of Nature as themselves Will-powers ; by the latter term I would denote the conception of more or less independent Will-powers, more or less intimately associated with the objects of Nature, and of every sort of fantastic shape — anthropomorphic, theriomorphic, chimeramorphic. According to the Zoonist conception of things, there is but one Living World, in which every single thing is conceived as akin to every other thing, sympathetically actable on by other things, and transformable into eveiy other thing. According, on the other hand, to the Spiritist conception of things, there are two worlds — the Natural World, and that quite literally Supernatural World which is the result of the exercise of the imagination in the creation of beings whose forms are the mere symbols of the Wills attributed to them in their action on Nature. But there is not only a notable intellectual difference between these two conceptions of Nature, but an even more notable, because less noted, moral difference, or difference of sentiment. In the Zoonist conception of it, Nature is almost unexceptionally regarded, not only with affection, but with touching confidence in reciprocated affection. On the other hand, in the Spiritist con- ception of it, Nature is regarded as but the theatre of the action of beings for the most part malignant INT.] POLK-CONCEPTIONS OF NATURE. Ixv and malevolent ; beings whose favour can be gained only by atoning sacrifices, and such propitiatory flatteries as attribute to them qualities belied by the fears prompting these flatteries ; beings whose favour, notwithstanding these sacrifices and flatteries, one may either lose by some treacherous caprice, or never gain because of predestination to perdition. 6. Mr. Spencer and Dr. Tylor agree in deriving this world of Spirits, whether lowest Demons, or highest Deities, from that theory of Ghosts which they believe to be a necessary result of necessary reflec- tion on dreams, shadows, &c. It would be irre- levant here to enter on a detailed criticism of this theory of the origin of Spirits, but one or two remarks may be permitted. And first, I may say that I very much question whether Ghosts, as con- ceived by Messrs. Spencer and Tylor, are not a merely Christian, and Western Christian, supersti- tion. I think I may say that, in Eastern Folk- lore, or, at least, in the Folk-lore of the Women of Turkey, there are no Ghosts in the usual Western sense of the word — '" as the air, invulnerable."' The notion is rather that of " sheeted dead " who leave the " graves tenantless," like those who A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.^ If, for instance, due reverence is not observed in washing a Moslem corpse, the maladroit washer wiU not be haunted by the boneless Ghost, but — as veraciously recorded by Evliya Efi'endi' — kicked ^ Samlet, act i. sc. i. " Ibid. ^ Travels, Oriental Transl. Fund. e Ixvi THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [int. by the bony foot of the corpse. Again, if an old building is haunted, it is haunted, not by the ghost of a former occupant, but by the djin, or telles- tim which came into existence on the erection of the building, and is its guardian. According to Mr. Spencer's theory. Spirits are associated with inani- mate objects because of the multitude of Ghosts which are ever flitting about. According to the facts of Eastern Folk-belief, Spirits are associated with inani- mate objects because the very formation of these objects implies creation of their Spirits. Again, if a dead person "re-visits the glimpses of the moon," it is not as a Ghost, but as a. Vampire, with body and soul united, as formerly. Hence a "Vampire is believed to be effectually " laid," not by such wordy formalities as " lay " Western Ghosts, but by such practical processes as disinterring and burning the body, or, at least, driving a. stake through the heart. We now know that the Vampire superstition can be traced back to ancient Chaldea." We also know that, in Ancient Egypt, bodies were preserved with such careful embalmments as appear certainly to testify to a belief that the existence of the soul was dependent on that of the body. And when, in Modern Greek superstition, we find that it was not the mere ghost, but the resuscitated body of Thanas^ Vaghia that was dragged from its grave ; and that this was a,ccomplished, not by the ghosts, but by the actual hands and teeth of his massacred victims; we are led to a more careful reading of the Witch of Endor texts, and then find that it was not the mere 1 See helow, pp. 136-7. INT.] FOLK-CONCEPTIONS OF NATURE. Ixvii ghost of Samuel, but Samuel himself whom the Witch called up.i In a word, Spirits in the East seem to be either what may be generally termed Djins, or, they are Vampires. And as most Djins are so indissolubly connected with some object of Nature or Art that the destruction of the one is the death of the other, so every Vampire is so indissolubly con- nected with its own body, that its post-mortem crimes can be put an end to only by the destruction of its corpse. 7. But if questionable is the actuality anywhere, save in Northern and Western Christendom, of such a primitive Ghost-theory as that which Messrs. Spencer and Tylor attribute to all races of mankind, their theory of the origin of all Gods in Ghosts must become in the highest degree doubtful. A great variety of facts, which I cannot here set forth, lead me to think it far more probable that the three chief varieties of mankind — the Black, Coloured, and White — were from the first as much distinguished mentally as physically, and that they were distin- guished, therefore, by different conceptions of Nature. To reduce the chaos of things to an ordered unity, is no doubt the true aim of philosophy. But philoso- phers, as I venture to think, are too apt to imagine that this can be done only by deducing everything from one thing. I think, on the contrary, that all our later knowledge indicates the necessity of supposing at the origin of every scientifically conceived process of evolution correlated Co-existents, rather than a single Existent ; and that no proposition in science ' I Sam. xxviii. 11-14. Ixviii THE WOMEN OF TUEKEY. [int. will be found more fundamental than this : Every Existence has a determined and determining Co-exist- ence. And, hence, with reference to the question before us, I think it far more probable (considering also the facts above referred to), that we shall find that the mixture now in aU Folk-lores of both Zoonist and Spiritist conceptions of Nature is due, not, certainly, to a development of the Zoonist from the Spiritist conception ; but ultimately to primitive racial drfiPerences. These primitive racial diffei'ences we may find to be similar, in their historical inter- action, to those physiological differences to which sexual differences are now traced back.i And proxi- mate causes of intermixture are those strategraphical elevations and subsidences, eruptions and overlap- pings, which give to Ethnography as great a variety as similar phenomena give to Geography. 8. But earlier developments can be understood only from the point of view of later, and later, only from the point of view of ear Her developments. These Zoonist and Spiritist Folk-conceptions of Nature can- not therefore be clearly understood save from the point of view of the Culture-conceptions of Nature. Nor can the Culture-conception, which, in its highest form, may be called the Kosmist conception of Nature, be clearly understood save in relation to those Folk- conceptions which have contributed to its develop- ment. Consider, therefore, those conceptions of the inter-relations and inter-actions of all the parts of Nature — those enlarged conceptions of universal Reciprocal Action, which have not only been ' See, for instance, Geddes and Thomson, Tlie Evolution of Sex. INT.] FOLK-CONCEPTIONS OF NATURE. Ixix enunciated by philosophers since Kant, but verified by the scientific discoverers of those quantitative relations which have established the principle of the Conservation of Energy. Duly consider this Kos- mist conception of Nature, and particularly in its contrast with that Spiritist conception of Nature, which is common to all Supernatural Religions. Be- tween the Zoonist Folk-conception, and the Kosmist Culture-conception of Nature, there will be found a prodigious difference in degree of verifiable accordance with the facts of things. But surely it will be evident that there is incomparably more essential community of conception between Kosmism and Zoonism than between Kosmism and Spiritism. 9. Mr. Spencer, indeed, in his " System of Syn- thetic Philosophy," presents us with a dead Nature, acted on by " Forces." But this is because his whole System is based on what are, in fact, but abstract metempirical entities. The Matter and Motion which he opposes to each other, in his definition of Evolution, as "an integration of Matter and a dissipation of Motion," have no separate existence' whatever. Motion is incon- ceivable as a concrete reality save as Matter changing its relative place. As to Matter, all our later knowledge leads to the conception of it as, in all its parts, and down even to the ultimate constituents of the Elements, in a perpetual state of motion. And " Force "' is mechanically conceivable only as a differential or equilibrate relation between pressures, while, as an entity, it is scientifically as inconceivable Ixx THE WOMEN OF TUEKEY. [int. as Mr. Spencer's " Infinite Energy."^ In opposition to these fundamental entities of Mr. Spencer's system, I believe that I am justified in saying that modern physical research tends, in all its depart- ments, to the establishment of a new basis of Science and Philosophy in a conception of Matter as simply space-occupying Energy, of which the manifestations depend on the relations between existents and co-existents, and of which there can be no true theory save one which co-ordinates the conceptions of all the three orders of Atoms — Ultimate, Elementary, and Celliilar. But what will be the result of the development of such a conception of Matter, through that development of mathematical calculi which will make a mathematical chemistry possible ? What will be the result of the new and mathematically verifiable conception of the Oneness of Nature, thus given ? What will be the result of this but a verification of the essential truth, though formal error, of that Zoonist, as distinguished from Spiritist, conception of Nature, expressed — not only in the sublimest passages, and even in whole poems of the greatest Culture-poets as distinguished from the lesser ones, whose rhymes are but of " Spirits " — but expressed also by the Folk-poets, particularly perhaps by the Greek and Keltic Folk-poets, in passages, and whole poems innumerable, instinct with what Matthew Arnold felicitously called " natural magic " ? lo. But that there is a relation between this latest ' Compare Mr. Fletcher Moultou's damaging, but, so far as I am aware, unrefuted criticism of the bases of Mr. Spencer's System in the Brit. Quart. Rev., 1873 ; and Mr. Spencer's controversy with Professor Tait, Nature, 1879-80. INT.] FOLK-CONCEPTIONS OF NATUEE. Ixxi scientific conception of Matter and the Zoonist Folk- conception of Matter is also, I believe, historically provable. Yery far indeed from being true is the current assumption that the Philosophy of the Greeks arose in a sort of spontaneous way — " out of their own heads." I trust to be elsewhere able to show that Greek Philosophy, no less than Greek Mythology, was based on far more ancient ideas ; that the theories more particularly of the earlier Ionic philosophers, the Hylicists, were essentially but those old Chaldean cosmogonies in which Deities were rather Elements of Nature than Gods of Nature ; and that those Greek Philosophies differed from these Chaldean Cosmo- gonies chiefly but in being expressed in such unmytho- logic language as corresponded with the new alpha- betic, which had then begun to take the place of the old hieroglyphic, Writing. In the oldest Chaldean texts — and, by a strange irony, in none more clearly than in one which was, at first, hastily assumed to be the original of that Hebrew Creation-legend of which it was, in essential conception, the very- antithesis — the Gods are expressly said to ha^ve been not yet in existence when the World, by its own Self-powers, formed itself from chaos.i And as to the Archaian systematisers of Chaldean Cosmogony, so to the Greek founders of European Philosophy, it was not imaginary "Spirits" of Nature, but the actual Elements of Nature themselves that were divine. It was from the Elements themselves, therefore, that Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, Herakleitos 1 See Oppert, Trad, de quelques Textes Assyriens — Atti del IV. Cong. Internat. degli Oriental., 1880, p. 238. Ixxii THE "WOMEN OF TUEKEY. [int. and Empedokles, Levkippos and Detnokritos, and even Pythagoras, Parmenides, and Auaxagoras en- deavoured to explain the origin of the Universe. And though, no doubt, the expression given in the theories of the philosophers to the conception of the innate powers of Nature itself vras incomparably higher and more abstract than that to be found in any Folk-expression of the Zoonist conception of Nature, I submit that it is still essentially the same conception of Nature that is, in both cases, expressed. 1 1 . Such are the relations, not only in essential notion, but in historical development, of Zoonism and of Kosmism — the one a merely fanciful Folk-concep- tion, the other a more and more verified Culture-con- ception of the oneness and life of Nature, because of its own correlated Energies, and not because of actu- ating " Spirits." But as there is a lower and a higher Zoonism — Kosmism ; so there is a lower and a higher Spiritism — Theism. Of the relations, however, of Spiritism and that higher form of it called Theism, I need here say nothing. For Dr. Tylor and Mr. Spencer have already made pretty generally clear the relation between the expressions in Folk-poesy, of the Spiritist conception of Nature and the expres- sions in Culture-religions of essentially the same con- ception. In the Eeligions of Civilisation, " Spirits" are of greater potency and more abstract character than in the poesies of Folk-lore ; not only, however, in their essential character, but, according to Dr. Tylor and Mr. Spencer in their "Ghost-theory" origin, they are identical. No more, however, than Hume, in his Natural History of Religion, upwards of a century INT.] FOLK-CONCEPTIONS OF NATURE. Ixxiii ago, do either Dr. Tylor or Mr. Spencer advance any- definite and verifiable theory of the development either of the higher from the lower Spiritism, or of the higher, or Kosmist, from the lower, or Zoonist, conception of the oneness of Nature. Nor, I believe, can a scientific theory of such development be stated save on the basis of such facts as those on which I found the ethnological theory of the Origin of Civilisation. But if a new theory of the Origin of Mythology is a verifiable deduction from the new ethnological theory of the Origin of Civilisation, a new theory of the Method of Folklore-study must be a still further deduction. If Civilisation originated in the action of Higher on Lower Races, and if the direct result of such action was the rise of a wealthy and leisured literary class, not only with higher intellectual faculties, but with an incomparably more favourable environment for their exercise — then, evidently, there must have been, from the very beginning of Civili- sation, a constant interaction between Culture-lore and Folk-lore. If so, however, then a new method must be followed in the study both of Culture-lore and of Folk-lore. Culture-lore and Folk-lore must be henceforth looked upon and studied as correlative — each having been influenced by, and hence, re- quiring to be studied with, the other. But again, if so, then such a Classification of the facts of Folk-lore must be worked out as will enable us to institute scientific comparisons between the conceptions of Higher Eaces, or Higher Classes, as Ixxiv THE WOMEN OF TmKEY. [int. expressed in Culture-lore, and the conceptions of Lower Races, or Lower Classes, as expressed in Folk- lore ; and such a Classification as will enable us to trace the reactions of these conceptions on each other. The principles of such a Scientific Classification I have elsewhere stated,' and with respect to it, therefore, I shall here premise but two remarks. A Scientific Classification, whether of Fossils or of Folk-lore, must be derived from the study of constitution and of organology — that is to say, from the study of interior content, rather than from the observation of external form. And in order, therefore, scientifically to classify the expressions of Folk-life, we must en- deavour, first, scientifically to classify the conceptions of Folk-life. Conceptions op FoLK-Lirs. EXPEBSSIONS OF FOLK-LIFB. A. Cosmical Ideas. (a) Ideas of Nature (5) „ Supemals (c) „ After-life I. Customs. (I) Usages II. I Sayings. (I) Spells • III. Poesies (I) 1. Lays 2. and • 3. Litanies I. 2. i3. B. Moral Notions. (II) (II) (n) (a) Sexual (b) Domestic (c) Communal ■ Ceremonies ^ I. 2. 3- Saw 1. Songs 2. and .3. Stories I. 2 ■3 C. Historical Memories. (III) (III) (III) (a) Memories of Seasons (6) „ Heroes (c) „ Rights ■ Festivals fi. 2. ■3- Reades ■ 1. Ballads 2. and 3. Sagas I. 2. ^3- Customs, Sayings, and Poesies, in the various- divi- sions and subdivisions indicated in this table, and ^ See Greek Folk-songs^ Conclusion; The Science of Folk-lore; my Papers in the Folk-lore Journal, Maich, Jviy, and December 1886; and in the Archceological Revievj, May 1889. INT.] FOLK-CONCEPTIONS OF NATUEE. Ixxv amounting in all to twenty-seven, appear to furnish, fit and related general headings for the numberless expressions of Folk-life. These expressions of Folk- life are expressions of Cosmical Ideas (or Ideas of the Universe), of Moral Notions, and of the Historical Memories of the People. Influenced, however, these have always been, by the corresponding conceptions of Culture ; and similarly, and to a still greater extent, unfortunately, have the conceptions derived from the observations and reflections of the few, been influenced by Folk-conceptions — follies that have sprung but from emotional need, and undisciplined fancy. One remark, in conclusion, I trust that I may be permitted to make. As these sheets have been passing through the press, I have had an occa- sional opportunity of looking into a book which none can take up without being impressed by the learning, literary skill, and ingenuity of the author — The Golden Bough. But surely, if I may say it with the high respect to which the author's great ability and attainments entitle him, this book is something like a reductio ad absurdum of the Method hitherto ordinarily pursued in studying Folk-lore. Zevs, Osiris, and all the other Sun- gods — Tree-spirits ! Surely the time has come for such a new method in the study of Folk-lore as that which I have just indicated as a final practical de- duction from the ethnological theory of the Origin of Civilisation. PREFACE. The following description of the social position, domestic life, and folk-lore of the Women of Turkey is based, for the most part, on personal observations made during various sojourns in the East, amounting in all to eight years, and particularly at the great capitals of the Levant — Smyrna, Constantinople, and Salonica. In addition to the exceptional opportunities which were afforded me for studying the inner life of the native races, I was also able, when at Salonica, to acquire much valuable information from Mrs. Blunt, a lady of unrivalled Oriental experience, and especially while assisting her in writing Tlie People of Turkey. And in order to complete, as far as possible, the know- ledge personally acquired, I have consulted every available book on the East. My researches, how- ever, save in the matter of folk-poesy, have had very- small results. For the generality of travellers in Turkey might confess, with the Rev. Mr. Tozer, that PREFACE. Ixxvii " throughout our journey, the female sex may be said not to have existed for us at all." I regret to say that I have not received from Greeks the assistance which a former work might have led me to expect. At the best, those to whom I applied for information referred me to some one else, who again referred me to a third person ; though members of other Eastern Nationalities took some trouble themselves to procure for me the details I required. Especially to Mr. M. Sevasly, the Editor of the ndiasdan, and to Mr. M. Scheraz, the Editor of L'Armmie, are due my cordial thanks for their ever ready and valuable help in making the chapters on the Armenian Women as complete as possible. I have also to thank Mr. O'Conor, our Agent and Consul-General at Sofia, for his kind ofier to obtain for me, through the Minister of Public Instruction, some further informatian on Bulgarian folk-lore and female education, though, unfortunately, it has not reached me in time for insertion. And I must likewise acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Stuart Glennie for many important suggestions, emend- ations, and additions. Still, I am conscious that this work is, in many respects, far from complete. And as I desire that it should be full and accurate, as well, I hope, as Ixxviii PREFACE. entertaining, I should gratefully receive any further information with respect to the Women of Turkey, whether Christian, Semitic, or Moslem. And perhaps this may be the more readily given, if I add that it is my earnest desire that this book may contribute to the better understanding of these Eastern Nation- alities, and excite more interest in their cause, whether Moslem or Christian. For no less intoler- able is the present state of things felt to be by the great mass of the Moslem, than by the great mass of the Christian, population. And the ambitious despotism of the Czar would be a still more for- midable foe to free national development than is the decaying despotism of the Sultan. L. M. J. G. Sloanb Gaedbns House, Chelsea, S.W. June 5, 1890. TO JOHN E. BLUNT, Esq., C.B. H.B.M. CONSUL-GENERAL AT SALONICA, AND TO MRS. BLUNT, UNDER WHOSE HOSPITABLE ROOF MUCH OF MY EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE OF THE WOMEN OF TURKEY WAS GAINED, THIS WORK, THE FRUIT OF EIGHT YEARS' SOJOURN IN BOTH DIVISIONS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, IS, WITH GRATEFUL RECOLLECTIONS, BeCfcateO. THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF TURKEY CHAPTEE I. VLACH WOMEN : THEIR SOCIAL STATUS AND ACTIVITIES- FAMILY CEREMONIES— BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS— AND FOLK-POESY, Beginning my account of the Women of Tm^key with the women of the Christian nationahties, I shall deal with them in the order of the historic antiquity of these nationalities, as indicated in the foregoing Introduction. First, then, as to the Vlach Women. For the Ylachs appear, as has been pointed out, to have the best claim to be regarded as the representatives of the ancient Thrakian Stock of the Western Aryans. Now, we have every reason to believe that the Primitive Aryans of some 5000 years ago were nomad shepherds. And it is exceed- ingly interesting, therefore, to find that the best contemporary representatives of that ancient Thrako- Phrygiau Stock from which first, perhaps, the Kelto- Italiots, and then both Greeks and Armenians, appear to have been off-shoots, are to this day characterised by their wandering habits, both as shepherds and as traders. The Vlachs are, indeed, such an essentially pastoral race that their very name has become, among the surrounding people, a synonym for " shepherd." In this they are singularly unlike the Greeks, who are passionately attached to their native towns or villages, 4 THE WOMEN OF TUEKEY. [chap. i. and to the dwellings of their fathers. The Vlachs have their homes in the mountain villages, where they pass the winter, but all the rest of the year they wander in communities, with their wives and children and their united flocks and herds, often travelling long distances in search of pasturage. When on the road, they make use of their tents of black goat's hair, and carry all their goods and chattels in capacious bags of hair-cloth. A Vlach. encampment is a very picturesque sight. The place chosen for it is generally the common, or green, found on the outskirts of every town and village. I remember especially a large encampment outside the Vardar gate of Salonica, under the picturesque towers and bastions of those old medigeval, and, in their founda- tions, pre-Hellenic, walls, which have witnessed so many a siege. While the men pitch the tents, the women and girls milk the sheep and goats, and prepare the evening meal. Arrived at the pasturage, which they rent from the villagers, or, in the case of Crown lands, from the Forest-in- spectors, they build themselves huts or shealings of branches, set up their stdnia, or sheepfolds, into which the flocks are driven every evening at milking- time, and prepare for some months of dairy work. The passionate fondness of the pastoral Vlachs for this wild, out-of-door life has given rise to a popular belief in the country that, if a shepherd attempts to adopt a settled life by purchasing a field and building a house, he will soon fall ill, his flesh will rot, and engender worms. Even the Vlachs of the burgher class, who are not flockmasters, are mostly engaged in pur- CHAP. I.] VLACH WOMEN. 5 suits which require them to lead a more or less nomadic life. The wealthier class consists of merchants, who trade in Italy, Spain, Austria, and Russia, and who are often absent for periods extend- ing over many years — a mode of life which they seldom renounce until obliged by age to do so. The inferior class of traders do not, as a rule, leave the Ottoman Empire, but travel with goods of all kinds for sale from one town or village to another, like the peddlers in England in the Feudal Period, when, as in Turkey at the present day, shops were few in towns, and non-existent in the country. And there is also another industrial class of Vlachs who go to the towns for the greater part of the year to work as tailors, embroiderers, gold- and silver-smiths, &c. The homes to which these nomadic shepherds and wandering traders return are now, as has been said, in the mountains. Previously to the Ottoman conquest, the Vlachs occupied the plains of Thessaly in such numbers that the province acquired the name of " Great Wallachia," while .<5]toha and Acarnania were called "Little Wallachia." But with the true Aryan hatred of servitude and passion for self-govern- ment, they preferred a life of hardship, with freedom, in the mountains, to one of comfort, with subjection, in the plains ; and, retiring before the Turks, took up their abode in the ranges of Ol5'mpus and Pindus. Here they founded numerous large villages or town- ships, the most considerable of which are Vlacho- livadia, " The Meadows of the Vlachs," on the west of Olympus, and Mezzovo, " Mid- mountain,"' in the 1 According to Aravandinos, the name of this town is an abbreviation of Mesovouno — M^^o ^owbv : 2u\Xo77; SrjjxuSuiv aafidTwv, Up6\oyo^. 6 THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. i. heart of Pindus. The former contains some four hun- dred houses and five handsome churches with bells, presided over by a bishop ; while, grouped around on the neighbouring hiUs, are four other Vlach vil- lages, surrounded by fields and vineyards. Mezzovo is the most picturesquely situated town it is possible to imagine, clinging to both sides of a subhme ravine, and overhung by the highest crests of Pindus, which tower so perpendicularly on either hand that not till long after sunrise is the Proselion {TrpoQ r]\iov), or " sunny side " of the town, out of shadow. The opposite side is appropriately called the Anelion {av ^X(ov), or " sunless." Several Vlach villages surround Mezzovo also ; and the most remarkable of them is Kalyarites. The hill on which it stands is so steep that the highest houses are five hundred feet above the lowest, and the vertical streets are mere zigzag paths formed into steps. In these elevated situa- tions the snow lies for five months of the year. The villages are inhabited in winter almost exclusively by old men, priests, women, and children. Under these circumstances, there is Httle communication with the surrounding country, and it is customary for each family to lay in a store of oil, rice, flour, and other provisions, and also a stock of firewood. Another of the Vlach centres is Voskopoli, " the shepherd town." A large number of Vlachs are to be found in Albania, between Antivari and Dulcigno, and also in the mountainous districts near El Bassan and Berat. And their villages are scattered all through Macedonia, Thessaly, and Epirus. The total number of Vlachs inhabiting Macedonia is computed to be CHAP. I.] VLA.CH WOMEN. 7 some 500,000.^ But there appear to be no trust- worthy statistics of the total number of Ylachs in Turkey. Yet, even in these mountain homes, the industry of the Vlach is conspicuous. Cornfields and vine- yards clothe the hill-sides, and grapes, apples, and vegetables flourish in the gardens. The houses are small, but generally neat and well arranged, and in many cases also well furnished, according to native notions. Like those of Greek mountain villages, they are roofed with broad limestone slabs, which require, in addition to their other fastenings, heavy stones to keep them from being displaced by the furious winds to which these elevated regions are exposed, and which, in spite of aU these pre- cautions, frequently unroof the houses. The terraced gardens which surround every dwelling are well watered by streamlets from numerous fountains, which supply every part of the village with a pure cold water of which the inhabitants are justly proud. Hospitality is a marked characteristic of the Vlachs, who in this respect at least contrast favourably with the Greeks, the most inhospitable perhaps of all peoples. But though it is no uncommon thing to see a company of Vlach shepherds with their flocks, on the road to their summer quarters, it is rarely that an English traveller has an opportunity of seeing anything of the family life of this interesting people. Mr. Stuart Glennie, however, chanced to have such an opportunity ; and I am indebted to the proof-sheets of his forthcoming work on Ancient ^ Pioot, Bevue d'Anthropologk, torn. iv. p. 414. 8 THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. i. Hellas for the following description of tile household of a Vlach burgher at Mezzovo. " Most snugly furnished, but in Eastern fashion, was the room in which I was installed by my Vlach, or, as he would have called himself, Armeng^ host. There was neither chair nor table ; but the floor was covered with thick, richly coloured rugs, the handi- work of the household ; and along the wall on either side of the hearth, and under the windows, was a range of comfortable cushions. All the wall opposite the hearth was occupied by a most artistically designed and elaborately carved wardrobe, also of native workmanship ; and thence the additional rugs, &c,, were produced with which at night my bed was made up While supper was being prepared, the usual Turkish service of coffee and cigarettes was preceded by the Grseco-Slav service of preserves and a glass of cold water. For my evening meal, a Turkish sofra, or low round table, was brought in, and an excellent repast of various courses was served, of which I partook seated on my cushion on the floor, in the warmly coloured, brightly lighted chamber. Like the Vlachs generally, my hosts were handsome, pleasant, kindly people with innumerable pretty children. Among the bairns, particularly, the arrival of the stranger from the West appeared to cause great excitement and curiosity. But when their mother tried to put them out of the room, and away from the room- door, I begged that they might be allowed to remain. So, after a time, one after another they mustered up courage to approach, take my hand, kiss it, and press it to CHAP. I.] VLACH WOMEN. 9 their little foreheads ; and I kissed their fair little faces in return." The frequent and protracted absence of the men of the family to which I have just referred, naturally throws great responsibility and various duties on the vpomen, and these give them a social independence and influence which they would not otherwise enjoy. For the legal status of the Vlach, as of all other Christian women, is determined by the Christian Law of Marriage, and that, as we know, enforces an absolute subjection of the wife to the husband, as the necessary consequence of the indissolubility of marriage, while it gives no rights whatever as against men to any other woman than a legal wife. The Christian law of the indissolubility of marriage has been greatly relaxed by the facilities given to divorce among the Roumanian compatriots of the Ylachs in the Trans-JJanubian Kingdom. But there is a great difference of manners in this respect between the Roumanian Trans-Danubian town-folk, and Cis- Danubian village-folk. And such a difference of manners the reader will at once see must necessa- rily arise from the social conditions above described. In hard-working village-communities where the men are only at home fur short periods, causes of divorce are not likely to arise. But though there is thus a legal subjection of the Vlach women, the circumstances of their lives give thern at once great responsibility and indepen- dence. Far away as the men of the family may be, each cottage and homestead has its little field or vineyard and garden, which must be culti- 10 THE WOMEN OF TIIKKEY. [chap. i. vated, its harvest reaped, and the produce converted into winter provisions. The domestic animals must be tended, the sheep shorn, and the vs^ool prepared for the loom vehich occupies a corner of every dwelling. The Vlach women excel in the manufac- ture of the thick cloth called skouti, used for clothing and domestic purposes, and they also weave the carpets and rugs of which the furniture of their houses chiefly consists. The daughters are from an early age accustomed to both domestic and out-of-door labour, and in their capacity of shepherdesses — Vlachopoidas — figure frequently in Greek folk-song. The Vlachopoula may often be seen returning from the fountain or the riverside, bearing on her back, besides a barrel of water, the load of wet linen which she has washed, a metal basin poised on her head, and her untiring hands occupied in twisting thread with a spindle. Nor does she lack time to embroider in bright wools and silks, dyed with her own hands, her picturesque native costume, or to knit and stitch with coloured wools the socks she sells to the shepherds. The proceeds of these sales she invests in the coarse silver jewellery which she delights to wear on Sundays and festivals. It requires a strong frame to support the w^eight of the gala dress when completed vfith belt, collar, bracelets, and headgear of this alloyed metal. But such a frame is characteristic of these hardy daughters of the mountains, who are often tall, and always above the middle height, well-knit, well-poised, and incapable of fatigue. For the Vlach women are, as a rule, ex- CHAP. I.J VLAOH WOMEN. 1 1 ceedingly handsome, with regular features, dark hair and eyes, and small hands and feet. The women of Voskopolis and Monastir, and those living in the neighbourhood of Lake Ochrida, are considered the most elegant and refined of all the Southern Vlachs. The " Voskopoliotissas " are distinguished by the fairness of their skins and their lighter-coloured hair. Their countenances are fine and open, their gestures and movements most graceful, and their demeanour is particularly afi'able and obliging. Speaking of the men of this town, M. Picot says, " They make use of elegant phrases and refined language to every one, even to their wives."' The women, however, notwithstanding their greater refinement, are as in- dustrious as the other women of their race, and do not disdain to work in the fields, tend the fiocks, and fulfil all the other multifarious duties which fall to their share. The Vlach women submit cheerfully to their laborious life, and the wives of the traders willingly add to their many duties that of waiting on their husbands with the most assiduous attention during the short and rare periods they spend in the bosom of their families. No stranger, however, can com- mand their services, for they have an invincible repugnance to leaving their homes, to which they are devotedly attached. The women belonging to the more sedentary portion, of the Vlach population may be said to be equally well educated with the Greek women of the country towns and villages ; but their nomadic sisters ' Les Valaques de la Macedoine, Kevue d'Authropologie, torn. ir. 1 2 THE WOMEN OF TUEKEY. [chap. i. naturally receive little or no education. Previous to the union of the Principalities, in 1861, under the name of Roumania, the Greek language was alone taught in their schools and used in the services of the Church. Close contact and every-day intercourse with, the surrounding Greek population had also Helle- nised the men of some villages, and caused them to a great extent to abandon the use of their mother tongue. But, rwaiKi^ at Trip fiaXiara rr/v apyaiav cjiojvrjV aailovm^ ("Itis the women who retain the old forms of speech"); and the Vlach women, though conversant with Greek, still clung to their nationality and con- tinued to use their soft Eoumanian tongue. Bohnti- neanu, who was greatly struck by this conservatism, as other travellers have also been, remai-ks that, " If ever this people escapes from servitude, if ever it possesses a cultivated language, a literature, a history — in a word, a name — it will owe it to the women." ^ The language spoken by the Vlachs of Southern Turkey still differs little from that used in the kincfdom of Roumania, save for a certain admixture of Greek words, referring more particularly to modern civilised life. And within a year of the creation of Eoumania, a propaganda was organised with the object of substi- tuting, in the Vlach settlements south of the Danube, the Roumanian for the Greek language in the churches and schools. The leader of this movement was Mr. Apostolii Margaritu, a Macedonian Vlach educated at Bucharest, who, despite Greek opposition and intrigue, succeeded in many places in exciting a national feeling in his fellow-countrymen, and in ' Plato, KpdniXos, 74 (Bekker, t. iv.). ' See Pioot, as above. CHAP. I.J VLACH WOMEN. 13 inducing them to employ Roumanian instead of Greek teachers in their schools. This propaganda received a fresh impulse on the elevation of Roumania to a kingdom in 1877, by the appointment of a Roumanian Consul-General at Salonica, which city immediately became the head-quarters of an active rivalry between the two nationalities. The customs of the Vlachs at the birth of a. child do not differ materially from those of the Greeks. The Nereids feared by the latter on these occasions are merely replaced by the Stringoe (arpiyyoi), who, like them, are wicked spirits bearing ill-will especially to new-born infants. It is usual for those in attend- ance to cast a stone behind them with the words, " This in the mouth of the BtringcB ! " The baptism is also performed according to the rites of the Orthodox Church, described at length in the chapter on Greek Family Ceremonies.' Although the Vlach communities, in Thessaly and Macedonia especially, maintain, as I have already mentioned, various social relations with tlie Greeks, they do not to any great extent intermarry with them. Indeed, it is said that while the Vlach men occasionally take Greek brides, no Vlach girl ever marries out of her own community. But the customs connected with marriage among the Vlachs, with the exception, of course, of the religious rite, differ materially from those observed by the Greeks, and bear a considerable i-esemblance to the ceremonies of the ancient Romans. A young man, ^ See below, Chap. III. 14 THE WOMEN OF TUEKEY. [chap. i. wishing to marry, employs no go-between, but goes in person to the father of the maiden of his choice, and asks his permission to wed his daughter. If he is considered an eligible match, the father assents, and the suitor ratifies the contract by opening his purse and placing some pieces of gold in the hand of his future father-in-law. A similar sum is also paid on the wedding-day, and recalls the Coemptio custo- mary among the ancient Romans. The bride brings no dowry to her husband, only a trousseau and "plenishing," which she has herself manufactured fi-om the raw material supplied by the flocks and fields, dyed in brilliant and lasting colours, and em- bellished with thick embroidery. The preliminaries settled, the betrothal is publicly announced in the stani, or village sheepfold. A week before the day fixed for the commencement of the marriage festivities, the girls of the village go in a troop to the forest to cut firewood for the use of the young couple. They choose at the same time a branch having at its extremity five twigs. On one they fasten an apple, and on the other four, tufts of red wool. The apple is an emblem of love and maternity, and the wool is symbolical of the house- hold thrift and industry which are the glory of every Ylach woman. This flamboro, as it is called, is carried in triumph back to the village, accompanied by shouts oi"Troe, flamboro ! Troe, cokkellaJ" when it is fixed on the roof of the bride's abode. The home ceremonies attendant upon a wedding occupy several days, and, as with the provincial Greeks, are made the occasion of great merry-making by the village CHAP. I.] VLACH WOMEN. 15 maidens, who are invited to dress and adorn the bride for the ceremony, and to assist in the various domestic preparations for the important event. On the Sunday of the wedding week the bride- groom goes, accompanied by his friends, to fetch home the bride to his father's house. On the morning of this day, while some of the girls are busy " busking the bride," others assemble, dressed in their holiday costumes, at the bridegroom's home, and while he is being carefully shaved for the auspicious occasion, they dance round him, singing wedding songs. The marriage which, so far, has taken rather the form of a sale, the singers now transform in fancy into some- thing like a wedding by capture. He found tlie maiden all alone, Beneath a willow-tree ; And lightly took her 'neath his arm, And with her far did flee.' The bridegroom's toilet completed, he sets out on horseback, escorted by a number of friends on foot, for the abode of his betrothed. The arrival of the procession is announced by one of the party, who starts a little in advance of the rest. In return for his news the herald receives at the cottage door a large ring-shaped cake, for pieces of which a struggle ensues as soon as the other young men come up, the original possessor doing his best to retain it. The bride, bedizened in all her wedding finery, is led forth and mounted on a horse, and accompanied by her own friends in addition to those of the bridegroom, ' Heuzey, Le Mont Olympe, &o. i6 THE WOMEN OF TUEKEY. [chap. i. is conducted to her new home. On the arrival of the procession at its destination, a similar struggle takes place for a cake presented by the bridegroom's mother to the messenger who announces the approach of the bridal party. A singular rite of purely Latin origin is now perfoi-med by the bride. As she is lifted from her horse at the threshold, butter or honey is handed to her, with which she proceeds to anoint the door, signifying that she brings with her into the house, peace, plenty, and joy. The word v^or, originally unooor, is derived from ungere, " to anoint." A commentator on Terence thus describes this ceremony : " Uxor dicitur . . . . ab ungendis postibus .... hoc est quod, quum puellae u^berunt, maritorum postes unguebant."^ The bride respect- fully salutes her future father- and mother-in-law by kissing their hands before the assembled company, and is then conducted to a sofa corner, where she passes the night. On the following day the marriage ceremony is performed according to the rite of the Greek Church.^ Feasting and dancing occupy the remainder of the day, and are resumed at intervals until Wednesday evening, when the wedded couple are left alone for the first time. On the following day the young wife may be already seen busily spinning or working at her loom in the open air, still dressed in her wedding costume. As members of the Orthodox Church, the Ylachs have assimilated all the Christian, and many of the classical, observances of the Greeks relating to death. They still, however, retain among their funeral 1 Heuzey, Le Mont Olympe. ° See Chap. III. CHAP. I.J VLACH WOMEN. 17 customs some which would appear to be survivals ■ rather of Roman, than of Greek, pagan rites. The Lares, for instance, are stUl honoured on the anniversary of the saint under whose special protec- tion each family is placed. On the days previous to these celebrations the house undergoes a thorough cleaning and whitewashing, the furniture is scrubbed and polished, and the mats and rugs are shaken and beaten; and everything is washed that will bear washing. The day is observed as a festival, and the poorest family will spread a table with dishes pre- pared specially for the occasion. While these are being partaken of, allusion is made to deceased relatives, to whom invocations are addressed by name. They are prayed to seat themselves at the table, where covers are laid for them, and to take their share of the good things prepared in their honour. This custom bears in some of its features a strong resemblance to the ceremony of the Saia, hereafter described,' and in others to the family festivals, observed by the Greeks. Another pagan festival which the Vlachs, in common with the in- habitants of Roumania, celebrate in honour of the dead, is the Rusalu or Rosalia. This festival is held in summer, and every day of the six weeks during which it is prolonged, a tribute of fresh roses is laid on the graves of departed relatives and friends. Women and girls are careful not to wash anything in warm water while the feast of the Rosalia lasts, as this would be sure to bring them iU-luck. This may, perhaps, have some reference to the warm 1 See Chap. III. 1 8 THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. i. water with which it is customary to wash the dead. The Christianity of the Vlachs, like that of the Greeks, consists chiefly in keeping fast and feast days, in the adoration of saints, holy pictures, and relics, and in the observance of all the legendary customs by which the events of the ecclesiastical year are honoured. These customs, though in the main similar to those of the neighbouring Greeks, differ somewhat in their details, and others are identical with the religious folk-customs of the Trans-Danubian Roumanians. On New Year's Day the children take olive- branches and go from house to house to com- pliment the neighbours with their good wishes, in return for which they receive little presents. On the second day of the year, every stranger who may enter a house is required to throw on the fire small quantities of salt, which are placed in cups on the table for that purpose. He must then go to the hen-house and place an egg in the nest for the hen to sit upon. If the hen comes and does her duty, the guest is considered an auspicious person, and is feted in that house until evening. This custom is called "The lucky foot." " The Feast of the Kings " is celebrated at Epiphany, and even all through the Carnival, by boys and youths who stroll through the towns and villages performing a Scriptural play, something in the style of the " Miracles " of the Middle Ages. These players, called Vikliemi, or " Bethlehems," CHAP. I.J VLACH WOMEN. 19 personate Herod and the " Three Kings," or " Wise Men," under the names of Melchior, Balthazar, and Gaspar. Bedecked with all kinds of frippery, and crowned with gilt paper, they present an absurd travesty of the poetical old legend of the Adoration of the Magi, all the original sacred character of the custom having disappeared in the ludicrous extrava- gance which now accompanies its observance. The following is a literal translation of one of the verses sung by Herod : I am the Emperor Herod, Who have mounted on horseback. I have taken my sword in my hand, I have entered into Bethlehem, I have cut to pieces thousands of children. And made the whole world to tremble. Other bands, called Stea, or " Stars," make the round of the neighbourhood, carrying a great paper star with a rude representation of a cradle, and sing- ing songs describrug the apparition of the Star of Bethlehem. Another custom which the Vlachs observe in common with the Roumanians of the kingdom is the Filipi. During the first weeks of Lent, cakes are made in every house and distributed to the neigh- bours and passers-by in memory of a legendary lame individual named Philip (Filipu celu schiopii), whom popular reverence has raised to the rank of a saint. Thursday and Friday are still to a certain extent, as among the ancient Romans, sacred to Jupiter and Venus. During part of the spring of every year Thursday is observed as a holiday, in order to 20 THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. i. guard against hail and stormy weather which would damage the young crops. Tuesday and Friday are both, considered unlucky days by the women. A vindictive female spirit, called the Marz Sara, or "Fairy of Tuesday Even," is particularly active on the former day, and must be guarded against ; and on the latter day women and girls avoid, if possible, working with sharp instruments, such as scissors or needles. The procession of the Perperuda, which 1 shall have occasion to describe more at length in a subsequent chapter,' is also an institution among the Ylach women. They, however, have their children drenched by proxy in the persons of gipsy girls. The third Thursday after Easter is the day chosen for this propitiation of the Water Deities. Crowned with flowers, the gipsies go from house to house, dancing and singing the invocation, and every housewife, after throwing over them a jar of water or milk, rewards their exertions with a cake, some flour, or a small coin. The ceremony of the Klithona, observed by the Greeks on St. John's Eve,^ is also performed by the Vlach youths and maidens under the same name, but with slight difierences of detail. While the articles are being taken out of the jar, little snatches of song are sung by the girls, and good or bad luck is pre- dicted according to whether the object has been with- drawn to a gay, or to a melancholy air. The custom called the Craciunu, observed on the eve of Christmas, would seem to be, like our baking » See Chap. IV. = Ibid. CHAP. I.J 7LACH WOMEN, 21 of mince-pies, a survival of the Feast of the Winter Solstice. On the night of the 23rd or 24th of December, circular cakes with a hole in the centre are made in every house, and in the morning the children come round singing this Christian saluta- tion: Good morrow, the advent of the feast ! Good moiTow, the advent of the Craciunu. Then, changing their tune, they recall the Pagan character of the custom by adding these words : Give to me a ring-cake. For I am dying of cold ! A relic of ancient serpent-worship would seem to survive in the' consideration paid by Vlachs to that reptile. If one of the harmless white snakes common in the country happens to enter a Vlach cottage, it is allowed to remain unmolested and supplied with food, its arrival being considered a good augury. When it has again gone forth, snake dainties are placed outside the door, and finding itself so well treated, it not unfrequently gets into the habit of paying a daily visit, when it receives the title of Serpa di Casa, or "house serpent."' It is customary among the Vlachs of Thessaly, and also to a certain extent among those of Albania and Macedonia, to administer on a certain day in February a beating to all the dogs in the village in order to prevent their going mad during the ensuing- summer. I have not, however, ascertained that this curious precaution, which is also observed by the Bulgarians, has the desired efiect on the dogs, whose '■ Todorescil, Incercari CVitice, &o. See also Picot, Les Moumahis, kc. 22 THE WOMEN OF TUEKEY. [chap. i. howls during the operation are certainly calculated to drive mad any unlucky auditor. In the folk-poesy of the Ylachs, as in their folk- customs, the influence of long contact with Slavs and Hellenes is seen in the large admixture of Slav and Greek mythology with that which the Vlachs have in common with the ancient Romans. Under the names of Bahii and Stringa we have the malevolent Nereid of the Greeks and the Strong a of the Bulgarians. The Zmok is directly borrowed from the Slav demonology, in which he appears as an elemental demon of the same character as the Greek Stoicheion. This spirit is also the jealous guardian of hidden treasures, and wily and daring indeed is the mortal who succeeds in outwitting him. Some- times, as in the Bulgarian folk-songs, he appears as a winged dragon and carries off young maidens into the clouds, with which he is also identified. Some of the do'inas, as the Roumanian popular ballads are called, contain, like those of the Greeks and Bul- garians, an element of rugged savagery, here, how- ever, accompanied and in a degree modified by the poetic grace which is characteristic of Roumanian folk-literature. The ballad of the " Monastery of Argis," while illustrating the widespread custom of offering a human sacrifice at the foundation of every important building, at the same time presents us with two types of men — Negru Voda, the hoyard who founded the principality of Moldavia in the thirteenth century, the ruthless and capricious tyrant ; and Manoli, the master-mason, the man of CHAP. I.J VLAOH WOMEN. 23 strong affections, who is yet capable of sacrificing everything in order to fulfil the task he has under- taken. Many of the ballads are purely idyllic, and are full of the graceful personalising of Nature so often found in Greek folk-song. The Roumanian language pos- sesses such cadence and harmony that in poetry rhyme can be, and is, dispensed with. The words ending in e, with which the lines so frequently ter- minate throughout a poem, are merely an accident of the language, and do not constitute a rhyme. For this, as in French, the preceding syllable is required. I have, consequently, in translating specimens of the doinas, from Mr. Alecsandri's collection, followed his example in translating them into French ; and, instead of cramping the expression by attempting to present them in metrical form, I have rendered them literally into poetical prose. The Ring and the Veil. There was once a prince, young and handsome as forest-pine on mountain-summit, who took for his wife a girl from the neighbouring village, a lovely E/Oumanian whom all adored, and who could be com- pared only to the flowers of the field which shine in the sun's rays. Biit soon there came an order from the king his father, a written order commanding him to return to the camp. Sadly and mournfully he thus addressed his partner : " My well-beloved ! my soul ! take this ring and 24 THE ^VOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. i. wear it on thy finger. "When thou seest the rust gather upon it, know that I am dead." " ! my dear one, take thou this silken veil with the border of gold broidery. When the gold shall melt, know thou that I am dead." The prince mounted his horse, and started on a long march. Arrived in the depths of an ancient forest, he kindled a great fire near to the Fountain of the Raven. He put his hand into its bosom, and drew forth the silken veil. At the sight of it his heart broke with grief " My friends," he said, " my dear companions in arms, brave children of the ZmS'i,^ halt here to dine, and rest in the shade of this forest. I will return to the village to look for my two-edged sword which I left on the green table in my house." So said, he retraced his steps. On the road he met a warrior mounted on a little horse. " Hail, young hero ! What news is there in the - country from which thou comest ? " " If thou must needs be told, my lord, know that this news might perhaps be good for another, but for thee it is fatal. Thy father has devastated the country, and drowned thy wife in a wide and deep poud." At this news the prince shed bitter tears, and said : " Young man, take thou my horse and go to my father. If the king ask thee where I am, say that I have sought the shores of the pond, and have thrown myself into its waters to rejoin my young wife, my well-beloved ! " * * * * * ' Plural of Zmok. See p. 22. CHAP. I.] VLAOH WOMEN. 25 The father assembled all the men from the country side to drain off the water from the pond ; and when the pond was emptied he found the two children lying on the sand in a tender embrace ; their hair shone like gold and their cheeks were rosy red. The king placed their bodies on richly covered biers, and had them interred near the church, the prince near the holy altar towards the east, and his bride near the door towards the west. And from the grave of the prince soon grew up a tall pine-tree, which bent over the church ; and from the grave of his young wife sprang up a vine-stem, whose pliant shoots chmbed along the walls until they met the pine's branches, with which they lovingly interlaced themselves. The Cuckoo and the Turtle-dove} " Dear Turtle-dove, sweet bird, be my love till Sunday ! " " I would not say thee nay, but I say nay to thy mother, who is a wicked witch. She would reproach me ever for loving thee too much and caressing thee too often." " Sweet Turtle-dove, be not mine enemy. Love me till next Sunday." " No, dear Cuckoo, I will not listen to thee. ,Let me live in peace, or I will change myself into a little ^ These two birds appear very often in Eoumanian popular poetry. The oaokoo is regarded with a certain mysterious respect by the country people, and his note is considered a good or bad augury according to whether it is heard on the right or the left. 26 THE WOMEN OF TUEKEY. [chap. i. cake of white bread, moist witli tears, and hide me among the ashes on the hearth." " Whatever thou wilt do, and whatever thou wilt become, I will not leave thee alone ; for I too will change myself into a little shovel, and though I may be consumed by the fire, yet will I seek thee among the ashes, and shield thee from burning. Then I will refresh thee with my breath, and cover thee with kisses, so thab thou must perforce be my love, beloved Turtle-dove ! " " I would not say thee nay, but I say nay to thy mother, who is a wicked sorceress. She would re- proach me ever for loving thee too much, and would throw evil spells upon me, so that I could no more caress thee. And rather than be the butt of her fault-finding, and rather than be bewitched, I would change me to a bending reed, and hide me in the bosom of a mere to escape thy pursuit." " Whatever thou wilt do, and whatever thou wilt become, thou shalt not escape me. For I, too, wUl change myself into a shepherd, a player on the pipe, and I will seek in the mere for a slender reed of which to make me a flute. Then shall I see thee, and I will cut thy stem, and my lips shall cover thee with kisses. So that perforce thou must be my love until Sunday, dear Turtle-dove ! " " No, I will not listen to thee, dear and pretty grey- plumaged Cuckoo. I know how sweet life would be with thee. But, alas ! thy mother is so wicked. Rather than live with her, I would change myself into a little eikon, and, hidden in the recesses of the church, think ever of thee." CHAP. I.] VLACH WOMEN. 27 " Whatever thou wilt doj and whatever thou wilt become, I will not leave thee in peace. For I, too, will transform myself into an acolyte or a deacon, and I will be so pious, so pious, that I shall come every day to church, from Monday to Sunday, to bow before the holy pictures and to kiss thee,' so that perforce thou must be my love, dear Turtle-dove !" The Stcn and the Moon. Brother ! ' one day the Sun took a fancy to be married. For nine years he, drawn by nine horses, rushed over sky and earth with the swiftness of an arrow or of the wind. But in vain did he fatigue his steeds. Nowhere could he find a spouse worthy of him, nowhere in all the universe did he see one who rivalled in beauty his sister Helen,' the beautiful Helen, with the long golden tresses. The Sun, when he met her, thus spoke to her : " My dear little sister Helen, Helen with the long golden tresses, let us go and plight our troth together, for we resemble each other in our hair and in our features, and in our incomparable beauty. I have shining rays, and thou golden tresses. My face is resplendent, and thine is radiant." " Oh, my brother, light of the world, thou who art free from all sin, such a thing as a brother and ^ It is customary in the Eastern Churches to kiss the eilcons, or holy pictures, after making the usual reverences before them. ^ Roumanian baUads frequently commence with an invocation to some person or object. " Green darnel leaf " is a common introduction. * Helen is the favourite heroine of all popular Eoumanian stories and songs. 28 THE WOMEN OF TUEKEY. [chap. i. sister married together was never before seen, for it is a sin, a grievous sin." At these words the Sun was darkened. He mounted to the throne of God, and bowed before the Lord and said : " Holy God, our Father, the time has come for me to marry. But, alas ! I have not found in the world a spouse worthy of me save my sister, the beautiful Helen with the golden hair." The Lord God heard him. Then He took him by the hand and led him to Hell in order to terrify his heart, and afterwards to Paradise in order to enchant his soul, and thus He spoke to him (and while God spoke the sky shone gladly and the clouds had disappeared) : " Surj, O radiant Sun, thou who art free from all sin, thou hast visited Paradise and thou hast passed through Hell. Choose between the two." But the Sun answered gaily : " I choose Hell while living, if so be that I dwell no longer alone, but with my sister Helen, Helen with the long golden hair." w tP -tP -T?^ ^ The Sun descended to earth, he alighted at the house of his sister, and ordered them to make ready for the wedding. He decked the forehead of Helen with the golden bridal threads,' and placed on her head a royal crown. He dressed her in a diaphanous robe embroidered with fine pearls. Then they two re- paired to the church. But during the wedding ceremony — woe to her ! woe to him ! — the lamps '■ One of the usual wedrling adornments. See Greek weddings, Chap. III. CHAP. I.J VLACH WOMEN. 29 went out, the bells fell down, the choir stalls were overturned, the tower trembled to its foundations, the priests became dumb, and their vestments fell to pieces. The unhappy Helen was terror-stricken ; for suddenly — woe to her ! — an invisible hand seized her, bore her aloft into space, and dropped her into the sea, where she was immediately transformed into a beautiful golden fish. The Sun, too, grew pale, arid reascended into the blue vault. Then, sinking towards the west, he, too, plunged into the sea to seek his sister Helen, Helen with the long golden tresses. But the Lord God, who is blessed in heaven and in earth, took the fish in His hand, threw it again into the air, and transformed it into the Moon. And then He spake (and when He spoke the whole world shook, the waves of the sea were still, the tops of the mountains bowed themselves, and men trembled with terror) : "Thou, Helen with the long golden tresses, and thou, resplendent Sun, ye who are free from all sin, I condemn you to ail eternity to gaze on each other in the sky without ever being able to meet or over- take each other in the blue vault. Follow each other then for ever across the sky, and give light to the world ! " CHAPTER II. GKEEK WOMEN: THEIR SOCIAL STATUS AND ACTIVITIES. Following the order the reasons of which have been indicated in the Introduction, we come next to the Greek women of Turkey. Physically, as well as mentally, the Greek women of to-day often exhibit the more characteristic traits of ancient Hellenic types, and forms of almost classical purity are to be met with, not only in free Hellas, but also in all parts of the Ottoman Empire. There still may be seen the broad, low forehead, the straight line of the profile, the dark lustrous eye and crimson lips (the lower one slightly full), the firm chin, and rounded throat. The figure is usually above the middle height, if not "divinely tall;" the carriage erect and graceful ; the hands are small, and the feet often exhibit the peculiarity noticeable in ancient statues of the second toe being the same length as the first. In certain localities, and more particularly in Macedonia, the Greek type has much deteriorated from admixture with Slav and other elements. It has, however, remained almost perfect in many of the islands, and some ,of the finest speci- mens of the race are to be found in Asia Minor, not only on the sea-board, but in many towns and CHAP. II.] GREEK WOMEN. 31 villages of the interior, where, at the beginning of the century, the Greeks had become so denational- ised as to have lost the use of their mother tongue. In the capital, and in European Turkey generally, every Greek considers himself as much a Hellene as are the dwellers in the free Kingdom. The Greeks of Asia Minor, however, stiU, as a rule, designate them- selves Romeots (Romans), a term which included in Bj'zantime times all the subjects of the Eastern Empire. But the development of national senti- ment, which has resulted from the spread of educa- tion, is causing this name to be gradually superseded by the classic designation, and it will no doubt be soon altogether abandoned. The social position of women is, of course, chiefly determined by the law of marriage of the established religion. Hence, among the Greeks, as among all the other Christian nationalities of Turkey, the social position of women is, first of all, determined by that Christian law of marriage which abolished the old rights and privileges enjoyed by the women of the Roman Empire, and introduced the subjection of the wife to the husband in an indissoluble marriage. By the Greek Church, however, this general Christian law was modified so long ago as the eleventh century, when the Patriarch Alexius permitted the clergy to solemnise the second marriage of a divorced woman if the conduct of her first husband had occasioned the divorce. And at the present day little difficulty is experienced in dissolving an incompatible union without misconduct on either side, and whether the suit is brought by husband or wife. The case is tried 32 THE WOMEN OF TTJEKEY. [chap. ii. by a Council of Elders, presided over by the Arch- bishop of the diocese, who hear all the evidence in camera, thus avoiding the scandal attaching to divorce cases in the West. It must, however, be said that the privilege of divorce among the Greeks is rarely made use of without good and serious reasons, both social opinion and pecuniary considerations weighing strongly against it, and in all my long acquaintance with persons of this nation, two cases only have come to my knowledge. For though Greek matches are, to a great extent, manages de convetiance, marital dissen- sions are extremely rare, especially among the upper and middle classes. The Greek men, besides being good sons and brothers, are exemplary husbands, and the women in their turn are the most devoted of wives. There exist, too, as will appear elsewhere^ considerable remains of patriarchal customs, even among the wealthy and educated classes. One of these is that the sons, on marrying, often bring their wives to the paternal home. The mother, on the death of her husband, is not banished to " the dower house," but retains the place of honour in the house- hold, and receives every mark of attention and respect, not only from her sons, but from their wives^ who consider it no indignity to kiss her hand, or that of their father-in-law, when receiving their morning greeting or evening benediction. And in these irre- verent days it is very refreshing, on visiting a Greek family, to see the widowed mother at the head of the table, and remark the deference paid to her by her son and her daughter-in-law. CHAP. 11.] GREEK WOMEN. 33 The degree of seclusion observed by the Christian women of Turkey has always varied according to external circumstances, and would appear to be due rather to the considerations for their safety, necessi- tated by their peculiar position among peoples of alien race and creed, than to any desire on the part of men for their " subjection." And that this is really the case is, I think, proved by the fact that not only have the women of Greece, since their emancipation from Turkish rule, enjoyed the same freedom as other European women, but that, in the Ottoman capital, and more especially in " Smyrna of the Giaours " {Giaourdi Izmir), where the Muslim element is in the minority, and where there is consequently little or nothing to fear from Turkish licence, this seclusion is now a thing of the past. The heroism which the War of Independence called forth in the Greek men was shared by their mothers, their sisters, and their daughters. During the whole of this stirring period the women shared the trials and combats of the Hellenes as they had done the glory of the Caesars. The struggle had really begun long before the outbreak of 1821, and bands of Armatoles (ap/xaToXoi) had maintained their independence in the mountains of Agrapha, where they were frequently joined by refugees from Turkish injustice. The domestic history of these troubled times is recorded in the folk-songs of the suffering people, and to these spontaneous outbursts of untutored feeling we must turn to hear how the wife of the Klepht chieftain awaited with feverish impatience for news of her husband, or lamented him 34 THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. ii. dead ; was carried a captive to the harem of the Turkish general ; or, rather than submit to such a fate, precipitated herself and her child over some precipice. " The wives of the Klephts," says a Greek histo- rian,' " are worthy to be extolled for their courage and virtues. When their husbands were setting out on a military expedition, it was they who girded them with their swords, gave them a parting kiss, and prayed for their victorious return. Often their towns and vUlages were besieged by the enemy, when women and girls bravely came to the aid of their fathers, husbands, and brothers. The Mainote women specially distinguished themselves by their Spartan-like heroism. On the approach of the Turk- ish soldiers the women and girls left their villages, and, lying in ambush in the mountain passes, and in the vicinity of the roads, kept up a constant guerilla warfare against the invaders. One of these amazons, Helen, the niece of a magnate of Kytherias, was visited by M. Pouqueville in the castle or tower of that name, where she lived surrounded by a number of the women whom she had formerly led to battle. Another leader of the insurgents, Christos, had among his forces a company of twenty amazons, including his own sister, who was wounded while fighting with the Turks. Such was the respect with which these women were treated by their fellow- combatants, that a German musician was shot dead by the captain for venturing to address an insulting remark to one of them. ' Neroulos, Hiit. Moderne de la Orlce, partie iii. oh. i. CHAP. II.] GEEEK WOMEN. 35 Two of the most renowned heroines of the time were Constance Zacharias and Moddna Mavroyennis. On the outbreak of the insurrection, the former planted the standard of the Cross on her house, and called upon all patriotic women to join her. Num- bers responded to her appeal, and, after receiving the benediction of the Bishop of Helos, she led them against the Turks, who retired into the castle of Christea. The amazons then proceeded to Londari, where they tore down the crescents from the mosques, and set fire to the house of the Turkish voivode, who fell beneath the sword of their leader. The father of Modena Mavroyennis had been strangled by order of the Pasha of Euboea, a,nd after his death she took refuge in Mykond. When the call to arms roused the patriotism of the Pelo- ponnesus, Moddna incited her friends in Euboea to revolt, promising to marry the conqueror of the Ottomans. Such was the effect of her eloquence on the Mykonians that they equipped and despatched four large war vessels as their contribution to the Hellenic fleet. And when the Algerian ships dis- embarked their soldiers on the shores of Mykone, crying, " Death to the Giaours ! " it was Modena who, with the band of patriots she had hastily col- lected, drove them back to their ships with the loss of their leader. During the long siege of Missolonghi the women and girls aided the defenders by bringing materials of every description to stop the breaches made by the Turkish artillery, directed — shameful to say — by European oflScers. The chief women of the be- 36 THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. ii. leaguered town drew up and signed a petition, which they addressed to the. Philhellenic ladies of Europe, entreating them to use their influence with their respective Governments to prevent this parti- sanship of the strong against the weak, and describ- ing in touching terms the sufferings of the brave defenders. " Most of us," they wrote, " have seen mothers dying in the arms of their daughters, daughters expiring in the sight of their wounded fathers, children seeking nourishment from the breasts of their dead mothers ; nakedness, famine, cold, and death are the least evils witnessed by our tear-dimmed eyes. Most of us have lost brothers and sisters, many are leffc destitute orphans. But, friends of Hellas, we assure you that none of these evils has touched our hearts so profoundly as the inhumanity manifested towards our nation by those who boast of being born in the bosom of civilised Europe." This touching appeal was, however, with- out avail. After a siege of eleven months, main- tained by a garrison of 5700 men against an army of a hundred thousand, a sortie was attempted. Two detachments succeeded in forcing the Turkish lines, but the third, after losing three-fourths of their number, were driven back with the women and children into the town, where they still for two days bravely defended themselves. At last, rather than fall into the hands of the ^-ictors, the survivors set fire to the powder and perished together. One of the surviving signatories of this appeal, Kyria Evanthia Kairis, subsequently wrote a tragedy embodying the events of this famous siege. During CHAP. II.] GREEK WOMEN. 37 a conversation which the Greek poet, M. Soutzo, had with this lady at Syra, he relates that she observed to him, in reference to her work : " You well know what a profound impression the fall of Missolonghi made upon our minds, what a deep wound it inflicted on our hearts. I could never banish from my memory the fatal night of the loth of April (old style). Those heroic phantoms, after struggling so long with death, gathering fresh courage, and in the dead of night striking terror into the barbaric hosts ; the last fare- wells of mothers, the sobs of children, the heroes resolved to die with the aged and the wounded — this picture was perpetually present to my sight. I could never have unburdened my heart of the weight which oppressed it save by attempting to describe with my pen the scenes which were ever present to my memory." One of the surviving heroines of this memorable siege, who died in Athens nine years ago, expressed on her death-bed a wish to be buried in the pallikar's dress which she had worn during the war, and had ever since treasured in secret. The poet Kostas Palamas has made this incident the subject of a long poem,' in which he describes how Kapitan Philio's daughter donned, at her father's command, the full white kilt, the braided vest and jacket, and the felt capote, and stood in the breach at his side, pistol in hand, while he directed his gun at the enemy. Her father slain, she had escaped in one of the sorties, with the assistance of a comrade, who after- wards became her husband. ' "Ta ndra t^s 7107105," in Tpo7oD5ia t^s iruTpLSos ftov. 38 THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. ii. Nor was the outbreak on Pelion, of 1878, without its heroines. The daughters and sisters of the patriots braved the whizzing rifle-bullets and the risk of capture, in order to carry food and water to their relatives in the entrenchments on the hills above Volo, now Greek territory. The name of one girl, Marighitza, of Makrinitza, was more specially men- tioned for intrepidity, and when the insurrection was over she was sent for to Athens to be presented to the King and Queen, and fSted by the inhabitants. A far more sensational story, however, is that of a woman named Peristera, "the Pigeon," who was, it appears, an actual combatant in the rebellion, during which her brother met with his death. On the cessation of hostilities, this woman joined a band of brigands, and became their leader under the name of Vangheili, to which her followers added the sobriquet of Spanb, or Beardless.' After pursuing the calling of klepht for some two years, Peristera seems to have grown tired of it. So, leaving the mountains, she repaired to the British Vice-consulate at Larisaa, and there gave in her submission to Her Majesty's representative. The Ottoman authorities, as is usual in such cases, granted a pardon to the penitent brigand, who, being apparently homeless and friendless, was then received into the service of the Greek Archbishop of Kodjani. A photograph taken at the time represents her in full klepht costume — swords, pistols, and yataghans at waist, and gun in hand, and round her neck is suspended the insignia of chieftainship, a broad silver disc, 1 See Chap. IV., " The Beardless," in Folk-lore. CHAP. II.] GREEK WOMEN. 39 bearing in relief a representation of the patron saint, St. George,' in his conflict with the Dragon.'' Not only, however, during crises in their national history have Greek women laid aside distaff and spindle to assume the sword and tophaiki. To Greek,- as to Bulgarian women the charms of a life in the greenwood have occasionally proved as irresis- tible as they were to our own Maid Marians. And various folk-songs tell us how For twelve long years had Haid^e lived an Armatole and Klephte, And no one had her secret learnt among her ten companions, until one Easter Sunday, when, engaged with the other paUikars in athletic exercises, her sex was accidentally disclosed.' These have, however, been rare exceptions, for, as I shall now proceed to show, the virtues of the Greek women generally are essentially domestic. Though widely dispersed throughout the Ottoman Empire, the Greek peasants seldom occupy the same villages with those of other races. Some of the Greek villages, with the lands adjoining, are owned and tilled by peasant proprietors. These are called KE^aXox^pta, or " Head- villages," and EXEufle/ooxw/jto, or " Eree- villages," and many of them are tolerably 1 See Chap. V., St. George. ' I am indebted for the above details to a Consular despatch sent to the Foreign Office on the subject, and to some notes made by Mr. Stuart Glennie, who met the Archbishop of Kodjani, in 1881, at Servia, the fortress which defends the great pass between Macedonia and Thessaly, and received from him a photograph of the heroine. ' Greek Folk-songs, p. 247. 40 THE "WOMEN OF TUKKEY. [chap. ii. wealtKy and prosperous. The majority of the Greek agricultural population of European Turkey are, however, tenants on the metayer system, and are called yeradjis. They receive the seed grain from the landlord, for whom they cultivate the land, and share with him the produce of the fields. They labour under great disadvantages, and are, as a class, poor, and much oppressed. Their dwellings present a pitiable aspect, being usually miserable, one- storied huts, constructed of wattle, plastered with mud inside and out, and consisting at most of two rooms, with holes for windows. A fence encloses the small farmyard, with its granary and cattle-shed. The houses of the Head or Free villages are, however, often built of ston e. Sometimes they are of two stories, enclosed in a courtyard, and, when the locality is not subject to the attacks of brigands and other similar dangers, they may have shuttered glass windows. Tables, chairs, and even bedsteads, are not unknown luxuries among the more prosperous peasant farmers ; a few pictures hang on their whitewashed walls, and there is usually a rude eikon, or picture of the Virgin and Child, before which hangs a small oil-lamp. The kitchen is furnished with well-burnished copper pans, and the hiler, or storeroom, contains an ample supply of native wine, oil, and winter provisions. The Greek peasant women are not employed to any great extent in field-work. They, however, take an active part in much of the labour connected with the farm, and their household and dairy duties are many and varied. In CHAP. II.] GREEK WOMEN. 41 Koumelia and Macedonia, the girls and young women hire themselves out for the June harvest, and assist in the reaping and threshing. Agricul- tural machinery has found little favour in the East, being quite unsuited for the method of farming followed by the natives, and the implements of husbandry used are of the most rude and primitive description, entailing a great deal of hand-labour and involving a considerable amount of waste. Threshing is performed by the girls with the aid of an instrument which must surely have been used in Pelasgian times. It is composed of two pieces of wood joined together in something like the form of a horseshoe, and studded on the under- side with a number of flints. A couple of ponies are attached to the curved end of this implement, on which a girl stands, and are driven over the grain spread out on the threshing-floor. Unscien- tific as this method may be, the scene presented is very picturesque, when the presiding Kore is a hthe and lissome lass. The corn is winnowed by being thrown up in the air with wooden shovels, the chaff being carried away by the breeze. In some parts of Macedonia the process of threshing is even more primitive. A team of horses or oxen is driven round and round the threshing-floor, the women and children beating out the remainder of the grain with sticks. To the Greek peasant girl also is committed the care of her father's flock, which she must lead every day to the pasture, and fold at night. The Vosko- puula, or shepherdess, is one of the most prominent 42 THE WOMEN OF TUEKEY. [chap. ii. characters in rural folk-song, and many a charming idyll has been composed in her honour by amorous swains. But she has little time for sylvan dallying, for the sheep and goats must be milked, and the milk must be converted into cheese and ^iaourti (yiaovpTi), a delicious and wholesome sour curd, which is in great demand in the towns. When the sheep have been shorn, the wool must first be bleached and spun, and then knitted and woven into garments for the family, or into cloth for sale. The cotton and flax grown on the farm must also be gathered in their seasons, and prepared for use. The cotton pods are put through a small hand-machine called the mdngano (/xayyavoc), which tums two roUers different ways, and separates the fibre from the seed. The instrument next used is the toxeuein (to^siihv), a large bow made from a curved piece of wood five or more feet long, the two ends of which are connected by a stout string. The cotton is placed loosely on the string, which is made to vibrate by being struck with a stick, producing a not unmusical sound. This process detaches the particles of cotton, and it is now ready to use as wadding for the large quHts (ffaTrXoi/xara), which, with a sheet tacked to the under-side, forms all the winter bed-covering used by the lower orders of natives of every race. The mat- tresses are also usually stuffed with cotton, and the palliasses with the husks of Indian corn. If, however, the cotton is to be converted into yarn for weaving, it is twisted as it leaves the ioxeuein into a loose rope, wound round the distaff, and spun. When the yarn has been dyed or bleached. CHAP. II.] GREEK WOMEN. 43 according to the use that is to be made of it, the women or girls set to work at the hand-looms, which form an important part of the furniture of every cottage, and weave it into strong, durable calico, or brightly striped stuff for dresses and household pur- poses. A certain proportion of the cotton and wool is reserved for knitting, and it is most pleasing to watch the graceful motions and picturesque poses of the women and girls as, standing on their balconies or terraced roofs, they send the spindle whirling down into courtyard or village street while twisting the thread for this purpose. The knitting is done with five curved needles, having ends like crochet-hooks, and the stocking is always made inside out. This method produces a close, even stitch, and the work is extremely durable. The old women usually under- take this part or the household work, and with needles in hand and the " feed " of the yarn regu- lated by a pin fastened to their bodices, they sit in their doorways for hours together, either gossiping with each other, or teUing fairy tales (Trapafivdia), and crooning old songs to the little ones. In some districts the silkworm industry keeps the women fuUy occupied during the spring months. The long, switch-like branches of the pollarded mulberry -trees are gathered every morning, and their fresh leaves given to the caterpillars ; and all the tedious and laborious details connected with the silkworm nurseries must be carefully performed in order to keep the worms in good health, and thus secure a successful crop. The Greek women of Crete lead for the most part 44 THE "WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. ii. retired and sedentary, though most industrious, lives. The chief industry of the island is the cultivation of sUk, which is carried on at home, each family raising its own little crop. The gayest time of the year for the Cretan women is the olive harvest, to which the girls especially look forward with pleasure, as the usual restraints are then set aside, and they enjoy, besides the open-air work, in company with others of their age, the social gatherings which are customary after the day's toil is over. Their earnings are, however, very small, and are paid in kind, being generally only two-sevenths of the yield of oil from the oHves which each one has gathered, though in abundant seasons, when hands are scarce, they receive as much as a third. The work is, however, very fatiguing, and when carried on, as it often must be, in rainy weather, exceedingly trying. Cyprus also is famous for its home industries in linen, cotton, and wool. The women of Larnaca and Nicosia still maintain the renown for cunning needle- work which belonged of old to the island more espe- cially associated with the Queen of Beauty. But laborious as the lives of these thrifty country- women may appear, Sundays and Saints' Days are holidays duly observed and thoroughly enjoyed. The working dress of plain homespun is laid aside, and the picturesque gala costume donned. This consists of a skirt, woven in stripes of sUk and woollen, reaching to the ankles, with a tight-fitting bodice of the same, a cloth jacket braided or embroidered round the borders in gold thread, and lined with fur, and in some districts a bright-coloured apron CHAP. II.] GREEK WOMEN. 45 ornamented with needlework. The Greek maiden's carefully combed hair — brushes are unknown amongst the natives — is plaited into innumerable little tails, and surmounted with a small cap of red felt, decor- ated with silver and gold coins similar to those she wears as a necklace. Thus adorned, she accompanies her parents to the early Mass in the little white- washed church, summoned by the sound of the primitive symandro — a board struck with a mallet — in lieu of bell. Returning home, the simple morn- ing meal is soon despatched, the cattle and poultry are fed, and the rest of the day is given up to well- earned repose and amusement. In the afternoon the peasants resort en masse to the village green. The middle-aged and elderly men take their places in the background under the rustic vine-embowered verandah of the coffee-house ; the matrons gather under the trees, with their little ones, to gossip, while their elder sons and daughters perform the syrth [avproQ y^opo^), the "long-drawn" classic dance. Each youth produces his handkerchief, which he holds by one corner, presenting the other to his partner. She, in her turn, extends her own to the dancer next to her. The line thus formed, " Romaika's duU round " is danced to the rhythm of a song chanted in dialogue form, with or without the accompaniment of pipe and viol, until the length- ening shadows of evening send the villagers home to their sunset meal. The kerchiefs of the youths are frequently love-tokens from their sweethearts, as sung by the love-sick swain in the following dancing song : 46 THE WOMEN OP TURKEY. [chap. ii. Whoever did green tree behold — Thine eyes are black, thy hair is gold — That with silver leaves was set ? — Jet black eyes, and brows of jet — And on whose bosom there was gold — eyes that so much weeping hold — At its foot a fountain flowing — Who can right from wrong be knowing 1 There I bent, the fount above. To quench the burning flame of love ; There I drank that I might flll me, That my heart I thus might cool me. But my kerchief I let slip — what burning has my lip ! — Gold embroidered for my pleasure, 'Twas a gift to me, the treasure. That one it was they broidered me, While sweetly they did sing for me ! Little maids so young and gay, Cherries of the month of May. One in Yannina was bnrn, Eobe of silk did her adorn ; The other from Zagorie strayed, Eosy-cheek'd this little maid. An eagle one embroidered me — Come forth, my love, thee would I see ! — T' other a robin red-breast tidy, Thursday — yes, and also Friday. Should a youth my kerchief find — Black-eyed with gold tresses twined — And a maiden from him bear it, Round her slim waist let her wear it ! ' ^ Greeh Folk-songs, p. 155. CHAP. II.] aRBBK WOMEN". 47 Most of these dancing songs are sung antiphoni- cally by two sets of voices. Sometimes, as in the above, one set begins the song and the other adds to each line in turn a kind of parenthesis extending it. In the following song, and in many others, the end of the line is repeated, or altered, by the second set of voices . A youngster me an apple sent, he sent a braid of scarlet — He sent a braid of scarlet. The apple I did eat anon, and kept the braid of scarlet — And kept the braid of scarlet. I wove it in my tresses fair, and in my hair so golden — And in my hair so golden ; And to the sea-beach I went down, and to the shore of ocean — And to the shore of ocean. And there the women dancing were, and drew me in among them — And drew me in among them. The youngster's mother there I found, and there too was his sister — There was his elder sister ; And as I leapt and danced amain, and as I skipped and strutted — And as I skipped and strutted — My cap fell off, and ev'ry one could see my braid of scarlet — Could see my braid of scarlet. " I say, the braid you're wearing there was to my son belonging — My dearest son belonging." " And if the braid that now I wear was to your son belonging — Your dearest son belonging — He sent an apple which I ate, my hair the braid I wound through ; And I will soon be crowned ^ too ! " " In some of the islands the syrth has a much more pantomimic character. The leader of the dance accompanies the words of the song with appropriate 1 I.e., Married. See Chap. III. ' Greeh FoVc-songs, p. 193. 48 THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. ii. gestures and facial expression, and the words of the chorus or antistroph^ are similarly represented by the dancer at the other end of the wavy line. A favourite amusement, and opportunity for flirta- tion, in the islands is the swing. The girls suspend a rope across the narrow street from the wall of their own house to that of a neighbour, and every youth who wishes to pass by must pay toU in the form of a small coin, and give one of the girls a swing, while he sings the following verse : swing the clove-carnation red, The gold and silver shining : And swing the girl with golden hair,^ For love of her I'm pining. To which the maiden replies : O say what youth is swinging me — What do they call him, girls ? For I a fez will broider him, With fairest, whitest pearls. The Harvest Home is also a great holiday in the country districts, and is celebrated on the 21st of August (old style). Attired in their best, and crowned with flowers, the harvesters carry small sheaves or bundles of the golden grain to the nearest town, where they dance and sing before the doors of the principal inhabitants. The more remote the community, and the more isolated from contact with the outer world, the more rigid generally is found to be the code of social ' Golden hair is as much admired in the East at the present day as it appears to have been in classical times, though I could never learn that • modern Greek women resorted, like their ancestresses, to artificial means of producing r/ji'xac ^av9as. CHAP. II.] GREEK WOMEN. 49 morals. In the mountain villages of Crete, female misconduct is visited with the severest penalties, and even so late as the beginning of this century was punishable with death. Whenever a married woman was suspected even of faithlessness, or an unmarried one of frailty, her hours were from that moment num- bered, and her end was so tragical and so shocking to aU. the feelings of natural affection, and even to the ordinary notions of humanity, that one can hardly believe such a practice to have been observed on the very confines of civilised Europe, and in the nine- teenth century, by any Christian people. Her nearest relations were at once her accusers, her judges, and her executioners. An illustration of the ruthless severity with which such offences were punished is given by Mr. Pashley, and was related to him by an eye-witness, a cousin of the victim. A young wife was suspected of having broken her marriage vow. The charge was not proved, but, the suspicion being general, her father, a priest, consented to leave it to her near relations to decide as they thought best respecting her. Their decision was soon taken. They proceeded to the number of between thirty and forty to the home of the condemned woman, who was, as yet, totally ignorant of her impending fate, seized her, and, after tying her to a tree, made her person the mark at which all their muskets were pointed and discharged. Shocking to say that, though thirty balls had lodged in her body, she still breathed. One of her executioners immediately drew his pistol from his girdle, placed it close to her breast, and fired. The suspected partner of her guilt D so THE "WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. n. was not shot, for he belonged to a powerful family. But the Protopapas, the unfortunate woman's father, excommunicated him,' and, " in consequence of the sacerdotal ban, he not only himself perished by falling over a precipice, but aU his brothers likewise came to untimely ends."^ The Greek peasant women are, on the whole, honest and industrious, affectionate mothers, and devoted and virtuous wives. A striking proof of their morality is afforded by the long absences from home which their husbands are often compelled to make in the pursuit of their avocations — absences often extending over many years. During this time the care and education of the children and the local interests of the family are left entirely in the hands of the wife, who generally proves herself equal to the occasion, and worthy of the trust reposed in her. There are many touching folk-songs describing the re burn of the husband after long years of absence, so changed that his faithful wife refused to receive him into her house until he had satisfied her by his knowledge of a mole, or other slight personal mark, that he was indeed her husband. " Tell me the signs my body bears, and then I may believe thee ! " " Thou hast a mole upon thy chest, another in thine armpit ; There lies between thy two soft breasts, a grain, 'tis white and pearl-like.'" Many, too, are the songs which describe the wife's grief and loneliness during her husband's absence. ^ "Thy a^Spicrev & Upordirairas." ^ Travels in Crete, ii. 257. See also below, Chap. IV., for excommunication. ' Greeh Follc-songs, p. 165. CHAP. II.] GREEK WOMEN. 51 The woman of Malakassi curses the foreign lands which "take the husbands when they're young, and sends them back when aged ; " and the complaint of the Greek woman of Zagorie married to a Vlach hus- band is most pathetic. Why didst thou, nidna, marry me, and give me a Vlach husband ; Twelve long years in WaUachia, and at his home three evenings. On Tuesday night, a bitter night, two hours before the dawning. My hand I did outstretch to him, but did not find my husband. Then to the stable-door I ran ; no horse fed at the manger. I sped me to the chamber back ; I could not find his weapons. I threw me on my lonely couch, to make my sad com- plaining ; " pillow, lone and desolate ! O couch of mine, forsaken ! Where is thy lord who yesternight did lay him down upon thee 1 " " Our lord has left us here behind, and gone iipon a journey — Gone back to wild WaUachia, to famous Bucharesti."^ As girls of the peasant class can usually find plenty of occupation at home, they seldom go out to service, except when there happen to be more girls in a family than the father can afford to portion. There is also a general prejudice against allowing girls to leave the paternal roof until they are married, and a reproach is implied in the expression, " So-and-so has gone to strangers." There are, however, districts which form an excep- tion to this rule, and some of the islands are famous ' Greek Folk-songs, p. 176. 52 THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. ii. for their women cooks, who can always command good wages in the towns of Greece and Turkey. From the islands, too, come the good old nurses, bringing with them their antiquated costumes and charming lullabies and folk-lore. The girls who enter domestic service save their wages carefully for a marriage dowry, and, in the country towns, wear the coins strung together round their necks, a fashion formerly common to all classes, when fXovpta, or Venetian sequins, were in great demand for this pur- pose. As the folk-song says, I'll a lady to thee bring, Who has sequins by the string ! ^ The amount of a girl's dowry is thus easily ascer- tained by pallikars on the look-out for a " well tochered " bride. In the maritime cities, however, the national costume has, unfortunately, been quite discarded by the women, and the collar of coins has- also been laid aside. As there are no savings-banks, or other convenient methods of safely investing small sums, servants often allow their wages to accumulate in their masters' hands until they marry or return to their homes. A laundry-maid in the house of one of my friends had upwards of ^ i oo to receive when she left after a long period of service. The costume now worn by women of this class is merely an ordinary stuff or cotton skirt, with a short jacket of cloth for winter, and of calico in summer. The hair is plaited into two tails, either left hanging down the back, or twisted round the cMmhiri, or ^ GrfieZc Folk-songs, p. 187. CHAP. 11.] GEEEK WOMEN. 53 muslin kerchief often worn on the head. Out of doors it is the same, for hats and bonnets have not yet been adopted by the lower orders of Christians. Greek servants are, generally speaking, hopelessly untidy and slatternly. Indeed, it is only in the houses of foreigners that a tidy maid is ever seen, and even there they often present themselves with stockingless feet, shoes down at heel, and unkempt hair. It is customary in the East to provide servants annually with a stipulated quantity of clothing in addition to their wages. Not a penny of the latter will they spend on dress ; and, consequently, the European lady, who has generally more regard for appearances than the native lady, finds it her best policy to offer small wages, and a large allowance of garments and shoes. Many girls, and especially orphans, are taken when still quite young into wealthy families, and adopted as 0u)^o7ratSa, or " soul children." They attend the public schools until the age of thirteen or fourteen, are clothed by the family, and assist in the lighter house- hold duties. No wages are given, but they receive presents at the New Year and other festivals ; and, when they reach the age of twenty-five or so, a trousseau and small dowry are provided, and a hus- band found for them, generally a small shopkeeper or artisan. Greek domestics are, on the whole, honest and re- spectable ; and, considering that cases of petty theft are punished only by dismissal and loss of character — for few employers would have the heart to subject a woman to the horrors of a Turkish prison — 54 THE "WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. ii. these offences are exceedingly rare; drunkenness is unknown, and graver misdeeds I have never heard of. There is, as a rule, no social intercourse betv^^een the Greek and the Turkish peasantry, although they live amicably enough together as neighbours when fanatical feeling is not excited by war or other cir- cumstances. The prejudice against mixed marriages is naturally very great, and no alliance of the kind can take place without perversion on one side or the other. The perversion, however, must be on the side of the Christian, for apostasy is a crime in Islam. The laws, too, regulating the sexual relations of Christians and Moslems are exceedingly severe, and the probable fate of a Giaour hardy enough to fall in love with a fair Moslem is illustrated in the folk- song of DEMOS AND THE TUEKISH MAIDEN. O list to me, and I will tell what has this week befallen : Our Demos fell in love, he loved a charming Turkish maiden. On Friday did he pay his court, on Saturday the whole day ; And early on the Sunday morn at last did leave his lady. They caught him, and they bound his arms, and to be hung they led him, A thousand went in front of him, five hundred walked behind him; And Demos in the midst of them walked bound, with mournful aspect. Like rose that from the parent tree two days ago was severed. The Turkish maiden hears the news, and hastens to her window ; " Demos," she cries, " be not afraid, be not o'ercome with terror, For coin I'll in my apron take, and sequins in my pocket ; CHAP. 11.] GREEK WOMEN. 55 And if the gold will not suffice, the rings from off my fingers j If these will not thy ransom huy, I'll sell my every chattel. thou Kadi, O thou Kriti^ who knowest human nature, Hast ever branchless vineyard seen, or youth without a sweetheart ! " ^ Though one seldom hears of a Christian man em- bracing Islam for the sake of a Moslem love, it is by- no means a rare occurrence that a Christian peasant girl, prompted by vanity or ambition, renounces the faith of her fathers in order that she may marry a Turk who has flattered her by his attentions. She is not, however, allowed to do this hurriedly, or without due consideration. The usual mode of procedure is for the girl to run away from home and take refuge in a harem. She then appears before the Medjliss, or Town Council, and announces her desire to be received into the ranks of the True Believers. Her parents and friends, supported by the Greek bishop, use their influence to prevent her taking this final step, and painful and sometimes tumultuous scenes ensue. If the gii4 persists in her determination, she is permitted to make a formal declaration of belief in the tenets of Islam, and becomes to all intents and purposes a Moslem, endowed with all the privileges enjoyed by a woman of that creed. The opposition displayed by a Christian commu- nity to the perversion of one of its members, from such a motive, generally produces great ill feeling between them and their Moslem neighbours, and sometimes leads to fatal results. Such was the case ^ The Judge is here addressed under his Turkish and Greek titles. ' Aravandinos, &c., SuXXoy?;, Ko. 275. 56 THE . "WOMEN OP TUEKEY. [chap. ii. in 1876, when the apostasy of a village girl of doubt- ful reputation resulted in an outbreak of fanaticism at Salonica, during which the French and German Consuls were cruelly massacred. The girl had been brought by rail from the interior, and her mother, who had accompanied her, prevailed upon some Greek gentleman, who happened to be at the station on the arrival of the train, to carry off the convert, and secrete her in the Greek quarter. The news of the abduction spread quickly among the Moslem popula- tion, and on the afternoon of the following day the streets were suddenly filled with armed Albanians and Tiirks, who demanded that the girl should be given up by the Greeks. Apparently ignorant of the excited state of public feeling, the French and German Consuls, the latter at once a British subject of the name of Abbott and an Orthodox Greek, were pro- ceeding home from a visit, when they were confronted by the angry and fanatical crowd. In vain they took refuge in the courtyard of a mosque. The furious mob followed them to an upper room of the Hodja's apart- ments, tore down the iron bars which defended the windows, and literally slashed them to death with daggers and knives. What further excesses might have been committed it is impossible to say, had not the Albanian Cavass attached to the British Con- sulate, in obedience to the Consul's instructions, succeeded in finding the unworthy cause of the tumult, and in delivering her over to the Turkish authorities.^ German and French ships of war shortly ' The presence of mind and sense of duty displayed by the Cavass, Hnsein, on this occasion were rewarded by Her Majesty's Government with a dona- tion of pf 60, and by the Sultan with a decoration and the rank of Aga, or Colonel. His eldest daughter, however, never recovered from the fright of CHAP. II.] GREEK WOMEN. 57 afterwards arrived, and it was now the turn of the Moslems to be in a panic, for it was threatened, or reported to be threatened, that the upper or Turkish quarter would be bombarded as a reprisal for the insult offered to the foreign flags. But another such catastrophe, arising from a similar love affair, was narrowly escaped at Larissa in 1880 during Mr. Stuart Glennie's stay there. If, however, folk-song is any authority, it is some- times mothers who persuade unwilling daughters to maiTy Turks. Of the two songs in Aravandino's collection illustrating this, one is from Zagorie, and the other from Prevesa, but one appears to be only a variant of the other. The following is a transla- of the Zag6rie version of A TURK I'LL NOT WED.> (ToipKov 5h Tvalpviij,) Over in SAlona, in Salonild Come forth the fair ones all proudly walking. One dark-skinned maiden has the good fortune Loved by a Turk to be, asked too in marriage. " Mdna, I'U kill myself, Turk I'll not marry ! " " Maiden, e'en kill thyself, Turk thou wUt marry ! " " Partridge small I'll become, to hillside wander ! " " Hunter will I become, and I wUl catch thee." " Mdna, I'll kill myself, Turk I'U not marry, Blade of grass I'll become, in the earth plant me." " Lambkin will I become, and I will eat thee." " Mdna, I'll kill myself, Turk I'll not marry, Tiny grape I'll become, from vine branch hanging.'' " Harvester I'U become, and there I'll find thee." " Mdna, I'll km myself, Turk I'U not marry ! " the anticipated bombardment ; and a subsequent panic at Adrianople, to which town Husein Aga's duties had obliged him to remove with his family during the war, put an end to her frail young life. ^ Arayandinos, livKKcryT], &c., No. 402. S8 THE "WOMEN OF TUEKEY. [chap. ii. The Greek women of the towns have few occupa- tions outside their own homes. Their lives are passed for the most part in a dull routine of house- hold duties, varied only by gossip at their doors in warm weather, occasional attendance at church, and a walk on the public promenade on some great holiday. Some of the girls and young women earn their living by doing needlework and embroidery, or by lace-making ; but even girls of this class cannot with propriety go out unattended either by a relative or some elderly woman, so strict is national prejudice on this point. I remember on one occasion a seam- stress, having finished her day's work, could not return home because her brother had failed to fetch her, as promised. She was offered the services of the Albanian Cavass, or guard, who usually escorted us on our walks abroad, but scouted with indignation the proposal that she should traverse the streets with an Arnaout. Dress is a passion with girls of this class. On the rare occasions on which they are seen in public, their toilettes are wonderful — though, as I have said, they go hatless, and often gloveless — the great object of their ambition being to rival their wealthier neighbours, whose dresses, in large cities like Constantinople and Smyrna, are sure to be copied by the carpenters', shoemakers', and boatmen's daughters. And proud, too, is the maiden who also wears in her hair a clove carnation, the gift of some devoted admirer. In some districts where the culture of sUk is carried on on a large scale, Greek girls and women find employment in the silk factories. This is CHAP. II.] . GREEK WOMEN. 59 especially the case at Broussa, where they work side by side with Armenian and Turkish women. The women of the middle classes present a curious medley of homeliness and pretension. They are good wives and devoted mothers, and often, though their education is but slight, are not without great good sense and intelligence. The majority, however, while retaining the customs they dare not throw aside without scandalising the Mahalld, seem pos- sessed with a frantic desire to be considered in other respects Franks, or foreigners, as distinguished from Rayahs, or subject Chiistians. To this end, instead of being content, as formerly, to furnish her recep- tion-room with a Turkish divan and a few chairs, and to dress herself on Sundays and holidays in her substantial but old-fashioned wedding dress — shawl, fez, and kerchief — as her mother did, many a Greek matron stints her household and sacrifices the real comforts of life in order to furnish her saUne with gaudy Austrian furniture, and to display an ill- assorted French bonnet and trashy over-trimmed dress to her admiring and, it may be, envious neigh- bours. To such an extent is this emulation some- times carried, that I have heard of ladies sending out their servants on fete days to make note of the toilettes of their rivals, in order to be able to eclipse them when they themselves appeared on the pro- menade. But, notwithstanding these feminine weaknesses of petty vanity and love of display, the Greek women, besides being, as before mentioned, faithful and affectionate wives, are also the most tender — if 6o THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. n. not always the most judicious — mothers to be found in any country. And their devotion is well repaid by the dutiful and affectionate regard of their sons and daughters. Indeed, it would be difficult to find a people in whom family affection is more strongly developed, or with whom the ties of kindred are held more sacred. The young men who leave their native towns or villages to seek fortune in a distant town or foreign land, generally return home to marry the wives chosen for them by their parents, and, when they retire from commercial or professional pursuits, endeavour to spend the rest of their days in the midst of their kindred. When a youth is leaving for the first time the bosom of his family, it is customary for his relatives and friends to accom- pany him some distance on the road. Before taking her final leave of her son, the mother laments his departure in song, to which the youth responds, bewailing the hard fate which drives him forth firom his home. These Songs of Exile are sometimes extempore efi'usions called forth by the circumstances which induce or compel the youth to leave his home. Others, more conventional, describe the condition of the stranger in a foreign land, without mother, wife, or sister to minister to his wants, or cheer him in sickness and sorrow. In one, which is entitled " The Last Farewell," is depicted the evil augury of ex- cessive sorrow at a son's departure : " Mother, arise, and knead for me, with whitest flour, some biscuits ; With yearning put the water in, and knead it with affection, That speedily from foreign lands thy son may be returning." CHAP. II.] GREEK WOMEN. 6i With tears she poured the water in, with tears, too, did she knead it ; With weeping did she roll it out, and with sad lamentation. O sad was Tuesday, Wednesday too, and Thursday was most bitter. When mounted his good horse the youth, but ne'er was return- ing.' In the following, it is either his wife or his sweet- heart that the exile is addressing : " Now's the hour of my departure, yearns and fails my heart o'erflowing ; Shall I e'er return — who knoweth 1 To a stranger land I'm going. HiU and valley must I traverse, rocky wilds and deserts dreary, Where the timid game his haunt has, where the wild bird builds his eyrie. Now has come the hour despairful, hour which tears me from my home ; Now has come the sentence fateful, which abroad doth bid me roam. Lassie, like the gladsome dawning, gentle lassie, kind and true. Burns my heart with bitter anguish, now I'm bidding thee ' Adieu ! ""' An exile song from Zagorie has a pathetic little history attached to it. The youngest of three sons had, for some cause or other, always been treated by his mother with coldness. Having decided upon ex- patriating himself, he was escorted, as usual, to some distance by his relatives, and, on taking leave of his mother, sang a farewell which so touched her heart that, falling on his neck, she begged his forgiveness 1 Passow, Popvlaria Oarmina Orwcice JRecenteoris, No. ccoxxx. " lUcl. 62 THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. ii. for her past neglect, and promised to atone for it in the future.' The Greeks of Turkey, though foremost in point of education and general enlightenment among the nationahties, are yet in this respect, as in many others, far behind their brethren in free Hellas, who rank very high, educationally, among the nations of Europe. While instruction is, in the little kingdom, enforced by law, no authority exists in Turkey to compel the Greek communities to follow the lead of the free Hellenes, and any initiative they may take in the matter is prompted by the lively patriotism and love of learning usually evinced by the race. But though ready to make sacrifices for the education of their sons, the Greeks of the old school had many prejudices to overcome before they would consent to give equal advantages to their daughters. " What do girls want with to. ypafifiaTiKa (letters) ? " they would ask of those who proposed this innovation. "Let them learn housewifely duties, sewing and spinning, cooking and baking ; if we have them taught to read and write, they will be for ever writing love-letters and reading romances, and we shall have to watch their conduct more vigilantly than ever ! " Little by little, however, these prejudices are dying out, and, though the proportion of girls' to boys' schools in the Turkish provinces is as yet only about one to five, the numbers are gradually increasing, and fathers begin to take a pride in the scholastic attain- ments of their daughters. 1 Compare also Passow, as above, ""Htoki; /j-dva," Nos. cccxliii, to cccxlix. inclusive. CHAP. II.] GEEEK WOMEN. 6$ With the few exceptions, however, which I shall presently particularise, the instruction given in the majority of these schools is merely elementary, but comprises the following various branches : — 1. Scripture History and Catechism. 2. Reading and writing Modern Greek. 3. Arithmetic, including Weights and Measures, and the relative value of the Coinages current in the country. 4. Practical definitions of the principal Geometrical Forms. 5. Elementary Geography, Physical and Political, and particularly of Greece and the Hellenic provinces, and Cosmography. 6. Elementary History, and in particular that of Greece. 7. Elementary Zoology, Mineralogy, and Botany. 8. Elementary Anthropology. 9. Elementary Physics. 10. Freehand Drawing. 11. Vocal Music. 12. Gymnastics. The principal centres of Greek education in Turkey are Constantinople, Smyrna, Salonica, Serres, Adri- anople, Philipopolis, and loannina. In these towns and cities the primary and intermediate system of instruction provided for girls is the same as that followed in Independent Greece, and is for the most part sufficient to meet the social and intellectual needs of society. Intercourse with Europeans has, however, latterly become so much more general, that it has been found necessary to make the study of the 64 THE "WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. ii. French tongue compulsory in the schools. The new ideas introduced by the French and German teachers, and by the works of foreign authors studied under their direction, naturally resulted in creating a desire for higher education, which, fortunately, had not to wait long for its fulfilment. In 1874 the "Pallas" Training College was founded ; and in the following year, thanks to the munificence of M. Zappas, and to the exertions of the " Ladies' Syllogos,"' a second High School or College was organised, and called, in honour of its benefactor, the " Zapplon." In both of these institutions the curriculum resembles in all essential particulars that of similar colleges in the West, aud their Greek graduates may consequently consider themselves the equals of the educated women of England, France, or Germany. Training colleges with equallj^ advanced methods have also been established in several pro- vincial towns and cities, in order to provide teachers for the elementary village schools, which were formerly supplied exclusively from the Athenian colleges. The Greek schools at Salonica are by no means institutions of modern foundation. The benefits of education have never been undervalued by the Greeks, even in the darkest period of their enslave- ment, and it is to the public-spirited -munificence of a lady of the sixteenth century that these schools chiefly owe their existence. This was the Kyria Kastrissio, a native of loannina, the widow of a Greek of Salonica, who, at her death, bequeathed the ' A society of Athenian ladies formed for the furtherance of various educational and philanthropic objects. «HAP. II.] GEEEK WOMEN. 65 whole of her large fortune to the schools of those two •cities. The memory of this munificent lady,' together "with that of a later benefactor, Demetrius Roggoti, is annually honoured with a Mnemosynon (Mvtifj.6- auvov), or Commemoration, by the Greek community •of Salonica, when the chief families of the city, together with all the officials, both Turkish and foreign, are invited to the examination held on the ■occasion. It was always an interesting ceremony, and I never failed to avail myself of the kind invita- tion of the " Ephors," or Managers. As we passed through the narrow lanes leading upwards from the main street, a part of the ancient Via Egnatia, stUl spanned by the triumphal arch of Constantine — lanes bordered by a picturesque perspective of projecting latticed windows and overhanging acacia and mul- berry trees — we found ourselves in a throng of Greeks, all going in the direction of the " Gymnasium." The girls' school occupies the upper story of a large konak, or mansion, built in the style so common throughout the East — a large central haU or corridor, extending from one end to the other, and having on one side the class-rooms, and on the other a range of windows looking on the courtyard, with doors opening into the wings at each end. This room was densely crowded. At the upper end sat a number of schoolgirls on a raised gallery, on the wall at the back of which hung portraits of the before-mentioned benefactors. The centre of the ^ In the basilica of St. Demetrios at Salonica, converted into a Turkish mosqne in 1397, is still to be seen a, mural tablet with an inscription in Greek, extolling the charity and munificence of a Greek lady of that city, named Kyria Spandoni. E 66 THE WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. ii. hall was reserved for the invited guests, who included the Governor-General, the Greek Archbishop, and the foreign Consuls and their families, the ladies on one side and the men on the other, in true Oriental fashion. The ceremony began with the bringing in of the KSlyva, or Funeral Dish, of boiled wheat, decorated on the top with designs in coloured sugar, almonds and raisins, and other dried fruits, of crosses, coffins, leaves and flowers, monograms and inscrip- tions. A hymn was sung by the pupils, followed by a song, " Rejoice in Life " (Tov ^lov x»pvre), which, though its words were translated from German, was in spirit truly classic ; and then came an " Ode to the Fatherland " (Ei'c ttjv UarpiSa). Long as the imiverse shall last, Long as the sphere shall circling roll, Thy glory, my Fatherland, And name thy sons shall still extol. The Director of the school now advanced to the rostrum, and delivered an eloquent discourse on the great Macedonian philosopher, Aristotle. This was followed by more singing, including an " Ode to the Sultan," which, to judge from the expression one could detect on the faces of the elder girls, was by no means given con amore. Questions were then put on a variety of subjects, and answered with great intelligence and readiness by the Macedonian maidens, who also read passages from Homer and iEschylos, with the soft, musical pronunciation which only Hellenes know how to give to the ancient lan- guage. From one of the class-rooms there emerged a number of little ones belonging to the Infant School, CHAP. II.] GREEK WOMEN. 67 who, under the direction of a young assistant-mistress, performed, with great spirit and accuracy, a variety of Kindergarten exercises. In the meantime a paper was being handed round among the visitors — the usual lottery list for the distribution of the plain and fancy needle-work on view in another room. The latter could hardly be described as artistic, but the plain sewing and white embroidery lefb nothing to be desired, so microscopic were the stitches ; and the work bestowed on an elaborately embroidered linen jacket which fell to my share has often excited the wonder of feminine critics in this country. The liras paid for these lottery tickets are applied to the maintenance of the schools, which are unfortunately often in debt owing to the deterioration in value of the property in which the endowments are in- vested.' The women belonging to the remarkable little aristocratic community known by the name of Phanariotes are worthy of special mention. These survivors of the noble Greek families of Byzantium take their distinctive name from the locality, called the Fanar, or Beacon, allotted to them by Sultan Mohammed II. at the conquest of Constantinople. At the present day they are represented among others by the well-known names of Ypsilante, Karatheodory, Mavrocordatos, Mavroyenni, and Karadjas. The daughters of these ancient houses have long been as distinguished for the elegance of their appearance and manners, and their conversational ability, as for their culture and accomplishments. One gifted ' Compare Stuart Glennie : A Greek Ilnemdsynon, Social Notes, 1881. 68 THE "WOMEN OF TURKEY. [chap. ii. Phanariote lady has translated Byron's Giaour into Greek verse, and to many the language of Homer, Pindar, and the tragic poets is as familiar as the vernacular. Some of these able women, organised in societies, also devote much of their time to the management of schools, and to the super- vision of hospitals and asylums. Under their aus- pices an industrial establishment has been opened at Constantinople, on the lines of one already founded in Athens, for training, and providing with employ- ment, poor women and girls who would otherwise have been obliged to have recourse to charity. A Bill is now, I am informed, before the Greek Chamber of Deputies, which, should it become law, will cause several important modifications in the present school system. Among these are the con- version of a number of the existing gymnasia into Heal Sehule on the German model, and the establish- ment in all the capitals of departments (vofiol) of High Schools for Girls. These measures would also afi'ect the Greek schools in Turkey, the committees of which naturally follow the lead taken in Athens ; and we may expect to see, in the course of a few years, Girls' High Schools established in all the chief cities of the Ottoman Empire. CHAPTER III. GEEEK WOMEN: THEIR FAMILY CEREMONIES. As will be pointed out at greater length in the chapter dealing more particularly with superstitions, survivals of pagan beliefs stQl hold sway over the minds of the Greek populace, and are connected with every detail of domestic life. These remnants of an ancient civili- sation linger especially, with other old-world customs, round the important events of birth, m.arriage, and death ; varying somewhat, perhaps, according to locality and contact with other nationalities, but remaining the same in their general features. In South Macedonia the arrival of the little stranger is awaited in solemn silence by the mamme, and a group of elderly relatives, whose presence and prayers keep away " aU things harmful." The baby gains its first experience of the miseries of life by being pickled in salt and water ; after which it is bundled up in innumerable garments of mysterious form and fashion, and left to sleep, if it can. The glad news has meanwhile been circulated through the household, who flock into the room to ofier their felicitations. These are generally couched in the conventional phrases, " May it Hve for you ! " (Na cr^ ^v