>YALEe¥MII¥E]}gSirirYe ^M^^&to>SiifthtJC5g^ Gift of ALLISON VINCENT ARMOUR Yale 1884 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE BY SIR EDWIN PEARS KNIGHT BACHELOR, COMMANDER OF THE BULGARIAN ORDER OF MERIT KNIGHT OF THE GREEK ORDER OF THE SAVIOUR METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.G. LONDON wu First Published in igu CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE SULTANS AND SUCCESSION TO THRONE ... I CHAPTER II THE TURKS STRICTLY SO-CALLED . . 23 CHAPTER III TURKISH DOMESTIC LIFE AND HABITS . . .44 CHAPTER IV FAMILY LIFE AND THE POSITION OF TURKISH WOMEN . 57 CHAPTER V IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION . • • 75 CHAPTER VI THE GREEKS IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE . 94 CHAPTER VII THE GREEK CHURCH . . . . . 1 14 CHAPTER VIII THE VLACHS, THE POMAKS, THE JEWS, AND DUNMAYS . 144 CHAPTER IX THE ALBANIANS ... . . . 164 vi TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE CHAPTER X PAGB MACEDONIA ....... I96 CHAPTER XI ASIA MINOR ....... 246 CHAPTER XII THE ARMENIANS ...... 2^0 CHAPTER XIII MAHOMETAN SECTS ...... 296 CHAPTER XIV THE DEVELOPMENT OF ISLAM . . . . .318 CHAPTER XV THE CAPITULATIONS AND FOREIGN COMMUNITIES . . 334 CHAPTER XVI SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT IN TURKEY .... 344 INDEX 397 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE CHAPTER I SULTANS AND SUCCESSION TO THRONE Introductory — Constantinople — Nation of soldiers requiring absolute sovereign — Rule of succession to Turkish throne — Slaughter of younger sons — Result of law of succession — Engenders suspicion — Illustrations — Is the Sultan Caliph ? — Pan-Islamism, false and true MY purpose is to give an account of the present position of the various races which form the popu lation of Turkey ; to show how they have arrived at that position ; and to indicate, as far as I can, what are the circumstances and influences which are likely to modify their development. The most important part of the Turkish Empire, Asia-Minor and Syria, including the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, has been for three thousand years the battlefield between the East and West. It was overrun by the great armies of Darius and Xerxes ; by Arabs in their great days of triumph after they had been compacted together by the religion of Mahomet ; by the barbarous but disciplined hordes from Central Asia under Yenghis Khan and subsequently by Timour ; by the Seljukian and by the Ottoman Turks, and by a number of less-known invaders. Its earliest races of whom we have any record — indigenous we cannot call them — Sumerians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Babylonians, and Hittites, never altogether disappeared. They have 2 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE not only left abundant traces in the sacred and other literature of the West, but have still their living repre sentatives. Arabia and Syria have given to the world the three great monotheistic religions ; but, while the great majority of the population belong to one or other of these faiths, there remain communities who practise pre-Christian, perhaps even pre-Jewish, rites. Two notable divisions may be made in reference to the population of Turkey ; the first according to race, the second according to religion. The races of com paratively unmixed blood are the Arabs, the Armenians, the Albanians, and the Kurds. The most mixed race in the empire is probably the Turkish, using the word in its strict sense so as to exclude other Moslem subjects of Turkey like the Arabs, Albanians, and Pomaks. Regarded in reference to religion it may be noted that the great majority of the inhabitants of Asia-Minor are Moslems, while those inhabiting European Turkey are mostly Christians. Diversity in race and religion and the long-enduring traditions of ancient peoples make up a population which is a singular medley. The Sultan rules over a number of peoples with varying aims and usually with opposing interests. Even before the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, the influx of foreign peoples was greater than the empire could absorb so as to make them its loyal subj ects. After the conquest, the difficulties of welding the various elements of the population into a nation with common aspirations were enormously increased by the Islamism of the conquering race. Indeed, with the exception of certain spasmodic efforts to unify the races into one people, no serious attempt was ever made to do so. It is of these various peoples that I propose to write. Most of them have ideals to which they consciously or un consciously endeavour to attain. Knowing their efforts, SULTANS AND SUCCESSION TO THRONE 3 often unselfish and patriotic, it is impossible for one who has lived among them to do otherwise than sympathize with the respective races and with their aspirations. The revolution of July 1908 was an honest attempt by the representatives of the most important races to overthrow an ancient tyranny and to establish a constitutional government, where all persons should be equal before the law, irrespective of race or religion. It called forth the sympathies of every one who wishes well to the pro gress of the country and its intelligent and interesting peoples. It is impossible that Englishmen in particular should not look with interest upon the first experiment yet made of establishing a Western form of government among a people the majority of whom are Moslem. Before speaking of the peoples, something must be said of the capital of the Turkish Empire and of the Sultanate under which it has been ruled for four and a half centuries. Constantinople I have no intention of describing the city of Con stantinople. What I should like to do is beyond my present purpose, namely, to make a short but vivid sketch of its marvellous history. If I should do so my readers would be, like most of the Byzantine writers, in love with New Rome. It always had individuality. When it was the capital of the Roman Empire, it was never Latin. When Greek influence was uppermost, it was never Greek. When Leo the Isaurian and other Anatolian rulers held sway, it was never Asiatic. So long as it was Christian, its inhabitants had at once a strong municipal feeling which recalls that possessed by the citizens of Florence and of Venice, and a powerful imperial sentiment like that possessed by Parisians. Its story was largely that of the empire. All that was best 4 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE in the wide territories over which it ruled flocked to it. The ablest jurists, theologians, painters, and scholars sought refuge within its walls. The allusions to the city by Byzantine authors show that both writers and citizens were proud of it. For them it was emphatically " the City," or the " Queen City." Much that has been written about its story is misleading. Until within the last half-century authors relied almost solely upon the Western authorities, who had inherited hostility to its inhabitants, due to the opposition of the latter to the Church of Rome. The accidents of the city's history, and not the great achievements which kept it intact and made it for ever famous, are what Western popular opinion seized upon. A certain gorgeousness of palace ceremonial struck the attention of the Crusaders and has never been altogether lost sight of. The luxury of the inhabitants impressed them deeply because they compared it with the poverty of their own countries ; but they were mistaken in inferring that the dandies they scorned were effeminate. Palace intrigues did not surprise foreigners, for they existed at home. The love of games even appealed to them. The keenness of popular interest in religious and political discussions were incomprehensible to them. But there were other aspects which the Crusaders and thoughtless travellers did not see. Constantinople had been the strongest bulwark of Europe against the encroachments of Asia. Hordes of barbarians had descended upon it from the north and east and had failed to capture it. The largest waves of Moslem fanaticism broke harmlessly against its walls. The Arab invasions in 672-7 under Eyoub, the aged standard- bearer of Mahomet, and of 717, failed in their attempts against the Queen City. The Byzantine historians proudly claim that it successfully resisted twenty sieges. SULTANS AND SUCCESSION TO THRONE 5 Yet amid constant wars the prosperity of the densely crowded capital had increased. Its people had grown wealthy by industry, intelligence, and commerce. Its luxury was the natural sign of wealth. Law and good government had made it the treasure-house of the empire, the most civilized and the wealthiest city in Europe. Its inhabitants lived and traded in peace, and had leisure to discuss the many political and theological questions in which, more than the people of any other city they were interested. Its scholars had kept alive the love for classical learning. Its jurists gave to modern Europe a body of legal principles known as Roman law, from the New Rome where they were formulated, which every nation has adopted, and which has largely helped to shape modern civilization. Its theologians gave to the Christian Church nearly all the great formulas of the faith. Its architects set Europe upon the path to great Christian architecture. In the eight centuries between the fourth and the thirteenth, while our own ancestors were working their way upwards from something not far removed from barbarism, the inhabitants of New Rome were thinking for themselves and for the Western world, and were struggling for the realization of ideals. There were always men among them ready to strive, fight, and die for righteousness. Upon the fall of the Christian empire, the capital con tinued to be the seat of government, and, with certain unimportant exceptions, has been the capital unin terruptedly ever since. The Sultanate To speak of each of the Sultans of Turkey since 1453 would be to write the history of Turkey since that date, 6 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE which I have no intention of doing. As a rule, they have not been able men, though the earlier were more com petent than the later. The three most conspicuous for their ability since 1453 are Mahomet the Second, who captured the city, and who is known as " the Conqueror," and also as " the Lawgiver " ; Suliman, known as " the Magnificent," a great ruler under whom, between the years 1520 and 1566, the empire obtained its largest extension ; and Mahmud the Second, known as " the Re former," who, during a long reign, 1803 to 1839, && much to compact the ruined elements of the nation, which appeared on the point of breaking up. The earlier sultans who carried the Turkish armies successfully, first to Constantinople, and then to the gates of Vienna, were in many cases the sons of Christian mothers who had been captured in the West, and whose descendants were therefore after a few generations largely of European blood. The decline in ability among the Ottoman sultans dates from the destruction of the corsairs who ravaged the coasts of Italy, France, Spain, and, in the seventeenth century, even of England, for the capture of slaves. The mothers of sultans during the last two centuries have usually been quite uneducated women, and often slaves chosen for their physical beauty. Their subjection to the limitations of harem-life has not tended to develop such natural intelligence as they possessed. The Turks, since they established themselves in Asia- Minor, have been a nation of soldiers. Their civil govern ment has usually been extremely casual. The records of travellers to Turkey from the fifteenth to the twentieth century — and they are numerous — agree in telling the same tale of misgovernment, of injustice, and of cor ruption in general, but especially in the courts of law. Governors buy their posts. Judges sell their judgments. The records leave the impression that public opinion took SULTANS AND SUCCESSION TO THRONE 7 such abuses as in the natural order of things, and that the Sultan and his ministers let such matters drift. But though bribery and corruption were present in the administration of the army and navy, they were less prevalent than in the civil administration, and every now and then spasmodic energy was displayed to effect reforms. All the attention which the sultans could bestow was given to the fighting forces. Arms were the chief matters which deserved attention. All the dis tinction that the Turks have ever gained has been in war. They have produced no art and no architecture, though they have destroyed much. They have given to the world no literature, science, or philosophy. In all such matters they were inferior to the races which they conquered. But their traditions and their environment and necessity itself made them a nation of fighters. It is almost literally true to say that until a century ago every Turk was a soldier. A nation of soldiers requires an absolute ruler. It is true that under the Ottoman rulers there were a large number of subjects who were not soldiers. But they were rayahs or cattle, Christians and Jews, to be held in subjection, whose lives were to be spared so long as they submitted, but who took no part in the government, except as servants of the Turkish nation. They formed separate communities or millets which had in many matters to govern themselves and were really outside the Turkish nation. The governing race, the dominant millet, was the Turkish, and all power was in its hands. The head of such a race was of necessity absolute. Since the adoption of the title of Sultan by Othman, or Osman, the founder of the present reigning dynasty, until July 1908, if we except a few months in 1877, the government of Turkey has been an absolute monarchy. Under such form of government, the character of the 8 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE ruler is manifestly of supreme importance. The method of appointing him, or in other words the law of succession, may have a powerful influence on the character of the ruler. It certainly has had such influence in Turkey. The Turkish Law of Succession The Turkish law of succession to the throne now differs from that prevailing in all European countries. The heir to the throne is the oldest male member be longing to the imperial stock. The usual European method is to make the oldest son of the reigning sovereign heir. In the early centuries of Turkish history the European mode of succession was followed. Son succeeded father. Brothers of the Sultan only came in when the male heirs of the body had failed. As under a system of polygamy there were often many sons by different mothers, serious struggles between them and between the mothers occurred for the succession of the father. It was for this reason that, before 1453, the practice in the Sultan's family of killing off younger brothers had become general. Mahomet, the conqueror of Constantinople, legalized the practice, but did not so far as I can find attempt to change the rule of succession. The hideous practice of killing younger sons continued. Turkish history is full of struggles between brothers ; of younger brothers being hidden away ; of cold-blooded murders when they were caught, and of infanticide. The Turk seems to have considered fratricide, and especially infanticide in the reigning family, a necessity. Turkish law legitimates all children of free Moslem fathers, no matter what was or is the condition of the mother. When a man had a large harem, the share coming to each of his heirs upon his death would be usually small, because by Moslem SULTANS AND SUCCESSION TO THRONE 9 law all sons take equally. Every mother whose child was living would resent the birth of new heirs by other mothers. The result has been and still is a large amount of infanticide wherever there are more wives than one. Medical men in Constantinople are agreed that even now the amount of illegal practices to prevent the increase of heirs is something appalling. Hence the law of Mahomet II., legalizing fratricide in the imperial family, coincided with the popular will, and the inhabitants of the capital heard of child murder with indifference. Contemporary books about Turkey written in the six teenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth century abound in imperial murders, many of which were perpetrated in order to prevent wars of succession. Alongside the great Mosque of Saint Sophia there is a striking illustration of this hideous form of crime. On its south are three large mausoleums. Murad the Third, who died in 1594, lies in the middle one. He left eighteen sons who in various ways had escaped death. The eldest son succeeded to the throne as Mahomet III. On his accession he ordered all his seventeen brothers to be bow-strung. Their bodies are within or rather beneath biers around that of their father. When Sultan Ahmed died in 1617, all his children were young. The Council of State took the opportunity of changing the succession. The brother of Ahmed was proclaimed Sultan under the name of Mustafa, and the new rule of succession was adopted by which the oldest male of the imperial stock became heir to the throne. There are only two sultans from that time to the present who have succeeded their fathers, one being Mahomet IV. and the other Abdul Medjid. During all this period, until the middle of last century, the law for destroying superfluous male issue was acted upon. Colonel White notes in his "Three Years in 10 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Constantinople," that the barbarous practice of immuring younger sons or brothers who had been allowed to live, and of destroying their offspring, was in 1844, the date of his residence here, still in force. It was indeed just about that time, by the efforts of Abdul Medjid, that the recognition of the murderous seraglio law came to an end. His immediate predecessor, Mahmud II., the Reformer, had been deeply attached to one of his daughters named Mihr, who, knowing the existence of the inexorable rule, submitted herself to an improper operation, from which both mother and child died. Mahmud swore in his agony that no more lives should be thus sacrificed. Nevertheless, the law remained unchanged. Shortly afterwards, in 1839, Mahmud himself died. His successor, Abdul Medjid, had not been long on the throne before an incident occurred which attracted the attention, not only of the Sultan, but of the ambassadors of foreign Powers and of Western Europe. Ateya Sultana, his sister, had already seen one of her sons killed in conformity with the brutal palace law. When she was again pregnant her husband expended large sums to buy off the hostility of the mothers of other princes ; but when a boy was born, the jealousy of the mothers against the prince who might be a rival to their own sons' claims was too strong to be resisted. The Sultan's permission was obtained, and the child was made away with. The poor mother went mad, and in less than three months was buried near her infant. The incident was strongly commented on in England and France, and with such effect that if similar murders have since taken place, they have been care fully concealed. The change in the law of succession already mentioned probably increased child-murder. It has, however, yet more evil results to answer for. It is probably the worst SULTANS AND SUCCESSION TO THRONE 11 plan which could be devised for securing a competent Sultan. The ruler, like any other father, would naturally prefer that his son, rather than his brother or other older relative, should succeed. On the other hand, the brother or other relative is waiting anxiously for the vacant throne. Hence the story runs through the last three centuries of the heir to the throne being kept strictly guarded as a prisoner, or, as opportunity offered, of being made away with. The heir, being kept in confinement, sees nothing of the world, is not visited by or allowed to visit any Turkish minister or other subject of intelligence, sees no foreign ambassador, and takes no part in any public function. The longer he lives, the less incapable he becomes of governing wisely. Compare such a condition with the training of the heir to the throne in England or Germany. These heirs see the ablest statesmen of their respective countries, meet with the experts in science, art, and politics, are visited by, and visit ambassadors from other countries, have been at one or more universities, are trained as soldiers or sailors, and take the place of their fathers in many public functions. Under such circumstances, unless a man is mentally deficient, he is sure to be highly educated. The older such a man is when he succeeds to his father's throne, the more competent is he likely to be. The older a man is under the Turkish system, the less competent will he be. Let me take an illustration which is under my eyes while writing. Reschad Effendi, now the reigning Sultan Mahomet V., was the next in succession to Abdul Hamid. He was only two years younger, and was treated in the usual manner as a next heir. He was allowed an income sufficient to maintain him and his establishment in affluence, but was confined to his palace, and to a region of about half a mile around it. 12 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Spies inside and outside his house took note of all visitors, and neither ambassador nor minister could even make a visit of courtesy. He is said to have declared in August, after the revolution, that he had not read any newspaper for twenty years. So also with the other princes of the imperial family. When Nazim, Vali of Bagdad (1910-1911), arrived in Constantinople, having escaped from prison in Erzinghian a few weeks before the revolution, where he had been for seven years, Prince Buraneddin said to him, " We have hardly been better off than you, for we were never allowed to see any one." The treatment Reschad Effendi endured is the result of the suspicion created by the Turkish law of succession. Abdul Hamid has quite enough to answer for, and although he has been suspicious of everybody and every thing, I am not prepared to say that in his treatment of his brothers he was worse than his predecessors in similar circumstances. It is the rule of succession that is wrong. It will be remembered that in April 1909, when Abdul Hamid was deposed, he claimed that his life ought to be spared because he had not killed his brother, the present Sultan. He had a modicum of reason and precedent in his plea. Further illustrations of how the law works may be given : Abdul Hamid is the second son of Abdul Medjid, who died in 1861. Abdul Medjid was succeeded by his brother Abdul Aziz, who was deposed and committed suicide in 1876. On the deposition of the latter, Murad, the elder brother of Abdul Hamid and the eldest male of the imperial family, became Sultan, but was deposed for mental incapacity after two months, and was suc ceeded by Abdul Hamid. In the natural order of things it is doubtful whether any son of Abdul Hamid will be girt with the sword of Othman, the ceremony which SULTANS AND SUCCESSION TO THRONE 13 corresponds to coronation. It is well known that about 1905-6, the Sheik-ul-Islam was sounded as to whether the Sultan might lawfully change the law of succession, his desire being to nominate his third and favourite son Buraneddin. The Sultan's request was met by a very distinct negative. By law there were fourteen who took precedence over the son in question, the first being Abdul Hamid's brother Reschad, the now reigning Sultan, the next being Prince Yusuf Izzedin, the son of Abdul Aziz. One of the strongest arguments in favour of retaining the Sultan on the throne after the revolution of July 1908, was that in case of his dethronement or death, there would almost certainly have been a war of succession. The ulema and a portion of the army would have declared for the lawful heir, while it was generally beheved that there was an organized body of men who were working to place Yusuf Izzedin, the present heir-apparent, on the throne. When, on the very day in December 1908 on which the Sultan opened the Chamber of Deputies, an attempt was made to break into the house of Reschad, and, as was beheved, to kill him, placards were posted in prominent places denouncing a Turk who was beheved to be the organizer of the Izzedin faction, and adding, " If you wish to find the real author of the crime, ask yourselves who would profit by Reschad's death." The answer of course was Izzedin. Suspicion, inherited by the tradition of murder in order to give security for the occupation and for the succession to the throne, and intensified by the know ledge that intrigues are constantly going on to change such succession, becomes the keynote to palace policy in Turkey. The reigning sultans have constantly become suspicious of everybody and everything. Abdul Hamid, though the latest and in some respects an un- 14 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE usually striking example of a sovereign steeped in suspicion, shared this characteristic with nearly all his predecessors. Cart-loads of " journals," the technical word for the reports of his spies, were collected in Yildiz. These were the documents which occupied most of his time. He knew that his spies were often untrustworthy. Accordingly, other spies were set to report upon them or to control their reports. Men of every European nation as well as Turkish subjects went to form a great multitude of spies. Well-dressed women as well as men had their expenses paid at the best hotels in Pera in order to report the doings and sayings of even visitors who might be working for some candidate for the throne. As Abdul Hamid attached great importance to what was said of him by foreign newspapers, he had " journals " sent with extracts from the newspapers of every capital regarding him. In the capital itself censorship of every newspaper which entered the country was complete. But the Sultan here also distrusted his own workmen. He had therefore at the palace a double set of censors who found out what was said. Then the two reports were compared. A friendly censor told me that he had been compelled to call attention to a letter I had written to the Daily News, because, said he, " If I had passed it, it would have been found by the censors at the palace, and I should have been dismissed for having omitted to report it." The suspicion ever present became a species of mania and developed a harshness of character and a reckless ness of the rights of his subjects of which some illustra tions may be given. Sir Henry Elliot, who was British ambassador to the Sultan when Abdul Hamid came to the throne, and who had exceptional opportunities of knowing the truth, declared in the Nineteenth Century that the foulest blot on the career of Abdul Hamid was SULTANS AND SUCCESSION TO THRONE 15 the trial and condemnation of Midhat Pasha. Think what this statement means : Sultan Abdul Aziz was dethroned, and committed suicide by opening the veins on his left arm, and to a less extent on his right, with a pair of long scissors. His mother declared she had lent her son the scissors a short time before in order that he might trim his beard. Nineteen medical men, including one from every foreign embassy, examined the body, and unanimously reported that the death was from suicide. Dr Dickson, the medical adviser of the British Embassy, told me, and, I believe, published the state ment, that he went to the palace to examine the body with the full conviction that the Sultan had been murdered ; but having made a thorough examination, he entertained no more doubt than did his foreign colleagues that the case was one of suicide. Then, when many months had passed, Abdul Hamid put Midhat Pasha and others on their trial for the wilful murder of Abdul Aziz, and, having placed his own creatures on the judgment seat, false witnesses were produced and a sentence of death was pronounced which it required all the diplomatic efforts of Europe to have changed into one of banishment. As the world knows, for Midhat's son has produced ample evidence, the author of the Constitution was subsequently killed in Arabia. Sir Henry Elliot's charge is that Abdul Hamid, in order to render his own succession to the throne secure, trumped up a foul, detailed, and ingenious story in order to get rid of a man who had shorn the office of the Sultan of its absolute power by insisting upon the proclamation of a constitution. It would be easy to record many other foul deeds done by Abdul Hamid to make away with men upon whom his suspicion had fallen. Hardly a year passed without 16 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE the disappearance of some man of note who had fallen under the suspicion of the Sultan. The victims were usually reported in the local press to have " died suddenly." In all such cases it was dangerous to speak openly of their death or disappearance. One case, however, may now be mentioned, where Abdul Hamid's suspicion and reckless injustice failed of its object. It is a tradition among Moslems that no cession of territory can be made, except it be taken by force. The Cyprus Convention was con cluded between Great Britain and Turkey, the latter being represented by Safvet Pasha. I remark in pass ing that the arrangement was made in great haste, kept secret from other embassies, and that many of the details were curiously defective, England consenting for example to pay so outrageous an amount of tribute that the resources of the island have been crippled ever since. When the cession became known there was much ill-feeling among Moslems. Here was a reckless cession of territory by the Sultan, a clear violation of Moslem law. Abdul Hamid at once took measures to save him self. He sent for Kutchuk (or Little) Said Pasha, and ordered him to bring a public charge of high treason against Safvet. The order was monstrous, because the Sultan had himself taken the most active part in the negotiations, and had himself issued the imperial irade confirming the conditions, each of which he had dis cussed with Sir Henry Layard. The order to Kutchuk Said was to find a method of proving Safvet guilty before a Turkish court of law. Said took some time, and then explained that several highly placed men knew the interest his imperial master had taken in the matter, and the really unimportant part which the accused had played. He reported that it would be impossible to prove Safvet guilty with any form of law, and that the SULTANS AND SUCCESSION TO THRONE 17 attempt would do more harm to his Majesty's reputation than good. The Sultan was furiously angry, withdrew the imperial favour, and brave Little Said, an honest, industrious, eminently useful servant of the State, re mained under suspicion until the deposition of Abdul Hamid. It may be remembered that during the time when Sir Philip Currie was ambassador in Constantinople, Kutchuk Said took refuge in the British embassy with his young son. It was generally believed at the time, and notably by Kutchuk Said himself, that the Sultan was endeavouring to arrest him and have him made away with, and it was while he was being followed in the principal street of Pera, that he with his son passed into the Bon Marche, and while the spies waited for him at the door, passed through into another street from which he readily escaped into the embassy. He did not leave until Sir Philip Currie had received assurances that his life and property would be saved. In fact, however, the publicity given to his escape was his best safeguard. In some matters Abdul Hamid stood greatly in fear of foreign public opinion, and all that the Sultan could do was to protest that he had no hostile design against so loyal a subject as Kutchuk Said, a protest which nobody beheved. The treatment of Sultan Murad, who was deposed to make room for Abdul Hamid, was miserable enough, but his deposition was necessary, inasmuch as for a while he was out of his mind. He was confined in the Cheragan palace, the beautiful building which, after having served as the meeting place of the Deputies, was accidentally burnt in the spring of 1910, and there he died in 1904. But he with his wives and slaves were prisoners. They were never permitted to leave Cheragan and the grounds around it. The story told to some friends by the harem ladies, 18 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE after the revolution of July 1908, which set them at liberty, was a pathetic one. Children had been born, had died and had been buried in the garden of the palace. But no occupant had been permitted to leave it. None of them knew what went on outside. No newspapers were allowed to be passed in. The ladies were in old- fashioned dresses — and Turkish ladies are as fickle in regard to fashion of dress as Europeans — and wore the ferijis and yashmacs which had been fashionable in the seventies. No visitors were permitted. Their supply of food, with the exception of the simplest articles, was extremely limited. The poor prisoner himself regretted most of all that he could not make small presents to his children and grandchildren who were his feUow-prisoners. Before leaving the subject of the imperial family, I may note that the mother of the first-born prince takes precedence of all other ladies in the harem, and that, when her son comes to the throne, she takes the title of Sultana Valida. In the European sense, the Sultan is never married. His harem consists of as many ladies as he chooses to own. Abdul Hamid's harem was much smaller than was that of Abdul Aziz. Until about fifteen years ago, the custom prevailed of making the Sultan an annual present of a lady, usually a Circassian, Abdul Hamid deserves the credit of putting an end to it. Upon the accession of a sultan the ceremony, which corresponds to that of Coronation in England, is, as already mentioned, the girding on of the Sword of Osman. It takes place in the Mosque of Eyoub, which is situated on the Golden Horn, about half a mile from the Walls of Constantinople. A certain sanctity attaches, and always has attached, to this Mosque. No foreigner and no non- Moslem is allowed to enter it. Indeed I have often seen considerable fanaticism displayed by the poor Moslems living around the Mosque when Europeans have ventured SULTANS AND SUCCESSION TO THRONE 19 to enter the courtyard ; angry faces and shouts of Yasak (forbidden) greeting the intruders. The duty of girding on the Sword of Osman on a new Sultan devolves upon the Chief, or Chelebi, of the Mehlevi Dervishes, who resides at Konia. The office of the Chelebi is hereditary, and the occupant rarely comes to Constantinople except for the purpose of performing this hereditary duty. At all times it has been extremely difficult to obtain accurate information of the private lives of the sultans and of the crowd of men and women who inhabit the palace. Under the harem system the number of women largely exceeds that of men, and information from the palace is rarely to be obtained at first hand. The Turks themselves fully admit their own ignorance on this subject. It would be easy to fill many pages with stories of the ugly deeds done there during the thirty years of Abdul Hamid's reign; of persons who have entered and never come out alive ; and still more of persons who, after examination, have been shipped off and never heard of again, or sent into exile to distant portions of the empire. It would be unreasonable to suppose that all these stories are untrue. The evidence is not sufficient, however, to make any sweeping state ment about palace practices. The life is one of mystery and intrigue. According to the reports that come from it, it is essentially unhealthy and morally unwholesome. The Sultan's Claim to be Caliph Abdul Hamid, like several of his predecessors, claimed to be not only Sultan, but Caliph. The word signifies " vice-regent of the prophet." As such the Caliph was to be protector of Mahometans everywhere and entitled to their allegiance. He was to rule with authority over Moslems, and practically to be Pope and King combined. 20 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE The prophet had claimed such authority in Arabia, and made provision for his successors to inherit the like powers. The successor was to be supreme in all matters spiritual as well as temporal. There was to be only one Caliph, for the prophet said, " When two Caliphs have been set up, put the last to death, and preserve the second, for the last is a rebel." *• The Turks belong to the division of Mahometans called Sunnis, and all the Sunni books are in accord as to the necessary qualifica tions for the dignity of Caliph. These qualifications were judged so important that until about ten years ago they were posted up in all the great mosques of Con stantinople. The first of them was that the Caliph should belong to the tribe of the Koreish ; the second (though I cannot learn whether this was contained in the extracts from the sacred traditions so posted in the mosques), that he was to be elected. Mr Hughes, the author of a Dictionary of Islam regarded as of high authority, asserts that all parties among Mahometans agree that the Caliphate is elective and not hereditary. By Abdul Hamid's orders, and much to the disgust of many Mollahs, these notices as to the qualifications for the dignity were ordered to be taken down. " Does Abdul Hamid believe," said a Mollah of rank at the time, " that we do not all know them by heart, and that we shall omit to teach them to all Moslems ? " Clearly, as Abdul Hamid is not of the Arabic tribe of Koreish, he cannot be the Caliph whom Mahomet contemplated. Mr Hughes says, " We have not seen a single work of authority, nor met with a single man of learning, who has ever attempted to prove that the Sultans of Turkey are rightful Caliphs," and in support of his statement he gives a number of quotations from Mahometan writers.2 1 Mishkat XVI., chap, i., quoted by Rev. T. P. Hughes, p. 150. 2 Hughes' "Notes on Muhammadanism." Second edition, p. 152-4. A SULTANS AND SUCCESSION TO THRONE 21 The same author, writing four years ago, says, " After a careful study of the whole subject for thirty years, twenty having been spent among the mosques of the Moslems, I will defy anyone to produce any reasonable proof that any Moslem scholar in India acknowledges Abdul Hamid as the rightful Caliph." In certain Islamic lands the indispensable qualification of being of the Koreish is put forward in support of the claim to be Caliph. The Sultan of Morocco makes such a claim. Nor is there any pretext that Abdul Hamid or his predecessors were elected by the followers of Mahomet. The claim of the Turkish Sultan to be Caliph is stated in the following manner. He inherits the right of Caliphate from the time of his predecessor, Selim L, to whom the Sherif of Mecca, who was ruler and guardian of the sacred cities, submitted in 1516. Thereupon the Sultan took the title of guardian of the sacred cities. Subsequent sultans have always preserved the title taken by Selim and called themselves caliphs. They have, however, never been recognized as such in Morocco, Tunis, Algiers or India. I have said nothing of the Shiah sect, because there such a pretention is unknown. According to the leaders of that division of Mahometan- ism the Imam, or Caliph, is almost if not entirely an in carnation of divinity. The Caliph of the Sunnis is only a divinely appointed ruler. Pan-Islamism The above facts are important, because much was said in England during Abdul Hamid's reign, and con tinues to be said, about Pan-Islamism. similar opinion is expressed in " The Faith of Islam," by the Rev. Edward Sell, p. 85. His book is specially useful for those interested in the development of the Shiah doctrines. 22 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE I have made careful inquiries of many trustworthy Moslems in order to learn the truth about the existence of the movement under this name. I believe the facts are the following : — first, that the Pan-Islamic move ment, which writers in favour of Abdul Hamid's govern ment endeavoured to persuade Europe was a living force dangerous to England and other Christian Powers, hardly existed. I doubt whether Abdul Hamid himself attached much importance to it. It is true that in Yildiz itself he had denunciations printed against England, which were prepared for distribution amongst Afghans and Arabs during the time when Lord Dufferin was Ambassador in Constantinople. But that Am bassador saw the Sultan on the subject, and in his peculiarly tactful way made light of the matter and let Abdul Hamid know that he was playing a dangerous game. Abdul Hamid from that time, though he never ceased to be hostile to England, lost apparently any interest in the Pan-Islamic movement. But, secondly, there was, and is, a genuine movement which deserves that name. It is a purely religious one. Islam, like Christianity, being essentially a missionary religion, has never wanted believers who were prepared to become missionaries. In a subsequent chapter, I indicate that some of the Dervish sects are the present living force of Islam. But the great missionary efforts of Mahometanism are not due even to the religious sects of Turkey. At the present time the Senoussi are spread ing Islam in Africa and are converting idolaters and fetish worshippers to the belief that there is only one God. I am not aware that this Pan-Islamic movement is a serious danger either to Islam or civilization, though in Africa it may give considerable trouble. CHAPTER II THE TURKS STRICTLY SO-CALLED Population of Turkey — Turk as distinguished from Osmanli — Turkish population stationary or diminishing — Influences of heredity, environment and religion on Turkish character. THE population of the Ottoman Empire, including about four million Arabs, is about twenty-four milhons. As no accurate statistics exist it is impossible to say with any precision what proportion the non- Moslem population bears to the Moslem. There are between three millions eight hundred thousand and four milhons of Greeks, one and a half million Armenians, and probably a million Bulgarians. In what remains to the empire in Europe, there are Albanians, descendants of perhaps the earliest race which settled in the Balkan peninsula, some of whom are Moslems while others are Christians. There are Greeks in the south of Macedonia and around all the coast of the peninsula, Bulgarians in its centre, and Serbians in the north. Scattered across Macedonia, a httle to the north of Salonica, are a few colonies known as Wallachs. All these races profess Christianity. In Thrace and in the Rhodope mountains, immediately to the south of Bulgaria, are the Pomaks, a hardy people, probably Bulgarians in race or possibly the survivors of the ancient Thracians who were pushed into the mountains by the Bulgarians. The Pomaks are Moslems. Between the rivers Vardar, which empties itself into the bay of Salonica, and the Struma, are settlements of Turks. They are found also in isolated 24 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE communities on the frontier of Greece, to the south-west of Salonica, and in various other parts of Macedonia. It is convenient to speak of the Moslem inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire as Turks. The name Osmanli is now officially applied to all subjects of the Sultan, whether Moslem or Christian. But the term Turk requires explanation. Among the Moslem subjects of the Sultan, there are Turks strictly so-called, that is, descendants of the Turkish race which entered the country during the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but also Arabs, Circassians, Albanians, Lazes, Pomaks, Euruks, Kizilbashis and others. It is beyond doubt that the Turkish race is not of pure blood. To say nothing of the intermixture of Turcomans and Tartars, Mongols, Patchinaks and others with the inhabitants of the empire before the time of the prophet Mahomet, those who emigrated into Asia Minor in the succeeding centuries married the women of the provinces in which they settled. Much of the settlement was by way of peaceful emigration. Many of the women willingly so married. Others were forced to do so. It is an interesting fact that among the early Ottoman conquerors there seems to have been no objection to taking wives who remained Christians. Many of their leaders did so. Even at the present day it is by no means uncommon for a Turk of the wealthier class to have a Christian wife. She may attend her own church and profess her own faith, but the children must be brought up Moslems. In earlier days even this re striction was not imposed upon her. Moreover, all the invaders did not profess Islam, and upon others then- religion sat lightly.1 Even as recently as sixty years ago the custom among the Albanians was to bring up the boys as Moslems, the girls as Christians. Sir Henry 1 See on this subject my " Destruction of the Greek Empire," chap. iii. THE TURKS STRICTLY SO-CALLED 25 A. Layard, who as a young man travelled through Albania, notices this from his own observation among many other interesting facts in his autobiography. The result of the freedom of intercourse between com paratively small armies of occupation, as were both the Seljuk Turks, as the first invaders of the Turkish race were called, and the Ottoman Turks who subsequently branched off from them, and the mass of the population in Asia Minor and European Turkey, was greatly to modify the early type. Among other causes tending to such modification may be added the existence for upwards of three centuries of an army of Christian origin, aU the members of which were compeUed to become Moslems and were merged in the Turkish race with their descendants. The physical features of the Turk were even changed. In the interesting lectures on Turkey, delivered at the time of the Crimean war by Cardinal Newman, are given descriptions of the hideous physiognomy of ancestors of the Turks, descrip tions which explain the not uncommon belief that they had come from Tartarus, but which are certainly untrue of the twentieth-century Turk. Speaking of the Turk in the strict sense and omitting other Moslem peoples in the empire, his race has de veloped a type of face which residents in the country have usually Httle difficulty in recognizing. I do not forget that owing to the isolation of races, as to which I shall have to speak later, there are, in many places, groups of people where the original type of earlier races than the Turks remains distinct. There are Hittites and Assyrians, Lazes and others who have preserved the appearance of their ancestors as completely as many of the islanders in the iEgean have preserved that which Praxiteles and Lysippus and many another sculptor have left for us. In some districts, as on both coasts of 26 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE the ^Egean, there has evidently been much inter marriage with the Greeks. In others, as in the plain to the south of the Taurus range from Adalia to Alexandretta, the type is largely Arab. A little to the east of that district and in Armenia proper, the Turk has intermarried with the Armenian and taken his type. As the types have been varied in this manner, so also have the general characteristics of the race. Strictly Turkish Population Diminishing The strictly Turkish population shows a tendency to decrease. A report was presented to Sultan Abdul Hamid about ten years ago by Dr Von During, an eminent German specialist who had been for some years in the Turkish service, which expressed his deliberate opinion that unless radical measures were taken to check the widespread diseases with which he had to deal, the Turkish population would be extinct in two generations. It was a report which stated facts fearlessly, and was so terrible that it was with great difficulty that the author, who had given notice of his intention to quit Turkish service and resume his practice in Germany where he had already acquired a valuable reputation, was able to get it into the hands of the Sultan. He only succeeded by the intervention of his ambassador. Abdul Hamid was alarmed at its contents and sent for the writer. After a long interview he begged Dr Von During to remain in Turkey, and offered him double the considerable salary he had been receiving. He, how ever, refused all offers, justly claiming that what he had done was no more than his duty as a medical man, and in the interest of a people whom he liked. I believe, however, that he promised, at the request of the Sultan, to select two medical men to take up the work in which he had been occupied. THE TURKS STRICTLY SO-CALLED 27 The army system has been largely, though not solely, responsible for the spread of the forms of disease with which he had had to deal. But the whole Turkish people have been, since their entry into the country, a nation of soldiers, and probably the like evils have always existed. As a result, the Turks are not a prolific race. A singularly observant British Consul, the late Mr Gavin Gatheral, whose station was at Angora, told me that in his frequent journeys from Ismidt to that city, before the railway was opened, he had passed the deserted sites of at least a dozen Moslem villages which he had formerly seen under occupation, and that in several others, where there had been two or three mosques, there was now only one. My late friend, Sir William Whittall, who died in 1 910, was fond of telling of towns and villages in the country, between Smyrna and Konia, which he had known in his youth as purely Moslem, but which were now largely Christian. A Greek bakal would establish his huckster's shop in the town. It would be found of general use, and gradually other Greeks would follow until the Moslems would be in a minority. The popula tion had neither increased nor decreased, but its elements had changed. Other residents in various parts of Turkey tell a similar tale. My own somewhat extensive reading of Turkish history convinces me not only that this kind of peaceful penetration of the Christian populations has nearly always been going on, but that the native Moslem population has been constantly decreasing. Its numbers have only been maintained by a steady stream of immigration from central Asia and Russia. Though the Euruks and other destructive Nomads commenced to enter Asia Minor long before 1453, others have con stantly followed in their footsteps. Settlers have also 28 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE come from the same countries in order to exchange a Christian or semi-pagan rule for a Moslem one. There has been no century since the capture of Constantinople in 1453 in which great numbers of Turcomans, so-called Kurds, and others have not been silently entering the country. The most notable of these immigrants during the last century are the Circassians. Mr Wilson, an American missionary who has been in Persia for many years, writing in 1899 states that 600,000 Circassians have entered Turkey during the fifteen previous years.1 I have no means of controlling this statement, but think it probably correct. They are not a people who readily assimilate with their neighbours, and are not popular even with their co-religionists. There are other Moslem immigrants who have entered the empire within the last thirty years, whose names will recur to the reader. Moslems from Bulgaria, others from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a not inconsiderable number from Crete, probably numbering altogether in one generation not less than half a million emigrants. The Turks have always been ready to receive foreign immigrants. The asylum offered to the Jewish victims of Christian persecution in Spain, under Ferdinand and Isabella, was not granted merely on humanitarian grounds, but because the sultans wanted population in Macedonia. Yet in spite of these immigrants, Moslem and Jewish, nobody who knows the country will assert that the Moslem population is increasing. On the one hand, the denudation of certain districts by famine, want of communication, by the drain of population for the army, and by other causes has especially told on the Turkish population ; on the other, the Christian populations, in spite of frequent massacres, 1 "Persian Life," by the Rev. S. G. Wilson. THE TURKS STRICTLY SO-CALLED 29 have been fairly prolific. Various sultans have sought at many periods in Turkish history to transplant the prolific Christians into the districts left void by the Moslems. We have many instances of such transplant ing even near the capital. Bardizag, about twenty miles from Ismidt, is a town of purely Armenian population. It probably contains ten thousand souls. Riding over the Bithynian hills a quarter of a century ago with two Turkish friends, we found in a remote mountain valley a fairly thriving Armenian village called New Town, or Yenikeuy, of probably three thousand persons. Not a Turk or Greek was among them. Neither at Bardizag nor at Yenikeuy were we able to obtain definite informa tion as to how colomes of Armenians were found in such isolated places. The only answer obtainable was that their ancestors had been brought there many generations ago by the Turks. These isolated communities are found throughout the empire, and are among the curiosities of travel. I mention them as an illustration of the fact that the Turkish population has had, and has, a tendency to diminish, while no such tendency exists among the Christian races. In spite of polygamy and of constant immigration, the Turkish population of Asia Minor, which is so sparsely peopled that in large areas it does not amount to more than seven to the square mile, does not increase. Influences of Heredity and Religion The twentieth-century Turk is of mixed race, being the product of central Asiatic stock and of the earlier races whom his ancestors found in the country which he invaded. The two influences which have done most towards forming his character have been derived from heredity and religion, and deserve notice. The original Turk, as judged from history, was a dweller on the Asiatic 30 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE plains who cared little about religion. That which he inherited or was ordered to profess, he clung to. But he did not care to examine it. The people with whom he mingled when he came into Asia Minor took their religious beliefs seriously. They understood the mean ing of the phrase Oportet hereticos esse. The great Paulician heresy of the third century, which extended from Armenia to Ireland, had its stronghold in Eastern Asia Minor. The Mithras cult had its greatest develop ment in the same country. Other heresies will at once recur to the mind of the reader, especiaUy perhaps the Nestorian, a fact which shows that the inhabitants were not disposed in the time of the empire to take their religious teaching from Constantinople or elsewhere without discussion. These heresies were usually of an intellectual and reasonable character. Such wanton beliefs as prevailed among the Arabs, like, for example, the existence of a Trinity composed of Father, Son and the Virgin Mary, must be excluded when thinking of Asia Minor. Sir William Ramsay, who knows the history and archaeology of the religions of Anatolia certainly as well as any man living, has described the serious type of religion which the early peoples of the country de veloped, and the remarkable continuity of religious thought which has existed from long before our era down to the present day. The central idea was of the Motherhood of God, the mother evidently being nature.1 They never fell under the spell of Pantheism with its inevitable tendency to degenerate into Polytheism. Though the monotheistic idea is usually credited to the Hebrews, yet it would not be wrong to say that the religions of Arabia, Syria and Asia Minor always tended towards Monotheism. The sense of the incomprehen- 1 See Sir William Ramsay's " Luke the Physician," and especially his Rede lecture at Cambridge, published in the " Contemporary Review" of July 1906. THE TURKS STRICTLY SO-CALLED 31 sible, of visible power, of almighty dominancy and im manency over both nature and men, is what impressed the early races of these countries, and still impresses them. Mr Charles M. Doughty, in his invaluable " Wanderings in Arabia," expresses his surprise at the " religiosity of the rude young men of the people " (of the desert at Aneyza), and remarks that while the Semitic religion is a cold and strange plant in the idolatrous soil of Europe, it " is like a blood passion in the people of Moses and Mahommed." J The influence of the religions of Asia Minor and Arabia was always opposed to that of Greece. The emperors, who opposed the worship of images and pictures, were from Asia Minor. Those who protected such worship were from the European provinces. It was among the serious minded haters of image worship that the Turks settled or conquered, and, before the advent of the destined conquerors, the Anatolian subjects of the emperors had shown their opposition to their fellow- Christians in Europe by their attitude in reference to image worship. In the case of the Anatolian Turk, the influence of Mahometanism has rather deepened the impress on him which he received by descent than changed his characteristics. The influences, beneficial or otherwise, which the religion of Islam has exerted on the Anatolian Turk may be noted. In passing, I may remark that it would be an interesting question to ask how far the European conception of Mahometanism has been largely com pounded of the hereditary characteristics of the Anatolian and of the teaching of the Koran. It may justly be claimed that the religion of Islam has made or kept the Anatolians a sober race. I mention this first, not because of its importance, but because 1 "Wanderings in Arabia," vol. ii. p. 161. 32 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE sobriety is one of the characteristics which at once attracts the attention of European travellers. The great mass of Moslems in Turkey are total abstainers from every kind of alcoholic drink. If they were ever likely to fall into excess, the total prohibition decreed by their religion would help to keep them sober. But as a simple fact, none of the races of the empire are inclined to insobriety. Christians and Jews take the wines of the country, but use them as food. The habit of presenting alcoholic drink in any form as an act of courtesy or friendship, except at regular meals, is far from general, and in many districts is unknown. It is therefore not a very conspicuous service which Islam has rendered to the Anatolian Turks by prohibition. Islam has made them a physically clean people. A prayer has to be said at least five times a day. Before each of these services of adoration — for that term would be more correct than prayer — the face, feet, hands, and arms up to the elbows must be washed. So completely is the rule foUowed that if, as in the desert, water is not to be had, the form of washing is gone through with sand. The prayer-place, whether at home or in a mosque, must be scrupulously clean. The teaching in regard to physical defilement, which requires the washing of the whole body on certain occasions, of the hands before meals ; the constant cleansing of their houses, and puri fication of the person, have created the habit of cleanli ness. Travelling in the interior, where European in fluences have hardly penetrated, one is struck by the remarkable cleanliness of the interior of the poorest Turkish houses. The example has not been without its influence on their Christian neighbours, but the traveller very often has disagreeable evidence brought to his senses that the Christians are content to have certain receptacles of filth about their houses which the Turk THE TURKS STRICTLY SO-CALLED 83 will not tolerate about his own. Even in reference to personal cleanliness the difference is the same. " Am I a Turk that I should be always washing myself," said a Christian peasant, when asked in a village cafe if he would not like to wash before starting on his journey. A prominent member of the Committee of Union and Progress claimed that the special value of his religion was that it is essentially hygienic, and the claim is weU founded. The health of the ordinary Turkish peasant is improved, because he is clean, avoids alcohol, lives frugally, and largely in the open air. His religion has helped to make and keep him a self- respecting man, an obedient citizen, a man contented with his lot. These results come from his belief that every action in his life is preordained. It is difficult for those who have not seen the Turk at home to recognize how completely fatalism obsesses him. If he suffers a loss, " it was written," meaning, of course, that it was preordained by Allah before he was born. No Scotch Calvinist ever held more tenaciously to the belief that every bullet has its billet. If a man becomes poor, " it was written." Does he rise ? as hundreds of men have done, to high office through ability or favouritism, " it was written." Strong in his belief, he takes the changes in life as a man travelling for the first time on a railway through fields, passing villages and towns of the existence of which he had known nothing. They are there. He has had nothing to do with them, but chance does not exist. Whatever is, is right. The ups and downs in life hardly worry him, and are seen with wonderful indifference by his fellow-men. I recall a typical instance which came under my notice. A man had risen from a low position to become a pasha and governor of an important vilayet. He had a large salary, which he probably doubled by the usual exactions. 3 34 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE The time came when another favourite replaced him. Meantime he had bought a large palace on the Bosporus, had augmented his harem, and largely increased the number of his retainers. Here he lived in glorious style and at great expense. He had not invested money, and could not or would not lessen his expenditure so as to save enough to buy a position from the palace favourites or live quietly. His fortune was soon spent. He mortgaged his palace and other property, probably at very high interest, and gradually the mortgagees fore closed. The pasha became penniless and houseless. It was naturally a sad day for him and the members of his family when they had to leave their palace. The women howled, by which I mean that they set up those loud cries of wailing, which have been common to Eastern peoples, and even Greeks, for thousands of years, even when professional mourners have not been hired. Then they betook themselves to a small tumble-down wooden shanty a few miles distant, and seemed to live, it would hardly be incorrect to say to starve, as contentedly as they had lived in their palace. They were resigned to their fate. Islam means resignation to the divine will, and of all the moral lessons taught by his religion that of being resigned has been most thoroughly learned. Of course there are other results from fatalism, but with them I am not at present concerned, but when men believe that everything is divinely ordered, down to the smallest incident of life, the belief strikes at the root of ambition, and even of striving to better one's condition. The man feels himself to be the puppet of the Higher Powers, like his fellow-men — just as good as they, and just as helpless. Such a man is likely to respect himself and to respect others. Thrift, however, has no place in his practical philosophy. To provide for the morrow would be to distrust Allah. THE TURKS STRICTLY SO-CALLED 35 There is another beneficial result conferred on the Turk by his religion, a result also which has its dark side. I am told that during the Crimean war some statesmen asserted that the Turk was the only gentleman left in Europe. Ambassadors and visitors, who have been brought into contact with Turkish officials, have been loud in praise of the urbanity, courtesy, and ease of maimers which characterizes them. It is indeed rare to find a Turk with any pretension to education whose manners are not pleasant. No matter with whom he is talking, his bearing will be courteous. He may be a scoundrel who is robbing his government, oppressing the peasants, taking bakshish whenever he can get it, but everything that he does will be done in gentlemanly fashion. If you know him to be a good man, you are naturally charmed. Burke says, that vice itself in losing its grossness loses half its evil. So, on the same principle, you are tempted to forget the thief in the plenitude of his good manners. One of our ambassadors spoke to me of a Turkish official as beyond doubt the biggest liar he had ever met with. But his manners were perfect. Nor is this gentlemanliness, which is largely an absence of gaucherie, confined to the wealthier Turk. The poorest will offer you a hght for your cigarette, or will ask one from yours ; give you a welcome, hosh geldinez, on entering his village with an absence of awkwardness, and a self-respecting ease which in its way is charming. This trait in the Turkish character is, in part at least, the result of the conviction in every Mahometan's mind that believers are on a higher plane than infidels, and that they have the right to be dominant. They are the lords of creation, by divine right. Between themselves they are equals. The slave-holders of the Confederate States are represented by American's as well as by Europeans to have had exquisite manners. Both the 36 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE two dominant races were aristocrats. Indeed, all Moslems in reference to unbelievers are born aristocrats. They have, of course, realized that foreigners, not being under their subjection, are in an exceptional position. It is much that religion should tend to produce clean, contented, well-mannered, and self-respecting men. But Islam has done even more. The deeply religious sentiment of the Anatolian, noted by both travellers and historians, has been emphasized. The daily prayer, oft repeated, said by the pious peasant, wherever he finds himself, fills the mind of the religious Moslem with a sense of the overpowering presence of God. His day begins with a call from the minaret by the muezzin. " God is Great (thrice repeated), I testify that there is no God but God. Come to prayer ; come to prayer ; come to salvation. God is great. Prayer is better than sleep." Whether he goes to prayer five times or not, the constant repetition of the words of his devotional service exercises an influence upon his character. The strictly observed fast, during the month of Ramazan, and other observ ances help to strengthen such influences. So much for the beneficial results upon Turkish character from his religion. But there are other and less satisfactory influences from it. First and worst is the position which Mahometanism assigns to woman. What that position is may be judged from the fact, elsewhere mentioned and discussed, that for centuries the common belief among Turks is that women have no souls, or that they have souls of an inferior kind. It is immaterial for the present purpose to ask whether such belief is in accord with the teaching of the Koran. The wife of a distinguished Frenchman, who came to Constantinople about 1902, met the wife of a Turkish minister of high rank and other Turkish ladies, and spoke to them on THE TURKS STRICTLY SO-CALLED 37 religion from the point of view of one who saw the value of the common religious ideas of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. When she had finished, the ladies expressed their gratitude with remarks of this kind : " We have never heard anything about religion." " The subject is profoundly interesting. We thought it only concerned men." Sir William Ramsay suggests 1 that " the fatal error of Islam, viz., the low estimation of women, was probably due in great part to the reaction from the idea of the cult of ' the Mother of God.' " Personally I should prefer to say that Islam did nothing to improve the general Asiatic estimate of woman. I agree, however, with him, and with every Western writer who has known Turkey, that the low estimation of women is an error fatal to the progress of the race. Elsewhere I shall attempt to show that the greatest hindrance to Turkish civilization is the absence of family life, and that this is the result of the way in which woman is regarded. The sense of superiority fills the ignorant Turk with a spiritual pride, an intellectual conceit which is a real hindrance to his progress in civilization. No Moslem has need to offer the Scotch minister's prayer, " Gie us a good conceit of ourselves." He has it already. Having it, and being saturated with the idea of fatalism, he is neither thrifty nor ambitious. Of course there are ambitious men among the Turks. So also there are thrifty men. But they are exceptions, and, in so far as they struggle to attain their ends, are acting against the generally accepted teaching of their religion. In considering such cases it is necessary to generalize, and a few exceptions do not vitiate the rule. The same results of Mahometanism hold good in India. British administrators have usually a strong feeling in favour of the Moslem population, which produces trustworthy, 1 Contemporary Review, July 1906. 38 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE self-respecting and brave soldiers. But their feeling of superiority and their fatalism prevents them from succeeding in competition with the other races under our rule. Much to the distress of some of the best administrators in India, who would willingly see more Moslems occupying positions of trust, the latter cannot hold their own against the Hindoo in the competitive examinations which have been instituted so as to give every race an equal chance. To me it is abundantly clear that the ideas of dominancy and fatahsm hinder the progress of a Mahometan people. Heredity and religion will account for most of the characteristics of the Turkish character. The typical Turk is, under ordinary circumstances, an honest, truthful, self-respecting man. But I am not sure whether these causes will account for his want of energy or his occasional outbursts of fanaticism. In the normal condition of an average Turkish peasant a long period of laziness is alternated by short, spasmodic periods of industry. He is neither industrious nor persistent about anything. In ordinary times he is lazily tolerant of the religion of others, but occasionally he breaks out into very dangerous fanaticism. As is the individual, so is the nation. Mr Palgrave, who was a keen observer and knew Syria, at least, well, and knew also his Turkish history, says that " Convulsive fanaticism alternating with lethargic torpor, transient vigour followed by long and irremediable decay ; such is the general history of Mahometan Government and races." The indictment can be justified. Where religious fanaticism does not come in, the inhabitants of mixed villages, and the various races of the empire, get on fairly weU together. Often in spite of their religion they have a sense of human justice and natural kindness which is noteworthy. Let me illustrate THE TURKS STRICTLY SO-CALLED 39 this by a story which I had at the time from my friend the late Dr Long, whom I knew for a quarter of a century as the vice-president of Robert College. In 1877 the villages around Constantinople were crowded with refugees from Bulgaria. The worst form of typhus prevailed, and was largely increased by the poverty of the sufferers. Dr Long visited, always gratuitously, the cases near the college. He heard that in one hut two sons and a daughter had died, and that the father, a Moslem, was down with the fever. He told the wife that he was a Hekim or doctor, and would like to see her husband. " You may see him, Hekim, if you like, but you can do no good. This is Allah's business, not ours." Then the poor woman told her story and ex plained her meaning. " We were living in a Bulgarian village ; our next-door neighbour was a Christian. He was always kind to us. Our children played with his, and when I wanted lettuce or an onion, I was welcome to take it from the giaour's garden. Then one night my husband came home and told me that the padisha had sent word that we were to kill all the Christians in our village, and that he would have to kill our neighbours. I was very angry, and told him that I did not care who gave such orders, they were wrong. These neighbours had always been kind to us, and if he dared to kill them Allah would pay us out. I tried all I could to stop him, but he killed them — killed them with his own hand, Hekim. Then, when the war began, we came here. Allah has taken our children, and he will take my husband. Thank you, Hekim, all the same, but you can't be of any use against Allah's sentence. I shaU not die, but my husband will " — and he did. It is when religious fanaticism has been aroused that the Turk is seen at his worst. Let it be noted that spontaneous outbursts of fanaticism are unknown, or, 40 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE at least, rare. The elements necessary to produce a massacre exist almost everywhere throughout Turkey. But the great massacres of the last century, Chios, Bulgaria, and Armenia, were all made to order. In that of Armenia many of the worst scenes were conducted with military regularity. In many instances the Moslem inhabitants were invited to attend at the principal mosque, at which, of course, no Christian was allowed to be present. Then a messenger from Constantinople in formed the congregation that it was Abdul Hamid's wish and his command that the Armenians should be spoiled on the following day. To pillage your wealthy neighbours in the name of religion and the padisha is a form of service which appealed to the worst portion of the Turkish population. Here again it must not be supposed that the brutal massacres and robberies had the sanction of pious Moslems. I heard at the time of many such men who expressed their loathing at the orders sent. In one case, and I believe there were others of a similar kind happened, the Imam, corresponding as near as possible to the parson of the town, did his best, at great risk to himself, to stop a massacre. The usual address had been given by the emissary from the palace in Constantinople, who stated that the padisha's orders were that the Armenians were to be plundered and massacred next day. When he had finished the Imam rose, and, in an indignant voice, declared that he did not care by whose orders these attacks on their fellow-townsmen were to be made, they were against Islam. " You know me," he went on, " as a good Moslem. I have grown old amongst you, and I tell you that these Armenians are ' people of the Books,' who ought be be treated as brethren. You are only allowed to attack them if they rebel against the padisha. No body here dare say they are rebels. If you kill them or THE TURKS STRICTLY SO-CALLED 41 rob them, you will have to answer for it to Allah, and I will be your accuser." Nevertheless, next day one of the worst massacres in the bloody series took place. I have said that where Christians and Moslems are living together the first are usually better off than the Moslems. I am not thinking of the towns, though if the official class be omitted the remark would hold good there also, but of the villages from one end of the empire to the other. All the peasants are poor, but the Christian is less poverty-stricken than the Moslem. About the fact no one who knows Turkey would be doubtful. The explanation is to be found partly in race and partly in religion. The Turkish peasant, with his pleasant qualities, is liked by travellers, and especiaUy by sportsmen who get into remote viUages, and speak in admiration of his hospitality, and contrast it, very often unfavourably, with the sordid greed of the Armenian or Greek. But in intelligence the Turk is inferior to either. He is dis inclined to work, and is content if he can get bread. There are villages within fifty mUes of Constantinople, situated in the midst of rich forest or grazing land which belongs to the Moslem villagers, where milk is not to be had, and where nothing in the shape of fruit or vegetables is procurable for love or money. A quarter of a century ago I paid my first visit, with another Englishman and two Turkish friends, one being the late Hamdi Bey, whom Oxford honoured in 1909, to Nicaea, the city of the creed. We had taken a supply of provisions with us, but had omitted to take vegetables of any kind, believing that we should find them there on sale in the poverty- stricken village, which now replaces the once rich and populous capital of Bithynia. Nothing of the kind was to be had. The Turk becomes a fanatic from a variety of causes. 42 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE The idea that he has a divine right to be lord over other races is one. But a more powerful stimulus than even religion helped to promote aU the fanatical outbursts which I have seen. Both the Moslem atrocities in Bulgaria and the much greater ones in Armenia and those in Constantinople itself were mainly due to the sordid motive of obtaining possession of other people's property. When the central government gave permission and even instructions that the Christians should be plundered, all that is vile in a semi-civilized race was appealed to. The Turkish Government has never been for a long period either just or humane. Fifteen years ago most of the Yezijis were quietly exterminated. I doubt whether, at any time since Mahomet captured Constantinople, there has ever passed a quarter of a century without a big massacre. It has been the Turkish way of maintaining his supremacy. As the Christians are the more intelligent, industrious, and thrifty part of the population, there is always present a feeling of envy and jealousy. Why should the un believing Christian be better off than a behever ? This feeling helped to make the Turkish blackguardism of Constantinople and Smyrna rush to Chios to share in its plunder and take part in the massacre. A like motive actuated the ruthless atrocities in Bulgaria, and made the worthless rabble of the capital eager to kfll the Armenians in the capital in 1896, and to plunder their persons and houses. We are all hoping, and happily have some justification for the hope, that since July 1908 the Turk has abandoned his ancient method of government. Our justification of such hope is grounded on various considerations. The Turkish people, especially in the capital, have not re mained uninfluenced by the progress of civilization in Europe during the last forty years. Absolutism has THE TURKS STRICTLY SO-CALLED 43 happUy been succeeded by constitutional government ; for absolutism, in Turkey at least, meant the government of one man who was almost certain from his want of culture and experience to be especially ill-fitted to rule, and was responsible for opening the sluices which let loose the flood of fanaticism. Massacre would now, I firmly beheve, be condemned by the heads of the ulema as weU as by the constitutional ministers. The Sheik- ul-islam, in 1908 JelaUadin, with whom I had the oppor tunity on several occasions of discussing many questions, and his two successors, are men of deservedly great influence, and far too enlightened to give their sanction to outrages on Christians or to beheve that the cause of Islam can be served thereby. The leaders of the Turkish people have become more tolerant. Adbul Hamid contrived to gather round him men who represented the unprogressive part of the race and its vilest features. At the same time, it is not weU to overlook facts. Three foul massacres are yet within the memory of middle-aged men. They were due to an abominable government — to its appeal to the worst passions of ignorant and fanatical mobs, to the hcence given to plunder Christians, to jealousy of their superior progress, and to the tradi tional behef that in enriching themselves these plunderers and murderers were serving God. CHAPTER III TURKISH DOMESTIC LIFE AND HABITS House furniture — Poverty — Cleanliness of Turks — Defilement — Reminiscence of sermon— Cemeteries — Slight value of human labour — Illustrations — Hamals — Manufacturers — Their primitive character — Cotton yarn— Carpet industry THE interior of a Turkish peasant's house is sin gularly bare of furniture. Of the two rooms which it contains, one wiU be reserved for the male and the other for the female members of the family. Bedsteads are unknown. So also are mattresses. But along one side of each room there often exists a portion of the floor raised about nine inches, and fixed upon it is a covering stuffed with cotton wool. This is the divan. It serves as a sofa by day and a bed by night. Each house contains a number of yorghans, or coverings made of two lengths of cotton with cotton-wool between. These are roUed up during the day and serve as covering at night. After sleep the sleeper or some one else takes up his bed and walks off with it to place it on a shelf where the other occupants of the house place theirs. Chairs are rarely seen in the house of a peasant, but a smaU stool about a foot high and universaUy known as a scamni, the Latin scamnum, is usuaUy to be found. Every peasant has two or three trays, and food is usuaUy served upon them. There is no table in the English sense, though often a simple arrangement exists by which the tray is sometimes raised a few inches from the ground on an ingenious tressel. Forks are used only 44 TURKISH DOMESTIC LIFE AND HABITS 45 among those who have come under European influence. But, though fingers were made before forks, and are in more general use, the Turks always wash their hands before eating. The practice stiU holds good in the villages of the host offering a tit-bit with his fingers to a guest. It is not a pleasant habit though well meant. The right hand is invariably used. In a household where there are servants, the latter wiU come forward after a meal with a bowl, a pitcher of water with a long spout and a towel, and wiU pour over the fingers water which is caught in the bowl by another servant. Washstands and their furniture are, of course, unknown in peasants' dwellings. The Turks, and indeed the other races in Turkey, prefer to wash in running water rather than in European fashion. The habit has been attributed to their extreme delicacy of cleanliness. I believe it arises rather from the general scarcity of water. If a man wants to get the best wash possible out of half a pint of water, his best course is to have it in a vessel with a hole which wiU allow it to trickle out. Neverthe less, the comfort of finishing one's wash with running water, as from a tap^over a bath, is so generaUy recognized that at the principal club in Constantinople the usual basins are fitted with taps over them, so that running water may be had as weU as the usual bowl fuU. The general appearance of a Turkish and to a less degree of other villages in Turkey gives an impression of disorder and slovenliness. Even where good building stone is to be had the majority of the houses are of wood. The framework may be covered with weather-boards or fiUed in with sun-dried bricks. The house, once built, is rarely repaired or painted. The Christian villages are generaUy in better repair than the Moslem, but shutters hanging loose, weather-boards that have gone, and a general tumble-down appearance are common 46 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE features. In warm weather many men have the sense to sleep in the open air. The peasants make no dis tinction usuaUy between bedroom and living room, the same room serving for both purposes. No one undresses at night. There is therefore no question of clean sheets. Though the floors are usuaUy scrupulously clean, the less said about certain sanitary arrangements, or the want of them, the pleasanter for the reader. The accumulations of refuse and other filth outside the houses show that there is no attempt at village government. Soap is almost unknown. Natives of aU races seem to take no account of fleas or B. flats. In many places the fleas exist in such numbers that if they were unanimous they could carry off the unwary European while asleep. It is on account of their prevalence that the writer of a guide book to one country of the Balkan peninsula, some years ago, made a careful distinction in recommending the traveUer to stop. " Here traveUers may spend the night," he said of some of the native hotels. " Here traveUers may sleep," he said of others. Poverty is apparent on the exterior of the peasant's house and in the interior. When a man is able to buy more than what is necessary for food and cooking it he generaUy spends his money on rugs or carpets. These, however, are not put upon the floor. The demand for Turkish rugs and carpets in Europe and America has greatly increased the value of those articles, and the best, with non-aniline colours, have been exported. But there are few houses where they do not possess one or more, often enough ragged and worn, which are brought out to show visitors. Nevertheless, poverty is the distinguishing characteristic of the Turkish. peasant's house. There are scores of villages where a TURKISH DOMESTIC LIFE AND HABITS 47 Turkish lira has hardly ever been seen, and where a beshlik, worth elevenpence, is a rarity. People rise early and go to bed at dark. Candles and lamps are hardly known in the peasant's house. Petroleum, or, as it is generaUy known in Turkey, " gas," has been a great boon to the poor. When artificial light is employed it wiU usuaUy be from petroleum. Then, too, the gas tins in which it is carried into the interior become very useful. They serve with a little adaptation as buckets. The tin plates in other cases are carefuUy separated and serve as tfles. There are few villages where roofs wiU not be thus formed. My first view of the Bedouins of Syria showed them eager to possess empty petroleum tins and knowing how to utflize them. I have already aUuded to the cleanliness of the Moslem population. The statement that the religion of the Moslem is a hygienic religion is true. It is not merely,, as John Welsey was fond of saying, that " cleanliness is next to godliness " ; in the Islamic view it is part of godliness. The teaching in reference to defilement and the practices of purification are closely foUowed. Various precautions are taken in regard to food lest the body should be defiled. The constant practice of washing creates a habit of cleanliness which is useful. If water is abundant the floors wiU be often swiUed. The result is that the Turkish peasant, no matter how poor, is usuaUy, in his person and home, a clean man. Most Europeans would prefer to eat food prepared by the Turkish peasants rather than by an Armenian or Greek. Every visitor or occupant of the house takes off his shoes before entering. The official or man of wealthier class wears thin kid boots, and over these, when out of doors, weU-made and light overshoes, usuaUy of patent 48 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE leather, with a spring in the heel by which he can take them off on entering a house. The little knob connected with the spring by which the wearer can release the spring with the other foot without stooping is usuaUy taken by visitors to be intended for a spur. The over shoes once removed, the wearer steps with light, dainty boots into the house, and can sit upon a divan with his feet under him without defiling the place by the dirt of the streets. Somewhat cheaper than this kind of overshoe, which is yet very largely worn, are goloshes of india-rubber. These are made with a solid knob in the heels, and can also be taken off without stooping. Some years ago English firms sent out goloshes without this convenience, but the people would have nothing to do with them. They are a necessity in winter, and Europeans take to them or the Turkish overshoe as readfly as the Turks and other natives. In front of aU mosques is a cistern of water for the purpose of ceremonial purification. In front of the large mosques in Constantinople one may see every day a number of men preparing themselves by their ablutions to enter the mosque for prayer. Theie are a number of taps where water can always be had. The dread of defilement leads to some curious results, some of which need not be mentioned. A fanatical Moslem of the old school wiU never give his right hand to a Christian. I remember an Arab merchant, who settled a few years ago in Constantinople, who kept strictly to this rule. But good Moslems in the cities have learnt that for them to give the left hand to a foreigner is an insult and wiU probably be resented. The merchant gradually had this fact brought home to him and now gives his right hand. Many years ago, a British Consul of great experience had to visit a sheik. The visit was one of some ceremony, and the sheik was known to be TURKISH DOMESTIC LIFE AND HABITS 49 a fanatical hater of Christians of all sorts, and those about him felt sure he would offer some kind of insult to the consul on his first visit. It was therefore with interest that the spectators watched the first interview. The consul advanced into the room, the sheik met him in the middle, and held out his left hand. The consul, quite calmly, spat into it as if it were a spittoon, and went on as if nothing extraordinary had happened. Both the Christians and Moslems recognized that an insult had been offered and resented, and nothing more came of the matter. Connected with the subject of defilement, I may mention a sermon preached some three or four years ago in a Constantinople mosque. Sermon is not quite the word, for the Moslem hodja squats cross-legged on a slightly raised platform, and his hearers sit before him on the ground, prepared to listen to him. There is nothing formal about the function. The hearers constantly interpose remarks. Neither the hodja nor his hearers object to a joke, and very often the address is studded with observations, amusing remarks, objec tions, and questions from his audience. The hodja in question announced that he was about to speak on a special form of defilement. He told them that they aU knew that in every bakal or huxter's shop there was Siberian butter for sale, which was contained in skins, just as it was imported from Russia. Now if they ate butter so packed they were denied. " Then," caUed out one of the audience, " we are aU defiled, because we aU eat it." The interruption was supported by many voices, and the question was argued with the hodja, until he had to whittle away his declaration by telling them that they should only eat the butter in the middle which had not touched the skin. Visitors from Europe are surprised to see the disorderly 4 50 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE condition of the Turkish cemeteries. Owing to the practice of only burying one body in a grave the cemeteries cover enormous spaces aU over the country. But they are rarely fenced, and no care whatever is bestowed on them. The Christian cemeteries, on the other hand, are on the whole weU kept. It is remarkable that a people whose houses are clean and who are clean in their personal habits should be absolutely careless of tidiness and cleanliness outside their houses. The Turk has a happy-go-lucky way with him which leads to curious results. He is fond of flowers, admires fine prospects, delights in sitting under trees where he can take his kef amid his friends, but he is indifferent to the accumulations of filth in his streets and to bad smeUs which would be avoided by the lowest class of our population. Even in the capital itself there are no drains which are satisfactorily made. Such as exist consist of unhewn stones forming the sides, with others laid across. The ground forms the bottom. They leak, the stones fall in, and the so-called drain becomes a series of leaking cesspools. In the viUages the traveUer has to be careful in picking his path. As may be expected, the towns differ a good deal among themselves as to sanitary arrangements. UntU ten years ago I should have said that Jerusalem was the worst I had seen for filthiness, though I am informed that under recent governors considerable improvement has been made. The Englishman on first going through the streets of Constantinople wiU see many signs of the slight value of human labour. Bootblacks are in every street. The hamals or messengers and porters are everywhere. Hawkers whose stock-in-trade cannot be worth half a crown, sellers of sweets or ices, caUed dondermajis, wiU travel a mUe on the chance of selling a piastre's worth TURKISH DOMESTIC LIFE AND HABITS 51 of stuff. AU bear witness not only to the want of employment but to the smaU amount on which a man can five. They suggest poverty largely due to ignorance of any kind of skiUed labour. Two men do the work of one. A hurdy-gurdy is carried by one man while another does the grinding. The very beggars often go in couples. If a man has a withered arm, or a specially ugly sore, another wiU go with him to attract the attention of passers-by. The beggars are of aU races, and, as the Greek phrase runs, each one is more disgusting than the other. Their sores and deformities are their capital. A man wiU push his naked withered arm close to a lady's face or show his hands with double thumbs ; or some wretch wiU crawl half-naked on the side-path so that the traveUer has to get out of his way. It is generaUy beheved that many of the sores and wounds are self-inflicted. The Turkish beggar wiU shout out AUah as you pass and demand bakshish as of right. The Greek wiU whine out his troubles, and especiaUy if it is Saturday, for that day is the beggars' day ; wiU teU you what the day is, implore you " to make your soul," and call down the blessing of the Virgin and saints if you give him ten paras, value a halfpenny. Most of the beggars leave the impression that they have adopted begging as a profession and are unworthy of sympathy. When the municipality sends a man to mend the street there is invariably another sent to look after him. In old-fashioned Turkish houses every stranger is astonished at the number of servants and hangers-on. Many of them receive no wages, but get food, lodging, and cast-off clothes. The rag, tag and bobtaU of a wealthy Turk must be a fruitful source of expense. The hamals or porters form a corporation or esnaf, and as such are a hindrance to business. Until recently 52 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE they would not allow tradesmen to employ carts for delivery. Everything must be carried by hand. The esnaf divides the city into districts, and if a man is hired to take furniture who does not belong to the quarter where it is to be taken from there is pretty certain to be a quarrel. The donkeymen and owners of horses for transport form another esnaf, and every day the passenger sees their animals laden with bricks or dragging planks traUing on the ground which might be conveyed more cheaply and conveniently in carts. Everything bears witness to backwardness in civilization and to the absence of skiUed labour. Turks who are not agriculturalists or officials usuaUy become hamals or porters. UntU the Armenian massacres of 1895-8 many of the hamals in Constanti nople were Armenians. Many hundreds of them were then killed. The remainder were sent to their country, and Turks and Kurds replaced them. In some places there are a few Greek hamals. It is, of course, an occupation which requires httle intelligence but much strength. It is one which can hardly be said to exist in the West or wherever good roads aUow wheel trans port ; though the porters of London, as described by Defoe and other writers of that period, seem to have resembled our hamals. The weights which a hamal will carry are astounding. I had a piano which was marked " speciaUy manufactured for hot climates," the only speciality about it that I could recognize being that it was unusuaUy heavy. Four men hfted it on the back of a hamal, who carried it upwards of half a mfle and to a height of at least two hundred feet. Any day in Constantinople a man may be seen carrying ninety petroleum tins (empty, of course) of the usual size, the whole making a large and unwieldy package, some nine feet by three and two feet deep. TURKISH DOMESTIC LIFE AND HABITS 53 A few years back most of the streets of Constantinople, even in the best quarters, were so steep and narrow that no carriage could ascend or descend. Visitors had to ride in sedan chairs. Hobart Pasha for a wfule lived in such a street, and I have seen at an evening's reception as many as fifty such chairs waiting outside his door. They were not uncomfortable. The hamals who carried them kept step together, and usually all went weU. The person using them had the chairs brought inside his house and taken into the house where he was going. I remember, however, an awkward incident that occurred. Snow had faUen to the depth of nearly a foot, and in the course of the journey the bottom of the chair feU out. The occupant, who was a stout lady, with short legs, had to run along through the snow, and unfortunately she could not make her cries heard untU near the journey's end. HappUy no Ul results ensued. The hamals have, hke the dogs had till 1910, their own quarter. As they form a guUd or esnaf, the Govern ment, by being able to get into communication with the head of the esnaf, is able to exercise a certain control over them. They are fairly orderly and good-natured, and though destitute of education and intelligence, or they would not be content to be hamals, are necessary in a country where carts and carriages cannot get along in the principal streets. WhUe everything bears witness to the absence of skiUed labour, it is true nevertheless that even in the capital there is a large amount of honest workmanship. It is mostly, though not exclusively, in the hands of the Christians. There are Turkish saddlers and shoe and shpper makers, makers of pipe-bowls in red clay, of cigarette holders, and of simple articles in brass-work. There are Turkish white-washers, makers of yorghans, 54 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE the simple duvet which is found in every house, and already mentioned. In simple matters of this kind the Turk manages very weU. He is by no means so skiUed as the Christian, but he does honest work. But the great mass of the work done in the country is very primitive. A native window or door rarely fits properly. The flooring of a native house wiU show planks that have warped, joints that are iU-made, and a general want of skflled workmanship. Naturally and inevitably there is a large importation of foreign goods. Such native cloth as is made is coarse, unequal in quality, and even when made of selected wool is not to be compared with that which comes from England. In Bulgaria the native cloth, or as it is caUed shi'ak, is much superior. Cotton goods from Lancashire have almost everywhere taken the place of the native articles. Peasant industry in making cotton cloth stiU continues aU through the empire. The peasant women, Christian and Turk alike, use for this purpose cotton yarn. Some of this comes from Italy. But two factories for preparing the yarn exist in Turkey, the most important being in Constantinople. It was established with British capital some twenty years ago, finds employ ment for about two hundred women and girls, and is fairly successful. A century ago very respectable pottery was made in Turkey, but though at Eyoub on the Golden Horn the revival of the industry was attempted, the experiment was not a success. Germany now supplies the largest amount of ceramic ware. One general remark may be made regarding aU the native industries of the country. It is easy to say that they have been killed by foreign competition, but that is only half the truth. Turkey now levies eleven per cent, on all foreign goods and wishes to levy fifteen. TURKISH DOMESTIC LIFE AND HABITS 55 UntU 1907 she had never levied less than eight. This margin of profit, plus the cost of carriage into the country, ought to have been protection enough to aUow the de velopment of native industries. But they were killed by the ignorance and stupidity of the Turkish Govern ment. Obstacles were always placed in the way of natives or foreigners who attempted to establish them. They had to bribe to obtain permission to establish a factory of any kind and to keep it going. The fact that a native had sufficient money to embark on an industrial undertaking indicated him as a man to be squeezed. Imposts of a ridiculous character were levied. Let me give a case from my own experience. I went, probably in the year 1879, to see Sir Henry Layard, who was stUl in high favour both at the palace and the Porte, on behalf of a British firm which had a flour miU on the Golden Horn. I pointed out to him that while Russian flour was imported into the country on payment of eight per cent., Turkish flour, before it could be brought from another part of the empire and be sent back, had to pay sixteen per cent. Sir Henry was naturaUy incredulous. But after examination had shown the statement to be correct, he burst out with a strong exclamation on the incorrigible folly of the Government. " I can understand," said he, " the theory of protecting your own industry against that of foreign countries, but to reverse the process is more than I thought any race was capable of." He took the matter up with great vigour and managed to reduce the amount to be paid to eight per cent. During the conversation he spoke of the Turks as hke children in aU matters relating to political economy, and told me of another matter he was then treating with the Porte. There had grown up in England a considerable demand, especially, said he, in the mining districts, for crushed dates. The result had 56 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE been that thousands of acres in Arabia which had been desert for centuries had been planted with the date-palm, and the Arabs of the neighbourhood were settling down to cultivate the country. " A fool of a Vali had had the trees cut down, alleging that the Arabs would become too numerous and wealthy." He had been at the Porte and had done what he could. The industry in Turkey which is in the most flourishing condition is that of carpet-making, which, however, is under the direction of Europeans. Turkey carpets have long been famed for their beauty of design, of colouring, and durability. The demand for them in Western Europe and in America has greatly increased during the last twenty years. They are made in the west of Asia Minor, Smyrna being the place from which the manufacture is directed. The industry is largely a village one, and Turkish men, women and chUdren, as weU as Christian families, engage in it at their own houses. Within the last six or seven years the industry has been so well organized that nearly everything necessary for the finished product is produced in the country. It is said to give employment to forty thousand persons. CHAPTER IV FAMILY LIFE AND THE POSITION OF TURKISH WOMEN Absence of family life in European sense — Turkish marriages, how arranged— Celebration — Seclusion fatal to family life — Various aspira tions — Best Turkish women — Polygamy — Uncertain position before law — Repudiation instead of divorce — Wife's rights over property — Turks' kindness to children — Hopeful movement among Turkish women THE absence of family life among the Turks is the most serious hindrance to their advancement in civilization. Riding over the Bithynian hiUs some years ago with an educated Turk, who had lived some years in Western Europe, we discussed the eternal question of the reforms necessary to bring the country to the level of Western civflization. After an hour's conversation, my companion turned to me with an impatient remark : " What are we talking about ? no reform whatever is possible." " Why ? " I asked. " Because we can have no f amUy life. I have seen how man and wife live together with you, how the chUdren are the companions of both parents, the woman the companion and friend of her husband. You may believe in the possibUity of Turkish reforms when you see Turkish husbands and wives arm- in-arm on Galata Bridge, when we Turks respect and trust our women sufficiently to aUow them to hear men discuss aU questions together as freely as women do in Paris or London." Turks are at a disadvantage in not having a famUy name. Hassan Effendi may have a son named Nedjib, 57 58 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE but the son has no surname to distinguish him from dozens of other Nedjibs. You hear a man named, say Midhat, but the name gives no information of the fanuly to which he belongs. I am aware that the general use of a famUy name even in Western countries is com paratively recent, but such use helped to strengthen famUy ties, and was thus a step forward. That the want of it constitutes a difficulty to strangers of aU kinds is a secondary matter. The foundation of famUy life is marriage. A Turkish marriage is arranged, and is usuaUy the result of negotia tions between the relations or representatives of the bride and bridegroom. It is supposed to be among the demo cratic privileges possessed by Turks that any mother with a son whom she wishes to see married has a right to enter into negotiations with the famUy of the girl whom she wishes him to marry and to interview the girl herself. Even if she is unknown and poor, she may present herself at the house of the girl and claim the right to see her. It is in this way that negotiations for marriage often begin. The mistress or hanum of the house notifies the girl, who then comes into the room where the mother or other female representative of the young man is present. The mistress retires and the girl then offers coffee and other civUities. After what may be caUed an interview of inspection, the representative retires to report the impression the girl has made. If the overtures are looked on with favour, a photograph of the girl may be carried away. Then negotiations begin between the two famUies. Etiquette and Turkish pro prieties require that these negotiations1 should not be mentioned in presence of the girl, but should be left to her relations. Very often the intermediary between the two sets of relations is an old slave woman, or perhaps two such women, one for each side. When they are agreed, FAMILY LIFE 59 a civU ceremony of engagement takes place before the Kadi and witnesses, the most important part of which consists in asking outside the closed door of the girl's room whether she wiU marry Hamid or whatever the intended bridegroom's name is. A like question has already been asked of the intending husband. If all goes right, the marriage takes place when the trousseau and house are ready. The ceremony begins by conduct ing the bride with considerable pomp to the house of the bridegroom. As men are not permitted to be present, I have re quested a lady who has not only lived long in Turkey, speaking Turkish weU, but has an intimate knowledge of Turkish manners and customs, to take up my narrative and teU the story of an ordinary Turkish marriage among weU-to-do Turks. A Turkish wedding is celebrated in two places — the bridegroom entertains his friends in his own house. The bride's celebration is much more elaborate, and lasts for three days. During one portion of the ceremony the groom appears for a few moments. One of the most typical Turkish weddings I ever attended was in the house of an old-fashioned Pasha, whose daughter was the bride, and whose acquaintance with aU the old Turkish famUies of the neighbourhood made the circle of guests a very large one. When we arrived at the house we were shown through the great paved court and up the wide uncarpeted stairs, through bare unpainted haUs with many windows, into the speciaUy furnished rooms of the harem. The furniture, as usual in a large Turkish house, was principaUy divans, chairs and chandeliers. The divans and chairs were nearly filled with ladies, listening to the weird monotonous strains of Turkish music. The musicians, with their bagpipes and lutes, 60 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE were concealed by a curtain — as they were mere men. Graceful salaams were exchanged as each new guest came in. Occasionally groups of two or three ladies made a tour of the rooms, stopping a little to say a word to and gaze at the bride as she sat in the end of one long room in solemn state. She was dressed in white satin, with showers of tinsel all entwined in her long black hair, and falling over her dress, and wore quantities of diamonds and jewellery of aU kinds. These jewels are often borrowed for the occasion, as it is considered very necessary to have a great display at the wedding. The bride must sit stiU all day at the real old-fashioned wedding, rarely speaks, and does not come to the dinner. Something is given her to eat, probably. At some hour during this first day of the festivities, usuaUy about noon, comes a short ceremony. The guests veU their faces but crowd around to see, as the bride groom comes into the house and is led up to meet his bride, whom he is supposed not to have seen before. He goes into a room with her alone for a few minutes, then comes out and scatters pieces of money — smaU sUver coins — among the guests, who scramble eagerly for them, as they are regarded as lucky coins. At the wedding of which I am speaking, the father of the bride also threw handfuls of money down into the court, and the servants and town hangers-on rushed about gathering up the shining pieces. Then we were invited to dinner. Tables had been arranged in one large room, which would accommodate about forty-five ladies, and we aU gathered and sat down, as we came in no special order. The costumes, as is always true of a Turkish gathering, were various and incongruous. Directly opposite me at the table sat a royal beauty, the daughter of a pasha in Stamboul. On her golden hair was a diamond coronet ; her white satin FAMILY LIFE 61 gown was beautifuUy made, and cut very low, showing the most dazzling white neck and arms. Her looks and her manners would have graced any court in Europe. Next her sat a veritable old hag, dressed in a cotton- wadded jacket and skirt, shapeless and not even very clean, with no pretence of a coUar. The old lady speared pieces of bread and fruit with her fork and drew them toward herself, or handed them to the haughty beauty next to her, and chattered volubly about the food and the other guests. I saw many others in the same sort of easy negligee-cotton gowns — whUe scattered among them were dresses that might have been Worth creations from Paris, and jewels worth a king's ransom. My companion and I were the only persons present who were not Turkish. The waitresses were as casual as the guests in their costumes. Some of them were dressed in blue satin gowns and coquettish blue satin caps on the sides of their heads, with elaborate coiffures. Others had traUing cotton wrappers, and unkempt hair, and heel-less shoes that flapped and flopped on the bare floor as they walked about. The courses of food were many and most dehcious, Turkish cooking being especiaUy exceUent and savoury. Sweets and meat courses came in a hap hazard sequence. But as always at a Turkish wedding, the last dish was rice, covered with a thick saffron sauce. After that the people left the tables and walked through the rooms again, listened to more weird minor music, talked or sat stiU, and then were free to go home. But the bride must still sit in solemn state for hours, for people came and went aU the afternoon. Anyone, whether invited or not, can go to a Turkish wedding after the dinner is over — any complete stranger or passer-by — and so, curious crowds come in, and stare, and sit] and drink coffee, and go out, whUe the weary bride sits stiU on her throne to be looked at and talked about for the 62 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE whole of the three days, if the old custom is foUowed. It is now, however, becoming more usual to have only one day of this open hospitality, and after this the bride either goes to her husband's house or the newly-married couple settle down in the bride's home. The Turkish wife resides in a separate part of her husband's house speciaUy set aside for women and caUed the haremlik. The other part for the men is the salemlik. The haremlik intended for the seclusion of women is religiously reserved for their use. As a rule no male visitors are admitted. The practice varies to some extent. An old doctor of medicine teUs me that in his younger days when caUed in to attend a woman patient he was never aUowed to see her. A hand would be pushed between the curtains and he could feel the pulse, but this was the extent of his diagnosis. It is, however, now becoming recognized that the doctor may be admitted into the harem. The seclusion of women is fatal to family life. A woman must not unveU except before her husband, her father, or her brothers. The education which comes to European women from being present in the company of her husband and his friends, from mixing in society, attendance at receptions, lectures, and church services is aU denied to Turkish women. The typical large Turkish harem is one where a number of usuaUy good- looking women live together without any inteUectual pleasure or pursuits whatever. European ladies who have lived in such harems even among those belonging to the great favourites of the Sultan are impressed with the inanity, the Ml-grown chUdishness, and most of ah with the disorder, which exists. The rooms may be furnished with the latest fashions of Paris furniture ; everything may be costly, rich and gorgeous ; the taste FAMILY LIFE 63 usuaUy much too loud for Englishmen or Frenchmen. GUding, white marble, rich velvets, tapestry, abundance of mirrors, aU proclaim wealth and an exuberance of display. But amid it aU are specimens of barbaric taste and a survival of Circassian and other Asiatic instincts. Those who have lived in such houses speak of dinners served to various ladies separately, and at any time between five o'clock and midnight, of the dinner things left in corners of the beautiful drawing- rooms tiU they are wanted again for service, of the quarrelling going on between the wives and among the servants, and of other incidents which show that the women of these large harems are on a lower level of civilization than their lord. He mixes with Europeans and with other Turks who know what are the habits of civilized life. His wives see few other women, and unless they are able to read French or English novels, or happen to know foreign ladies, are ignorant of European manners. An English lady of title who, after a life of varied and quite unique experience, ended as the wife of an Arab sheik, and had had an exceptional experience in Turkish and Arab harems, described to me many years ago harem women in general as chUdren with the vices of women. They had at times, said she, aU the charm of chUdren, were gay and careless, but were liable to lose their tempers, and then quarreUed with the violence of chUdren who had been aUowed to run wUd. As for their con versation she added, " the less I teU you about it the better." It requires, however, little knowledge of Turkish to learn from the expressions of vexation uttered in the streets even by weU-dressed Turkish women that there is amongst many of them an absence of refinement and delicacy of speech. It will be readUy understood that whUe I speak generaUy of harems, there are some Turkish women 64 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE of quite another character. The ladies who are described by Pierre Loti in " Les D&enchantees " represent a very different class : a type which exists, it is true, but of whom the numbers are very few. There are Turkish women belonging to the wealthier class who are readers of French novels of the most romantic kind, and who might behave as Loti's heroines did. It is an unhappy type, because the women have broken away from aU the traditional sentiment and restraint of their own race or religion, have not adopted Christianity, and have not come under the influence of the moral rules which govern society in Western Europe, even where the ethical teaching of Christianity does not prevaU. A Turk who knew Loti well, and recognizes the women who to some extent served as his models, insists very strongly that the picture of even the limited class of Turkish women there drawn is untrue, and my own experience would certainly lead me to agree with him. But there is another type of women which it is much pleasanter to think of. There are Turkish ladies who have been educated by English, French, or German governesses, or, better stiU, at the invaluable American CoUege at Scutari, whose manners and conduct are irreproachable. The habit of seclusion gives them a winning modesty of manner when they venture into the houses of European ladies. There is an absence of shyness or obtrusiveness. Their readiness to converse on literature or other subjects which they have studied, their evident desire to learn whether their course of reading is approved, and their general intelligence, make them pleasant companions. These ladies have formed an ideal up to which they wish to live. They endeavour to take aU the good they can from their own religion, and are trying in their own way to adopt that which they find good in Western habits and thought. Quietly and FAMILY LIFE 65 unobtrusively they are working for the establishment of famUy life on the best European lines. They are entitled to the respect of aU who know them. Two of such women, the daughters of a Turkish official, ladylike, carefuUy brought up by an English governess, of perfect manners, often visited my wife and daughters and would have been an ornament to any drawing-room. One or another of them would take part in a duet and played classical music at sight ; or, the two would discuss Tennyson or Browning, or other British authors. The number of ladies of the latter class is beyond doubt increasing. It is weU known that some of this class of cultured women contributed to the success of the revolution. Even Abdul Hamid's spies dared not, except under very exceptional circumstances, invade the privacy of the harem or search Turkish ladies. Not only did Turkish women carry messages from one member of the secret committee to another, but spoke and wrote in favour of reforms, and, in some instances, were stronger partisans of the revolutionary party than their husbands. The explanation of the influence exerted by this class of Turkish women is curious. The schools established during the reign of absolutism were for both boys and girls. Abdul Hamid on occasions showed his anxiety that not too much should be taught. But what was taught to the girls did not seem to trouble him. From all I can learn it was not much, but they learned to read, and probably the ex-Sultan now recognizes that it was reading which did the mischief. A large number of women seem to have read with avidity. Harem life at least gave them plenty of time. When they heard the stories of their brothers and other relations being imprisoned, or exUed, or secretly disappearing, they became partisans of the revolutionary movement. During the revolution of 1908, and the months which 5 66 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE foUowed it, some Turkish women came before the pubhc in a very favourable hght. Their aspirations showed an amount of culture and acquaintance with advanced ideas which were remarkable. They knew what they wanted, and appeared determined to have it. But their utter ances were generaUy fuU of a reasonableness which appealed to fair-minded men. They fuUy recognized that in matters such as walking out unveUed, and in the changes which are necessary to introduce what is best in European famUy life, they must act with dis cretion. The advocacy of violent changes would pro duce reaction. Turkish women, and men too, must be educated by discussion in the newspapers, by general reading and otherwise, in order that they might welcome what is good from the West while keeping aU that is valuable in Eastern habits. Their moderation and common-sense were as weU marked as their determina tion. One of the best known declared that woman's enfranchisement must be worked for steadily but quietly, and in reply to some of her sex who wished to go too fast, added that " if the intelligence was en lightened and unveUed, the unveiling of the face would foUow of itself." She claimed that nothing should be done to give the impression that the emancipation of women was likely to lead to unfeminine conduct. Since the revolution, the class of women in question have become fervent advocates of women's education. The visit of Miss Isabel Fry in December 1908 was welcomed by a group of these ladies, and has already resulted in useful developments. But Turkish ladies have many difficulties before them in their efforts to assimUate what is valuable in Western civilization. Marriages, as I have already said, are largely matters of arrangement. The notion of a Turkish girl having a word in the selection of her husband FAMILY LIFE 67 is still foreign to ordinary Turkish ideas. Something is to be said in favour of the selection of wives or husbands as managed in France. It has been asserted that marriages there are as frequently successful in after hfe as those made in the Anglo-Saxon mode by a different fashion of selection. I do not beheve it. But French marriages are arranged with a care greater than exists with Turkish marriages. I put aside the marriages of the daughters of the Sultan. There, the recipient who receives what is practically an imperial command to marry one of the palace ladies, usuaUy feels honoured by the command, though it not uncommonly happens that the recipient soon wishes that it were an honour to which he had not been born. But the ordinary business of finding a husband by the marriage broker is of the most commonplace and sordid character. There is neither poetry nor love nor the semblance of affection about it. The hardship of such an enforced union tells most upon the girl who has been carefuUy educated and who is ordered to take an uncultured brute as her husband. In more than one notable case the girl has upbraided her father for giving her a European education instead of leaving her in the normal ignorance, where women are content to take any man. What I have said on the subject of marriage and famUy hfe applies especiaUy to the classes who are better off than the peasants. The latter are usuaUy too poor to keep more than one wife. As women work in the fields, fetch water, and necessarily mix to some extent with men, their simple hfe comes nearer to that of a European peasant than does that of the wealthier Turk to a man of his class in the West. Even in the viUages, however, it is remarkable how httle intercourse takes place between men and women. But in Turkey as else- 68 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE where the wealthier class gives the example which the majority foUow. Among the wealthy Turks, polygamy stUl prevails. It is lawful to all Moslems, and it is occasionally practized among the poor. The habit of having more wives than one is, however, decreasing. The influence of the West has had its effect. I do not mean that Turks consider that polygamy is wrong, but that as Western men of wealth are saved the expense of keeping more than one wife, wealthy Turks do not see the use of incurring the cost which the practice of polygamy involves. Perhaps the greatest drawback to a plurality of wives is the increased expenditure occasioned by it. But other dis advantages result from the practice. As each wife knows that she may be sent away at any time, she has httle interest in saving her husband's property. The jealousy and selfishness which is developed on the introduction of a second or third wife is another. The wife or wives in possession resent the intrusion of another. The ordinary Christian wife considers her interest bound up with her husband's. Where there are more wives than one no such sentiment of common interest exists. Each one is trying to get as much of her husband's property for herself and her chUd, if she have one, as possible. What she gets she wiU spend on jewels or on dresses for herself, which in case of divorce wiU remain as her property ; for the property of married women is strictly respected by Ottoman law. If not careful to gain as much for herself as possible, she is still jealous of what is given to her rival. Wife's Legal Position A stiU more serious inconvenience, due largely to polygamy and attaching to Turkish women, arises from FAMILY LIFE 69 her uncertain position before Turkish law. The wife knows that at her husband's fancy he may bring home another woman, and that at his whim she may at any moment cease to be his wife. Her position thus deals a fatal blow to the conception of family hfe. Law gives her no redress. Educated Turks would generaUy admit that polygamy is not a satisfactory institution. The argument sometimes adduced in its favour, that it prevents prostitution, is not borne out by experience, and there are worse evUs even than prostitution. Under a system of law which recognizes polygamy and the practice of making marriages without consulting both parties, easy divorce was a necessity. Accordingly Mahomet provided a regular and systematic legal manner of obtaining it. But in Mahometan countries generaUy, and certainly in Turkey, this method was found much too slow, and in its place " repudiation " has been substituted. The husband pronounces three times a simple formula by which he puts his wife away, and then, without the intervention of any kind of law court, the woman ceases to be his wife. Eminent Moslem legal authorities, both of Turkey and India, recognize that the practice of repudiation is an abuse, but it exists ; it is adet (custom) and has the force of law. I beheve that in Turkey there are no cases of divorce, at least I never heard of one. The wife is simply put away. Cases have occurred not infrequently where a man has married, has tired of his wife after a few months, has repudiated her, and has repeated the process in heartless fashion several times. The abuse in past years became so great that the lawyers, who have generaUy been the defenders of women's rights, came to their aid and invented a method which to some extent prevents the abuse of repudiation. When a Turk of any position marries, he now usuaUy 70 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE gives a bond to the wife or her father to the effect that if he repudiates her he shaU forthwith pay a fixed sum as liquidated damages. In addition to such sum, the fact that the wife's property is safe from her husband's grasp makes a husband hesitate before he repudiates his wife. Speaking generaUy, a Turkish woman has rights over her own property which are exceptionaUy large and are safeguarded by law. Though she owns property she is not compeUed to contribute to household expenses. Does she inherit ? aU the inheritance goes to her for her own use absolutely. In these respects indeed the wife's position in Turkey is better than it was in England before the passing of the Married Women's Property Acts. English lawyers used to say that the effect of marriage was to make two persons one, and that that one was the husband. But Moslems took much of their law from that of New Rome,1 which was more favourable to women than that of medieval Europe. Probably also the system of polygamy rendered it necessary to strengthen the wife's hold over her property. Thus it comes about that upon repudiation the husband, with the aid of the lawyers, is compeUed to give up aU the property which his wife may have voluntarily brought into the common stock, and to pay the amount of the bond which he has signed. Where she brings none, her position is beyond remedy. When repudiation takes place, the wife has the right to keep the girls born of the marriage, and the boys tiU they are seven years old, when the father can claim the 1 It seems not to be generally known that when Roman law is spoken of, that of Constantinople or New Rome is intended. For practical purposes— and Roman law still holds its own in various European States — the Instituties, Pandects, and Codes of Justinian are what is intended by the term. The Roman law of the Elder Rome is only of historical value. FAMILY LIFE 71 boys. Repudiation and polygamy do much to account for the unimportance attached to the weaker sex. The birth of a boy is a subject for congratulation ; of a girl, for openly expressed condolence. The seclusion of women produces no advantages and many disadvantages. It dwarfs the intelligence of women. It therefore makes them much less fit to bring up their chUdren than they would otherwise be. When one recalls how much of early education and of impres sions which last for hfe are due to the influence of the mother, the absence of intelligence in her wUl be recognized as deadly. I was impressed with the remark of an educated Turk who struck the weak spot in the education of young chUdren in Turkish houses. Said he, " I do not beheve in your religion nor do I think much of mine, but your religion aUows your girls and women to be trained in famUy hfe. They become intelligent, and their influence on the chUdren is good. Ours are left to run about the harem, to hear all the base talk of women and servants, and to have purely animal notions put into their heads almost before they can talk." The seclusion of women, by dwarfing their intelligence, lessens that of their sons, and has largely to answer for the non- progressiveness of the Moslem as compared with the Christian populations. Though f amUy hfe, in the European sense of the word, does not exist among the Turks, it must not be supposed that Turkish chUdren have not a good time, and stUl less that Turks are unkind to their chUdren. The youngsters are for the most part aUowed to run wUd. When a boy first goes to school, a pretty ceremony is often observed. He is placed on a gaUy caparisoned horse in the centre of a procession of his school-feUows, and with the hodjas or schoolmasters among their pupils, whUe aU join in 72 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE chanting the praise of learning and wishing success to the new scholar. The Turks are indeed singularly kind to chUdren. It is rare to hear a chUd of any race in Turkey cry, unless actually from pain ; but the Turks allow their chUdren liberties which no Western people would tolerate. It is a common and a very pretty sight to see little boys running about and playing in the mosques whUe a considerable number of persons are saying their usual prayers. I have watched them on occasions even from the gallery of Hagia Sophia. No one attempts to stop them, nor does any Turk see any incongruity in such play within the house of prayer. Of course it must be remembered that though the prayers have to be and are gone through with very great formality and care, they are individual and only rarely common prayers. WhUe writing this chapter, a lady friend who had been occupied all the afternoon with a group of educated Turkish ladies caUed at our house. Her experience of movements among her sex in Constantinople is excep tional and extensive. One lady, or hanum as my friend caUed her, meets other Turkish women periodicaUy to try to advance elementary education. Another has just had a short series of meetings at her house to talk over the best way of rearing babies and young chUdren. One of the ladies present at one of these meetings had been in England, and declared that the only proper way to treat a baby was the English way. She denounced aU others as cruel and mischievous. She knew what she was talking about, said my friend, by detaUing the faults of the Turkish nursery and the advantages of the British. My friend spoke also of a species of women's club which she is aUowed to attend, where the members are Moslem and Christian women. Their object is to consider the FAMILY LIFE 73 best rules to adopt for the conduct of life and for advanc ing morality. They had recently invited a respectable Christian minister to open a discussion which she had heard on that subject. He openly claimed that the best teaching of morality was that found in the New Testa ment, and as he treated the topic reasonably and not dogmaticaUy, used fair arguments, and did not invite his hearers to become Christians, but allowed his facts and arguments to speak for themselves, the Moslems listened respectfully, and wanted to hear more of the matter. The most interesting portion of her conversation related, however, to her visits when only Turkish women were present. There are happUy a few smaU groups of Turkish women who are meeting together for study and discussion of social questions. Her account is curious. The women sat round, threw off their veils, and each lit a cigarette. I asked my friend if she smoked. Her answer was that if she as a European were to smoke among them she beheved her influence would be gone. They knew she did not smoke, and she would be looked upon as abandoning her principles if she took a cigarette to please them. I asked her what her friends thought of the attempt of some Turkish women immediately after the revolution to abandon the yashmak. Her reply was that they disapproved of any such step. They thought the time had come when they ought to be aUowed to be unveiled before men whom their husbands approved, and to sit at table with such men. But they were aU opposed to anything like a revolt against a custom which was general in the country. One of them remarked that it was clear that the wearing of the veil was not obligatory according to the teaching of the prophet, for many Moslem women in other countries did not wear it, but the reform must 74 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE be gradual, or it would be taken as backed by a desire to lead an immoral life. The sum of my friend's observations confirms the impression I have gained from other sources. There is a remarkable movement going on among Moslem women of the better class. The movement is spontaneous, absolutely unconnected with any missionary efforts, either Moslem or Christian, though, with keen perception of who were likely to help them in the way they wished to go, they asked good women, either Christian or Moslem, for their friendship and assistance. In revising these last sentences, I recaU a fact which shows how Moslem- ism does cruel injuries to women. One of the ladies present at the meeting aUuded to is of exceptional intelligence and culture. Her husband and she hved happUy together for ten years and have a fine son. Her husband's fancy was taken by a foreign woman, and as his wife would not consent to have a coUeague, he " repudiated " her. FamUy hfe has an insecure basis where such a thing is possible and legal. Nevertheless, the influence of Western thought on the status of woman is having a valuable effect on home hfe in Turkey. English, American, and French teaching, the study of English literature, even the reading of the ordinary French novel, not a very elevating study in general — all are exerting a useful influence in stimulating thought, and especiaUy as indicating what famUy life is. If such life on the best Western models can be sub stituted for that of the harem, a great reform wiU have been accomplished, and it is to this reform that a few devoted and enlightened Turkish ladies of the new generation are directing their serious attention. CHAPTER V IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION Sultan lord of all kings — Why foreigners visit Turkey — Belief in foreigners' magical powers — Evil eye, charms and talismans — Fortune- telling — Superstition has preserved inscriptions — Anticas — Counter feits — Objection to sketching — Story of Toughra — Of St Paul — Variety of fashions among women — Turkish officials — Student dragomans THE ignorance of the Turkish peasant may possibly have had its equal in England during the Middle Ages, but hardly since. Let me give some present-day illustrations. Moslem peasants are convinced that the Sultan is lord of the world, and that aU the sovereigns of other nations are under his orders. They admit that he has great trouble in keeping them in order, but that is merely part of his kismet. What many of them faUed to understand about England was, how the Sultan would aUow its vali or governor to be a woman. Of course all the extraordinary phenomena of nature are due to good or evU spirits. Foreigners are rich and influential, because they can control these spirits. The belief that every foreigner has the magical secrets of medicine is almost universal. An English house within ten miles of Constantinople but in a Turkish viUage serves per force as a dispensary. The owner took up his residence there in the sixties of last century, and as a matter of course every one in the neighbourhood who had fever or any other malady went to him for relief. He had never studied medicine but had to practise it. This was of course without any payment. When he died some 75 76 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE eight or ten years ago, his sons and the ladies of the famUy had to continue his practice. Their annual biU for pUls, and above all for quinine, is a heavy one. I should be afraid to administer the doses which I have seen one of these ladies give without hesitation. If the medicine is strong, and particularly nasty, it gets a great reputation even in distant villages. TraveUers like Sir William Ramsay who get away from the great roads, find it difficult to live up to their reputation as healers of the sick. At first sight the eagerness for medicine looks like a violation of the Islamic opinion that every thing is pre-ordained. But Mr Doughty, the Arabian traveUer, himself a doctor of medicine, remarks that Islam " encourages its professors to seek medicines, which God has created on earth for the service of man, but they may not flee from the pestUence " — a curious distinction.1 To the peasant, Moslem or Christian, it is a constant subject of wonder why foreigners who are not engaged in business should visit the country. Their explana tions are various. One traveUer must have committed a crime and is bound under a vow not to settle down untU he has expiated it. If this England or France from which he comes is a flourishing country, why should a man want to leave it ? I took a snapshot with a kodak at a group of trees. " I suppose that in the country you come from," said the man who was driving me, " you have no fine trees like these." " Is your country as beautiful as this ? " has often been asked me. "Yes," and " has it good drinking water ? " " ExceUent." " Then why do you not stay at home to enj oy it ? " The question is asked in simple honesty. The great aim in hfe is to make kef, to have sufficient food and no work to do. With such, why should a man wish to travel ? The 1 " Wanderings in Arabia," vol. ii. p. 188. IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION 77 archaeologist is a puzzle to them. Why does he want to find stones with writing on them ? The usual answer by the peasants is that he knows there is treasure hidden somewhere in the neighbourhood, and the writing, if only he can find the proper inscription, wiU teU him where it is and how to get it. A common variant to this version is, that the visitor possesses in his own country a wonderful book which gives him a general clue to where treasure lies. This explanation was given to me under circumstances which illustrate the imagination of the peasant. I visited one of the smaU islands in the Gulf of Ismidt. On it, as I believe on every islet in the Marmora, there are the remains of a monastery, in the crypt of which I scratched away the soU which had drifted into it to see if there were any inscription. On the occasion of our visit there was no one on the island. Two years later, I again landed and found a peasant who had buUt himself a small hut and tended a few goats. We went into the crypt once more and were then told that two years earher a boat, which I recognized from his description as my own, had brought a visitor from Constantinople who had a wonderful old book. He had not seen it, but he believed that the man had brought it from Russia. The visitors — there were two — had looked at their book, so the boatman had told him, and had found the treasure, which, however, they did not then attempt to carry off, but they must have visited the place some days after, because he had searched where he had found the ground had been disturbed and the treasure was no longer there. The belief of the Turkish peasant in the power of the Western traveUer is marveUous. They wUl not only trust themselves and their chUdren to his care in sickness, but they beheve that his thaumaturgical power is extensive. He can prevent a misfortune happening or at 78 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE least can foreteU it. If he does not, it is because he is unwiUing. An American missionary told me the story of a poor Moslem who went to him in great distress. His one possession of value was a cow which had fallen ill. He stated that the moUah had given him a verse of the Koran on a paper which he had made the cow swaUow, but without avaU. He had then paid, first the Greek, and then the Armenian priest to read prayers over it, but the cow was no better. " If only you with your foreign knowledge would read a verse over it," he was convinced, a cure would be ade. It was in vain that the missionary endeavoured to explain that such a practice was not in accordance with American religion. The only result was that the poor feUow left, convinced that the missionary did know a charm which would cure the cow, but that for some reason he was unwiUing to use it. The mis sionary, however, who had some knowledge of medicine, subsequently treated the cow and thus saved both it and his reputation. Superstition is almost equally general with Moslem and Christian peasants. It might be supposed that with the simple creed of the first, with no pictures in his mosque, no religious emblems, with absolutely nothing sensuous about his worship, and with very little which can be called spiritual, the Moslem would have got rid of his superstition. There remains, however, in the Turkish character much that is primitive. Moslemism indeed dealt a heavy blow at superstition. It is beyond doubt that it got rid of the more gross superstitions which pre- vaUed in Arabia. But as an enormous number of persons adopted the Moslem creed on compulsion, they retained many of their old beliefs, and probably these largely con tributed to perpetuate in the average Anatolian mind the old superstitions. It is rare to find a poor Turk who does not feel that the IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION 79 Christian Churches have some kind of thaumaturgical power, and this probably did much to save them. There are in many parts of Turkey Christian tombs which are venerated by Moslems and Christians alike. There are also many Turkish tombs which are reverenced by Moslems only. The traveUer constantly comes across such tombs, which exist in considerable numbers in Constantinople itself, where articles of clothing have been attached to the raUings which surround them in the behef that virtue will come from the holy person who is there buried, and wUl accrue to the benefit of the person who has deposited the article belonging to him or her. Many of these tombs have literaUy hundreds of such votive offerings hanging upon them, which time and strong winds have torn into shreds and rags. Probably the most widely dispersed superstition, not only in Asia Minor but throughout Southern Europe, is that of the evU eye. Moslems and Christians in Turkey have unquestioning belief in it. Blue eyes attract or give it. I knew a Turk who refused to negotiate on what promised to be a good business because the other party, an Englishman, turned out to be a man with a black beard containing a streak of white. This could not faU to attract the evU eye. Every race takes measures in various ways to avert the malign influence of the evU eye. The principle to be borne in mind in order to thwart it, is to have something strikingly conspicuous which wiU first catch its attention. If so, you are saved. A blue glass bead on your horse's neck is a good talisman, and hardly a horse is to be seen in Turkey without a necklace of such beads or at least one bead. A string of beads or of sheUs round a chUd's neck is also a good preservative. A cross, no matter how simply formed, on the top of the scaffolding, wiU prevent accidents, and is used by Christians and sometimes even by Turks. 80 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Amulets and talismans play a great part in the life Of all races in Turkey. They are of many kinds and formed of many different substances. The commonest are of stone or metal, strips of paper, parchment, or leather. Gems are specially valuable as talismans. The fondness of aU classes for amulets may be shown by certain facts which I take from memoranda kindly furnished to me by Dr Sandler. During the last six years whUe in con nection with a medical mission in Constantinople he has treated 40,000 patients. The majority of them were Spanish Jews, but there were also Turks, Greeks, and Armenians. Among them aU, belonging to a variety of classes and races of both sexes, and of almost every age, Dr Sandler declares that he rarely saw one without an amulet or charm of some kind or other. He made many attempts to buy amulets from patients, but they were nearly always futile. The owners clung to their mascots with a singularly strong attachment. The wearing of such things is a solemn business. The person adopts his amulet with circumstantial ceremonial, as if he were performing an act of religious worship. He selects for the inauguration of his charm a lucky day. He avoids everything which might weaken or destroy its virtue. Astrology usuaUy plays a dominant part in aU the preparations. But the day of the week • or month is also important. Nothing would induce a Greek to choose Tuesday as a propitious day, for every body knows that Constantinople was captured on a Tuesday. The magic formulas are often fantastic, and usually incomprehensible, but they give the amulet its value. Egyptologists say that the Egyptians ascribed magic effect to curious words which had no sense what ever. The same belief in the efficacy of senseless, but possibly traditional, conglomerations of words stUl exists with us, among Turks, Greeks, and Jews alike. Fre- IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION 81 quently the smaU leather bag of a talisman, worn as a rule upon the neck, contains whole sentences or even chapters from the Bible or Koran. Sometimes only the name of Allah or the Greek 'l)(dv<;, formed of the initial letters for Jesus Christ, God, Son, Saviour, or the Pater Noster, are written upon it. Talismans and amulets with such names or sentences are the most sacred and powerful of aU charms. But even these are not entirely valid, unless they have been submitted to incantations and ceremonial rites, often of a most elaborate and occult character, performed by an initiated person. Turkey abounds in quacks who offer numberless panaceas and remedies, which are far more wonder-working than our English patent medicines. The Oriental can certainly beat the Western in quack remedies. He has poison-expeUing pills, spirit-cheering pills, and life-supporting powders. The pUl of which John Bright spoke as " a remedy against earthquake " must have been made in Stamboul. The Moslem sibyls are especiaUy great at concocting such pUls. Dr Sandler teUs of an old hanum in Stamboul who sells a rejuven ating piU capable of dispeUing aU the Uls of old age, of instiUing new vigour and making one young, beautiful, and bright, like Phoebus in his morning flight. She lives in a room filled with every awe-inspiring object, and aU the stock-in-trade of a witch, with ghastly skuUs, snakes, and scorpions, with strange pots and pans for mysterious decoctions and mixtures, with fantastically shaped figures, and of course with the traditional black cat. Exorcism stiU survives, and ugly stories can be heard in coffee-houses of attempts which have been made, sometimes with, sometimes without, success to drive out the evU spirit. Fortune-teUing flourishes. Any fine day in Constanti nople the fortune-teUers may be seen in the streets. 6 82 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Even men who would be supposed to be educated wiU try their luck. It was so even a century ago ; for Dr MUlingen relates that Lord Byron, whom he attended in Greece, requested him to find a witch in order to determine whether he was suffering from a speU cast by the evU eye.1 The belief in astrology lingers on among aU classes. How can it be otherwise when, for many years, Abdul Huda, the Sultan's astrologer, was a trusted adviser at the palace ? He probably at one time be lieved in his own prognostications, but the story of his late years until the revolution of 24th July 1908 would show that, like so many of his profession, he was tempted to aid his reading of the stars. It is commonly asserted that he and Izzet Pasha worked together, that Izzet received telegrams daUy from abroad and from various parts of the empire ; that he showed these to the astrologer before they were seen by the Sultan, and thus his predictions were singularly verified. Sir Thomas Roe, the British Ambassador to the Sultan in the seventeenth century, asked his government to send him aU the books they could find on the subject of astrology. He explains that he has told the Sultan that English people do not believe in astrology, but the answer he received convinced him that his reply was considered an evasion. He and his people did not wish the Sultan and his advisers to learn the secrets of the art. To dart your hands out with your fingers open is the most effective way of cursing a person. If you do it to his face he wiU probably attack you, but it is equally effective if you do it when his back is turned. Superstition has in one matter served a useful purpose. Anything written has, among the Turks, a semi-sacred character. Among many of the lower classes it is regarded as dangerous to tread on a paper with writing ' Julius Millingen, " Memoirs," p. 139. IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION 83 or print on it. The explanation usuaUy given is that the name of AUah may thus be insulted. In the same way an inscription on a stone had better be left undestroyed. The stone may be re-used, as thousands happUy have been, for a tombstone, but the writing must not be effaced. An incident in Constantinople about 1906 refers, I think, to the same superstitious instinct. The Tobacco Regie had hundreds of thousands of cigarette papers with the Sultan's toughra, or symbol, printed on each. A spy informed his Majesty that a smoker had thrown his cigarette end on the ground and trodden on it. It was an insult to the imperial insignia, and orders were given that no cigarette papers should bear the toughra. The loss to the Regie and the Austrian Company, which had a large stock of such papers on hand, would be heavy. Baron Cahce, the Austrian Ambassador, went to the Sultan and explained that in Austria, as in other countries, postage stamps which bore the Emperor's head were stuck on often with spit, that such stamps were defaced by the postal officials, and were just as liable to be trodden under foot as cigarette ends. His arguments, after considerable difficulty, prevaUed. The opposition to sketching is attributed to the inter pretation of what we know as the second commandment. This is no doubt partly the explanation ; but I believe the real objection is based on the idea, common to aU primitive peoples, that any representation of a human being takes from his life a part of his vitality. A Turkish gipsy strongly objected to being sketched or photo graphed. Her life might be charmed away by the person who had the picture. The person whose likeness is taken, or better still who is represented by a clay image, may be bewitched and done to death by people who know the proper formula of incantation. But such bewitching is greatly aided if something belonging to the person can 84 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE be secured : a piece of his coat wiU do. Something that he has written is equaUy valuable. To tread on the imperial symbol even accidentaUy may do injury to the person symbolized. Many a tale is told of the powers stiU exercised among the ignorant of various races in Turkey by witchcraft working on simUar lines. The ignorance of the great mass of the people is aston ishing, and is largely the cause of the widespread super stition. I was travelling in Roumelia a few years ago, with my friend, the Vice-President of Robert CoUege, when we spent the night at certain hot springs. A score of visitors were there, and among them a priest whose rank corresponded to that of archdeacon. At night, we all sat in a circle in the open air and in glorious moon light and talked on a variety of subjects. Anent a remark of my friend, the archdeacon observed that he could not understand how a man could profess to be a Christian and yet believe that the earth is round, and that it was ninety-two mUlions of mUes distant from the sun. He knew his Bible, and it was evident that the starry heaven above us was a firmament supported by pillars with windows through which rain was aUowed to come. These and many other statements he uttered with a conviction which was evidently sincere. I need not summarize my friend's answers, which only elicited the remark, " Your science teUs you one thing. My religion teUs me another, and I believe it." The audience wanted to hear what I could say, and I told them Dr Ward's parable of the mice locked up in a piano. As Ulustrating the ignorance of Turkish officials even in Constantinople, I may relate an incident which came under my own observation a few years ago. A weU- known Greek doctor of medicine came to consult me under the foUowing circumstances. His wife, with the kindheartedness which is one of the best features among IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION 85 the Greeks, had brought up a poor boy as a working printer. He was now a man, but having been taken to prison, had appealed to his patron to get him released. In the printing-office where he worked they had brought out in Greek the rules of a Printers' Benefit Society, and on the title-page had been placed the words of St Paul (Gal. vi. 9 and 10), " And let us not be weary in well doing," etc. After the text on a separate line came the words 'E-7T. HavXov trpbs TaXdr. The police had seized a copy of the rules, and demanded from the young man the address of Paul, who was not registered as a printer. The young man replied that the rules had been printed in his master's office, as indeed was admitted, but that Paulos was dead. The police declared that this was a mere excuse. Could they not see for themselves ? It was Paulos who lived in Galata. It was in vain that they were told that " Galat." did not mean Galata, but the Galatians, a people that lived hundreds of years ago. They were not to be thus imposed upon. To prison he must go and remain there tfll he gave the address of Paul. From prison he managed to communicate with my friend, who went himself to the kouluk or police office and assured the officer who had arrested the man that Paulos was dead, that he was regarded as a saint by Christians, and that he died eighteen hundred years ago. The officer shook his head with an air which said, " You won't get over me : I see Paulos and Galata, and the printer Paulos must be found. The man shall not be set free tUl he is found." It was on this that I was seen. My advice was to take two weU-known Greek colleagues and declare that aU these were ready to swear that Paulos was dead, and to enter into sureties to pay if Paulos should be found. Upon the representations which were thus made, the printer was set free. Everybody knows that in the early infancy of man- 86 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE kind some men had acquired the art of sketching with considerable accuracy. Some savages possessed it. But it is either by no means a universal instinct, or it is lost by non-use. Every one in civUized countries learns to distinguish what a drawing is intended to represent. But among those who cannot read or write, and especially probably among races to whom the representation of anything in heaven above or in the earth beneath is forbidden, it commonly happens that pictures convey little or no meaning. I remember on one occasion travelling with a friend who had a scientific magazine. A fine-looking old Turk who had been in conversation with my friend looked over the magazine and was especiaUy attracted by a fuU-page Ulustration of a steam- engine. A European chUd of five would have recog nized what it was. Not so the old Turk. After turning the page upside-down and looking at it all ways, he remarked, " I suppose that is a kind of animal that hves in your country. How big is it ? " I was with the same friend thirty years ago in the gaUery of Hagia Sofia. We engaged in conversation with a moUah who, out of pure kindness, showed us the impress of Mahomet's hand and the other miraculous points of interest in the great church. He asked me where I came from, and on my reply said that IngUterra was weU known, and that her queen was a faithful servant of the Padisha. When my companion said that he came from America, the moUah brightened and said that he had heard of that country. It was a place which one of their great seamen, Capitan Pasha Colomb, had dis covered, but he did not know whether the Padisha had yet built a mosque there. In a country with such a diversity of races it is danger ous to generalize about the character of the people. This is especially the case when treating of peasant IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION 87 women. A Yorkshire woman in her dress and manner does not differ much from a Dorset woman. But the diversities of race in Turkey make the difference very obvious. As to the covering of the face, the practice varies greatly. There are districts where Turkish women, whUe wearing the head-dress, scarcely take the trouble to cover their faces when approaching a man. There are others where they uncover their faces as readily as European women. In other districts they wiU not only cover their faces but wiU turn sideways when a man approaches, and so remain untU he has passed. A friend asked the husband to whom he had rendered a service why the women did this, and the answer was, " I would put away my wife if I knew that she had inten tionally seen the face of another man." Then, too, in reference to the work done by women, the practice varies. Among the strange wandering Euruks, nomads abounding in the west of Asia Minor, the women seem to do most of the field-work, the men the loafing and lounging about the village cafes. With Circassians, on the other hand, the men do the field- work and the women remain at home. Yet, when the Circassian smartens himself up he is generally clean and handsome and something of a dandy, whUe the Euruk rarely looks other than a lazy and slouching vagabond. The fashion in woman's dress is a dangerous subject for a man to write upon. But woman is woman everywhere, and wiU have her changes of fashion. Thirty years ago every Turkish woman wore a spotless white yashmak. This was a head-covering carefuUy fixed so as to leave a narrow sht through which the eyes could be seen. The material, I am told, was a thin, clear mushn. With it was worn a cloak or feriji, very often of startling bright colour. All this has been changed. The yashmak has gone (except for palace women) as well as the feriji. 88 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE I do not know how the present garment is made, but to me as a mere man it seems to be all of one piece, the upper portion of which covers the head and supports a veU of black sUk gauze. Bright colours have given way to black among nearly all Turkish ladies. Turkish Officials Before parting with the Turks something must be said of the official Turks. It is difficult for the foreigner to estimate them aright. The peasant is truthful and courteous though ignorant. The officials — and aU weU- to-do Turks are officials — keep their courteous manners, but, speaking generaUy, lose their truthfulness and honesty. Of course there are many exceptions, but it remains substantiaUy true that the Turkish official becomes at once imbued with the vices of the rotten system of administration which has been for centuries the bane of Turkish life, and which was in as bad a con dition during the thirty-two years of Abdul Hamid's reign as it has ever been. He ceases so long as he is in office to be trustworthy. The casual European visitor finds no difficulty, as he thinks, in gauging the character of the Turkish official. Those who have hved long in the country are less confident. The visitor wiU find the official ready to discuss the advantages of civilization, wiU be surprised to find that he has a fuU appreciation of them, and deplores the evUs of the abominable system which retards the progress of his country, and of which he forms part. Speak on the necessity of the pure administration of justice in the law courts, on the need of education, of roads and raUways, and the Turk wfll give illustrations of what is needed, and wiU leave the im pression that he is burning to execute reforms. He has a wonderful knack of catching the point of view of his IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION 89 hearer and of reflecting his opinions. It is his way not only of impressing a visitor but of flattering him and being pohte. If the European should be foohsh enough to try flattery, he wiU at once find his superior. In this respect Abdul Hamid is a true Turk. A few years ago, the story was current of an ambassador who told Abdul Hamid that he was the ablest Sultan who had occupied the Ottoman throne since the capture of Constantinople. The answer came at once. WhUe deprecating such praise, the Sultan declared that he was convinced that his auditor was the ablest ambassador his country had ever accredited to the Sublime Porte. In the worst periods of Abdul Hamid's reign, many English and other European statesman who visited YUdiz came away with the conviction that the Sultan was possessed of a re markable zeal for reform and of far-reaching projects for the welfare of all his subjects, as to whom, whether Christians or Moslems, he would never make any dis tinction ; for he loved them aU equaUy. The desire of the Turkish official to keep up appear ances has occasionaUy its humorous side. When a royal visitor came to the capital, the roads along which he was expected to pass were carefuUy swept, hoardings were buUt to hide unsightly objects, or whitewashed to make them look clean. On the last visit of the Kaiser, the usual preparations had been made. Unfortunately for their success, the Kaiser on one of his early morning rides determined to choose a route for himself. Whether he had received a hint or his choice was by chance, he turned off at a street into which aU the filth of the streets through which it had been proposed that he should pass had been crowded, and he thus saw what he was not intended to see. The officials were more successful with a dignified Irish member of the House of Lords who took great 90 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE interest in prisons. He went to one at Galata Serai, which is far from being as ill-managed as are many. He was received with extreme courtesy, regaled with coffee and cigarettes, and spent an hour in replying to the questions asked of him, and of giving his opinions on prison management. During that precious time aU avaUable men, warders and prisoners alike, were sweep ing and cleaning, so that when the inspection was made, the visitor felt satisfied that the place was kept clean. The difficulty which a foreigner encounters in under standing the higher-class Turk arises in part from the fact that he never sees him at home. He may be enter tained at formal dinners, but there wUl be no ladies present. The dinner may be aU that could be wished : weU cooked, because the chef from one of the leading restaurants has been engaged for the day ; weU served, because the waiters also have been brought for the occasion. The wines, the crockery, the table ornaments are aU in European fashion, but there is very httle to indicate that the dinner is Turkish. When the time comes to retire to the drawing-room, the absence of the womanly element becomes stiU more marked. The foreigner may have intimate relations with the Turk in business. He may have a genuine liking for him. The two men may have common sympathies. If both are sportsmen, they wiU find ample occasion for pleasant talk. They may like each other and respect each other. But the intimacy does not advance beyond a certain stage. He soon finds that he gets no forwarder. Each pro bably realizes that the other has different ideals and habits of thought and divergent standards of right and wrong. This feeling is enhanced by the ghmpses the European obtains into Turkish private hfe. Europeans and Turks who have seen much of each other come to recognize that they live on different planes. The typical IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION 91 Turk has, in his own way, ideals to which he is faithful. WhUe some of the many scandals of ordinary Turkish hfe reveal immorality of a kind pecuharly repulsive to Christians, the revelations of our Divorce Courts or of Western Society hfe as represented in French novels seem to the educated Turk to present a condition of immorality worse than he sees among his countrymen. As an illustration of the statement that the Turk is faithful to his own ideal, I may mention a common habit which I have never before seen noticed. The typical Turkish son considers it a sacred duty to pay the debts left by his father. It may take him years to do this, but he wiU economize and save untU aU are paid off. When this is done, he considers himself free to incur expenses on his own account, and he has no hesitation in con tracting debts which he wiU not be able and indeed never expects to pay. That will be the business of his sons. Shopkeepers speak highly of the weU-to-do Turk. He rarely pays at once, and therefore a large price is nearly always demanded from him, but he wiU pay, or his son wiU do so in the long run. When speaking of the Turks of the higher class, it is weU to note that there are no wealthy men in the European sense among them. Nor is there any class of nobles. There are no great famUies proud of their descent and possessing historic estates, though there are a few men who claim to be descended from notable Turks, especi ally from distinguished ulemas. In a few but very few of such famUies, the famUy name is preserved. A century ago there was a class of men known as Dere-beys who were in the position of great landlords, and who held their land on a feudal tenure in return for the service of bringing a certain number of men into the field in time of war. When this system came to an end, largely owing to the military reforms of Sultan Mahmud (1808 to 1839), 92 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE the Dere-beys almost everywhere ceased to exist. In Turkey there are no " country houses," no Moslems or even Christians who display wealth in the villages. The result is that the peasants are f amUiar only with poverty. The officials belonging to aU European nations come more in contact with Moslem officials than with Christian Ottoman subjects, whether official or not. The tendency of the foreign official, especiaUy in places remote from the capital, is to be on the best possible terms with his Turkish coUeagues. It saves trouble. He hears the Turkish version of outrages, looks at whatever happens from the Turkish point of view, and, if he is an unsym pathetic man, comes to look with so much contempt on the cringing Christian, that the latter dare not teU the story of his wrongs. Most of the British Consuls and Vice-Consuls between the Crimean War and the Russo- Turkish War of 1877-8 were notoriously blind to the wrongs of the non-Moslem subjects of the Porte. When Lord Salisbury came to Constantinople in December 1876, he had previously summoned a few of the ablest men in the Consular body to meet him. He learned two im portant facts, first, that England had been singularly ill-informed of the relations between the Turks and Christians, and second, that Russia had been fuUy in formed. British Consuls had taken their information almost solely from Turkish officials. The Russians had been in sympathy with the Christians. General Ignatieff on one occasion entered the Grand Vizier's room when Sir Henry Elliot was present. The Grand Vizier remarked that he had just heard that Russia had spies aU over the empire. " Yes," said Ignatieff, " wherever there is a Christian, he is ready to bring his complaint to our notice. They are aU spies for Russia." It is easy to object that Russia claimed and acted up to IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION 93 her claim, put forward formaUy and admitted in the treaty of Kainardji, to be the protector of the Christians. The answer is that England and France had disputed her exclusive claim, and at the Crimean War had placed on record that they were also the protectors. But they had not exercised their right. Russia had. Lord Salisbury, on the last night which he spent in Constantinople, expressed his determination to reform the Consular system in Turkey, and especiaUy to have British subjects appointed who were not likely by their long residence in one place to fall under Turkish influence exclusively. In accordance with this idea, he re organized the service, and constantly during the last thirty years a detachment of student dragomans has arrived in Constantinople, who shortly pass into active service. The new plan has been a success. The great majority of these men are intelligent, energetic, and independent. With some exceptions, they cannot be justly accused either of being indifferent to the sufferings of either Christian or Moslem or of seeking to live a com fortable hfe by making friends only with the Turkish officials. From Armenia and from Macedonia the reports they have furnished to the British government and pubhc are models of fairness. If it can hardly be said that there is nothing extenuated, it may be safely affirmed that there is nothing set down in malice. It must be remembered that the tendency of all officials is to minimize the wrongdoing of other officials with whom they have to work. But they have told the truth fearlessly, and with this among other valuable results, that Christian and Moslem sought to represent their grievances to the British Consul. Russia no longer figures even to the Christians as the only Power which takes any interest in what happens to them. CHAPTER VI THE GREEKS IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE How far a pure-blooded race — Have varied httle from classic times — Hellenic Greeks impulsive — Distinction between them and the Anatolian Greeks — Individualism — Greek islanders — Massacre at Chios — Story of Rhodes THE Greeks in the Ottoman Empire are said to number about 3,800,000. Of these, about 1,700,000 are in European Turkey, including the capital ; 1,600,000 in Asia Minor ; and 500,000 in the Greek islands. No one who knows the history of the Byzantine Empire would claim that they are of pure descent from the ancient Greeks. Falhnerayer long ago created a sensation among the subjects of the Greek kingdom by declaring that substantiaUy they had very little Greek blood in their veins. The population of the Balkan Peninsula was so intermingled by the movements of various races that no race had remained pure. Slav villages existed well into the last century within a few mUes of Athens. In the crusading centuries Macedonia was known as Great WaUachia, and although the Wallachs in the country are now few in number and greatly dispersed, it is probable that at one time they were one of the main elements in the population. Then the later Slav races, of which the two principal representatives in the Balkan Peninsula are the Bulgarians and the Serbs, encroached on the other inhabitants, WaUachs, Greeks, and Albanians, and thus the country became dotted 94 THE GREEKS IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE 95 about with communities of different and often hostUe races. The bond of union among them, untU the fili bustering expedition caUed the Fourth Crusade destroyed its influence, was the rule of the emperor and of the Orthodox Church in Constantinople. The difference in language as weU as in race hindered any real amalgama tion. As the chemists say, the elements weie mechani- caUy mixed but never chemicaUy combined. They are so to the present time. The southern portion of Macedonia, say south of a line drawn westward from Salonika, is occupied by Slavs and Greeks who are in vUlages side by side with each other, and constantly in antagonism. After the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Balkan Peninsula right down to Cape Matapan was parceUed out among the Crusading barons, and its history for the next three centuries was one of constant struggle between them and then successors against the Greek adherents of the restored empire of Constantinople (1258), and in the later portion of the period against the Turks. AU this points to a large admixture of races. The influence of the language of the peasant tiUers of the soU prevaUed, and the result is that the people of the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula (with the exception of a few Albanians and Turks) consider themselves either Greeks or Slavs. It is, however, simply impossible to draw a line across Macedonia and truthfuUy say that aU north of it are Slavs and south are Greeks. Greek sculpture and coins have made us familiar with the type of face and head of the Greeks in classical times, and the evidence afforded by both is of value in reference to the question of purity of race. The Greek type of womanly beauty is much more commonly found in the islands of the ^Egean than on the mainland east or west of that sea. Nor is the explana tion difficult. The hordes of barbarians who found their 96 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE way as far south as Athens and left colonies in their many endeavours to occupy the lands whose owners they had dispossessed were in almost every case without fleets, and hence the people of the islands were saved. It is true that pirates and piratical adventurers like the Genoese and Venetians often raided the islands, and occupied some of them during several years ; but while in some islands they have left their mark, in most the admixture of blood has been slight. Most of the domestic servants in the capital and Smyrna are islanders, and many of them have the pure Greek profile. A distinction has to be made between the Greeks of the European provinces and those of Asia-Minor. Between them there exist the two common ties of religion and language, but the two populations differ to a considerable extent on account of admixture with other races, and of their different environments. Those in Europe represent the tendencies of what especiaUy characterizes HeUenism much more distinctly than those in Asia. They have done so during the last two thousand years. Hellenic Greeks were steeped in the religious sentiment of Greece, which represented the supernatural powers as every wheie present. Their religion was Pantheism of a type which it is difficult to understand, but which is stiU ever present with the uneducated Greek. There was a deity for every spring, waterfaU, vaUey, or forest. Though among the cultured the wor ship became spiritualized as that of the forces of nature, among the uncultured it was polytheism of the most pronounced type. It was probably nearly always saved from being of a gross type by the lightsome, cheery, open-air temperament and life of the Greek race. But that the masses believed in the existence of a great number of gods I think is beyond reasonable doubt. When, beginning with Constantine the Great, public THE GREEKS IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE 97 sacrifices to the gods, and subsequently sacrifices every where were suppressed ; and when, in the time of Theo- dosius, decrees were issued ordering every subject to become Christian, nearly aU men made profession of Christianity to save their hves or property. In pagan times it was weU to be on good terms with aU the gods. But no form of paganism was worth dying for. In becoming nominal Christians the people took their ancient practices with them and paganized the Church. The spring became an ayasma or Holy WeU, usuaUy guarded by a saint. Religious services were held at it and are continued to this day wherever there is a Greek population. The " saints," who were multiplied much more in the Eastern than in the Western Church, became the successors of the gods. The churches were filled with icons or holy pictures, and pagan practices in a variety of forms survived under Christian forms. The HeUenic people have varied little in the course of their history. In religion, as Lord Beaconsfield observed, they are stiU largely pagan. " They think," as he made one of his characters in " Lothair " declare, " that their processions with sacred pictures are Christian, but they are only doing what their fathers did." The thousands gathered from the neighbouring country at any of the great shrines of the Greek Church in Turkey are only doing, probably on the same spot, and mostly in the same manner, what their ancestors did two thousand years ago. ApoUo yesterday ; St George to-day : for the instinct for sun-worship has never ceased to exist in the Greek race. There is no Greek village known to me where on the eve of St John's Day fires are not hghted on the hiUs and in the vaUeys as they have been probably for mUlenniums. In the same way the political characteristics of the race have little changed. The uncultured Greek 98 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE is as violent in his prejudices, as eloquent and vehement and vainglorious in his speech, as incon clusive in his arguments, and as unpracticable as were his ancestors. The greatest fault to be found with many of the leaders of the Greek people to-day is that they mistake oratory for statesmanship. Professor Bury says x that " Demosthenes was the most eloquent of orators and the most patriotic of citizens. But that oratory in which he exceUed was one of the curses of Greek politics." It is so stiU. The men of common sense, of cool heads, capable of thinking out the practical problems of statesmanship have little chance against the mere talker. The Greek kingdom during the last thirty years has suffered enormously because thoughtful men, and they exist in fair abundance among the better class of Greeks, have no chance against the fluent speaker or writer. Unfortunately it would be easy to give many instances of national folly and consequent misfortune due to mere unthoughtful oratory. Let one suffice. Most people remember the wretched war of 1897, when the Turks could have marched almost without hindrance to the sack of the Piraeus, and even Athens itself, U they had not been prevented by the watchfulness of Europe. Every one who had knowledge of the facts was sure that the Greeks would be beaten ignominiously if they were so foolish as to declare war. They were so beaten. The Greeks made a quite pitiful show of resist ance. HappUy the Powers agreed to leave the settle ment of terms of peace to Austria, and thus Greece was saved. I was in Athens shortly after the war, and called upon an old friend who belongs to the Phocion rather than to the Demosthenian class of men. I asked why they had made the war when he and all other men with common sense knew they could have no chance of success. 1 " History of Greece," ii. 326. THE GREEKS IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE 99 His reply was substantially the foUowing : " Of course many of us realized that we had no chance. But the orators of our cafes and the newspapers that pander to the vain glory of our ignorant mob had shrieked out the praises of the ancient Greeks, had talked of the brave deeds done at our revolution, of the invincible courage of our soldiers and saUors, to such an extent that they had persuaded their hearers and readers, and probably themselves, that they could beat the Turkish army. A loud cry for war was raised, and an easy victory anticipated." " But you could not have thought so ? " Then he added a story which, as the principal actors are dead, I will relate. Three or four of the ex-ministers went at night to Mr Deliyani, the Prime Minister, and asked that their interview should be private. Deliyani agreed. His visitors explained the object of their coming. They were there to state that the unpreparedness of the country urged them to put aside aU party feeling and to join cordiaUy with the government to prevent war. They suggested that Deliyani should caU a meeting of the Chamber — there is only one — exclude reporters, and urge the members not to speak of what went on at the secret session ; that the ministers should expose the unpre paredness of the country. They in return would pledge themselves not to make recriminations, but loyaUy to support the ministry in any proposal to avoid war. Mr Dehyani expressed his appreciation of their patriot ism, and thanked them with the utmost cordiality. It was agreed that the same persons should meet him on the foUowing evening after he had consulted his cabinet. Next night they returned, and were first very sincerely thanked by Deliyani on behalf of aU his coUeagues. But after long deliberations the ministers had decided that the suggested course was too dangerous to adopt. The 100 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE reason given was probably true : that the orators of the cafes and press had so intoxicated themselves and the mob with their own boasting, that if the government decided against war there would be a revolution. The royal famUy would be driven away, and Greece would re ceive no kind of friendly aid from the European Powers. This is the explanation of why the Greeks went to a war in which mismanagement and incompetency were the chief features and in which they had never the slightest chance of success. So much for the average Greek in European Turkey. There are, however, many men among them of great abUity and good judgment. It is a pleasure to turn from the Greeks, whether residing in Athens or in Constanti nople, who are merely shaUow and noisy politicians, and much more agreeable to speak of them in other aspects. Their joyousness is a lesson to Englishmen. Their patriotism, however blatant, is genuine. Their desire for education is praiseworthy. Their devotion to the interest of their own people is to be seen not in boastful speeches but in real work. Much of this work is done unostentatiously. Poor scholars educated ; promising boys sent to Europe to study special subjects — many simUar good deeds are told of Greeks in Constantinople. The late Mr Bikelas the historian, who died in the summer of 1908, devoted his later years and a large portion of his by no means large income to selecting and editing books written in English or other languages on practical subjects. These he translated into modern Greek and sold at the lowest possible prices to the public. When I saw him last, he had recently published a handbook on bee-keeping which had already given a large stimulus to that industry. Besides books on kindred subjects, he selected others for translation which were likely to stimulate the peasant to industry and to improve him THE GREEKS IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE 101 materiaUy and moraUy. His translation of the principal plays of Shakespeare was part of a plan to place before his countrymen selections from the best literature of the world. Probably his own inclination would have led him to continue the historical studies which had given him a place among the historians of Europe. Other Greeks in various spheres have been doing useful and self-denying work. Wherever a Greek community exists, the patriotism of the race shows itself in useful outlets. Athens indeed is in some danger of being pauperized by the asylums, hospitals, orphanages, schools, and other institutions with which it has been endowed by wealthy Greeks. Around the iEgean and the Marmora it constantly happens that a Greek from one of the villages makes his fortune outside his own country, and apparently his first object is to buUd a school or hospital, and occasionally, though not often, a church in his native place. The generosity of the Greeks in such matters is beyond praise. Their enterprise as business men is of a very high order. Greek traders are to be found in every civUized country. The merchant vessels owned by Greeks are said to be more numerous, though of course not of equal tonnage, than those possessed by any other nation except England. It wiU be remembered that wherever our soldiers went during the expeditions in Egypt they found Greeks. Lord Cromer, shortly before he left that country, paid them a weU-deserved compliment as a race always in the forefront of commerce. A friend of mine, a mining engineer, went out at the late Mr CecU Rhodes's request to examine certain mineral deposits in the back country of Rhodesia, and twenty mUes from the nearest settlement, where, however, there was no Englishman. His com panion feU HI and my friend rode late at night to procure medicine for him. When at midnight he reached a small 102 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE settlement, the most remote in the country, aU lights were out except one which was seen through the chinks of a shutter. Doubtful of whom he might find, he listened and heard the persons speaking Greek. He asked in that language for admission, found that the Greeks were as much astonished as he to find anyone in so remote a spot who spoke their language, and obtained aU he wanted. What I have said of the Greek as a politician apphes principaUy to the Greeks in Europe. Those who hve in Asia and the Greeks of the capital have always been, and continue to be considerably different in character. Common language, a common Church, and the instinct of the Greek for travel have caused at various times a large influx of European Greeks into Asia-Minor. Smyrna is for example largely peopled by immigrants from Greece. The Greeks of Constantinople are from both Continents. Thousands of them have come from the Ionian Islands. It must be remembered that Greece is a small country, that much of it is rocky, and that the physical conditions are such that the adventurous Greek has been at all times forced to seek his living in other lands. Indeed, at present the most serious question with which the Greeks of the kingdom have to deal is emigration. The United States offers as many induce ments to them as it did two generations ago to the Irish. With the f amUy affection, which is one of the best features of the Greek, the industrious emigrant soon makes enough money to send for his relations, and so emigration has gone on, and goes on steadily increasing. In former times Greeks emigrated to places all round the Mediter ranean, to Marseilles, Italy, Tripoli, Egypt, Syria, and especially to Asia-Minor. Anyone who recalls his Greek history wUl remember how, even in the classic period of the Greek race, its colonies were found far afield. Smyrna was always an important Greek centre. It is THE GREEKS IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE 103 only within recent years that it has ceased to be the city inhabited by the largest number of Greeks. It must be noted that while neither Anatohan Greek nor HeUenic is of pure descent, the people with whom they have intermingled respectively have been different. The Europeans have intermarried with Slavs, Albanians, WaUachs, and Franks ; the Asiatics with the earher races of Asia-Minor and Syria. The Semitic races have left their influence. So also have the Armenians. The Galatians, inhabitants of what was called by ancient geographers GaUo-Grecia, on account of its conquest and settlement in the third century B.C. by the Gauls, found a population probably of Hittites, and both con queror and conquered contributed to the formation of the existing Asiatic Greek. AU round the coast there were and are Greek-speaking peoples. The Lazes of north eastern Asia-Minor, most of whom are now Moslems, form one such people. The colonies at Trebizond, Samsoun, Amasia, Sinope, and elsewhere on the Black Sea, and even inland near Konia, remain Greek in religion, but are notoriously not of pure race. On the south coast of Asia-Minor from Adaha to Alexandretta there has been a large intermixture of Arab blood. It is in their history and environment that we find how the Greek-speaking people of Anatolia have come to differ from their brethren in Europe. The tendency of Asiatic influence as already stated was monotheistic. No better Ulustration of the different tendencies of the Asiatic and European Greek could be given than that furnished by the Iconoclastic controversy, where the first was iconoclast, the second iconodule. The Asiatic Greek is not so lively, so hasty in temper, so versatUe, or volatUe in business and in pleasure as his European relation. But he is quite as intelligent. He is a slower-minded man, but his judgment is sounder. 104 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE He takes life more seriously. The pleasures of the HeUenic Greek are more frivolous than those which wiU satisfy the Asiatic. The casino and the theatre in the towns, the cafes in the villages are the HeUenic Greek's delight. The intelligence of the Greek-speaking people is undoubted. The lower class almost everywhere in the western portion of Asia-Minor have most of the smaU shops in their hands. They work hard, save money, are obliging and courteous. They dislike farming, but take readUy to the sea and make good saUors in ordinary weather. Their fault as seamen is a want of coolness in sudden emergencies. I remember my own cutter being caught in one of the sudden squaUs in the Marmora, when nothing but presence of mind and great activity can save a vessel. I was not on board at the time, but fortunately another Englishman was. When the fierce gale laid the cutter over almost on her beam-ends, the Greek saUors lost their heads, and instead of hastening to let everything go, began franticaUy crossing them selves and calling on the Virgin and Saint Nicolas for aid. The Englishman was at the helm, but knocked the kneeling devotees over and kicked them into doing their duty. Voltaire said of English saUors that, having no belief in the power of the saints to work miracles, they worked them for themselves. The lower-class Greek has not yet reached that stage. It is from the lower class of Greeks that we who hve on the Bosporus receive our domestic servants. They are usuaUy good girls, rarely given to be fast, often quite illiterate, but occasionally, especiaUy if coming from the islands belonging to Greece, able to read and write. Probably HeUene" is the commonest name among them. But ah the old names exist. The ugliest maiden who ever served in our house was Aphrodite. We gave THE GREEKS IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE 105 warning to Cassandra and she was replaced by a Theodora who was obedient, meek, and correct. The traditions of the Greeks have led them to keep the names of their Ulustrious ancestors. They have a kindly feeling even towards their pagan heroes. At Mount Athos I saw various pictures of heaven in which Leoni- das and Epaminondas and Plato occupied places of honour. These still remain common names. So also are Enstratius, Zoe, and Penelope. Constantine and George are probably now the commonest men's names. The modern pronunciation of Greek often puzzles traveUers. A Greek lady visitor took up one of Mr Theodore Bent's books and remarked to me, " I see you have a book on the Kicklathees." It was on the Cyclades. I remember asking a witness his name. He gave it as Evripeethes. The judge, who was new to the country, asked how it was spelt. I replied, " Call it Euripides," and the difficulty solvitur risu. Some of the names strike an Englishman as strange. I have a servant who is caUed Saviour, Soteri. Another is Deut6ri, pronounced Thevtari, or Monday. Paraskevi (Friday) is not unusual. Stavros, a cross, is common, the patronymic Stavrides being an ordinary surname. As, however, I have written elsewhere on the question of modern pronunciation, I need say no more. The individualism of the Greeks is very marked. Each one fights for himself. Greek boys usuaUy are not good at games like footbaU or cricket where combined action is necessary. Each plays for himself only, and not for his side. Nor have they the feeling for fair play. If the game is going against them, they lose their temper. To use convenient slang, what they do is " not cricket." In none of their contests can they be depended upon ** to play the game." They are not less keen in athletic sports than any other race in the empire. Indeed, I 106 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE think they are the keenest. For many years I have been astonished at the skiU in athletics shown at the largest Greek commercial school in the country, which is in the island of Halki. I have seen splendid performances on the cross-bar, at climbing, running, leaping, and the hke which showed exceptional activity, energy, and skUl. The exercises were entirely voluntary, and the boys dehghted in them. Within a mUe from the school in question is the only Turkish naval coUege, where the students had no boat to practise in, and seemed to take their holiday or (as it is generaUy expressed in Turkey) to make their kef in sitting on a quay and dangling their legs over the water. The contrast between the restless activity and agility of the Greeks and the dead-and-ahve conduct of the Turks is very striking. Yet set the Turks to play a game hke football which requires organization, and aU the experts are agreed that the Turks wUl play better. They instinctively recognize the need of orga nization, of playing for their side. They take the game cooUy, do the work assigned them, lose without loss of temper, and win without irritating exultation. They play the game. The same remark apphes also to Armenian boys. Bulgarians take to athletic games readUy, are very serious about them, and co-operate with their side. Combined action is contrary to the nature of the Greek. Individualism makes them courageous and daring, but as in the Greek revolution and in the conduct of the Greek nation ever since, they do not act weU together. Artemus Ward's regiment, where there should be no one below the rank of colonel, would completely suit the Greek. He has no greater desire than other people to be superior in rank, but he must work for him self and be the centre of what goes on around him. Every coffee-house in Athens has its knot of politicians THE GREEKS IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE 107 who settle the Greek question nightly, every one appa rently himself a better politician than any of the ministers in power. Yet it must not be forgotten that individualism has served the race weU in many parts of the world, nor that the wealthiest Greeks are to be found in the great European cities outside Greece, where, notwithstanding that they have had to compete with the keenest of business men, they have held their own. The Greek Islanders The Greek islanders are perennially interesting. I include in the term those who inhabit aU the islands of the Archipelago, whether belonging to Turkey or Greece. The traveUer who sees the Greek islands for the first time will be disappointed. Instead of a vegetation coming down to the water's edge, many of them look barren rocks, incapable of being cultivated. The " eternal summer " which " gUds them yet " has apparently burnt up every trace of green vegetation. Nevertheless most of them are beautiful, though they present their worst side to the sea. The description of them as places " where grew the arts of war and peace " has its truthful as weU as its poetic side. But they are essentiaUy places for rest — for the weary sailor who has made a few pounds to quit the sea and hve and he rechned for the rest of his days. Possibly he may be as tired of the sea as St John was who, having only the dreary waste of waters to look upon from Patmos, described heaven as a place where there should be no more sea. But to an elderly Greek as to an Englishman, who never feels quite happy unless he knows himself to be within get-at-able distance from the sea, the island vaUeys with their abundance of vines, figs, and ohves, present the restfulness, absence of excite- 108 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE ment, joy of mere living which either invite to work as an indulgence or to a condition of nirvana. The history of most of these islands has never been written, yet I doubt whether any sites in the Western world possess more romantic interest. Natural scenery, archaeological remains, association with heroic deeds and with the struggle of races, all combine to invite a visitor to stay. Take for example Chios, an island about twice the size of the Isle of Wight, with a perfect climate and superb scenery. For a whUe in the occupation of a Genoese Company of merchant adventurers, each of whom took the name Justiniani ; then, a century ago, the paradise of Greeks who had made fortunes in various cities of Europe, a seat of learning with libraries and coUeges — the very name of Chios suggesting refinement and easy circumstances, for the island was under the indirect rule of a sultana, who received her tribute regularly and was content to let the Chiots alone. Then came the Greek revolution, the Chiots sending hostages to Constantinople, and carefuUy keeping out of the struggle, though with fear and trembling. Next the bursting of a thunderstorm, the Sultan having given the order, in 1822, that terror was to be struck into aU the Greeks of the empire : a rush of aU the scoundreldom from Smyrna and even from Constantinople itself ; the destruction of the houses, capture of the women and chUdren, the murder of the men ; death and destruction everywhere ; three months of plunder, the gratification of man's lust, the desolation of the beautiful island : four thousand persons, mostly women and chUdren, sold into slavery. Only five thousand left alive out of sixty thousand. The fate of many of the victims of the massacre of Chios is still a matter of lively tradition wherever the Greek race exists. In every place where there is a Greek THE GREEKS IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE 109 colony — in London, MarseiUes, and Russia, the ablest Greeks usuaUy claim Chios origin. Almost every famUy has a gruesome story to teU. One friend of mine glories in the fact that her grandfather, sent to Constanti nople as a hostage, was hanged. There was no charge against him except that he was a Greek and a Chiot. Another, and this is a common case, teUs of his mother having been taken into a harem and of her being assisted to escape on board a foreign vessel. My late friend Dr Paspates, the archaeologist, has often told how, when the plundering gang came into his father's house and killed most of the inmates, his mother, then a girl, con cealed her jeweUery in her thick mass of hair. Captured and sold into a Turkish harem, she managed to get into communication with a British merchant. She was unknown to him but trusted to British honour, then and always the most valuable asset we possess in Turkey. The Englishman entered cautiously into negotiations with her owner and succeeded in buying her freedom. Paspates was fond of relating how loyaUy and generously the Englishman behaved. Another weU-known story relates how two httle brothers were sold to different owners, one being brought up as a Moslem, and the other as a Christian purchased from a harem. They both hved to be old men in Constantinople, each keeping to the creed in which he had been trained. One rose to be grand vizier : the other to be a respected physician. Another island in the .ZEgean under Turkish rule has a stiU more remarkable history. The inhabitants of Rhodes have many strains of blood. Every one knows the story of the Colossus of Rhodes, the bronze statue of ApoUo, the Sun-god, usuaUy represented as straddling across the mouth of the boat harbour, and beneath whose legs ships were supposed to enter.1 1 It probably served as a lighthouse, and thus may recall the noble figure of Liberty which forms so conspicuous an object on approaching 110 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE But few people recognize that Rhodes played an important part in European history during the two centuries preceding 1522, when the island feU under Turkish rule. In 1310 it was occupied by the Knights of Jerusalem, who took the name of Knights of Rhodes. Their original duty had been to protect pilgrims on their way to Palestine. Their history is a long and glorious romance. Under them Rhodes was for a century at least the most powerful State in the Mediterranean. Her knights were the militant arm of Christendom, the inveterate enemies of the pirates from Algiers and other North African countries. When Philip le Bel with un scrupulous ferocity suppressed the Knights Templars, the public opinion of Europe would not aUow him to touch the Knights of Rhodes. Their power became so great and their hostUity to Mahometanism so formidable that Mahomet, the conqueror of Constantinople, after New York. Though accounts differ as to its height, the lowest assigned is a hundred feet. It is difficult to decide upon the position where it stood. With the aid of all I could read on the subject and the assistance of our consul, Mr Biliotti, members of whose family have made the island and its history their special study for two generations, I was unable to satisfy myself during my last visit to Rhodes in 1906 as to the original site. We examined what is now a small garden just within the walls, but which was certainlyat one time a boat harbour, and agreed in thinking that of all the sites suggested this appeared to be the likeliest. There is no reason whatever to contest the existence of the Colossus. The accounts come from various sources and are too full of detail to leave any doubt on the point. Sir Charles Newton and Mr Biliotti agree with certain ancient authorities that it did not straddle across the entrance to any harbour, but that the feet were on the same slab. The Colossus was destroyed by an earthquake fifty years after its erection, but the accounts of the heaps of bronze, the size of the fingers and other portions of the figure, furnish satisfactory evidence of its colossal proportions. Nor is there any reason to doubt that it was a superb work of art. The city of Rhodes itself was richly endowed with statues, and can only have been inferior in this respect to Athens itself. Even to-day, when half the museums in Europe have been enriched with treasures of art from it, one sees everywhere in the ancient city, pedestals, capitals, altars, fragments of friezes and other sculptured work, which fully confirm the statement that in classic times it was rich in this kind of wealth. THE GREEKS IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE 111 tremendous struggles to capture Rhodes, his latest siege being in 1480, left as a direction to his successors that their efforts were to be addressed, first against Belgrade, the key to the advance northwards, and then against Rhodes, to further attacks westward. Yet it was not till 1522 that the Turks succeeded in capturing it. The story of Rhodes is a thrilling one. It is full of varied interest and brave deeds, of heroic fighters and treacherous renegades. If a modern Sir Walter would study it, he would find ample material for a dozen histori cal novels which would illustrate alike the valour of the knights, the wiliness of spies and renegades, and, let me add in fairness, the chivalrous deeds of many a Moslem. But how stands the once famous city of Rhodes to-day ? My last visit to it was in 1906. It remains in much the same condition as it was in the first half of the sixteenth century. No Christian is aUowed to sleep within it. Its fifteenth-century walls and forti fications are strictly guarded, though the interior of the city would not be worth capturing, and the fortifications would be useless under modern conditions. The stone houses are picturesque, with balconies, with grills, with numerous bridges across the narrow streets to enable the knights during a siege to pass readUy from one place to another above the houses. In the streets one sees numbers of stone cannon-baUs which tell of the last gieat siege, capitals and altars which belong to the earlier Greek period. The remains of the temple of St John, which was destroyed by an accidental explosion of the gunpowder magazine in 1856, enable the visitor to recognize that the drawings and the descriptions given by persons stiU living are correct in speaking of it, as a place of singular beauty. The houses of the Masters of each of the " nations " of knights are stiU preserved. Indeed, on every hand one sees inscriptions and shields 112 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE which mark the dweUing-place of the most distinguished knights. There is notably a Rue de Chevaliers which, though stripped of many of the shields which I saw there on my first visit in 1876, is yet a street as httle changed during the last four centuries as probably any in Europe. My last glimpse of the city was on the Greek Easter Sunday in 1906. Between the city and the cluster of houses half a mUe distant, where Christians live and to which I was returning, there is a broad expanse of open country. The only persons whom I met were a Greek priest with four or five acolytes or friends on their way to a church two mUes distant. As we got near they looked hard at the foreigner coming from the ancient city accompanied by a Turkish kavass. I gave them their Easter salutation, Xptcrro? dvearrj : their faces brightened as with one voice they threw back the response, 'AXrjd&s dviarq. Beyond the expanse of open land in front of me, bright with spring flowers, lay a wide stretch of yeUow sand ; beyond that a sea of a glorious ultramarine such as I never saw in any other sea than the Mediterranean and not always there, and far on the other side of the fifteen mUes of sea were the beautfful blue mountains of Asia-Minor, the highest stUl capped with snow. When Rhodes is more easUy reached, its many attractions, not only to people interested in history, archaeology, and the modern Greeks, but to aU who delight in beautiful scenery and enjoy a delicious climate, wiU make the island a favourite winter resort. Before leaving the subject of the Greek islands I repeat that there is a wonderful charm about most of them. Sappho's birthplace, the picturesque island of Mitylene, stiU cherishes her memory, and though one may well doubt or rather have no doubt about the validity of her THE GREEKS IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE 113 relics in the island, its scenery and associations, its very atmosphere and seas adds zest to what one reads of her, and by her. Hardly any of the islands are without valuable frag ments of antiquity to add to their general interest. Take, for example, MUos or Melos. Everyone knows the famous Venus of MUo, now in the Louvre. Only a few are acquainted with the marvels which successive explorers, and of late years especiaUy English scholars, have brought to hght in that island. The objects discovered range in interest from a time when flint or obsidian implements marked man's progress through Greek and Roman periods down to late Byzantine times. As art decayed after the marveUous century of per fection in Athens, its study was continued not only in various places in the West of Asia Minor, notably Lycia, but in the islands. Investigations and new finds are constantly strengthening this view. It is confirmed by the singular story about the Venus of MUo. When in 1820 the statue was found by the French there was upon its base the name of a sculptor, Alexandras son of Menides of Antioch, who belonged to the second century B.C. The name was afterwards cut away, because, said certain savants, it is impossible that so superb a work can be of so late a date. Surely it would be difficult to find a worse example of the chauvinism of archaeologists.1 1 Those curious as to this story may find the details in Overbeck's " Griechische Plastic," Book V. ch. iv. In the edition of 1882 (the third) it is in vol. ii. p. 329. CHAPTER VII THE GREEK CHURCH Its influence on European history — Its organization — Murder of Greek Patriarch in 1822 — Rehgion and nationality— Influence on Greek race and individuals — Mount Athos- — Disorderly church- services — Church preserved Greek language in Turkey — Alleged intolerance of Greek church — Attachment of Greeks to Church — Traces of paganism in the Greek and other Eastern churches — Conclusion ANY notice of the Greeks would be incomplete which did not speak of their Church and of its present position. No nation has ever been more closely identified with its Church than have the Greeks. Its influence also on European civUization has been immense. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries it took the largest share in formulating Christian theology, and it created canon law. The formation of the Nicene Creed alone as modified at the subsequent CouncU of Constantinople and arranged in its present shape by the CouncU of Chalcedon, the present Kadikuey, was a historical achievement of the first order. It is true that other races and churches were represented at these Councils, but Greek influence and Greek phUosophy gave the lead. One-third of the bishops present at Nicsea were from Asia Minor. The creed has been accepted aU down the centuries to the present day by nine-tenths of those who have professed Christianity. The skiU and finesse with which the questions brought before these early CouncUs were discussed bear testimony to the acuteness of the inteUect of the clergy of the eastern portion of the 114 THE GREEK CHURCH 115 empire. The long-enduring results of their discussions show the thoroughness with which the questions were thrashed out. Once the premises on which the discus sions took place are accepted, the conclusions are in evitable and are universally accepted. We may be astounded at the violence displayed, at the intense energy of the disputants, as when in Ephesus a bishop was trampled to death, but we must respect the thought, the care, and the earnestness which they brought to the consideration of the difficult and solemn questions under consideration. With the aid of the lawyers the Church established a system of law, which in substance remains that of every civilized country in matters of testamentary and other succession, marriage and other questions of personal statute. The Greek Church has for many centuries ceased to be a missionary church. But besides Christianizing the various races within the empire, its great missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, succeeded in planting Christianity among the Slav races. The heresies with which it had to deal bear witness not only to the subtleties of the human mind, but to the determination to solve the great questions suggested by the Christian creed. The Nestorian with his two natures in Christ, and his refusal to recognize the Virgin Mary as the Theotokos ; the Syrians or Jacobites with their Monophysite teaching of one nature, the sects which taught that Christ had but one WUl and were hence caUed Monothelites ; the Adoptionists or Paulicians whose teaching spread from the extreme of Asia Minor to Ireland — aU testify to great activity of mind, seriousness of thought, and quickness of intelligence. These questions for which men fought, for which hundreds were slain, though they have for the most part long lost their interest, yet remain like extinct 116 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE volcanoes to show how fierce was the fire with which they once burned. The Greek Church, always devoted to the solution of moral and inteUectual puzzles, whUe its great rival in the West paid more attention to questions which regarded the conduct of life, graduaUy and characteristicaUy came to be known as the Orthodox Church. Among its many services to the world was that of creating a new style of architecture. The Greeks, during the great century of their history, had invented and brought to perfection the style which stiU charms the world in the Parthenon and the Erectheion. The Romans, though they did not, as is often loosely stated, invent the key-stone arch, for Professor HUprecht found one under the accumulations of miUenniums at Nippur, at least discovered its great utUity and employed it in many solid and stately buUdings which stiU remain. The Orthodox Church, unwiUing to employ the buUdings which had been devoted to the worship of idols, or even to construct new ones after their model, employed the arch, extended its use, surmounted it with a stately dome, and made their churches glorifications of the arch. Let it be noted, however, that they invariably attached more importance to the interior than to the exterior of their Houses of Prayer, with the result that an English authority on architecture can say of the interior of the Great Church of Constantinople, which was buUt in the middle of the sixth century, that Hagia Sophia " is the most perfect and most beautiful church which has yet been erected by any Christian people." x Its exterior, however, remains unfinished to the present day. Though disfigured in appearance by additions and changes, prin cipally intended to add strength, it has none of the casings and external ornamentation which have transformed St ' Fergusson's "History of Architecture," vol. ii. p. 321. THE GREEK CHURCH 117 Marc's at Venice from what the present building was in the fourteenth century to what it is in the twentieth. Hagia Sophia gave a type of buUding which was repro duced in various parts of the empire, reproduced but with many variations. The beautiful little churches in Constantinople, now Moslem temples, of St John the Baptist and the Kalendir mosque may serve as models of what the ordinary parish church was like. The Gul Jami or Rose mosque, once probably the church of Pantepoptes, the church of the Pantocrator, of Pam- makaristos and of Hagia Irene, remain as illustrations in the capital of how the architects gave reins to their skill. In Salonika other variations from the type exist, and some of its churches are illustrations of what beauti ful effects can be obtained by employing bricks of any shape which the architect desired. The history of Byzantine architecture has not been satisfactorily written. Sir William Ramsay, who has had the subj ect under notice during the many years of his visits to Anatolia, has pro bably coUected material to give us the most complete book yet produced, showing its development untU it culminated in Hagia Sophia, and subsequently made many interesting developments. Though Constantinople became the capital of the later Roman empire its bishop or patriarch never succeeded in occupying so important a position in the State as did the bishop of Rome. In the Eastern empire there were four patriarchates — those of Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Constantinople. The patriarch of Con stantinople sometimes maintained long struggles with the emperors, and even successfully resisted them, but never succeeded in obtaining an entirely independent position. The ecclesiastical division of the empire corresponded to the civU. The chief bishop in a province was caUed 118 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE a patriarch or an exarch. GraduaUy the name patriarch became limited in the East to the bishops of the places already mentioned. The Church is stiU governed in theory by the four patriarchs, who are equal in authority. The teaching of the Orthodox Church is that aU the four patriarchs enjoy equal dignity and have the highest rank among the bishops. The bishops, united in a general councU, represent the Church, and infallibly decide aU matters of faith and ecclesiastic hfe under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. But as in the days of the empire, so now. With few exceptions the patriarchs have usually been under the supremacy of the civU power. Upon the capture of Constantinople this supremacy was transferred to the Sultan. The patriarch of Constantinople exercises ecclesiastical rule over European Turkey and a large portion of Asia Minor. Eighty-six bishops owe him allegiance. He resides at the Phanar, a district in Constantinople which for three centuries has been largely occupied by Greeks, and a century ago contained the residences of the wealthiest Greek famUies from whom men were taken to become the rulers of Moldavia and WaUachia. As there was much intrigue and bribery to secure these and other positions under the sultans, Phanariot came to be a synonym for a man of unscrupulous political intrigue. In the Phanar, which is on the south shore of the Golden Horn, is the cathedral church of the patriarchate. Immediately adjoining it is the official residence of the patriarch. One of the features which attracts the notice of visitors to the patriarchate is a large closed double gate at the head of the flight of stone steps leading to the principal entrance. The gate should indeed, be the usual entry to the official residence. But it has been closed since 1822, when the reigning patriarch was hung in the gateway. The story of his murder and the treat- THE GREEK CHURCH 119 ment of his body is one which deserves to be remembered as illustrating the conditions under which Greeks hved in Constantinople less than a century ago. We have a careful account of it by a trustworthy witness, the Rev. Dr Walsh, who was chaplain to the British Embassy in Constantinople at the time. The excitement among all sections of the population in the capital had been for some time intense, on account of the progress of the struggle by the Greeks in Greece to gain their independ ence. This had now been going on for some years. Dr Walsh repeats three or four times over that the Turks avowedly acted on the principle of making every man responsible for the acts of every other man of his nation. It is one weU worth bearing in mind when reading of Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria and Armenia as weU as against the Greeks. Already a reign of terror existed in 1822, throughout Western Turkey, and hardly any where worse than in the capital itself. The Greeks of Constantinople were not aiding their countrymen, and were indeed too much stricken with fear to do so, though, of course, they sympathized with them. Nevertheless, they were everywhere pubhcly insulted, their property seized, and their leading men butchered. Men who were weU known and highly respected by Enghsh and other foreign residents, as weU as by their own people, were imprisoned, brought out suddenly and, without trial, hanged, or otherwise killed. Shortly before Easter Sunday of 1822, the execution of ten of the principal Greeks residing at the Phanar, and of various others of inferior note, seemed to whet the appetite of the Moslem population for blood. Hostages were hanged. Ana tolian regiments passing through the capital were aUowed to commit every outrage on Greek and Armenian women. The devilish spirit of triumphant fanaticism became so rampant that the Sultan himself became alarmed. 120 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Foreigners were maltreated as weU as native Christians. To prevent any movement on the part of the Greeks, the Sultan sent for the patriarch, and during an interview of five hours prepared a declaration signed by the patriarch, and subsequently by twenty-one of his bishops, which was printed and read on the foUowing Sunday in aU the Greek churches. It is a document of abject subjection, evidently wrung from the patriarch and signed by his coUeagues, by the threats of a fear-stricken tyrant anxious for his own safety, and signed by the bishops with the object of saving the hves of their flocks. Easter feU in that year for both Latins and Greeks on the 22nd of April. Dr Walsh had finished his own service and was preparing to visit the patriarch according to custom on the great festival, when he " heard terrible news." The patriarch and the bishops, in the conscious ness of their own blameless conduct and in the behef that their pastoral address had removed aU suspicion of their loyalty, had taken part in the usual service in the patriarchal church. The buUding was fuU, and a large crowd remained outside. Addresses were given, emphas izing the advice given in the pastoral to remain quiet, to give no cause of offence, and to show themselves loyal subjects of the Sultan. Suddenly through the dense crowd soldiers forced their way to the patriarchal throne, seized the patriarch, who had just given his benediction to the congregation, and dragging him and the other bishops present into the courtyard tied ropes round their necks. According to the custom of that period each Church dignitary and even foreign consul had an attend ant janissary told off to protect him. The patriarch's janissary had learned to respect and like him. When he saw his master roughly treated, he rushed to his defence and fought against the soldiers untU he was stabbed into sUence. The venerable and beloved old patriarch was THE GREEK CHURCH 121 then dragged under the gateway. The cord was passed through the staple that fastened the folding doors, and the old man with his patriarchal robes upon him was hauled up and left to struggle in the agonies of death. Two of his chaplains were hanged at the same time in the neighbouring doorways. The bishops of Nicomedia (Ismidt), of Ephesus, and of Anchialos were dragged through the streets and hanged at different places in the Phanar on the same occasion. The body of the patriarch was aUowed to hang for three days, and was exposed to various insults. Then some of the lowest class of Jews were ordered to drag it down to the Golden Horn, a distance of a hundred and fifty yards, and to throw it into the water. Dr Walsh is careful to point out that the creatures chosen for this purpose " were incapable of sense or feeling on such a subject ; they acted under the impressions of terror and stupidity, and any exultation they showed was to gratify their more brutal and ferocious masters." FinaUy, however, the body was found floating in the Marmora and was taken to Odessa for interment. No shadow of proof or just ground of suspicion, says Dr Walsh, was ever stated against the patriarch. Indeed, the British chaplain, to whom the patriarch was personaUy weU known, speaks of him as distinguished for his piety and gentleness. In concluding this story, there are two facts which I add with sincere pleasure : First, that Dr Walsh bears witness that the news of the outrage gave an immediate expansion to the Greek revolutionary party ; and, second, that throughout aU the bloody outrages which preceded and foUowed the execution, the foreign residents, and especially the British, behaved weU, succoured the desolate and oppressed, ransomed many prisoners, both men and women, and, whenever possible, hid them, 122 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE disguised them, aided fugitives to escape, and did this often at the risk of their own lives. In Turkey, but especially among the Greeks, the religious community to which a man belongs is regarded as of more importance than his nationality. Ask a Turkish subject of what nationality he is, and he wiU reply that he is a Moslem or an Orthodox, a Cathohc or an Armenian, as the case may be. It may be that he is an Armenian Cathohc, but the latter word only wiU be used, the word Armenian, signifying that he belongs to the Armenian or Gregorian Church. So also of the Greek Uniats, that is, the members of the Greek race who are united to the Church of Rome. The answer of such a member wiU be that he is a Cathohc. The Orthodox Church is by far the most important of the Christian millets or communities in Turkey, and their almost invariable use of the word Orthodox to signify the race to which they belong usuaUy surprises a stranger. Of what nationality are you ? The answer in nine cases out of ten wiU, be, " I am Orthodox." To them race and rehgion, or nationality and rehgion, are usuaUy identical. This conjunction has had important effects on the history of the Greeks and their Church. Since 1453 they have always been able to speak with one voice ; the mouthpiece has been their Church. They have been singularly tenacious of their rights, which have aU clustered around their Church. In return the Church saved the race. They had privUeges granted to them by Mahomet immediately after the conquest. The con cession of these privUeges was rather a renewal of those which patriarchs had possessed under the empire than a new grant. The grant is creditable both to Mahomet, the conqueror, and the patriarch, the celebrated Gennadius, between whom not only official, but apparently reaUy THE GREEK CHURCH 123 friendly, relations existed. Cantimir states that the original Firman setting out the privileges was burnt, but its existence was estabhshed half, a century later in presence of Sultan Sehm. Throughout the four centuries which have passed since his time these privUeges have been often confirmed, the latest formal confirmations being in the Gul Hane Hatt, and the Tanzimat, granted largely owing to the invaluable aid of Lord Stratford de Redcliff, and in the Constitution. Their churches were taken from the Greeks by successive sultans, so that in Constantinople itself only one insignificant buUding remains in which Christian worship has been celebrated continuously since 1453. But they were allowed to build others ; for this was one of the privUeges conceded by the conqueror. Other privUeges were accorded which proved of great value, the most important being the right of the patriarch on behalf of his flock to make representa tions to the Sultan and the Turkish authorities respecting the violation of any of the privUeges ; and to exercise legal jurisdiction over the members of his community in all matters in dispute among them. The latter con cession was in accordance with mediaeval practice, not only in Moslem, but in Christian states. It was not long, however, before the jurisdiction was limited to what now exists, to the right of jurisdiction in reference to marriage, succession, and questions of personal statute. To maintain these privUeges the Church has constantly been in conflict with the State. During the Abdul Hamid period, it was seldom that a year passed without some attempt being made to limit them. Several encroach ments were successfuUy made, the principal being that if either party to a suit objected to the jurisdiction of the patriarchal courts, he should be free to take his suit into the Turkish. I have not yet met the Greek who would willingly consent that the jurisdiction of the patriarchal 124 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE courts should be abolished. The courts in question are far from being as satisfactory as they ought to be, but they are superior to the Turkish. When, therefore, the too zealous spirits of some of the Young Turkey party speak of abohshing the privUeges of the Greek and other Christian Churches, they are met everywhere with serious opposition. The aU-sufficient Greek answer is, " Reform your courts and then we wiU consider the matter." So long as by the Constitution the estabhshed rehgion of the country is Mahometanism, it is a necessity to the Christian communities that they should maintain their own courts. FamUy hfe being the basis of such com munities, so long as the State does not recognize it, the Christians must be permitted to exercise jurisdiction in regard thereto. Take one case in Ulustration : no means exist under Ottoman law of punishing a Christian for bigamy. The dictum of its law is that a man may have a second wife or even a third or a fourth. The easy manner in which divorce is aUowed by the Orthodox Church is probably due to the fear that if it is not per mitted one at least of the parties wiU abandon the faith. The Influence of the Greek Church on the Race and the Individual It is easy to exaggerate the influence of the Orthodox Church in Turkey. The Hellenic Greek more especiaUy is not a religiously minded man. I do not think that he ever possessed the Hebraic spirit. WhUe HeUenic influence always tended towards the paganization of his rehgion, Paganism and Christianity alike sat hghtly upon him. The Orthodox Church in Turkey, whUe saving the Greek race, has become very largely a political institution. It would not be right to say that it is without even serious religious influence on the community. But its THE GREEK CHURCH 125 religious influence is almost solely among the uneducated, and for this and other reasons is more powerful in Anatolia than in European Turkey. There is a religious instinct which wUl find refuge in the established faith in almost any country. But I have yet to meet the educated Greek who is a regular church-goer, or who wiU admit his behef in what his Church teaches. So far as influence upon character is concerned, the Church has by no means lost its power over the educated class in Turkey. It is certainly not now an aggressive spiritual force. Its educational value is shght. Sermons, except in two or three of the larger cities, and there only rarely, are never heard. The parish priests are too ignorant to preach, too poor to be respected socially. They are, of course, not to blame for their ignorance or poverty. The system under which they hve and the oppression of their pre decessors by the Moslem majority during four and a half centuries are the chief causes. Several circumstances prevent them from rising in the social scale. They are wretchedly paid. No man in comfortable circumstances wiU bring up his son to be a priest. A priest must be a married man before he is ordained. The bishops never marry. Instead of having a fixed salary, the priest has to obtain his living by practices which are degrading, and to which a man of education ought not to have to resort. He usually goes round at least once a month to bless the house of each of his parishoners. For this he wiU receive a piaster or twopence. This seems to be his great stand-by. The rest he makes up in fees for baptisms, marriages, and funerals. The sordidness consequent on such a method of livelihood deters men of inteUigence from encouraging their sons to enter the priesthood. As by the law of the Church the bishop must not be a married man, there is httle hope of promotion for the ordinary priest, and therefore httle incentive to ambition. 126 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE The result is that the ordinary priest is not only poor but without hope of bettering his condition. Neverthe less, as a class, the priests are sober, kindly, human, and honourable men. It should never be forgotten that whatever is the condition of the Orthodox Church in Turkey now, it has done splendid service to the race during the last four centuries. Its priests are uneducated because they are poor. But they are poor because their Church has been deprived of her property, because the people have been oppressed, and even when they had made money were unable to invest it so that it should not be plundered. The Church has dark pages during these four centuries. The higher order of priests, including the patriarchs them selves, bribed in order to obtain or keep their positions. According to the uncontradicted testimony of a great number of writers, there is a melancholy series of the most miserable tales of intrigue and bribery of Turkish officials to obtain the higher offices. The patriarchs, who had gained their position by bribing grand viziers, tried to recover what they had paid by selling appointments of bishops and other functionaries to the highest bidder. The bishops endeavoured to recoup themselves by making priests and people pay. The whole story is a sad one, and helps us to understand how the influence of the Church as a spiritual force (hrninished. The result upon religious sentiment has been fatal. If the definition of rehgion is " morality touched by emotion," then the answer is that in the Greek Church the standard of morality is low and religious emotion rarely visible. There is no enthusiasm either of humanity or of spiritual hfe. Everything is common place and suggests the want of ideals. The priests seem incapable of appreciating the elevating character of THE GREEK CHURCH 127 Christian teaching, and stUl less of displaying the grim earnestness that characterized Scotch ministers, Wesleyan revivalists, Catholic priests, as weU as the members of the two great parties in the Enghsh Church. They have, however, succeeded in saturating the Greek race with an intense love for their Church as representing national existence. During a fortnight's visit to Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain, I saw nearly all the great monasteries and many of the Sket6s (a word from which we derive ascetics), and a number of leading monks. There are about 8000 in all on the peninsula. They are of two orders, the Coenobites, who hve a coUegiate hfe under a warden, and a more ancient order. The former are much more strict in attending church services and in regarding the fasts than the latter. But the impression left upon me was that they were aU living a useless and most of them a lazy hfe. On my return to Con stantinople I endeavoured to stimulate two or three leading Greek friends to visit the Mountain. I pointed out that the geographical position, the extensive and picturesque buildings, and the revenues of the monas teries invited the establishment of a great theological coUege or university for the whole of the Greek race and others belonging to the Orthodox Church ; that the Greek monks, instead of spending their time largely in quarrelling with the monks of the Russian and the Bulgarian convents, should unite forces for the good of their common church, but especiaUy for the furtherance of education. My friends were smitten with the idea and went to Mount Athos. When they returned it was with the melancholy conviction that the monks were hopeless, and that no project of the kind would have the least chance of success so long as the present occupants were in possession. 128 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Before leaving the subject of Mount Athos, with its beautiful old buUdings and crystallized fourteenth century habits, customs and art, and its glorious land scapes with which an artist might fill many sketch books, I may mention some facts of interest. On the peninsula, which is about twenty-four mUes long and from four to ten miles broad, there are eighteen large and many smaU monasteries. They are governed by a representative assembly which meets at Karyes, a small town in the centre of the peninsula where the heads of the houses form a Synod. There is a Turkish governor as an evidence of the rule of the Porte, but he has httle to do. No woman is ever permitted to land, nor is there a female of any kind. Even hens are not aUowed, though there is a large importation of eggs. I had often heard that many years ago an Enghsh lady had landed disguised as a middy. I asked one of the monks whether the story was true, and was gravely assured that it was, and that the Virgin had punished her for her sacrilegious trespass. Her chUd had died. I was able to assure him that the lady in question was stiU hving, and was enjoying a happy old age, but had never been married. Thereupon the monk faced round and declared that he must have been mistaken as to the form of punishment, which evidently was that the lady had been unable to find a husband. Greek monks are as ignorant as the priests, but also as kindly, hospitable, and good-natured. At Batopedi and other monasteries I had a look at the libraries. My visit was not long after the discovery, in the hbrary of the monastery of the Holy Sepulchre on the Golden Horn, of the " Teaching of the Apostles." The wonderfully interesting httle treatise was found bound up with a number of other manuscripts. The book was labelled and indexed with the name of the first treatise only. THE GREEK CHURCH 129 At Mount Athos I was curious to see whether the cata logues were similarly incomplete. My inquiries, besides satisfying me that they were, brought me into contact in every monastery which I visited with the best scholars. The impression formed by me was that there were not more than two or three men who knew any thing of palaeography. During the Greek revolution of 1820-6 Mount Athos was overrun by Turkish troops. The parchment MSS., not in the form of books but of roUs, were raided again and again by the soldiers to make haversacks. Thou sands of MSS. have been destroyed by rats, or stolen or given away. At the same time I beheve that in the libraries of the monasteries on the Mountain and in Mace donia and in those of some of the mosques of the capital there may yet be as precious finds as " The Teaching of the Apostles." It is only at rare intervals that a scholar has been aUowed to look at the piles of MSS., even in the Imperial Library at Seraglio Point known as Top Capou. Yet forty years ago Dethier dug out of them the manuscript of Critobolus, giving the only account which we have by a member of the Orthodox Church of the capture of Constantinople by Mahomet. Dr Axminius Vambery was aUowed a few years ago to search for and take away some of the books which were captured at the taking of Budapest, and which had been in the hbrary of Mathew Corvinus, King of Hungary. The director of the Imperial Russian Institute at Con stantinople found also a copy of the Hexateuch which his government has recently published. With these exceptions I know of only one person who has been aUowed to carefuUy examine the Imperial Library and that attached to St Sophia. He informs me that there are pUes of MSS., mostly in Arabic or Turkish, but that there are others which he has seen in Greek and Latin. 130 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE In the libraries attached to several mosques in Constanti nople there were many MSS. How many remain ? Kim biler ? Before leaving the subject of the influence of the Greek Church and of its priests and monks, let me recaU that they assisted to preserve a knowledge of the Greek language as weU as to compact the Greeks to gether. The very forms and ceremonies of the Church contributed to both these results. Even the hard sheU of their religion guarded the living organization itself. During her centuries of oppression there must always have been found in the most degraded and in different times many pious souls who recognized the inner meaning of their faith and were the better for it. Appearance of Disorder in Ordinary Greek Services An Enghsh visitor to a Greek church is usually struck with the want of discipline, and disorder in the congrega tion. His first impression is that there is a want of reverence, but further experience wiU show him that the congregation is reverent enough in its own way. Two incidents from my own experience wUl show what I mean. One Sunday morning I had taken a walk with my little daughter before breakfast. On my way we entered a Greek church. The important service is usuaUy about eight o'clock. I was known to the priest and many of the congregation, and not wishing to dis turb them, walked quietly up an aisle and stood for a while near a lectern, the priest standing on the opposite side at another. I wished to foUow the service, and, as there was a book on the lectern, quietly turned its pages to find out where the priest was reading, doing so in a manner not to attract attention. The priest, however, THE GREEK CHURCH 131 saw me, and, stopping his reading, called out " Can you read ancient Greek ? " I nodded an affirmative, where upon he crossed the nave and found me the place, he meantime stiU reciting the prayers untU he returned to his former place. I foUowed the words of the beautiful liturgy of Chrysostom for two or three pages. Then there came the insertion of a prayer which did not foUow consecutively. He saw that I was lost and caUed out, of course in Greek, " Never mind, keep the place where I left off; I shaU be back there directly." Every one could hear what he had said, but probably none thought that anything remarkable had been done. It was only an act of courtesy to an Enghshman who was interested in their service. Another instance has remained in my memory, though it happened soon after I took up my residence in Turkey. With Mr Schliemann, the first explorer of what is gene rally accepted as Troy, and my friend Dr Paspates, I attended the celebrated Easter Eve service at the patriarchal cathedral in Stamboul. It commenced about half-past eleven at night and continued tiU two in the morning. The church was crowded in every part, nineteen-twentieths standing aU the time, as is the rule in the Orthodox Church. A portion of the nave near the screen or iconostasis was raUed off, and in it were stalls. Those on the south side were occupied by the patriarch and eight or nine bishops, the patriarch being seated on an ancient throne which tradition, probably wrongly, claims was actuaUy used by Chrysostom. The corresponding staUs on the other side were for visitors, those immediately opposite the patriarch being known as the imperial seats and being occupied by our party. The choir, in two parts, were on the floor near the staUs. The service was, as this service always is, of an impressive character, but at one 132 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE part a boy in the choir made a mistake. The choir master left his place, crossed to the opposite side, and gave the lad a severe box on the ear. The lad shrieked with pain. The instant after he shouted out against his attacker and called him a brute, as indeed we thought him. Thereupon he received another blow : the lad replied ; more blows followed, and this contest went on in presence of the congregation two or three minutes. No one remonstrated, no one seemed to think the scene unseemly or extraordinary. The language of the Greek liturgy is almost unin- teUigible to modern Greek peasants. The fact was brought home to me in an interesting service which I attended five years ago in Nicaea. Our party had been at the church when the ordinary service was held, and had heard the creed to which the city has given its name clearly read by a deacon, and was on its way home to breakfast, the service having commenced at half-past five, when we observed that the congregation were filing off to a burial-ground. We foUowed, and found there was to be a service for rain. To our surprise, the prayers were in Turkish and were read by the priest from sheets of paper. Half an hour later the priest joined us at breakfast and proved an exceptionaUy intelligent man. He explained that his flock could not understand Greek, though having heard the liturgy all their lives they knew fairly weU what the prayers meant. When, as in the present case, the service was compara tively strange to them, it was unintelligible, and therefore he had translated the Greek into Turkish. He hoped the members of our party did not consider he had done wrong. He was comforted when we told him that we had noticed the people nodding approval and saying Amen with great fervour at various statements in the prayers and at the appeals made to Heaven, and that THE GREEK CHURCH 133 English people were of opinion that prayers ought to be in a language understood of the people. The Orthodox Church, judged by the declarations of some of its chiefs, is intolerant. In reference to its rites it is intensely conservative. The story goes that not long ago a patriarch spoke of the Pope as an unbaptized heretic. Dean Milman characterized it in reference to its unchangeableness and inadaptabUity as bearing the same relation to the Church of Rome as the latter does to the Protestant Churches. Yet its intolerance, except towards the Church of Rome, is more apparent than real, and is limited only to the Church speaking in its official character. Even here, however, it must be noted that it maintains friendly relations with the Armenian Church, and exchanges not unimportant official and friendly communication with the Anglican Church through the Archbishop of Canterbury. Its hostUity to the Church of Rome is due largely to tradition — a hostility which was predicted by Innocent III. when he denounced those of the Fourth Crusade who took part in the capture of Constantinople. It is interesting to learn that the Church of Rome has never formaUy excommunicated the Orthodox Church. The attempts of a section of the Anglican Church to estabhsh union with the Orthodox Church have met with httle success. The Church wiU not even recognize Anglican baptism. The attempt to obtain a formal recognition of the validity of Anglican Orders has not only faUed but continues to be simply mischievous. It encourages the suspicion that Anghcans feel their position to be weak, and wish it to be strengthened by a Church whose Orders are beyond suspicion. The Presbyterian and other Protestant missionaries, Ameri cans, Germans, and Enghsh, who have no desire of the kind, but whose work in the country is acknow- 134 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE ledged by Greeks and Armenians to be purely beneficial, get on excellently with these Christian communities. The Armenians frequently aUow Presbyterians to preach in their churches. The late Bishop of Gibraltar,1 who, besides being a historical High-Churchman, was also a broad-minded man, was invited to preach in the Armenian church, in 1908, at Bardezag near Ismidt, and wisely accepted the invitation, thereby strengthening the hands of the Rev. Dr Chambers, a Canadian Presbyterian at the head of a valuable Armenian coUege in that town. He had a crowded congregation, and his address as well as his sympathy had an exceUent effect upon the large Armenian population. Traces of Paganism in the Eastern Churches The Greek and other historical Churches in Turkey, being institutions whose development was suddenly cut short by the subjection of their members to Moslem races, retain many traces of paganism which, under different circumstances, would probably have disappeared. These are found in customs and superstitions, or attached to places of worship which have survived in being adapted to the change from paganism to Christianity. Such are the death-waUings which are pretty general through the Greek world, the ancient feasts of the dead, including the distribution of Blessed Bread and the burning of incense in honour of the departed. The saints became suc cessors of the pagan gods. Every hiU-top which had been crowned with a temple to Phoebus ApoUo, the Sun- god, was succeeded by a church dedicated to St George, who is invariably represented as slaying the dragon. The transformation may be excused as allowing the pagan 1 I regret to have to speak of Dr Collins as the late Bishop. He died in March 191 1 , on his way from Constantinople to Smyrna, at the early age of forty-five. He was a man of sterling merit, sympathetic, able, and learned. THE GREEK CHURCH 135 pUgrimages, beneficial to bodUy and mental health, to continue under the sanction of the Church. It is justified if St George be regarded as light overcoming darkness, as the champion of right triumphing over " the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil " (Rev. xx. 2), Chris tianity victorious over paganism — a noble symbol if assuring hope of the victory of right over wrong. Whence St George came I am compeUed, after considerable search, to admit that I have been unable to find. I utterly faU to recognize him as either of the two somewhat common place saints of that name who are given in the Hagi- ologies. There is a passage in Eusebius which possibly suggests his origin, but the discussion of the question is not within my present purpose. WhUe the rule holds good that every hiU-top of im portance in the .ZEgean and Marmora is crowned by a church or monastery dedicated to the Knightly Saint, it is subject to an exception of the kind which proves the rule : for churches may be found in some such places dedicated to St Ehas. It seems now to be generally recognized that as in Greek the aspirate has been for many centuries unsounded, there was a confusion in the popular mind between the words, Helios, the sun, and Elias, the prophet, and that the church dedicated to the latter was reaUy continuing sun-worship. Of course, it wiU not be forgotten that Elias was present on the Holy Mount at the Transfiguration. Some hiU-top churches are named after that event, which the Gieeks call the Metamorphosis. In like manner, aU along the shores inhabited by Greeks, St Nicholas has taken the place of Neptune or Poseidon. The Nereids are firmly beheved in by Greek islanders. Our common word in modern Greek for water is nero. The traditional Greek spirit in their blood infuses poetry into Greek superstitions. " The Nereids' smUes 136 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE turn to roses ; their tears to pearls " ; " beautiful as a Nereid " — are common expressions. Their long and luxurious hair and supple forms still lure men. Mr Bent mentions certain well-known families of islanders who are reported to have Nereid blood in their veins. The rainbow is the " sun's girdle," and as such recaUs the myth of the virgin Iris. It is sent to show where buried treasure exists, and reminds us that Iris was Jove's messenger from heaven to earth. In the islands of the Archipelago there is hardly one of the gods who does not figuie as a Christian saint. In Kios or Zea, Pan has given place to St Anarguris, who is the patron of flocks and herds. When an ox is Ul the owner takes it to the saint's church and prays for its recovery. In Kythinos, when an islander goes abroad his friends coUect, and as he crosses the threshold of his house one of them pours out a libation to the gods to bring him good luck. Mr Abbott notices the same practices in Macedonia. At Paros is a church dedicated to the " Drunken St George." On the 3rd November, the anniversary of his death, the Pariotes usuaUy tap their wine, get drunk, and have a scene of revelry in front of the church with the priests among them. Another form of worship of Bacchus may be seen at Naxos. St Dionysius, the Christian successor of Dionysus, preserves many traces of the worship rendered to his ancestor. A good story is preserved about him. According to the Christian legend, when the saint was going from his monastery on Mount Olympus to Naxos he found a plant which he placed in the bone of a bird to keep it moist. Later on, he put both in the bone of a lion, and on his last day's journey placed the three inside the bone of an ass. The plant grew to be a vine. From it he gathered grapes and made good wine. A draught of it made him sing like a bird ; a little more made him feel THE GREEK CHURCH 137 strong as a lion ; and stiU more made him as foolish as an ass. Sometimes the old gods have been changed into modern saints, regardless of sex. At Kios, Artemis has become St Artemidos. Demeter is represented as St Demetrius, who is the protector of flocks, herds, and husbandmen. Many islanders still teU you that Charon lives in Hades, where he hunts his victims on a spectral horse. Charon or Charos is the modern synonym for death. A new personage has been introduced into Christian mythology as Charon's mother, a sweet, tender-hearted woman, probably from the analogy of the mother of Christ, who intercedes for sinners with her bloodthirsty son. Among aU the Greek populations, miraculous powers are attributed to the old gods and their modern successors. It would be easy to cite illustrations from the shrines of the saints in Tenos and a dozen of the islands. But in the island of Prinkipo where, during upwards of thirty years, I have spent annuaUy some months, a good Ulus- tration is at hand. Crowds of people assemble on the 23rd of April each year to celebrate St George. They are dressed in aU sorts of curious costumes, each of which is characteristic of the place from which the wearer has come on pUgrimage. Many of the women wear the divided skirt. Strings of coins, mostly sUver, adorn their necks. Lovely tertiary tints of green and blue and red alternate with rich orange and yeUow, the produce of traditional dyes in places to which anUine crudeness has not yet penetrated. St George's Church is of course on the highest peak of our island, six hundred feet above the sea. On the eve of his festival thousands of people flock together from the neighbouring and the remote islands in the Marmora and from the villages of Bithynia to celebrate the feast. Note in passing that in the East the eve of the feast day is usuaUy more regarded than the 138 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE day itself. In aU the ancient churches, " the evening and the morning " make the day. The church is crowded, and hundreds of peasants, unable to gain admission, sleep out on the adjacent hUl-side with the object of obtaining the saint's help in sickness, for St George, like his predecessor ApoUo, the father of iEsculapius, is a great healer. It is a sad sight to see people in far advanced stages of consumption carried there in hope of a miraculous return to health. It is pathetic to see mothers, weary with long travelling, toUing up the steep hUl, carrying their sick chUdren to be cured : infants on whom death has set his mark receiv ing all the care which maternal devotion can give in what the onlooker sees to be hopeless cases. The wUd eyes of other visitors at this annual festival suggest craziness ; the vacant stare of others proclaims idiocy ; for this, like so many shrines of ApoUo yesterday, and St George to-day, has been and stUl is reputed for healing the mad and the mindless. On the floor of the church there are iron rings to which mad creatures were bound, even within my own recollection, so that they might pass the night in the church and receive the benefit which St George, or the Black Virgin, whose picture, owing its colour probably to the fact that it was painted with white lead, was in some mysterious manner able to bestow. This kind of superstitious belief in saintly intervention is in the Greek blood. I knew one man who was con stantly dabbling in small speculations on the Bourse. It was his habit, as he admitted, always to burn a candle to a saint to bring him luck when he had a speculation on hand. He openly professed unbelief in the existence of any supernatural being. He secretly believed it to be useful policy to be on good terms with aU the saints. OccasionaUy Greek priests have encouraged the super stitious tendencies of their followers for the sake of gain. THE GREEK CHURCH 139 It must be remembered that they are almost always peasant priests, lamentably ignorant and Ul-paid. Within my own recoUection there have been ayasmas found and taken possession of by priests at KandUli on the Bosporus and at Prinkipo, that is to say a spring of fresh water has been discovered. In each case the report was spread that an icon was found near the spring ; a priest took possession, erected a shrine, and at once received the offerings of worshippers. Such a priest I knew at Prinkipo, and have often visited his shrine. The latter exists, but the Greek was found to be aiding the smugglers of tobacco and was then sent away. Some ten years ago, a serious attempt was made to establish the reputation of a miracle-working shrine in Constantinople, but investigation showed that it was the work of persons who intended to exploit it for their own profit, and the patriarchal authorities put an end to the attempt. Near Smyrna, within the last few years, there was a simUar attempt to encourage pUgrimages to a house supposed to have been inhabited by the Virgin Mary, the pUgrims being mostly Greek by race but belonging to the Roman Cathohc Church. But the ecclesiastical authorities, after examination, put an effectual end to such pUgrimages. In Asia-Minor, instances exist in abundance of the respect paid by Christians and Moslems alike to holy places, which have been held sacred for probably mUlenniums. Sir William Ramsay has caUed attention on various occasions to Moslem mosques which have been Christian churches, and which churches had taken the place of Hittite or other early temples. Something in or connected with the site long ago was regarded as marveUous or pecuharly suited for the worship of the Unknown. It may have been a prominent wild peak, a peculiar formation of rock, a spring weUing up mysteri- 140 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE ously out of the arid plain, or, as at Mahalich in the district south-east of Koniah, extinct volcanic craters leading to the abode of the infernal gods, and suggesting terror, which first led the original worshippers to regard the place as holy. Our mUitary consul, Captain Dickson, at Van, a district which is full of traces of paganism, has told the story of a holy place on the summit of Jebel Judi, 7000 feet high. Every August, thousands of Moslems, Christians, and Yezidis or devU-worshippers climb this great height to do homage to Noah at this, one of his many reputed tombs. The shrine was erected on the place by some early race ; worshippers flocked to it, and a. reputation for sanctity gathered round it. When the old heathenism had to make way for the teaching of Christianity, those who were opposed to it clung to the holy place haUowed by the worship of their fathers, and those even who professed the new faith were unwilling to separate themselves from the ancient place of worship. There was often a lingering feeling that the old gods, the guardians of those places, ought to be appeased. Chris tians, even in the time of St Paul, did not deny their existence or influence. They existed, but were powers hostUe to the True God. Then when Christian worship had itself lasted for centuries, came the Moslems, the great iconoclasts. But they too felt the influence of the holy places, and whUe stripping the church of its pictures and ornaments, respected the place which tradition regarded as holy. I conclude this notice of surviving paganism by telling a story for which my authority is the late Theodore Bent. In his interesting book on the Cyclades, his last chapter, fuU of good matter, is about the island of Amorgos, at the south-east end of the group he has been describing. The following story is not given in it, but was told me by him shortly after the incident occurred ; and Mrs Bent, THE GREEK CHURCH 141 who nearly always accompanied her husband, has kindly informed me recently that it was on Amorgos where the incident happened. Mr Bent had so often found that the customs mentioned by Herodotus were continued to the present time, that he incautiously asked the priest of St Nicholas, the successor of Poseidon as the protector of saUors, whether the old practice of divination by tossing up knucklebones and learning by the way in which they feU on the altar what the direction of the wind would be, stiU continued. The answer was in the negative. When the piiest turned away, an old woman who had overheard the conversation said to Mr Bent, " AU the same, ChUibe, no ship goes to sea without the crew coming here to learn how the wind wUl blow." Mr Bent said nothing, but having learned that two or three days later a vessel had arranged to leave, watched her crew, and having seen them start on their way to the church, foUowed them at a distance, taking care to k< ep out of sight. They entered the church, and five minutes later were foUowed by Mr Bent, who arrived just in time to see, through the holy gates, candles lighted upon the altar, the priest with his hat off, and his long hair down, and in the very act of tossing the knucklebones. When we foreigners get impatient at the mistrust shown by the Greeks of their Moslem fellow-subjects, of their determination not to abandon one jot or tittle of the ancient rites of their Church, it is right that we should remember what are their traditions. The grand children of the men who were butchered under the influence of Moslem fanaticism are stiU living. They remember that their fathers died for their faith, that each could have saved his life if he had been wflling to renounce it, but that with very few exceptions they stuck to their creed, and with a glorious obstinacy which is the salt of a 142 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE race, preferred death to a life purchased at the price of disloyalty to their beliefs. And how weU they died ! I am not thinking of pious death-beds, of men borne up by the hope of exchanging the short time they had to live in this world for the eternal happiness of Paradise, but of men in the prime of life, anxious to be about their business, to provide for their famUies, and therefore desirous of living. Here, to this lovely island of Prinkipo, where I am writing, there were banished, between 1820 and 1830, great numbers of Greeks. Daily there came to it from the capital, eleven mUes away, the Sultan's great caique, bringing the executioner. Mr Walsh, the embassy chaplain, relates how with a gaiety of heart, a worthy indifference to fate or contempt of death, they continued their games of tric-trac when the executioner arrived. He passed among them, laid his handkerchief on the shoulders of the men who were to be taken off to death, whUe the men themselves continued their game and finished it. Then those marked rose from their seats, said good-bye to their friends, and went as gallantly to death as ever did an aristocrat during the Terror in France. Bravo ! my light-headed Greek friends ; you can brag and be vainglorious, but you can also die like brave men. I recognize that I have said some hard things about the Greeks and their Church ; but both are worth criticizing. Modern Gieeks have the making of a fine people. They have admirable qualities. They have life and energy. More than this, they possess nous — intelligence, brains. They can think as well as talk. Their commercial morality wants waking up, and if a Chrysostom or a man like many of the great teachers of the world should arise among them, the race might once more come into the front rank of the world. What they want both in religion and politics is a few men with clear, plain inteUigence, who THE GREEK CHURCH 143 can see questions concerning their race in their correct proportion, and wUl speak and act in accordance with their insight. Turkey and its many peoples make one believe in race. Jew or Armenian or Greek, neither can be exter minated. They may be oppressed and trodden down, debased by long centuries of servitude, but, like a tree which is not rooted out, they will bring forth fruit after their kind. Disraeh's remark that, while Jews are always Jews, every nation gets the Jews it deserves, applies also to Eastern Christians. Give each their chance, and the quality of the race wiU be proved. Greeks are the most numerous of the latter, and they and the Armenians, in spite of oppression, have for four centuries found the brains not only for the Turkish government but for the greater part of the inteUectual work in the country. Many of the best as weU as the ablest men in the Turkish service have been Gieeks. Far and away the ablest minister of foreign affairs who has held office during my residence in the country was Alexander Pasha, one of the famUy of Caratheodoris, who have furnished and are allied to many men who, by their services in Turkey and abroad, have helped to keep the Tuikish Empire going. The ablest Turks, many of whom are conscious of hav ing inherited Christian blood, are wise in proclaiming rehgious equahty if they wish their country to take rank among the civUized nations of the earth. But of all the races under the Sultan's rule none are more valuable to the Turks than are the Greeks. CHAPTER VIII THE VLACHS, THE POMAKS, THE JEWS, AND DUNMAYS Origin name Vlach — Early notices of Vlachs — Probably a Latin people and among earliest settlers in ' peninsula — Pomaks possibly descendants Thracians— Why Moslems — Probably converted Adop- tionists — Jews — Some descendants of ancestors who have always resided in country — Others exiles from Spain — Dunmays professing Islam but keeping Jewish practices — Story of Sabbatai Sevi, founder of sect. BEFORE speaking of any of the larger communities in European Turkey, it is convenient to notice three groups of different races and rehgions who are found in the Balkan Peninsula. These are the Vlachs, the Pomaks, and the Jews. The first two are exclusively European peoples. The Vlachs The Vlachs or Wallachs are widely dispersed through Macedonia. They are of the same race as the Rumanians and speak the same variety of what may be caUed Latin language, except that there are certain dialectical peculi arities in various districts due to the fact of their con tiguity with Slavs and Greek. Little is recorded of the early history of the Vlachs. Sir Charles EUiot thinks that the origin of the name Vlach is to be found in the Polish word for " Italian," and that it was apphed to the Vlachs because of their Latin speech.1 The suggestion does not appear to me to be necessary. Vlach or Wallach is a word which appears as Gael, Gaul, Galatia, Wales, 1 "Turkey in Europe," p. 414. 144 VLACHS, POMAKS, JEWS, AND DUNMAYS 145 and Welsh. It usuaUy signifies foreigners or foreign. Of course no native speaks of his own people as foreigners. The Vlachs of Macedonia caU themselves Rumani, or Armani, that is Romans, just as the largest group of the race caU their country Rumania. In the time of Trajan such country was caUed Dacia, and as it is known to have been a Roman convict colony, a common explana tion of the existence of a people speaking a form of Latin was that its inhabitants were the descendants of the colonists. The further particular was then added that they subsequently crossed the Balkans and spread into Macedonia and penetrated even as far south as into Greece. But the explanation fails for want of evidence when it is suggested as a reason why the Vlachs exist throughout the Balkan Peninsula. Even the assertion that the modern Rumanians are the descendants of the Trajan colonists was denied some forty years ago by Rossler, who claimed that the first mention of a Roman settlement north of the Danube is not before 1222. But we have notices of the Vlachs extending from the Pindus range in what is now Northern Greece right up into the Carpathians and across the peninsula almost to the Black Sea centuries earlier. Procopius, in the later half of the sixth century, gives the names of IUyrian fortresses in what may be called Rumanian Latin. A httle later, in 587, soldiers of the Greek Emperor are represented as using such expressions as torna, frate (turn, brother). Cedrenus, about 976, speaks of the murder of the brother of Samuel, the Bulgarian King, by certain Vlach wanderers. Anna Comnena, in 1080, mentions them as existing in Thessaly. She describes how a certain general in Macedonia received orders to enlist as many soldiers as he could. These were not to be veterans but raw recruits, both for cavalry and foot, taken from the Bulgarians, " and from the wandering 146 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE people commonly spoken of as Vlachs," or any others who might offer themselves.1 About the same time the Jewish traveUer Benjamin of Tudela gives an interesting paragraph about them. Travelling in Southern Macedonia, he says that he reached the country of Wallachia, whose inhabitants are called Vlachs. " They are as nimble as deer and descend from their mountains into the plains of Greece, robbing and collecting booty. Nobody ventures to make war on them, nor can any king bring them under subjection. Their names are of Jewish origin, and some even say they have been Jews. When they meet an Israelite they wiU plunder but not kiU him, as they do the Greeks. They profess no religious faith." When Benjamin wrote we are in the period of the Crusades, and the chroniclers of the Crusades speak of Macedonia as Great WaUachia.2 His short account suggests that the Vlachs were highlanders. Most of them are mountaineers to the present day, and many prefer a wandering hfe as owners and leaders of pack- horses. They were of a different race from the ordinary subjects of the emperor, whom Benjamin here and else where speaks of as Greeks. Their rehgion was not that of the Greeks. He thought they had none. Suppose that they belonged to the Adoptionists, BogomUs, or Pauli- cians, who would not tolerate worship of the Virgin or the saints, objected to icons, and to most of the outward and visible emblems of Christian worship which the Greeks had incorporated into their Christian worship from paganism. They would be regarded by the Orthodox, as we know that these so-caUed heretics were, as atheists, men of no religion. My conjecture is that they were 1 "Anna Comnena," Bonn edition: — 'Oirbiroi re iic BovXydpav, ical oirocroi rbv voptdda. [llov dXovro dSXdxow roirovs ij Koiv-f/ raXeii' dtSe StaXexTos, ) xal roils &Kkodev ££ atraadv twv xiopup ipxopivovs lirweas re Kal 7refofo. 2 /j.eyd\a BXaxeta. VLACHS, POMAKS, JEWS, AND DUNMAYS 147 such heretics. It is possible of course that they were pagans, but in such case they would probably have been spoken of under that name or qualified as idolaters. However this may be, the mention of them suggests that in Benjamin's time they were a people who for some reason or other hved apart from the subjects of the emperor. Near the close of the twelfth century a Vlacho-Bulgarian kingdom was established. Pope Innocent III. addresses John Asam, one of its two lead ing chiefs as a Vlach, and of Roman descent. VUle- hardouin, the chronicler of the Fourth Crusade, expressly says that Asam was a Vlach. In the twentieth century the Vlachs in Turkey are often regarded as Greeks because they belong to the Orthodox Church. Their vUlages are hidden away in valleys near the summits of mountains. The largest clusters of them are found in the Pindus range, on the north-west boundary of Greece and the adjoining country of Macedonia. Metsova is the town which has the largest proportion of Vlachs. But small settlements exist aU over Macedonia and in Servia, to say nothing of thousands in Transylvania and Hungary. Every where the Vlachs are industrious. Some are wealthy. They nearly aU now belong to the Orthodox Church, and until thirty years ago seem never to have thought it necessary to have a separate Church. Rumania has claimed it for them, and attaches more importance to obtaining it than do the Vlachs who are Turkish subjects. While it is not denied that the Vlachs are of one race and language, there are certain differences between them due to their environment. Those of South Macedonia, about the Pindus range, who are known as Kutzo-Vlachs, have been for centuries intermixed with Greeks and have been under the influence of the Orthodox Church. 148 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Further north the tendency of the Vlachs has been to wards the Roman Catholic Church. My explanation of the presence at an early date of the Vlachs in the Balkan Peninsula is that they were members of that branch of the Aryan race to which the Latins belonged who in later years had taken refuge in the mountains from Greeks, Slavs, Goths, Avars, and other enemies. This would imply that they were amongst the earliest settlers in the peninsula. I suggest that Rumanian Latin, Latin of the Elder Rome, the language of the Gauls, of the ancient Britons and Erse, were aU closely alhed branches of a common language. It has been shrewdly conjectured that the soldiers of Julius Caesar got on well with the Gauls because each could understand the other. It is hardly probable that the first horde of immigrants, speaking the language from which aU the Latin tongues are derived, when they entered Europe from Asia, would have passed over the fertUe country south of the Danube without leaving many settlers. Hence, I conclude, that the large numbers of Latin-speaking Vlachs now found in Servia and Hungary, as well as scattered throughout the whole of the western portion of the Balkan Peninsula, are the descendants of an ancient race, possibly of settlers as old as the ancestors of the Albanians. They may be descendants of the Thracians dispersed and driven to the hills, though some of the place-names usuaUy con sidered Thracian have not a Latin sound about them. The Pomaks In and near the Rhodope Mountains, partly in Mace donia and partly in Eastern Rumeha, are found a number of people known as Pomaks. They are popularly believed to be Bulgarians who became Moslems in order to preserve their lands. The explanation is open to VLACHS, POMAKS, JEWS, AND DUNMAYS 149 doubt. Though their language gives some support to this theory, since it is largely made up of Slav words, their appearance causes hesitation. Many of them have hght or reddish hair and delicate features. It has been conjectured with some plausibUity that they, possibly hke the Vlachs, are descendants of the original Thracians, who were driven westward to the lulls by successive invasions, first of Greeks and then of Slavs. If so, their change of rehgion may be due to a cause other than that just mentioned. It is possible that their ancestors, hke a considerable portion of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina and of Macedonia itself, were Adoptionists or BogomUs. In order to explain my meaning, I must make a short digression. A great heresy, existing almost certainly in the fourth century, spread from Armenia and its neigh bourhood to Macedonia, to Bohemia, to Italy, and pro bably to Britain. For convenience' sake we may call its professors Adoptionists. They were also known as Pauhcians, not after St Paul, but from a certain Paul of Samosata, who was the typical Adoptionist. At a later period they were known in the Balkan Peninsula as BogomUs. They obtained their name from the doctrine that Jesus became Christ and Son of God at His baptism. God on that occasion adopted Him and remained in dwelling in Him. They repudiated or attached little importance to the Christian sacraments. But they maintained that God was imminent in the Elect. They disliked ecclesiastical vestments, objected to the adora tion of the Virgin and to the worship of icons. Speak ing generaUy, they represented a Hebrew rather than a HeUenistic tendency. Like our own Puritans, they were greatly attached to Old Testament teaching. But the distinguishing mark of the Adoptionists was their piety, resulting from their behef in an indwelling God. Many 150 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE of their devout men tried to hve up to the theory that their bodies were the temples of the Holy Spirit. They regarded the rites and ceremonies of the Church as remnants of paganism. In some respects they recall our own Quakers. They were undemonstrative pietists who rejoiced in contemplation and in pious ecstasy. They were searchers after the Inner Light. It can hardly be doubted that the charges brought against them of rejecting some of the doctrines of the Church were well founded. Throughout Macedonia and Southern Bulgaria they formed a considerable portion of the Christian population during the thirteenth and two foUowing centuries, their chief centre being at Dragovitza. In Bosnia and Herzegovina they were more numerous stiU, and their influence spread into Bohemia and cul minated there in the movement headed by John Huss. The Council of Basle formaUy condemned the Bogomil heresy in 1435. At that time, in Bosnia and Herze govina, the so-caUed heretics were between the hammer and the anvU ; for Roman Catholics on one side and the Orthodox Church on the other persecuted them with relentless pertinacity. To escape persecution they had invited the Turks to enter Bosnia as early as 1415. They were Protestants, and they seem to have regarded Islam as a form of Protestantism which on the whole was preferable to the paganism of the Orthodox Church. It is worthy of remark that other Christian dissenters under the empire had similar tendencies. They were at one with the object of protesting against what they regarded as pagan practices. Now contemporaneously with the spread through the centuries of this heresy among Christians a rehgious movement of importance had been going on among the Mahometans. From the time of the Prophet himself there had always been two tendencies in Islam ; the one, VLACHS, POMAKS, JEWS, AND DUNMAYS 151 attributable to Persian influence, was spiritual though pantheistic. The Caliph Ali himself showed this tend ency, and the members of the Shiah branch of Mahome tanism, who are his followers, have felt such influence to a remarkable extent. The movement in question has long taken definite form, the pietistic forms of Islam having developed into many sects known as dervishes. While the majority of the Turks are Sunnis, nearly all the many sects of dervishes in Turkey are reaUy, though not aU nominaUy, foUowers of Ali. In Turkey the ulema represent the theological and formalist side of Islam ; the dervishes the rehgious and spiritual side. It may be taken as a rule even now that when a Turkish Moslem becomes seriously and devoutly inclined he becomes a dervish. Sultan Mahmud, the " Reformer," who sup pressed the Janissaries, belonged to the dervish order of Mevlevis. The actual Sultan Mahomet V. is reputed to belong to the same order. The teaching and rehgious influence of Islam as repre sented by its spiritual side appealed to the pietistic Christian heretics. The districts which the Pomaks inhabit were occupied to some extent by adherents of the Adoptionist heresy during the Middle Ages. Their principal church at Dragovitza was long regarded as the mother church, even by the Cathari or Albigenses. When the Turks took possession of Rumelia, most of the BogomUs of the plains about Philippopohs conformed to the rites of the Orthodox Church. But while conform ing outwardly they kept their own organization and were in consequence fiercely persecuted. To escape this they joined the Church of Rome in the eighteenth century. The BogomUs of the hUls, however, passed over into Islam, as did most of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in order to escape the tyranny of the 152 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Churches, and because they beheved its rehgion to be more in conformity with their own than the Orthodox. The converted or perverted BogomUs of the Rhodope, if this conjecture be weU founded, became the modern Pomaks. I give this suggestion as plausible, but the subject has never been carefuUy examined. Among the refugees who have entered Turkey during the last forty years to avoid being under Christian rule in Bulgarian or in Austrian territory, none furnish so valuable an element as the Bosniaks and Pomaks. Both races are industrious and honest. They are everywhere regarded as good neighbours. In this respect they compare most favourably with Circassian immigrants, who soon come to be on " shooting at sight " terms, even with their Mahometan neighbours. The Jews In the absence of trustworthy statistics it is im possible to say how many Jews are found in Turkey. My impression is that they number about three hundred thousand. They are naturally numerous in Palestine, though half the Jews there are immigrants who have entered the country within the last century. Salonika is the capital of Turkish Jewry. Its Jews are physicaUy the finest of the race whom I have seen. In Constantinople there are probably thirty thousand. They are mostly poor and reside in two very crowded villages on the Golden Horn, one at Balata (formerly Palation, from the neighbouring Palace of Blachernas), and the other at the viUage on the opposite shore caUed Hasskeui. On the Bosporus there are two populous villages which they have almost entirely to themselves, Ortakeui and Kuskunjuk. Many weU-to-do Jews, how ever, reside in Pera. My impression is that there have been Jews in the capital from a very early period. The VLACHS, POMAKS, JEWS, AND DUNMAYS 153 Spanish writer Benjamin of Tudela gives an interesting account of his co-religionists in 1170. Their principal quarter was then in Galata. Frequent mention is made of them by later writers. Grimston in 1626 states that they had thirty-eight synagogues in the capital — about double the number they now possess.1 Let me say in passing that the English and Scotch Jewish Missions which have schools in Constantinople and Salonika have done very valuable work. They have made very few converts, a fact that I cannot say that I regret ; but their educational work and influence generaUy have been wholesome and purely beneficial. Old residents declare that sixty years ago Jewish women occupied a much lower social position than they do at present. Polygamy was common. The women went about veUed. Few could read or write. It would be easy now to name many Jewish women who have been educated in the Mission-schools, who are cultured, and are received in any society to which their husbands' position entitles them. Indeed, these schools have raised the Jewish communities bodUy to a higher level. Speaking generaUy, the Jew of Eastern Europe leaves much to be desired. Nowhere is Disraeli's dictum more apphcable, that each nation gets the Jews it deserves, than in the East of Euope, notably in Russia, Rumania, and Turkey. The Jew has been better treated in Turkey than in the two other countries named, which annuaUy supply Jewish emigrants to Turkey. The Turkish Jew is superior to his co-religionists from these countries. It must not be concluded, however, that he has received any exceptional favour in Turkey. There have been no favours bestowed on him, but neither has he been 1 Grimston's Description of Constantinople, published in Sir Richard C Temple's edition of " The Travels of Peter Mundy," p. 185 . Hakluyt Soc, 1907. 154 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE subjected to legislative restrictions in regard to trade, commerce, or industry. He has been left severely alone. The average Turk has tolerated but despised him. The lower class of Christians, the Greeks in particular, are full of medieval prejudice against him. But in Turkey, as elsewhere, he has managed to exist and in some cases to grow rich. There are two distinct types of Jews in Turkey which may be conveniently classed as Spanish, and German or Polish. The first frequently show dehcate features, with light brown hair and occasionaUy with blue eyes. The second have the heavy features with dark hair and unusuaUy large nose which we see in the race in England. Most of the so-called Spanish Jews are the descendants of men who were driven out of Spain in the reign of Ferdi nand and IsabeUa. Their language is stiU Spanish. Turkey gave them a resting-place and assigned Salo nika to them as sufficiently distant from the capital. They have flourished, and are now the most important commercial element in that city. They are good traders, wUl drive a hard bargain, but once it is made, once, as it is locally expressed, they have given their Sta bene, they wiU scrupulously respect it. Disraeli brings into two of his novels Jews in Syria who claim to trace their descent and their occupation of certain estates from a time previous to the destruction of Jerusalem. I very much doubt whether any family can support such a claim. There are, however, ancient famUies in Palestine proud of their descent, which they can trace for several centuries. I admit, however, that if any such famUies can go back as far as Disraeli sug gested, they are likeliest to be found in Syria or in the desert to the east of the Jordan, where, after the faU of Jerusalem at least, two Jewish States existed and flourished, and probably kept their race pure in blood. VLACHS, POMAKS, JEWS, AND DUNMAYS 155 In the West, in Gaul and Spain, the suggestion of Renan appears to me to be justified, that the Jews belonged to the liberal section who based their religion on the later prophets, discarded the tribal ceremonials, taught a pure theism, and accepted good men of other races without any initiatory rite. It is beyond doubt that the Spanish Jews have developed a very distinct type which produces in both men and women handsome specimens of humanity. Mr Hohnan Hunt, in his " Finding of Christ in the Temple," which was painted in Jerusalem, has repro duced models of both the Spanish and the German Jew. The Palestine Jew usuaUy resembles the Spanish much more closely than the German. Besides these two classes of Jews there are many indications which show a considerable mixture of Jewish blood in the population of especiaUy the eastern part of the empire. I do not speak of the various Jewish populations of Arabia whom Mahomet defeated or destroyed, as for example that of Khaiber. It is sufficient to say that the survivors were absorbed in the Arab population. But considerable detachments of Jews — always a prolific race — have been merged into the Anatohan population. Dr John Peters, the discoverer of Nippur,1 traveUed leisurely across country from the mound of that name, which is just beyond the south-east boundary of Mesopotamia, to Palestine, and found many traces of Jewish settlement. He was convinced that at least three small Jewish States had existed in that region after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. There can be httle doubt that these Jews became lost in the general 1 Nippur is the Calneh of Gen. x. 10. The identification was due to Professor Hilprecht, who had continued the work of exploration commenced by Dr Peters, and had obtained written records which go back seven thousand years before Christ, the total result being quite one of the most brilliant obtained by archaeology during the last century. 156 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE population. In some places even now the process of absorption is going on. Mr Hogarth speaks of groups in Syria who have long resided among Arabs, and who tend to become " hardly distinguishable from their neigh bours in tradition and hope." 1 Earl Percy, in journeying through the wild districts of the Hakkiari near the Persian frontier, inhabited by Kurds and Nestorians, found near Girdi " three villages occupied by Jews." The date of their immigration was unknown, " but it is certain that they have resided in the country from a very early period, and having adopted the local dress and even the language of their Mussulman neighbours, are now, except in features, practically indistinguishable from the Kurds." Earl Percy suggests that these and others Jews whom he found in consider able numbers, " not only in Mossul but in pastoral villages like Diza, Neri, Girdi, and Bashkali, may be the descendants of one of the numerous Israelitish colonies which the Kings of Assyria planted in distant portions of the empire after the fall of Samaria." Since the revolution of 1908, the Jews in Turkey have come very distinctly to the front, and now play a very important part in the government of the country. But even before that event, Jewish medical men, advocates, and merchants, formed a valuable part of the community. The Dunmays Something must be said of an interesting sect or off shoot of the Jews. These are Jews who profess Islam. They are caUed Dunmays. The name is Turkish for converts. They form an important part of the popula tion of Salonika. They are found also in Adrianople and in other parts of the empire. They openly profess 1 " The Nearer East," p. 184. 2 " Highlands of Asiatic Turkey," by Earl Percy, 245-6. VLACHS, POMAKS, JEWS, AND DUNMAYS 157 Mahometanism and secretly practise the rites of Judaism. It appears to me probable that they may aU in time become simply Moslems. Their history is known from trustworthy sources and is interesting. They date only from the second half of the seventeenth century. Many accounts of their founder, a certain Sabbatai Sevi (1626- 76), have been written within the last quarter of a century.1 But the most trustworthy is that furnished by an exceptionally able British consul, Paul Rycaut, who resided at Smyrna, the birthplace of the founder and the scene of many of his doings. Among both Jews and Christians, but especiaUy among the Jews, the belief existed in the first half of the seven teenth century, that in 1666 the Messiah would appear. The Christians of course looked for the second coming of Christ ; the Jews for that of the promised and long expected Deliverer, who should restore the race to a proud position among the nations. The Jewish refugees from Spain, victims of religious persecution, had turned their attention more than ever to the practices and teaching of their rehgion, to the hopes and promises of a divine intervention in favour of the chosen people of Jehovah, held out to them by their traditions and sacred books. The study of the Talmud in particular engrossed their attention. Indeed, the inteUectual culture of many of them was largely confined to its contents. The Koran itself was not more completely the authority for the conduct of life among Mahometans than was the Talmud among pious Jews in the seventeenth century. There was a veritable rage for interpretation of the sacred text, 1 See in particular, from Jewish sources, a very full and thoughtful notice of Sabbatai and of the belief in a coming Messiah in the Revue des Ecoles de V Alliance Israelite : Paris, avril-juin 1902, and also a very learned paper giving new information regarding the Dunmays by Abraham Danon in the Revue des Etudes Juives : Paris, oct.- decembre 1897. 158 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE and for the verification of prophecies. Every passage, almost every word, had many explanations. There was mystery in every sentence. Men studied, worked, and longed for the discovery of these mysteries, but above aU to find out by what signs the Expected One should be known. In many synagogues the worshippers prayed every Sabbath for the coming of the Messiah, and thousands of pious souls confidently expected his speedy advent. The attitude of mind among them was one which, if it were not abundantly proved by trustworthy evidence, would be incredible. So certain were hundreds that the advent could not long be delayed that they neglected business altogether and devoted themselves to making preparations to meet the expected Deliverer. Rycaut says that in 1666, having to journey from Constantinople to Buda, he " perceived a strange transport in the Jews, none of whom were attending to their business except to wind up former negotiations and to prepare themselves and families for a journey to Jerusalem." It was an attitude of mind which invited imposture. The impostor — probably at first an unconscious one — came in the person of a handsome Smyrna Jew. He was learned in aU kinds of cabalistic literature. He graduaUy discovered that he himself had the necessary qualifica tions and fulfiUed the predictions relating to the coming Messiah. He journeyed to Egypt, to Palestine, to Salonika, everywhere declaring his divine mission. As he travelled his pretensions and his behef in his own mission increased. He met with many adven tures. The rabbis persecuted him ; he was denounced as impious and a blasphemer. But every persecu tion and denunciation served to confirm his own faith and that of the [foUowers, who everywhere flocked around him. He was attended by a certain Nathan VLACHS, POMAKS, JEWS, AND DUNMAYS 159 who acted as his Elijah. Nathan predicted the time when the Messiah should appear before the Sultan, take away his crown, and lead the grand vizier captive in chains. By the time he returned to Smyrna in 1665, the whole empire and the Jews throughout Europe were full of his doings. It was at Salonika apparently where the infatuation was keenest. The cry was raised that the Promised One had come. It was only necessary to await his signal. Many of the Jews fasted for days tiU they fainted. Others tortured themselves in various ways to render themselves acceptable to the Christ. All their shops were closed, and nothing was sold except to get rid of business altogether. The GentUes would soon be subject to them, and aU that was necessary was simply to support life tiU the Messiah should lead them to their own. Four hundred poor Jews were fed by the wealthy. When Sabbatai returned to Smyrna, a large section of the Jews haUed him as he wished. But the " Kochams," as Rycaut caUs the rabbis, stiU stood aloof. His sup porters appealed to the kadi or local judge, but, says Rycaut, " the kadi, according to the usual custom of the Turks, swallowed money on both sides and then remitted them to the determination of their justice " — a delight- fuUy Turkish proceeding which has happened scores of times during the last thirty years. Nevertheless, his supporters at Smyrna daUy increased, and with such increase the pretensions of Sabbatai grew also. He became either a greater knave or greater fool than ever, for he added to his title of Messiah that of " Son of God." Then there happened one of those strange outbreaks of religious or hysteric mania of which England had an example in the time of Edward Irving. Sabbatai's foUowers feU into ecstasies, and the young women began in this condition to prophesy. His 160 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE foUowers demanded a miracle for the confusion of his enemies. On the occasion of his public visit to the kadi some of his disciples declared that a piUar of fire suddenly arose between him and the judge. Some persons swore they saw it. Others caught up the cry, and the belief at once spread to nearly aU the Jews of the place. The Messiah's mission was attested by a miracle. Every man produced his treasure, his gold and jewels, and offered them as gifts. But Sabbatai prudently refused to receive them. Was it from principle or craftiness ? Shortly afterwards he declared that he was caUed by God to leave Smyrna and visit Constantinople, where he had to fulfil the most important part of his mission. With a select few of his disciples he took ship and spent thirty-nine days in making a voyage which is now done in twenty-two hours. Many, however, went overland and awaited his arrival. The Jews also in the capital, when they heard the news, were greatly moved at the approach of their deliverer. The grand vizier had often heard of the disputes among the Jews, but, so long as they only affected Salonika and Smyrna, did not trouble himself about them. Once it was announced that the supposed Messiah was on his way to the capital, his attitude changed. He sent to arrest him, and on his capture packed him off to one of the worst prisons in the capital. This step rather increased Sabbatai's influence, for this again was the fulfilling of prophecies. He was visited by aU that was best in the Jewry of the capital. One of the most highly esteemed among them headed a deputation of his co-religionists, and " during a whole day they stood before him with eyes cast down, bodies bending forward, and hands crossed before them," which as everybody knows is the rever ential manner of standing before a Sultan. VLACHS, POMAKS, JEWS, AND DUNMAYS 161 The Jews in Constantinople were as excited and credulous as those in Smyrna, and Rycaut relates a curious story of " some of our merchants," meaning members of the Levant Company who had debts to receive from certain of the Jews, and were in doubt now that the debtors had closed their shops whether they were going to be paid. So, partly out of curiosity and partly in hopes of obtaining payment, they went in a body to see Sabbatai and to complain. The prisoner heard them, and then wrote to each defaulter a request that he should pay the " members of the Enghsh nation," for, if not, " know that you are not to enter with us into our joys and dominions." Rycaut gives the text of the circular sent to the debtors.1 After two months' imprisonment in Constantinople, the grand vizier had to leave on the famous expedition destined to conquer Crete, and, not thinking it safe to leave Sabbatai in the capital, sent him as a prisoner to Abydos, at the east end of the DardaneUes. His removal once more confirmed the faith of his foUowers : for, said they, this prophet has foretold the doom both of the grand vizier and of the Sultan, and has spoken of putting the grand vizier in chains, and they would have killed him had they not known that he was a prophet. In aU probability the Turks regarded him as deli, or mad, and aU madmen and idiots are sacred throughout Turkey, whUe injury done to them, besides being irreligious, brings ill-luck. His prison at Abydos became a court, and he was visited not only by Turkish Jews, but by others from Poland, Germany, Italy, and HoUand. Indeed he was now at the zenith of his career. In the synagogues the letters S.S. were emblazoned to honour him. He ordered a new form of hturgy to be used in them which he had himself composed. 1 " The History of the Turkish Empire," from 1623 to 1677. 11 162 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Unfortunately he got into disputes with a rival from Poland, a man of great reputation, named Nehemiah Cohen, who claimed that there should be two Messiahs and that he was one. As they could not agree, Cohen laid a formal complaint against Sabbatai before the caimakan of Adrianople of so serious a character that this officer had to forward it to the government, who at once ordered Sabbatai's removal to that city. He was there brought before the Sultan. Now came his chance. If he could prove his power of working miracles, as his foUowers beheved he could, the time for the dehverance of the Jews was at hand. But Sabbatai, possibly demoralized by success, showed the white feather. When asked to reply, he pleaded that he could not speak Turkish, and asked for an interpreter. One was aUowed. This of itself was a disappointment to his friends who beheved that, as the Messiah and the Son of God, his tongue would have been loosened into eloquence in any language. Thereupon the Sultan sug gested a test of his miraculous powers. He should be stripped and set as a mark for his skiUed archers. If their arrows missed him, or if his body was proof against them, then he, the Sultan, would recognize him as Messiah and the person chosen by AUah to be ruler of Palestine. Sabbatai's courage faUed. He declared that he was only an ordinary Jew and had no pretentions to authority. The Sultan rephed that, as he had claimed the right to rule, he was a traitor and must pay the penalty of treason unless he became a Mahometan. If he did not, the stake was then ready at the Seraglio Gate for impalement. Sabbatai immediately declared that he wished nothing better than to change his rehgion. Thereupon the pretender was contemptuously dismissed. But numbers of his foUowers refused to believe the VLACHS, POMAKS, JEWS, AND DUNMAYS 163 master had turned Moslem. His soul had been taken up to heaven : his ghost walked on earth in the dress of a Moslem. The rabbis, however, took courage and proclaimed him an impostor, and his pretentions to be the Messiah, damnable. In March 1669, he returned to Smyrna, but shortly afterwards settled in Constantinople, where he not only practised the rites of Mahometanism, but advised his foUowers that he could not persuade Allah to aUow them the promised advantages unless they would abandon the imperfect elements of Judaism and foUow his example. He died in 1676. His foUowers stUl number many thousands. They are probably the most numerous portion of the Jewish population in Salonica. Many even of the present professing Mahometans in that city are the descendants of Dunmays. CHAPTER IX THE ALBANIANS Ghegs and Tosks — Vendettas — Treatment of women — Attitude towards religions — Bektashis, influence of — Occupations abroad — Skender Bey — Ali Pasha — Albanian share in revolution 1908-9 — Future of Albania THE Albanians, known also as Arnaouts, are a sur vival of possibly the earhest Aryan race who entered the Balkan peninsula. They have remained an isolated people since the earliest historical times, and have sur vived as a people largely because of their isolation. With the sea on one side and occupying a mountainous country, their isolation resembled that of the Scots highlanders untU two centuries ago. On the landward side there came, at periods which are not yet determined accurately, other races — Greeks on the south, Vlachs, Wallachs or Welsh on the east, and an early stream of Slav-emigrants on the north. The fringes of Albanian territory show some admixture of these races. But their advent seems only to have compacted the Albanians within their present territory and to have completed their isolation. In Montenegro, however, there is a famous clan of Albanians, who, though in race, customs and language they do not differ from their neighbours in Turkey, are yet loyal subjects of King Nicholas. The Albanians were estimated half a century ago by Schafarik to number about one and a half miUions, and probably this estimate holds good to-day.1 They inhabit the 1Mr Brailsford's estimate is 1,250,000; that of Mr Charles H. 164 THE ALBANIANS 165 eastern shore of the Adriatic from and including part of Montenegro down to the Gulf of Arta and the confines of Greece. Their eastern boundary is as vague as that of the Scots highlanders two centuries ago, but may be represented generaUy by a hne drawn from Kastoria to Lake Ochrida, thence to Uskub and into the vilayet of Kossova, in what is often caUed Old Serbia. Fersovich, a small town on the raUway from Salonica to Mitrovitz, about equal distance from Prisrend, Uskub, and Pristina, may be regarded as the entry into Northern Albania from the north-east. The Albanians fall into two divisions, Northern and Southern. Possibly they are two branches of the same people. The first are known as Ghegs, though they caU themselves Skipetars, probably meaning rock-dwellers. The second are conveniently spoken of as Tosks, from the name of the most important clan among them. The Skumbi river, which flows into the Adriatic just north of 410 latitude, may be taken as the boundary between the Ghegs and the Tosks. Prisrend is the most important centre of the Ghegs ; Koritza of the Tosks. The Ghegs have square heads, refined features, and usuaUy light coloured hair. The Tosks have a heavier caste of features, with darker hair. Among both, however, are beautiful heads which recaU those of classic Greece. All speak the Albanian language, though with certain dia lectical peculiarities between the Northerners and Southerners. In both forms it is a pleasant language to hear. The Ghegs probably are the representatives of the ancient IUyrians. The late Professor Max Miiller concluded that the present Albanian speech is the repre sentative of the IUyrian tongue. The Tosks, then and now the inhabitants of Epirus, were spoken of by the Woods (in the Westminster Gazette of 8th Sept. 1910) is between 1,100,000 and 1,200,000. 166 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE ancient Greeks as Pelasgi, and were regarded as a people more ancient than themselves. The characteristic dress of the Ghegs is a waistcoat, jacket, and breeches, each close-fitting, of a white material usuaUy resembling tweed cloth, braided with black ; that of the Tosks is the long white petticoat, known as the fustaneUa, which the Greeks have taken for the uniform of the king's guards, known as the Euzones. The Gheg is proud of his dress, and is a picturesque figure. The Tosk loves his fustaneUa as does the highlander his kUt, which it resembles in shape, though its material is white cotton instead of wool. Both Ghegs and Tosks have at times extended beyond what are now the boundaries of their country. The Ghegs, though probably of purer race than the Tosks, have intermingled to a considerable extent with their Slavonic neighbours. During the seventh and succeed ing centuries the Croats and other branches of the Slav races on the Dalmatian coast steadUy pushed the Albanians southwards. During the reign of the Serbian Czar, Dushan, who died in 1348, the Ghegs flocked to his standard. The Serbian capital was for a whUe at Prisrend, at another time at Uskub or at Scutari in Albania. Even Arta and Yanina were in his possession. The existence of many place-names of Slav origin in dicates a long Slavic occupation. After the coming of the Turks they and the Ghegs forced the Serbs to retire, and now not only do Albanians occupy the three towns mentioned, but they have taken possession of a large part of the vilayet of Kossova which two centuries and a half ago was occupied solely by Serbs. The oppression of the two races drove a number of Serbs, estimated at a hundred thousand, in about 1680 to emigrate in mass and headed by their patriarch into Hungary. The departure of other thirty thousand THE ALBANIANS 167 foUowed early in the eighteenth century. Combined Turkish and Albanian oppression continued, the refugees finding their way during the first half of the nineteenth century across into Hungary, but during the later half into free Serbia. Those who remained had to purchase the right to live by rendering service to the Albanians, much as many Armenians had to do towards the Kurdish chiefs. Mr BraUsford states that at present in the vUayet of Kossova there are from 20,000 to 30,000 Albanian famUies against only 5000 Serbian house holders,1 and he describes the country of the Serbian serfs under Albanian rule as " the most miserable corner of Europe." The Northern Albanian out of his own country proved himself an incompetent tyrant. But the point to which I here draw attention is that among them there has been a considerable admixture of Serbian blood. The Tosks or Southern Albanians have intermingled with the Vlachs, but especially with the Greeks. In the Greek War of Independence, Albanians and Greeks were so intermixed that it is difficult to distinguish them. What is certain is that the Albanians, whose sons now reside on Greek territory, largely aided in the triumph of the Greek cause. The Greek race has at all times shown a power of assimUating the races among which they dweU, and the Albanians furnish a striking illustration of the fact. When Constantinople was captured in 1204 by the Crusaders and Venetians, the empire was parceUed out among nulitary chiefs. Southern Albania, with Yanina as its capital, became a principality, and Baldwin II., the last of the Latin emperors, gave Albania to a member of the House of Anjou. The Albanians, aU of whom were then Christians, joined with their Greek neighbours to resist the tyrant from the West. They got on well together, and down 1 Brailsford, "Macedonia," p. 274. 168 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE to the present hour the influences at work for civiliza tion among the Southern Albanians are derived from contact with the Greek race and Greek Christianity. Greek is more spoken among the Albanians even in Turkey than is Turkish. Mr Hogarth points out that the hfe and characteristics of the Ghek population is largely due to the pecuhar relief of their country.1 The isolation of the region, bounded on one side by a malarial swamp and on the other by a sea without safe harbours and its general inaccessibility, have prevented its development under Turkish rule. Both Tosks and Ghegs are mountaineers. Though the first are not so taU as the second yet they too are nimble and active. Throughout Albania the people aU belonged to clans. But whUe the clan system has largely broken up among the Tosks, it flourishes in fuU force in Northern Albania. Everywhere it recaUs the highland clans of Scotland of two centuries ago. The people are not only an Aryan people of race, but are European in their national instincts. Even the Moslems among them are monogamists. Their sense of family hfe is European and not Turcoman. They are barbarians but they have never assimilated with the Turks. They marry in their own rank. Their chieftains are born aristocrats. When it is remembered that the Turk is of mixed blood and has no famUy in the Western sense, and that his heir may be the issue of one of the slaves whom he has bought, the difference wUl be appreciated. The characteristic virtues of the Albanian look like survivals from the Middle Ages : his vices and occasional savage energy from probably an earlier period. Loyalty to the chief of his clan and to his word is his greatest 1 "The Nearer East," p. 229. THE ALBANIANS 169 virtue. An inborn courtesy is common to the race. The best fighter is the best man. Every Albanian feels himself independent except when bound by the ancient customs of his race. In Northern Albania he re cognizes no law except that based on such ancient customs. The Turk has hardly attempted to impose any other law. Whether in the field or in the market place he is nearly always armed and is ready to fight on the smaUest pretext. The boy attains manhood when he can show that he possesses arms which he has captured from an enemy. His rifle is ever with him. AU fire it as a sign of joy. The Christian summons the congrega tion to divine service by a definite number of shots. His instincts are tribal, and he therefore revenges any insult to himself or his clan by starting a vendetta which, in case of his own death, is carried on by his relations or feUow-clansmen, untU the bessa is given and ends the feud. Once this sacramental word is pronounced it is respected so universaUy that the man who violates it loses caste in his tribe. He respects the right of asylum, and even the enemy is safe who has sought his protection. When reconciliation has taken place he may consent to make his enemy a blood brother, each of them puncturing his arm and sucking a drop of blood from the other. But even whUe the vendetta lasts it must be conducted according to fairly weU established customary laws. The intended victim, who for any cause has become hable to vendetta, may not be killed when he is accom panied by a woman or by a child nor when he is with other men. The parties may agree upon a truce lasting for a definite number of days or weeks, and the bessa having been given for such time the intended victim is safe. If the vendetta is between clans they may agree that no action shaU be taken against the other untU an hour after sunset. 170 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE The causes for which blood may be shed are also fairly weU defined. Murder, of course, is one. But the chivalry of the race demands the blood also of a man who has struck a woman. There is usually no secret about a vendetta. Public opinion requires that for certain offences a man shaU die by the hand of the person or relative of the person who has been insulted or injured. When the blood-avenger has killed his man, he pro claims his deed so that pubhc opinion may recognize that he has done his duty and saved his honour. There upon he himself, by the tribal custom, may become hable to be kUled by the relative of his victim. A sort of Council of Honour exercises jurisdiction over vendetta, and in certain tribes has large powers. It may burn the house and crops of the wrongdoer. Miss Edith Durham states from her own knowledge that " an incredible amount of food-stuff is yearly wasted and land made desolate " in consequence of such decisions.1 This is the more serious because in Albania, as in certain districts of Bulgaria, there are House Communities containing sometimes from fifty to a hundred persons. In some of the tribes the CouncU has other important powers over their members. A tribesman belonging to the Northern Albanians cannot seU his land to others than members of his clan without the consent of the tribal CouncU. There stiU linger among them many of the communal proprietary rights which once existed among the whole Aryan race, and which stiU exist in the Indian Village Communities and untU recently in the Russian Mir. An outsider cannot become a member of the clan with out the consent of the tribal CouncU, because on being admitted he takes his share in the communal property. A tribesman may marry an outsider, but the woman loses her rights in the tribe she leaves, and, so to say, comes 1 "High Albania," 1909, by M. Edith Durham. THE ALBANIANS 171 under the p atria potestas of her husband or his chief. An Albanian, whether of the north or south, on being asked his name wiU give it with the addition of the name of his tribe, just as a Scots highlander two centuries ago would caU himself Ian Macleod or M'Tavish. The Albanian's treatment of woman is mediaeval. It can hardly be called chivalrous, because the sex is in no sense glorified or clothed with romantic attributes. Woman is simply left out of account in most matters. The wife works in the fields as hard or harder than her husband. But she nevertheless is respected. She can fight in case of need as fiercely as her husband. The presence of a woman acting as a guide to a man is a protection to him. But her husband leaves her to carry produce and to do his heaviest work. Among the Albanians who are Moslems she is not veUed, and in this respect is treated differently from other Moslem women in Turkey. Marriage by capture remains the rule, and this even among the Mirdites, a large clan in Northern Albania numbering 30,000, who have been under the influence of Italian teaching and are Roman Catholics. About two-thirds of the population of Albania are Mahometans. The remainder consist of about one- third Roman Catholics and two-thirds members of the Orthodox Church. The Moslems and the Roman Cathohcs are more numerous in the north, the members of the Greek Church in the south.1 But throughout Albania the professors of different creeds get on fairly weU together. The attitude of the Albanian towards rehgion is re markable. Christians and Moslems are before all things Albanians. Indifference to religion and the strong sense 1 An interesting and valuable article, on the Albanians and their relation to the Latin Church may be read in "Temple Bar," vol. 127, p. 178, and vol. 129, p. 68, by Reginald Wyon. 172 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE of nationality as over-riding aU other distinctions help to make them tolerant and create curious results. UntU fifty years ago the custom prevaUed in Northern Albania of bringing up the boys as Moslems, the girls as Christians. Even now in the Skumbri plain many of the boys are baptized as weU as initiated into Mahometanism. At home they have Christian names ; officiaUy they have Turkish. There is no haremlik and salemlik as in a Turkish house. Many, of both sexes, keep both Lent and Ramazan. On the same table will be pork for the Christians and mutton for the Moslems. Lord Byron, nearly a century ago, noted that " the Greeks hardly regarded the Albanians as Christians, or the Turks as Moslems, and, in fact, they are a mixture of both, and sometimes neither." x Religion, indeed, has always sat lightly upon them. I question whether they were ever much attached to Christianity. A Cathohc archbishop, writing in 1610, says that out of a population of 400,000 in the See of Antivari, 350,000 were Catholics. There are probably about one-third of that number now. It is certain that the two-thirds of the total population who now profess Islam are very loose Mahometans. On the death of the great national leader, Skender Bey, in 1467, many of the Albanian chiefs soon found it to their interest to profess Mahometanism. By their conversion they obtained peace and the support of the Turks against other chiefs. Their foUowers, with the feudal attachment to their chiefs and without any great attachment to Christianity, adopted the creed of their leaders. Others were attracted to a hfe of adventure in the Turkish Army and adopted the creed of their comrades. Many, however, who remained at home, especially women, remained Christians ; many men became crypto-Christians ; outwardly conformed to 1 " Notes to Childe Harold," Canto 11. THE ALBANIANS 173 Islam, privately maintained Christian practices as do members of other races in Asia Minor to the present day. A decision of the Roman Church in 1703, however, forbad the practice of the secret administration of the Mass which had been continued among the Ghegs. The Mahometan Albanians show an amount of tolera tion which is exceptional among Moslems in Turkey. Mr BraUsford attributes their toleration in religious practice largely to the influence of the Bektashi dervishes who have for two centuries been among them. The suggestion appears to me weU founded. This Order from various causes was always tolerant of Christians and their rehgion. Hadji Bektash, its most Ulustrious member, though not the founder, appears to have been a man who took the good things Allah had sent in a spirit of joyous piety. It was he who gave the name of Janissaries or New Troops to the regiment which Sultan Orchan formed in 1326 by selecting youths from Christian famUies. UntU the destruction of the famous corps in 1826 the Bektashi dervishes always maintained their connection with them, and it is said that as the band was slaughtered, the men died with the names of Hadji Bektash and AUah on their lips. Immediately after the destruction an Imperial Decree suppressed the Order, aUeging, falsely probably, that in their convents were demi-jons of wine stoppered with leaves of the Koran. But the Decree did not put an end to the Order, and their convents exist in many parts of the Empire, but are especiaUy influential in Albania. It may be reasonably conjectured that most of the Janissaries during the first three centuries of the existence of the corps, aU Christians of origin, who had been torn from their families and brought up as Moslems, kept up a feehng of kindliness and kinship for the relations from whom they had been taken, and that this reacted upon the Bektashis. Indeed 174 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE many Janissaries, when they retired by reason of age from active service, became fuUy admitted Bektashis. But then as now there were attached to the Order a great number of lay brethren. It is certain that to this hour the numbers of the Order, both initiated and lay, are well disposed to all who are doing humanitarian work, and their influence everywhere favours religious toleration. I could mention several instances in con firmation which have come under my own observation. Let me tell a story in Ulustration : a friend of my own had been settled for a year in a village where the popula tion was about equaUy divided between Moslems and Christians. He had passed his time in learning the two languages spoken there, and in practising medicine. He had often observed an old Bektashi sheik in the street, foUowed by a number of disciples who crowded round to hear his words. My friend had taken him for a Moslem fanatic, and had carefuUy avoided him. One day, however, he had to pass the Bektash who was on the opposite side of the way. The old man beckoned to him to cross the road, and, with some hesitation, he ¦did so. The sheik took him by the hand, linked his arm in his own, and, turning to his disciples, said something like the foUowing : "I am very old, and AUah wiU soon take me home, but I request you, my children, to take a legacy from me. I give you this man to take special care of. I have watched him since he came to our town, and he has done nothing but good. Some of you may say he is a ghiour, but I don't care for that. Whether he says his prayers in the name of Mahomet, may his holy name be praised ! or whether he says them in the name of Jesus, may His holy name be praised ! does not matter to me. He has been doing no evil but only good, and I therefore charge you to take care of him for my sake." THE ALBANIANS 175 The same friend many years afterwards took up his residence with his famUy in what was then a purely Turkish vUlage near the Capital, but in which a Bektashi convent exercised influence. The fanatical part of the population were bitterly opposed to the residence of any Christians in their vUlage. They threw stones, called ghiour after him, and made themselves generaUy dis agreeable. He soon, however, made friends with the sheik of the Bektashi convent. His noble life gradually won the esteem of his Moslem neighbours, and when, in 1901, he was carried in a chair from his house to the water-side in order to embark on a voyage, during which he died, the Moslem vUlagers extemporized a procession to wish him God-speed. The Iman's wife, who had been the leader of the opposition, led the women and ex temporized a litany, " This is a good man, AUah, send him back to us." Fervent Amins followed. " He has been good to us, AUah ; give him health. He has helped our poor, saved our chUdren," and so on tUl my friend embarked. It was a pathetic sight, showed the influence of the Bektashis, and proved once more that there is a good deal of human nature in men, irrespective of their creeds. The Albanian is an honest barbarian. He is sensitive, has a keen sense of honour, and a fine self-respect. He is never a coward and never mean. He is ready to turn highwayman, but not to pilfer or cadge. His trust worthiness, activity and tidy, not to say picturesque, appearance, makes him a favourite in Turkey. His mountains furnish him only with a scanty living, and, largely from this cause, many Albanians as weU as Croats and Montenegrins leave their country to take service in distant lands especiaUy in Constantinople. Many become horse-dealers, especially from the Northern Albanians. They are found in Constantinople as road-makers, as 176 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE guardians, body-servants, gardeners, and soldiers. The Turkish Army has long been as great a resource for the superfluous energy of the Albanian mountaineers as was the British Army a century ago for Highlanders. As road-makers and unskiUed labourers, the Albanian has httle to differentiate him from the Itahan labourer out of his own country. As body-servants and guardians they are invaluable. They are ornamental as weU as useful. Visitors to Constantinople are often struck with the gorgeous appearance of the cavasses before the doors of embassies, banks, or the houses of wealthy citizens. These men, constantly mistaken for Turks by visitors, are pretty sure to be Albanians, Montene grins or Croats. The man chosen is handsome, proud of his bright dress, his one or two revolvers, and his dagger. The Albanian and the Croat, who is often half Albanian, make exceUent guardians on account of- their honesty. On aU sides their trustworthiness and truthfulness are acknowledged. If I mention my own experience it is simply as typical of what hundreds of residents in Turkey could confirm from their own. During the last thirty years we have had a summer residence in the island of Prinkipo, which we have occupied during five or six months annuaUy. On leaving it year after year for one in Pera, our furniture, household effects, summer clothing, books and ornaments are left in the house, in rooms which are not even locked. A gardener, at one time an Albanian, at another a Croat, has been left in charge, and on our return to the island in the spring we have never found anything missing. Most of the neighbouring houses, aU of which are closed during winter, are simUarly guarded by Albanians or Croats who usually agree well together. They are proud of their charge. Robbery from one house would be felt as a stain upon all the guardians. Our usual word on leaving for the winter is, THE ALBANIANS 177 " We leave everything to you." The answer is, " On my head be it." Many other positions of trust are held by them in Constantinople and throughout aU the western portion of the empire. They are bank-messengers, door-keepers, and gardeners, and are employed by many merchants who wish to have men who can be trusted absolutely. They are popular in such employ, not only from their honesty nor merely from their picturesque appearance, but because they are lively and always seem wide-awake. The Turk in a simUar position, though equally trust worthy, looks usuaUy sleepy, and as if he wished to be " making kef." I should not wish to leave the impression that they are the only men who, in such posi tions, are trustworthy. The uneducated classes of aU the populations in the empire are usuaUy honest when in positions of trust. Armenian and Turkish hamals or porters who are in a foreigner's employ are quite as trustworthy as Englishmen of the same class would be. My own hamals have always been either Armenians or Turks, and have cashed many thousands of pounds, and I do not beheve that any of them has ever stolen a penny. Service in the Turkish army long afforded to the Albanian the most promising career. Where there is fighting to be done he is happy. He is wiUing to under take the commonplace work of paving or road-making, of gardening or of watchman, when necessity compels him to leave his native mountains. But the life which appeals to him is that of the soldier in time of war. UntU half a century ago it was military service under the Turks which offered the great and almost the sole induce ment to leave Albania. It has been to his race the great attraction during the last two centuries. Though all 12 178 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE were Christians when the Turks first entered their country, graduaUy the aUurements of soldiering led many of them to join the army. Von Ranke says that when the Albanians began to change they went over to Islam in masses. While thinking the statement too general, it is certain that the liking for military life largely resulted in the adoption of Mahometanism, sometimes even by whole clans. In other cases military service reacted upon the clans from which the men came by creating a friendly feeling which softened the asperities of Turkish rule. The Albanians were at first mixed with the other troops, but soon came to be considered the favourite soldiers of the Porte. They never had the reputation of being readUy amenable to discipline. But they were especiaUy useful to the Sultans in suppressing revolts among other subject races. For this purpose, in the latter half of the eighteenth, and the first half of the nineteenth century they were employed against Arabs, Egyptians, and Greeks. The great movement in Egypt in 1811, which placed the present dynasty on the Khedivial throne, was led by a conspicuously able man, Mehmet Ali, who had a genius for warfare and administration, which, under other circumstances, might have produced a Napoleon. Mehmet Ali was an Albanian who had settled in CavaUa at the head of the Mgean Sea. But the Albanians, though largely trusted by the Sultans to put down revolt, were seldom to be de pended upon themselves, unless kept actively employed. The independence of the mountaineers made them uneasy under a discipline which they regarded as degrading. The same observation stiU holds good. Mr BraUsford mentions the case of a Turkish officer who, in 1904, struck a private soldier. " The whole garrison went into THE ALBANIANS 179 mutiny, untU it had found and slaughtered the erring lieutenant." 1 The turbulent spirit of the Albanian troops led at various times to attempts to bring the whole of their country under complete subjection. Up to the present time this has never been done. Urquhart, the great phUo-Turk Englishman of the middle of last century, and a man of deservedly great influence in his day, claimed indeed that Sultan Mahmud the second, in the first quarter of the century, had subjugated the Albanians. Mahmud had done nothing of the sort. He had done what his predecessors had done, had sent overwhelming armies into the country, had killed many persons, had destroyed crops and burnt houses. Then the troops had retired, and in a few years the Albanians were as unsub- jugated as ever. Even now, there are clans which pay no taxes. The district north of Avlona and the back country into the mountains care nothing for the tax- gatherer and such law as is administered is not in many districts of Albania the law applicable elsewhere to the empire, but is a general summary of the tribal customs. The two Albanians who are best known, in history are George Castriotes, more commonly spoken of as Skender or Iskender (that is, Alexander) Bey and Ali Pasha. They are distinctly representative of the best and worst side of Albanian character. Each figures as a National hero. The first hved and made his name renowned 1 "Macedonia," p. 224. While revising these pages a somewhat similar incident occurred in Constantinople. On the 28th March 191 1 , a German officer struck an Albanian while at drill. The Albanian a few minutes afterwards shot him. When brought into the presence •of the dying officer, and asked why he had shot his officer, his reply, given in the Turkish semi-official paper Tanin, was, " I shot you because you ill-treated me and humiliated me before my comrades. I would have done the same to my own father." He was publicly shot. 180 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE throughout Europe in the middle of the fifteenth century. The second made Turkey and Western Europe ring with his bravery and misdeeds from 1790 to 1822. Each was a daring and skilful soldier. To Ali Pasha, however, must be assigned a special strain of perfidy and cruelty. Skender Bey was Christian by birth, the son of the chief of a clan who had been defeated and compeUed to give his four sons as hostages to Sultan Bayazid. He went through a series of adventures which recaU those of Garibaldi. Though he was without the humane and chivalrous qualities which characterized the Italian hero, he showed a like skill in guerilla warfare, and a like recklessness of danger. During the later years of his life, and for long after his death in 1467, he was regarded in Italy and elsewhere as a Christian hero. He left no successor capable of carrying on successful war ; and before many years had passed, the Albanians came, at least nominaUy, under Tuikish rule. The other Albanian whose name was weU known in Western Europe was Ali Pasha of Yanina, a consummate master of intrigue, an inchoate statesman, an able soldier, but a treacherous and cruel tyrant. He is a good illus tration of the type of man which Turkish tyranny developes among able and semi-independent races. He is often mentioned in the correspondence of Lord Byron, and his later history forms part of the story of the revolu tion which led to the independence of Greece. That story itself has a happy issue. No Englishman in the twentieth century who knows anything of the history of Greece in the eighteenth century, and who has visited that country, can be otherwise than satisfied that the fatal blow to the Turkish power in Greece given at Navarino by the combined fleets of Great Britain, France, and Russia was wisely struck. Though for political purposes the British Government spoke of it in THE ALBANIANS 181 intentionally vague language as an " untoward event," its results were to create a nation whose remarkable progress has been witnessed by the world with satisfaction. If the story be true that William, afterwards the fourth king of that name, wTote on the dispatch to his old shipmate, Sir Edward Codrington, who was in command of the three fleets, " Go it, Ned," and that this pre cipitated the action, we may regard the act as a happy indiscretion. But the story of the revolution, always bearing in mind its happy issue, is grim and ugly. It is one of struggles between Greek and Albanian generals who distrusted each other, of contests between primates, of warfare of one section against another for the glorification of private levenge, of personal jealousies, of blood-feuds, treacheries, desertions to the Turks and back again, of intrigues, of political and private murders in the name of patriotism ; of the murder of prisoners on both sides, and withal of splendid acts of bravery by land and sea ; it was a period of chaos, of wUd confusion, the struggles of slaves with great and glorious traditions but also with the vices of slaves, to become free. The idea of patriotism seemed at times to be entirely forgotten in the desire for selfish triumph. Fortunately, on the Turkish side, there was stiU more corruption among the officers and a brutality which constantly helped to weld the Greeks together. In aU this medley of treachery and hard fighting the Albanians took a prominent part. It is estimated that even fifty years ago there were a hundred thousand of them within the kingdom of Greece, and the numbers were probably larger in the early part of the century. Under happier rule these are rapidly becoming merged among the subjects of King George, because whatever may be said of Greek foreign policy it must never be forgotten that the rule of their country by the Greeks 182 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE has been, on the whole, a great success, and is infinitely preferable to that which preceded the revolution. They have passed from barbarism to civUization. When the struggle to throw off the Turkish yoke began, many of the Albanians made common cause with the Greeks. When Ali Pasha the Albanian was appointed by the Sultan about 1790, to be Vali of Yanina, he was already forty-five years old. Born near Avlona, he must be counted as a Southern Albanian. To the south of Yanina the mountain ranges were nearly inaccessible, and on many occasions the Turkish troops sent against him, when he sought refuge in the hills, utterly faUed to take the positions. He had succeeded in getting named as Vali after defeating several neighbouring chiefs, after procuring the murder of his father-in-law and sub sequently of his brother-in-law, and after himself stabbing a Vali, who had been given a position he wanted for himself. When he obtained the VUayet his power in Southern Albania was nearly absolute. He defeated the chiefs of the clans around him. He encouraged the Greeks in rebeUion, and aided them with his own Albanian troops, doing this whUe always in the Sultan's service. He played off one revolutionary party against another, as weU as Turks against Christians, always constant to the one purpose of making himself sole independent ruler. He intrigued with the French under Napoleon, against the English, and with the English against the French. Sometimes he took French officers to drill his troops ; sometimes English. He was relentless and brutal to all who opposed him. One of the incidents in connection with his career, which is best known, is connected with the smaU district called Sufi, between Yanina and the Gulf of Arta. It was occupied by Christian Albanians, and THE ALBANIANS 183 so strong in its independence from its natural position as almost to constitute a republic. There were in it about sixty viUages, but only 1500 fighting men. Many attempts had been made by Turkish troops to capture the place, but the Suliots had always successfuUy resisted. Ali himself determined to annex it. He made his first attempt as early as 1792, with an army four times the number of the Suliots, and faUed. During several years he endeavoured to bribe the Suliots into sub mission, but always without success. In 1800 he again attacked them. Their trusted leader, Botzaris (not to be confused with Marco of that name) , was absent. After a fierce struggle against almost everwhelming numbers, the strength of the Suliots was broken. In 1803 orders were sent to Ali, by the Sultan, to capture Suli at aU costs. The Suliots fought like heroes, and were led by a priest named Samuel whose curious cognomen was " Last Judg ment." When, by means of treachery, the approaches to Suli had been captured Samuel refused to capitulate, and, as the place was being taken, deliberately blew up the powder magazine, destroying many friends and him self. Some few escaped to a neighbouring place caUed Kiapha, and subsequently to one of the Ionian islands. When rehef or further endurance was quite hopeless, six men and twenty-two women threw themselves over a precipice in order to escape faUing into the hands of the blood-thirsty Ah. This appears to be the simple narrative of the deed. Heroic in itself it is one which has grown in the Greek imagination to a dramatic picture of a band of Suliot women circling round with joined hands in the old Pyrrhic dance, as they stiU circle in dozens of places throughout Greece on great feast days, and as the circle passed near the edge of the precipice each one in turn flung herself or himself over whUe the circle was im mediately completed by the remainder, untU aU had 184 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE voluntarUy sought the doom which should save them from the brutality of Ali and his soldiers. Ali resisted the Sultan for nearly twenty-five years. His success secured him the admiration of his neighbours. His rule, when once it was firmly established and recog nized, was not bad. Colonel Leake, who at the time visited almost every part of Ali's dominions, states that he " always encouraged education among the Greeks. He got rid of highway robbers, buUt roads and bridges, treated Christians and Moslems on an equality " ; but that he was a selfish tyrant is attested by aU witnesses. Though calling himself a Moslem, he treated all cults with indifference, and it is suggested that he speciaUy encouraged the Dervish order of Bektashis, because they were regarded by the Turks as infidels, or, at least, as men regarding aU religions as he himself did with equal favour. In 1822, he received the Sultan's promise of pardon and a safe conduct to Constantinople, and upon this promise he surrendered. There are various accounts as to how he came by his death, the commonest being that the day after he had set out for the Capital he was beheaded. The dritish Chaplain in Constantinople, Dr Walsh, who was in that city in 1822, saw the head of Ali exposed to public view. It was buried in the great cemetery outside the landward waUs and immediately opposite the SUivria Gate. The traveUer now has pointed out to him the tombstone of Ali the Albanian, and those of his brothers and three sons. As recently as 1880 it looked as if a united Albania might be possible, at least among the Ghegs. But the movement turned out to be nothing more than one of Abdul Hamid's futUe attempts to frighten Europe. The time was an anxious one in Constantinople and in England. The Berlin treaty had decided that Antivari and its sea THE ALBANIANS 185 coast should be given to Montenegro.1 Abdul Hamid, however, refused to consent to any surrender of territory. Mr Gladstone, after negotiations had faUed to persuade him, induced the European Powers to make a naval demonstration in the Adriatic. But this also appeared to be on the point of failure. AU the men-of-war of the Powers retired except those belonging to Great Britain. The Sultan and the enemies of England were in high glee. But they did not know that they had to deal not only with Mr Gladstone, but with one of the ablest Ambas sadors England ever sent abroad, Mr Goschen. The latter went to the Palace and delivered an ultimatum. If the Sultan did not yield, England would occupy a Turkish seaport untU he did. It was a message which tried a man's mettle, and I learned at the time that Mr Goschen's lips trembled as he gave it. Nevertheless the Sultan stiU refused. Sealed orders were sent to the Fleet, as the w-orld learned a few months afterwards when a Blue Book told the story, to saU for and occupy Smyrna. The signals for departure were actually " bent on," ready to be shaken out, when a boat was observed pulling with aU haste for the fleet, and a man in its stern waving something energeticaUy. It turned out to be the British Consul bringing a telegram from Mr Goschen stating that the Sultan had given way. Meantime, in order to alarm the Powers a great fuss was made of ah " Albanian League " which was going to do wonders if the Powers persisted. A native prince, Dodo by name, Chief of the Mirdites, whose capital is at Oroski, had been placed at the head of the League, every man of which was to shed his blood for the defence of Ottoman territory. When Abdul Hamid yielded he had no further need of Dodo, who soon found that Western 1 Certain modifications were made, and a definite arrangement was only signed on 18th April 1880. See Nouradoungian's " Recueil des Treaties," p. 260, vol. ii. The articles in the Berlin Treaty are 28 and 29. 186 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Europe suited him better than Albania. He returned to Turkey after the Revolution. Many Albanians who have received some amount of instruction have risen to high offices in the State. They have intelligence and a dignity and courtesy of manner which makes a favourable impression. The Grand Vizir, Ferid Pasha, who held office untU the revolution of July 1908, is a pure Albanian. He is a typicaUy hand some man, and always impressed me with his airs of manliness and straightforwardness. The Albanian regiments in Constantinople were trusted from his accession by Sultan Abdul Hamid, who during all his reign had never less than five thousand Albanian soldiers as his guard at YUdiz. Indeed the favours he showered upon them caused much jealousy among other troops. These favours were not confined to the Albanian guard ; for, in order to stand weU with their race gener aUy, and to be able to employ them against the Serbians, Montenegrins and Bulgarians, taxes were aUowed to remain uncollected, and their chiefs were permitted to do almost what they liked. During the seven or eight years preceding the revolution, they opposed the introduction of reforms in Macedonia urged by the Powers and nominally accepted by Abdul Hamid.1 When outrages of an exceptional character occurred, the Sultan's excuse to prevent the execution of the reforms, was that the Albanians had got out of hand. The excuses deceived no ambassador. The Albanians played an important though unexpected part in Macedonia in precipitating the revolution in July 1908. The intention of the Committee of Union and Progress was to make their demonstration and 1 Mr Brailsford's book on Macedonia is especially valuable for showing how the reforms suggested by Europe were for the most part evaded. THE ALBANIANS 187 demand for constitutional government on the anniversary of the Sultan's accession, namely, the ist September. Abdul Hamid, however, had been informed by the be ginning of July, and probably a fortnight earlier, of what the Committee was doing and of the disaffection in the third army corps stationed in Macedonia. He had sent forty spies, almost ostentatiously, to scent out the dis affected. Shemshi Pasha was at Monastir ready to repress revolt, and on every side precautions against a rising were being taken. These incentives to speedy action, however, might not have been sufficient to make the Committee change their plans. Their proposed enterprise was full of risk, but the Committee believed that so long as their project was not generally known, every week or even day would enable them to strengthen their position. They wished to act with great caution and not to precipitate a hasty movement which would be ruthlessly ended. An incident at Uskub helped to force their hands. In that town there were certain drinking shops and cafes chantants which belonged to Austrian subjects. They hoisted the flag of their nation to show that they were under its protection. The Austrian Consul proposed to give a great picnic at Fersovich, or Ferizovich, about half way between Uskub and Kossova, and on the eastern frontier of Albania. The picnic was nominally for the benefit of an Austrian school in Uskub, and, according to repute in Uskub, was to be a record one. A special train was arranged to run to Fersovich ; a great tent had been sent on and even wooden shanties erected for the guests. But the organizers of the week's pleasure — it was spoken of in the neighbourhood as a debauch — had not taken the Albanians into account. The leading famUies among the Ghegs had been alarmed at the inducements to vice which had led some of their young men astray in the caf£s chantants of Uskub. 188 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE They coUected some thousands of men in the neighbour ing hills, and sent word to the Austrian Consul that they would not aUow the picnic. They would burn the train and attack those in it if it were attempted. As an earnest of what they meant they destroyed the shanties and the casinos in Fersovich. The Committee of Union and Progress in Monastir and Salonika were alarmed at the news. If the conflict came off, the Austrians might enter the country ; war would ensue and the revolutionary projects would be for a time at least frustrated. Accordingly some of their members hastened to the hiUs near Uskub, con ferred with the leaders at Fersovich, and persuaded them to make common cause for the establishment of con stitutional government. Meantime, Galib Bey, who commanded the gendar- mery at Uskub, received orders from YUdiz to disperse the thousands of Albanians, but Galib had himself be come a member of the Committee. The telegraph and most of the railway employes were gained over by the Committee which issued its instructions from Salonika. The conference lasted a week. On the 22nd of July telegrams of a common purport were sent from Fersovich, and many other places of Macedonia, to Yildiz, demand ing a constitution, and intimating that if it were not granted " something very serious would happen to the Sultan himself." In presence of these demands from nearly all the important towns in Macedonia the Sultan yielded. In the night of the 23rd-24th July replies were received, and before midnight the troops in Uskub, Monastir and Salonika saluted the constitution, some eight hours before the news was announced in the capital. The Albanians had joined with the rest of the population in Macedonia in the demand for this new form of government. THE ALBANIANS 189 It was on account of the favours the Albanian soldiers had received from Abdul Hamid that after the revolution those in Constantinople were distrusted by the Committee of Union and Progress, and a considerable number were replaced in November 1908 by other troops brought from Salonika, whose officers were members of the Committee. It was known to be against the Sultan's wish that the Albanians should be sent away, but the Committee were determined, and two of their number were deputed to see him and declare that if the Albanian tioops resisted the change they would be attacked by the others and by an ironclad stationed in the Bosporus. In such an event " the Committee would not answer for the consequences." As their barracks were almost in the line of fire between the ironclad and YUdiz it was impossible that the Sultan should not realize what the consequence might be. As it was, when the first detachment of Turkish troops arrived from Salonika to replace them, a mutiny occurred among the Albanians in the Tashkisla barracks, which are about half a mUe distant from the palace. In the struggle to repress it several men, officiaUy stated as nine, were kiUed and more wounded, but the prompt action of the officers prevented further trouble. As other troops were expected whose arrival might cause further trouble riflemen were stationed during the foUow ing night in the vaUey between the mutineers' barracks and YUdiz, and the ironclad stationed in the Bosporus had her guns turned on the barracks and also, incidentaUy of course, on YUdiz itself. The Sultan, when a deputa tion from the mutineers waited upon him to object to their removal, declared that it was the business of his Minister of War to determine where his troops should be stationed, and that as for himself he loved aU his soldiers equally weU ! Within six months, however, the very troops who had 190 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE replaced the Albanians had been gained by the partisans of Abdul Hamid, and when, on the 13th AprU 1909, the soldiers in the capital rose against their officers, against the Committee of Union and Progress and the adherents of the new regime, these troops took part in the revolt. Those who occupied the Tashkisla barracks had many Albanians among them, and the regiment in question was known as the chasseurs of Salonika. On the 13th AprU they not only joined the other rebeUious troops but killed aU their officers whom they could find. When, therefore, ten days later, the army under Mahmud Shevket Pasha arrived before the city to recover posses sion of it, and to punish some of the leaders of the silliest and most ill-considered movement that the brainless partisans of reaction could have devised, the chasseurs of Salonika were marked men. They knew the fate intended for them, and in the Tashkisla barracks made a more obstinate resistance on the famous Saturday the 24th AprU, when the army captured the various barracks and public buUdings near YUdiz than any other troops. For a whUe they remained in the barracks on the defen sive, but about 9 a.m. upwards of a hundred sallied out to attack the invaders. Many of them feU, and the rest hastened back. The soldiers who had taken refuge in other barracks near had aU surrendered by noon on that day, and many of us civUians had ventured beyond the cavalry barracks at the Taxim under the impression that the Macedonian army had captured every place of importance. Suddenly, about 3 p.m., firing commenced. A body of the chasseurs had barricaded themselves in the stables of Tashkisla barracks, and, after firing had ceased elsewhere, had opened fire. At once the avaUable points for attack upon the stables were occupied by Shevket's troops. Many of the civilians were in the line of fire and hastened into neighbouring houses for shelter. THE ALBANIANS 191 Artillery was quickly brought up and by 4 p.m. the mutinous chasseurs were either kiUed or prisoners. At 4.30 I was with the crowd of spectators examining the damage which had been done. AU resistance had ceased. No serious attempts have ever been made to bring Albanians within the sway of civUization. Nor have matters improved in this respect under the Constitu tional Government. In a rising in December 1909, which the Albanians declare was wantonly provoked and which lasted tiU the foUowing AprU, the old method of suppressing discontent among them was foUowed. It may be admitted at once that the Albanians in question have been and are unruly, that many of them refused mihtary service, objected to pay for exemption from such service, and, to use the usual slang phrase, required a lesson. But it should have been remembered that they were a people who had never been subdued, that they had been spoUed by Abdul Hamid, that no attempts had been made to civUize them either by making roads or encouraging education, that they hoped much from the Constitution which they had helped to estabhsh, that they had been ready to fight Austria when young Turkey believed war was probable, and that the old method of sending men into the mountains to destroy their houses and crops and to kiU all whom they could catch had invariably failed in making them a law-respecting people. The example of our own country after the rebeUion in Scotland in 1745, when our fathers under not dissimUar circumstances, constructed roads through the highlands, would have been an excellent one to foUow. Instead of foUowing it, Turkish troops burnt their houses, aroused a bitter feeling of opposition throughout aU sections of the race, and finished up with a number of executions and brutal punishments which 192 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE left the impression upon the inhabitants that the new regime was no better than the old. The attempt to disarm the population of Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Albania, which followed was not only a faUuie, but was conducted in a grossly unfair manner ; it was a faUure because very few of the forty-two thousand Mauser rifles, distributed among the people to be used against the Austrians if the troubles brought about by the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina should result in war, were collected ; it was conducted in a grossly unfair manner because the disarmament announced as general was only partial, the arms which were surrendered — mostly old ones — being in many cases handed over with httle attempt at concealment to those in whom the officers in command had confidence. In concluding this account of the Albanians, some notice must be given of the struggle in reference to the written language. Koritza has for years been the centre from which this language struggle has been mainly conducted. It is now going on more fiercely than ever. It is not too much to say that the great majority of the people wish to employ Latin characters. Until a century ago there was practicaUy no written Albanian whatever. About that time the Tosks in the south, and the Roman Catholic priests among the Ghegs, began to make fairly successful attempts to reduce the language into writing. The Tosks, through the influence of their Greek neigh bours, employed Greek characters ; the Catholics used Latin. Forty years ago, when these tentative attempts were beginning to make considerable progress, the Turks took alarm and objected to both systems. The Roman Catholics had established primary and secondary schools at Scutari, and the Italians about ten years ago opened primary schools at Avlona and Yanina. The THE ALBANIANS 193 Greeks had been equaUy zealous in spreading a know ledge of their own written character. The language struggle has been going on intermittently for forty years. The Turks appealed to the religious sentiment of their faith, and represented to the Moslem Albanians that the employment of other than Arab characters was treason to Islam. But the plea of utUity appealed to all Albanians who had received any kind of instruction. The difficulties of learning to read the Arab character, in which Turkish is written, notoriously exceed those of learning with either Greek or Latin letters. The famous Midhat Pasha, when Governor of Bulgaria forty years ago, told a friend of mine, that if he could, he would prevent Bulgarians and Greeks using their own system of writing ; " for," said he, " I know that a Greek or Bulgarian chUd can learn to read and write in two or three years ; ours require five or six." So also with Albanian in Roman letters. GraduaUy there came to be almost unanimity amongst the Albanians capable of forming an opinion on such subject, that Latin characters with certain modifications which aU readUy understood, expressed most phoneticaUy the Albanian language, and were most easily learnt. This unanimity was only arrived at after years of tentative attempts to find the most suitable script. Portions of the Bible and other books were printed in Sofia, Rome, and Bucarest in a type with dots, accents and characters which hardly look Latin. FinaUy a Latin script was generaUy adopted. The fact that the British and Foreign Bible Society, which has no other object than that of spreading a knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures, and the Catholic priests and missionaries in and about Scutari in Albania are in accord in using Latin character with certain modifica tions, raises a fair presumption that it is the one best adapted for the purpose required. A gathering of repre- "3 194 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE sentatives from every part of Albania in September 1909, held at Elbasan, agreed to adopt the same system. Unfortunately, the young Turkey party, in its zeal for the Turkification, not only of the Albanians, but of all the races of the Empire, closed aU the schools where Latin character is taught, confiscated Albanian books if not in Turkish type, and insisted upon forcing the employment of Turkish, if any character is to be taught. The Albanians do not object to the teaching of Turkish but they do to employing it for their own language. It is a foolish attempt on the part of the Turks, because, while on the one hand, no impartial persons would maintain that Arabic character can be learned as readily .as Latin, on the other the written language in Latin character can be made as simple and as phonetic as Italian itself. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that the Albanians are a European and not an Asiatic people, and the educated men amongst them prefer the form of writing which should bring them in line with Europeans rather than Asiatics. Speaking on the subject to one of the Albanian deputies, who is thoroughly conversant with French, and is at the same time a Moslem who reads and writes Turkish with facility, he remarked on the foUy of the young Turks in endeavouring to coerce his feUow-country- men in a matter of this kind : " what does it matter," said he, " so long as we pay our taxes and give military service, how we write our language ? Nothing can pre vent us from speaking it. Young Turkey recognizes this ; why then should we not be aUowed to write it as we like." He assured me also that the Latin alphabet expressed more clearly the sound of the Albanian language than either Turkish or Greek. Whether the Albanians wiU ever become a compact and THE ALBANIANS 195 autonomous body is doubtful. They are divided in religion, but not hopelessly and certainly not f anaticaUy. They are united in their love for their country, and the dialectical difference between Ghegs and Tosks is not greater than that which existed two centuries ago between English and Scotch. They have no love for their Slav neighbours, and their desire for national independence is so great that they would form a turbulent element for either Italy or Austria. It appears to me highly pro bable that as they advance in civUization — for advance they wiU — the formation of an autonomous state is the direction towards which they wiU aspire. Amongst the difficulties in the way of the realization of such a wish is that of defining tha eastward boundary of their territory. If, however, autonomy were granted to Macedonia generaUy they would probably be wiUing to be included in it. Should the happy consummation be realized of a federation of aU the Balkan States, Albania might obtain a form of self-government in such federation which would greatly advance its civilization, and aUow the Albanian people to develop on their own natural and national lines. CHAPTER X MACEDONIA — PART I Progress and present condition of Romania, Serbia, Greece and especially Bulgaria, all principally as influencing the present position of Macedonia. THE kingdoms of Romania, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro do not come directly within the limits of my task. But there is a large and important Bulgarian population, and there are Greeks, Serbians and Romanians residing in Turkey. It is with such dweUers that I am here principally concerned, but it is impossible to understand their condition and the ques tions relating to them without some notion of the countries mentioned and of their recent history. AU the states of the Balkan Peninsula which have been set free from the rule of the Turk have made great progress. In Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece we see nations which, though aU a century ago under subjection to the Sultans, have risen from apparent death and are now on the highway to civUization. Romania Romania, formed of the two tributary states known as the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, was, a century ago, the scene of constant troubles, of intrigues, disorders and massacres. When, in AprU 1866, its present king was chosen as Prince, Bismarck remember ing the frequent revolutions, in giving him permission, against the king of Prussia's wish, to accept the position, MACEDONIA 197 added that if he reached the disaffected provinces, he would probably soon be driven out, but that his visit to the countries would always be a reminiscence for him. Napoleon III. was in his favour, and rightly judged that a weU-organized state with a frontage on the Black Sea would be a barrier to the progress of Russia towards Constantinople. Austria, however, which probably hoped to add the turbulent population of the principalities to the miUion and a half of the same race already under her rule, was especiaUy hostUe to a member of the HohenzoUern f amUy becoming ruler, and when it was known that the prince had disappeared from his home, tried to prevent his reaching the country of which he had been asked to become ruler. Her agents carefuUy searched for him. Every landing-place on the middle Danube was care fuUy guarded in order that he might be arrested. Travel ling as a private person, he had an awkward moment when at one of the wharfs the Austrian authorities examined his passport ; for he had forgotten his assumed name. His secretary however overcame the difficulty by calling out " Mr Kaufman, the customs authorities want to examine your luggage." When he landed at the first wharf in what was to be his territory, a smaU crowd, as soon as they knew who he was, set up a shout of welcome, and the Austrian agents knew that they had been done. From that time to the present the countries over which he went to rule as Prince Charles have prospered. As a result of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8, the prince became king. He has been a model constitutional sovereign. From the moment of his arrival he gave great attention to the organization of the army, and one of the surprises of the Russo-Turkish war was its effective condition. I remember before it broke out that even newspapers friendly to the Russian side spoke of the Romanians as moutons, quite useless as soldiers. In 198 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE actual fact, they saved the Russian army at a moment of supreme danger. But Charles did more than organize his army. Though keeping himself strictly within the lines of constitutional rule, he made his influence felt on every set of ministers in his country, and thus guided its politics wisely and weU. It should be remembered that in aU these newly created states, the ministers are not only inexperienced in politics but have had little or no training in administrating government, and know little of the political questions which every Englishman or French man has been famUiar with from his youth. WhUe therefore constitutional government is on the whole the best adapted to meet their wants as signifying government of the people by the people, and as training the population in the art of government, it is of great importance that the permanent head of the state should be a man of good judgment, weU acquainted with European politics and capable of suggesting to his untrained ministers the most expedient line of conduct in regard both to external and internal affairs. Such a man is King Charles. He has won the confidence of his people and without obtruding himself has directed the policy of his country. He has been greatly aided in his task by his deservedly popular queen. Little has been heard of Romania during the last thirty years. But the country which does not furnish the newsmonger of the West with striking incidents, is usuaUy happy and prosperous ; and the prosperity of Romania has been steadUy and constantly increasing. Its people are contented. Between my first visit to the country, thirty years ago, and my latest in 1910 the progress made is very striking. Better houses, better cultivation, weU-buUt schools, and a steadUy-growing population whose material prosperity is manifest, are the visible signs of national progress. MACEDONIA 199 Serbia Serbia with its thriving peasant population has also quietly advanced. The country has memories of its long slavery but also of heroic struggles. Its people are backward, but they are doing their best to promote and to establish industries. They are backward because during four centuries of weary strife against the forces of Asia they refused to buy prosperity by abandoning their faith. Their struggles are kept in mind by a rich coUection of popular ballads and legends. Their capital, Belgrade, has alone a history which deserves to be commemorated in folk-lore and in poetry worthy of European renown. Mahomet the Conqueror of Constantinople recognized its strategic importance as being the key to conquest north of the Danube. The watchword already mentioned of the sUent sultan bequeathed to his successors denoted the great objects which he tried to realize himself, and in which he faUed but which he left to them. " First Belgrade, then Rhodes." Few pages in history are more thrilling than the story of the defence of Belgrade against his attacks in 1455-6. The city was held by the Hun garians and the Serbs. Mahomet already occupied a part of the south-east Hungarian plain, and dared not advance with Belgrade in the hands of the enemies. His expedition against Serbia a year earlier had been on the whole successful, but the wUy king of the country had fled into Hungary at the approach of Mahomet's messengers. Belgrade, once in his possession, would enable him to dominate Serbia and extend his dominions northwards. He therefore concentrated the full strength of his army before the city. The brave soldier John Hunyades was two hundred mUes distant when he learned the news of Mahomet's approach. It would be out of place to teU 200 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE here the glorious story of his relief and subsequent defence of the city, of the marveUous — people believed it to be the miraculous — heroism of the aged Franciscan monk, John Capistrano, who co-operated with him ; of the descent of Hunyades down the Danube with his mot ley coUection of boats carrying Hungarian and Serbian peasants ; of his being accompanied and greatly aided on shore by an ever-increasing crowd of Ul-armed men kindled into enthusiasm by the burning words of the feeble and weird old monk, preaching as he stood beneath the great black banner of the cross ; of the simultaneous attack, by Hunyades on the great boom of boats which the Turks had placed to block the entrance to the city, and by Capistrano, upon the Turkish army on shore ; of the courageous rush which swept away every obstacle, and of the subsequent fiercely contested fight with the respective battle cries of Jesu ! and AUah ! and the final victory of the cross. It is a heroic story which has never been worthUy written though ample material hes ready for the historian. It is sufficient for my purpose to say that Hunyades regained the reputation which had been tarnished at Varna (1444) and at Kossova-pol (1448), that his heroic resistance was successful, though it cost him his hfe a few weeks later, and that John Capistrano deserved from his church and Christian Europe, the recognition which he received after his death by being canonised.1 In 1521 the night of slavery feU on the Serbians, when Belgrade was captured by Sultan Suliman. UntU the end of the eighteenth century their history was that of an attempt by the Turk to crush out aU national senti ment, and to extort from the population the uttermost farthing of taxes. They were exposed to exceptional 1 The Story of the Siege is carefully told in The English Historical Review by R. Nisbet Bain, April 1S92, p. 253. MACEDONIA 201 extortion because the Janissaries in the eighteenth century, now no longer solely recruited from Christians but a body TecaUing the Praetorian guard, making and unmaking sultans and ministers, were the real rulers of the land. As they had become too powerful and in dependent to submit to the control of their sovereign, the price they exacted for their services in war was a tacit permission to extort what they could from the Christian population of Serbia. Their exactions became so intolerable that, in 1804, a great rising of the people in despair occurred under a native leader named George Petrovich, commonly known as Kara George. The rising was successful : the Janissaries were defeated. Then the Serbians, encouraged by their success, en deavoured to shake off Turkish rule altogether. Kara George was defeated. In 1813 he fled the country, but in 1817 was murdered by another Serbian, MUosh Obrenovich. The rising under MUosh after many vicissitudes was successful. In 1830 he was recognized as prince by the Porte. He abdicated, was recalled and died in i860. His son and successor, Michael, succeeded in getting the Turkish garrison removed from Belgrade in 1866. But he too was assassinated, and according to general belief by a member of the Kara George famUy. His successor was the grand nephew of MUosh named MUan, who became prince of Serbia in 1872. The struggle for independence was long but it feU within Byron's rule that : — Freedom's battle, once begun, Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft, is ever won. In 1878 as a result of the Russo-Turkish war Serbia was recognized as a kingdom. Of the heroic struggle against the Turks in 1875 and 202 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE of the abdication of King MUan, an entirely worthless sovereign, and of the accession of his son Alexander and the hideous and infamous tragedy of June 1903, in which the young king and his wife were brutaUy murdered, I have nothing to say. Our interest is with the Serbian people. In Serbia, in spite of the constant interference of Austria and Russia, the peasants have steadUy im proved their position. In 1897 an important under standing was arrived at between Russia and Austria, by which Bulgaria was to be regarded as within the sphere of Russian influence whUe Serbia should be within that of Austria. The latter Power has never ceased from that time to harass Serbia. She vetoed in 1906 a pro posed Treaty between that country and Bulgaria, which had for its object the preventing of misunderstandings between the two Balkan States, and which would have facUitated intercourse and commerce. It is believed among mUitary experts that Austria recognizes that her descent towards Salonica could not, for mUitary reasons, be made from Herzegovina, and that if ever the Austrian ambition of gaining a seaport on the Aegean is to be accomplished it must be through Serbia. Greece A few words only may be said regarding Greece. Those who have read Finlay's " History of the Greek Revolution," Byron's " Letters whUe in Greece," and some of the many able volumes of travel in that country, written between 1810 and 1840, wiU realize what was the anarchy which then existed, how low was the con dition into which the country and its inhabitants had faUen, and the enormous difficulties which had to be surmounted before Greece could be born again. In trigues, disloyalty, treachery, and disunion meet one at every turn. Dr van MUlingen, who with Trevelyan MACEDONIA 203 was probably the last survivor of the band of British PhUheUenes, and who attended Byron on his death-bed, gave me a vivid description of the apparent hopelessness of the Greek struggle for freedom, a hopelessness mainly due to the discord between the Greek leaders themselves. But in spite of discords, Ulusions and faUures, now that one can regard the struggle as a whole, we can recognize that amid aU their dissensions the Greeks were constant to their ideal of making Greece free. How hopeless that struggle appeared to some persons may be gathered from a volume written about 1825 by a British consul in which he says something like the foUowing : " There are some persons who choose to caU this col lection of huts Athens and profess to beheve that the barbarians who live in them are capable of civUization. To such persons I do not address my observations." If I could now be side by side with that author upon the Acropolis I should like to show him what the bar barians have done ; a weU-buUt city of close upon 130,000 inhabitants with a flourishing university, with museums which draw visitors from every civUized country, orphanages, asylums, free schools, hospitals and other eleemosynary institutions ; a weU instructed people, having a large business connection with Con stantinople, Alexandria and aU the chief cities of the world ; the country limited in extent and not especially fertile, cultivated in security and a people eager for progress, thinking, striving, discussing, and blundering their way forward. The population of the country is only about two and a half millions. But it is the fatherland of Greeks aU over the world, and with an affection for it which amounts to true patriotism, Greeks everywhere are ready to assist their countrymen in Greece and to aid in the develop ment of Greek institutions. 204 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Bulgaria Bulgaria is the Balkan state which has made most progress and for various reasons and prmcipaUy because of the large body of Bulgarians in Macedonia, deserves fuUer notice than that given to the others. Its popula tion in 1895 was 4,035,646, showing an increase in the period between 1880 and 1895 of 1,085,000. The census taken in the autumn of 1910 gives the population as 4,317,069. Of these about half a million are Moslems. This population may be compared with that of Serbia, which is just over two miUions. If Romania be put aside as a non-Balkan state, then Bulgaria has the largest population in the peninsula. Romania, however, has about six and a half miUions. The Bulgarians are a race aUied to the Finns. Their language, however, is now Slavic. It may fairly be said that the race began its career of early civilization when the great missionaries of the Eastern Church, Cyril and Methodius, in the second half of the ninth century, con verted them to Christianity and gave them a Slavic liturgy. The recent history of Bulgaria is within the recoUection of aU Englishmen who are fifty years old. It is curious how completely its former history and almost the existence of the Bulgarian people had been forgotten by Western Europe. The Bulgarians were never demons trative, and seemed to observers in the first half of last century to be hardly conscious of their own existence. Foreigners seemed to ignore their existence. Kinglake's account in Eothen of his journey from Belgrade to Constantinople never mentions them. A distinguished British statesman told me that when a young man — I beheve in 1851 — he traveUed over the same ground as Kinglake, but although he saw from the many churches MACEDONIA 205 that there were Christian inhabitants, he took them to be Greeks. Many traveUers made the like mistake. Prob ably the houses at which they were entertained were those of Greek ecclesiastics ; for the Orthodox Church during the first half of last century, when bishops and even patriarchs obtained their posts by payment and intrigue, insisted upon sending bishops into Bulgaria who were Greek of race and usuaUy only spoke Greek. The Bulgarian people in addition to their hard lot under Turkish rule had ceased to regard their Church as a pro tector. The liturgy of the Church was Greek. The Church itself had come to be regarded as foreign. Indeed the question of the language was one of the grievances of the Bulgarian people and when a number of young Bulgaxs had learned from their education outside Turkey to be discontented with the lot of their countrymen, they demanded not only that the service in their churches should be in a language understood of the people, but that the bishops sent by the patriarch should speak Bulgarian. Once awake, Bulgaria steadUy persisted in her demand for at least this reform. The Bulgars for some years before their struggle for either ecclesiastic or civU liberty, had made great efforts to give their sons an education. Russia alone among the Powers had given attention to them. It was there fore natural that the Bulgars who had the common bond with Russia of rehgion and language should look to that country for aid. A number who advocated the cause of their Church and country formed a committee in Odessa which, untU the Crimean war, continued to be the centre of Bulgarian national activity. After the war the Church struggle became more acute. Russia was unwilling to reopen a conflict with the Western Powers regarding Turkish subjects or Turkish territory, though the Bulgarian people had already gained the 206 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE sympathy of the Russian Church. When the Bulgarians, finding that they could obtain no redress either from the Orthodox patriarch at Constantinople or from Russia, threatened that the population would join the Church of Rome, sending indeed a deputation to Rome in 1861, the Russian government consented to move, principaUy apparently to prevent such a schism from the Orthodox Church. She declared herself in favour gener ally of the claims advanced on behalf of the Bulgarian Church. The dispute threatened to become inter national. The Greek ecclesiastical authorities at the Phanar took up the position that a sectional or national Church was impossible and in consequence declined to recognize a Bulgarian Church or appoint Bulgarian bishops. Meantime England and France recognized that the only reasonable solution was to aUow the Bulgarians to have their own Church. Russia after considerable hesitation joined them but her vacillation ceased when Napoleon III. advised union with Rome. The Porte was wUling enough to sanction anything that would divide the Christians, and when the agitation became clamor ous, and union with Rome probable, sultan Abdul Aziz in February 1870 granted a firman constituting the Bulgarian Church. Its authority was to extend over aU Bulgarian-speaking communities in the empire. The head of the Church was styled the exarch. Monsignor Joseph was named and stUl continues to occupy that position. He has been respected during the long term of office by aU the heads of foreign missions in Constanti nople, by Turkish ministers and by the Bulgarian people. His moderation and steady perseverance have made him a model church ruler. The Orthodox Church declared the Bulgarians to be schismatics, and stUl refuses to admit them to com munion with her. The division of the churches has had MACEDONIA 207 its disadvantages. One in dogma and discipline, the hostUity between Patriarchists and Exarchists helped to widen the gulf of racial divergence between Greek and Bulgar. It added especial bitterness to the struggles in Macedonia when Greeks and Bulgarians contended for the possession of church buUdings. This strife com menced with the appointment of the exarch, but happily diminishes in asperity. It shows itself in the opposi tion to the appointment of Bulgarian bishops in Mace donia, and does much to prevent the harmonious co operation for political purposes of Greece and Bulgaria. Young Turkey made an attempt to settle the question of the ownership and occupation of the churches in Mace donia, but happUy the patriarch and exarch have avoided the scandal of having their differences settled by Moslems. In the majority of cases they have agreed as to the occupation of the churches and schools. The Russian and the Serbian Churches have never officiaUy recognized the Bulgarian. But the synod of the Russian Church which represents by far the most important body of Orthodox Christians has never adopted the decision of the patriarch of Constantinople by which the Bulgarians are declared to be in schism. It is interesting to note that the Bulgarian church services are in a language known as " Church Slavic." When the great missionaries of the Orthodox Church, Cyril and Methodius, preached Christianity to the Slavs the liturgies introduced were in a language now known as Old Slavic. In the seventeenth century, some of the Bulgarians reformed their liturgy so as to make it more in conformity with the Russian form of Slavic. When the Bulgarians insisted upon having their church services in Bulgarian, they obtained their church books from Russia. The Bulgarians had no printing press, and were glad to avaU themselves of this kind of Russian 208 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE aid. Their books though now printed in Bulgaria are stiU written in Church Slavic, which as I have explained is not Old Slavic. ¦ When the Bulgarians awakened from their long lethargy they turned their attention to the cultivation of their language. With some slight but not unimportant exceptions no attempt had been made to write Bulgarian untU into last century. In 1838, a Bulgarian merchant in Odessa opened a school in his native country for the teaching of his own language and this did something to put it into grammatical shape. A great step was taken twenty years afterwards when two Americans, Dr Riggs and Dr Long, prepared a translation of the Bible into Bulgarian. Dr Long was my friend for a quarter of a century, untU his death in 1903, and whUe he was my neighbour was constantly consulted by Bulgarians as to the proper form of writing Bulgarian words. The translation of the Bible, in which he took an important share, remained for many years the standard of what was or was not good Bulgarian. Meantime the active young spirits among the Bulgarian people, having gained a victory in ecclesiastic affairs, turned their attention to obtaining reforms in the civU administration and, as some of the bolder men hoped, freedom from the Turkish yoke. They had a terribly difficult task before them. They had yet to learn from bitter experience that it was hopeless to obtain reforms from the Turkish Government. Every attempt made towards enlightenment by means of education was resisted. Even Midhat Pasha, at a later period the author of the constitution now in force, proposed to forbid instruction in their own language to the Bulgarians in order to level the people down to that of the Moslems in educational disadvantages. But the schoolmaster made headway and his peaceful penetration had wonder- MACEDONIA 209 ful effects upon the country. It was in vain that the Turks imprisoned, exUed, tortured, or kUled the school masters, who were indeed the class which with a true instinct the Turks especially persecuted. Those who gave heed to their teaching met with a simUar fate. The result of this method of treating suspects was that young men escaped from the country ; and soon, from Bulgarian exUes a committee was formed in Bucarest which had for its object the setting free of Bulgaria from Turkish misrule. The Committee's influence kept up the desire for freedom but it was looked upon coldly both by the government of Prince Charles, and by that of Russia. In Bulgaria itself while there was general dogged discontent, there were no attempts at rising. The enormous majority of the Bulgarian people, mostly peasants, wanted to be left alone to work their farms, and were deaf to the appeals made from Bucarest. The Turk, however, feared that a rising was contemplated and in preparation, and as he knew of no other means of keeping a subject people quiet than his usual one, gave orders for a massacre. He would strike terror into the Christians from one end of the country to the other. Now, orders for a Turkish massacre meant a free licence to soldiers, mostly barbarians from Anatolia, and to a smaU number of Circassian refugees who had recently been dumped down into the country by the Turks, to violate women, kiU men, women and chUdren, and take possession of or destroy their property. The orders were issued in April 1876, by the Ministers of Abdul Aziz. AU the brutalities which had been practised in 1825 in Chio, were to be repeated and the Bulgarians were to be taught a simUar lesson. The half century which had elapsed had not changed Moslem fanaticism or taught the Turk that important changes had occurred in Europe. Immediately after the Crimean War, and principally due 14 210 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE to the great influence, marveUous knowledge of Eastern affairs and diplomatic genius of Stratford de Redcliffe, there had been enlightened and reforming ministers in Constantinople, Ali, Fuad, and Reshid Pashas. But in 1875, they were dead, and a period of reaction had succeeded. Lord Stratford's fondly cherished and constant hope of a regenerated Turkey, a hope for which he made enormous personal sacrifices had proved Ulusory. The Turk feU back upon his traditional methods. He did not realize that Bulgaria was very many times the size of Chios and that from this difference alone his task was more difficult than that of his fathers. But the great change which he had overlooked was that the telegraphic wire and means of communication with Western Europe had altered the situation, and made it impossible to conceal a great massacre in any part of Europe. The news of outrages in Bulgaria came in slowly to Constantinople where I was then living. Little of it, however, was aUowed to appear in the local papers. But from a variety of sources, the chief being from my friends Dr Washburn the president, and Dr Long the vice- president, of Robert CoUege, I gathered enough facts to write a letter under the heading " Moslem Atrocities in Bulgaria," to the Daily News. It bore date June 16, and appeared on June 23. I gave the names of thirty- seven viUages which had been destroyed and whose inhabitants had been tortured or kUled. In a subsequent letter, written on June 30, I brought the number up to sixty, and stated that I had seen an official report which estimated the number of persons killed at 12,000. My letters, in the words of the late Mr Gladstone, " first sounded the alarm in Europe." The first letter attracted much notice. Mr W. E. Forster caUed attention to its contents in the House of Commons, and the Duke of Argyll in the Lords. Mr Disraeli who was then first MACEDONIA 211 minister made light of the matter, doubted whether torture had been practised on a large scale among a people " who generaUy terminate then connection with culprits in a more expeditious manner," and made statements for which it is now evident he had no authority. He spoke of the Circassians who had taken a large share in the plunder and killing of the Bulgarians as " settlers with a great stake in the country." As a fact, there were only a few bands of Circassian marauders who seized every opportunity of looting the property of the peasants. They seized and sold girls and this to so great an extent that, as I mentioned, girls could be bought into slavery for two or three Turkish pounds each. Mr Disraeli stoutly denied my statements, and his zeal for the Turks so far outran his discretion that on one of the many occasions when attention was drawn to the subject in the House, he held up a telegram, stating that he had received it from Sir Henry EUiot, the British ambassador in Constantinople, defending the conduct of the Circassians and Bashi-bazouks and stating that the aUeged atrocities were gross exaggerations. As I knew that Sir Henry, who was essentially an English gentle man incapable of lying, had had a great mass of letters and other documents in his hands which gave almost every detaU which I had published, and that he stated that he had examined them, I wrote at once to the Daily News to the effect that I did not believe that our ambassa dor had made any statement of the kind. Considerable controversy took place at the time. But when, some three years afterwards, Sir Henry was ambassador at Vienna, he declared to the common friend who had given each of us the mass of detaUed news that he had never sent a telegram of this effect to Mr Disraeli, and that the misrepresentation of what he had said was so great that he had to consider whether he should lie under the imputa- 212 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE tion of sending a telegram which perverted the truth or should clear himself by publicly stating what he had sent. It is beyond doubt that by accepting the former alternative he became the victim of a crowd of charges and attacks as the defender of murderers and thieves. My letters on the Moslem atrocities in Bulgaria formed the subject of a hot discussion in the English press. Though I had given the names of the villages burned, one of the leading London papers declared that they were names not to be found in any published map. I replied that they were as easUy identified as if I had given the names of Yorkshire or Devonshire viUages and I urged that a commission should be sent by Her Majesty's government to Bulgaria to make a report upon the subject. Meantime, I had written privately to Mr Robinson, afterwards Sir John, urging him to send a competent correspondent to report on the subject as it was im possible for me to leave Constantinople and useless if it had been possible. Mr Robinson made a happy selec tion in Mr Macgahan who was sent to Constantinople. After learning what he could from me and others, and accompanied by one of my clerks who acted as inter preter, he went into Bulgaria with Mr Schuyler the United States Consul. One of the first places they visited was Batak the destruction of which had been mentioned in my first letter. From thence Macgahan sent me by private messenger a description simply stating what he had seen on entering that vUlage. Its contents were horrible and as no telegram of the kind would have been transmitted by the authorities in Constantinople, I sent it on by letter to be dispatched from Bucarest. It was foUowed a day or two afterwards by a letter which I sent likewise by Bucarest. This letter which was dated 2nd August, and appeared in the MACEDONIA 213 Daily News about a week later, created a profound sensa tion, not only in Great Britain but throughout Europe. It was at once a series of pictures describing with photo graphic accuracy what the observers had seen and a mass of the most ghastly stories they had heard on trustworthy authority. They had seen dogs feeding on human remains, heaps of human skuUs, skeletons nearly entire, rotting clothing, human hair and flesh putrid and lying in one foul heap. They saw the town with not a roof left, with women here and there waUing their dead amid the ruins. They examined the heap and found that the skuUs and skeletons were aU smaU and that the clothing was that of women and girls. Macgahan counted a hundred skulls immediately around him. The skeletons were headless, showing that these victims had been beheaded. Further on they saw the skeletons of two httle chUdren lying side by side with frightful sabre cuts on their httle skuUs. Macgahan remarked that the number of chUdren kUled in these massacres was some thing enormous. They heard on trustworthy authority from eye-witnesses that they were often spiked on bayonets. There was not a house beneath the ruins of which he and Mr Schuyler did not see human remains and the streets were strewn with them. When they drew nigh the church they found the ground covered with skeletons and lots of putrid flesh. In the church itself the sight was so appaUing that I do not care to reproduce the terrible description given by Macgahan. Batak, where these horrors occurred, is situated about thirty mUes from Tartar Bazarjik, which is on the raUway and on a spur of the Rhodope Mountains. It was a thriving town, rich and prosperous in comparison with neighbouring Moslem viUages. Its population previous to the massacres was about 9000. Macgahan remarks that its prosperity had excited the envy and jealousy of 214 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE its Moslem neighbours. I elsewhere remark that, in aU the Moslem atrocities, Chiot, Bulgarian and Armenian, the principal incentive has been the larger prosperity of the Christian population ; for, in spite of centuries of oppression and plunder, Christian industry and Christian morality everywhere makes for national wealth and inteUigence. I am greatly tempted to dweU on the stirring times during the latter half of 1876, and on the many dis closures made by Macgahan. He was a keen observer, absolutely fearless and withal of a kindly disposition and charming manner, which won for him the friendship of all whom he met. He afterwards accompanied the Russian army in the war which foUowed in 1877, anci continued with it untU it arrived at San Stefano. General Skobeleff became greatly attached to him. But the fatigues of the war bore heavUy upon his strength. He came to my house at Prinkipo and spent two or three weeks whUe the Russian army was encamped during the peace negotiations at San Stefano. Strongly against my advice, for he was stUl weak, he went to Pera as he considered that it was his duty to go there for some days. Black typhoid and other malignant diseases were then raging fiercely in every part of Constantinople, brought into the place by the crowds of refugees. He caught typhoid and I accompanied him to the British hospital where everything that medical science could accomplish was done to save a life which was very dear to many of us. The malady was swift and he died. I remember General Skobeleff coming to see him as he lay dead, and crying bitterly over him. He also attended the funeral which it was my task to arrange. I am, however, anticipating what happened to bring about the independence of Bulgaria. The statements in my own letters were abundantly confirmed by those of MACEDONIA 215 Macgahan, by Mr Galenga in the Times, and by the official report presented to the American government by Mr Schuyler. The latter by its official character is in some respects more terrible than the letters of Macgahan. It is an investigation carefuUy made, giving the number of houses, churches and schools destroyed and the state ments made to him by Turkish officials. AUuding to the attempt made by the Turks to exonerate themselves by stating that outrages had been committed by the Bul garians on the Moslems, he says " I have carefuUy investigated this point and am unable to find that the Bulgarians committed any outrage or atrocities or any acts which deserve that name. . . I have vainly tried to obtain from the Turkish officials a list of such outrages, but have received nothing but vague statements." Mr Disraeli had been compeUed by public opinion in the House of Commons to send a commissioner to re port to H.M. government, and Mr Baring, secretary of Embassy, was chosen for the task. Without giving the details either of his reports or that of Mr Schuyler, I may mention that Mr Baring found the number of viUages destroyed to be fifty-nine, and that his estimate of the number kUled was 12,000. Mr Baring's work was done under circumstances of considerable suspicion, by which I mean that many persons beheved that he was sent to put the most favourable aspect possible on the doings of the Turk. The suspicion was probably without justi fication, but whether weU founded or not, Mr Baring did his work ably, conscientiously, and thoroughly. During the summer of 1876, Mr Gladstone had taken no share in the denunciation of the Moslem atrocities in Bulgaria. But in September, Mr Gladstone judged that the evidence upon the charges was complete, and he pubhshed a pamphlet under the title of " Bulgarian 216 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Horrors and the Question of the East." This summed up the evidence and pointed to definite and statesmanlike conclusions. Its appearance was contemporaneous with an outburst of indignation in England against the authors of the horrors, such as had never taken place before nor has taken place since. Public meetings were held in nearly every important town in the British Islands. The agitation spread throughout Europe, and especiaUy in Russia where the letters to the Daily News, Times, and other important newspapers were reproduced. It was a generous demonstration of human sympathy with a suffering people and of indignation against its oppressors. Nothing had been seen the least like it since the time when our grandfathers denounced the slave-trade. Members of aU political parties, of aU the churches, aU the living historians including Freeman, Carlyle, and Froude, joined their voices in the denunciation of the most wanton and brutal attack which had been made on a race within living memory. Mr Gladstone in the pamphlet, page 21, wrote as foUows : — " The first alarm respecting the Bulgarian outrages was, I believe, sounded in the Daily News on the 23rd of June. I am sensible of the many services constantly rendered by free journalism to humanity, to freedom, and to justice. I do not undervalue the performances, on this occasion, of the Times, the Doyen of the press in this country, and perhaps in the world, or of the Daily Telegraph and our other great organs. But of aU these services so far as my knowledge goes, that which has been rendered by the Daily News, through its foreign correspondence on this occasion, has been the most weighty, I may say, the most splendid." He adds : — " I believe it is understood that the gentleman who has fought this battle — for a battle it has been — with such MACEDONIA 217 courage, inteUigence and conscientious care, is Mr Pears, of Constantinople, correspondent of the Daily News." The question arose of a remedy. No nation wished to make war on Turkey. England in particular desired to save her, whUst introducing reforms which would prevent a recurrence of massacres and would better the condition of Bulgaria and the other European provinces of Turkey, including Serbia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. Other nations also desired peace and objected to disturb ing existing political relations. Accordingly, after long deliberations it was agreed by the Powers that an international Conference should meet at Constantinople. When the proposal was first made to the Porte, Sir Henry EUiot was directed to leave Constantinople if it were not accepted, because, as Lord Derby, at that time Foreign Secretary, stated, " It would then be evident that aU further overtures to save the Porte from ruin would be useless." The Conference was accepted by the Turks on November 20, 1876, and each of the six great Powers named representatives. It was a gathering of eminent men who were practical statesmen, aU of whom wished to avoid war. The most distinguished were Lord Salisbury who, with Sir Henry EUiot, represented Great Britain, General Ignatieff who was deputed by Russia, and Count Corti by Italy. Ignatieff was a man of remarkable energy and conspicuous if obtrusive abUity. He declared to a friend of mine that he knew that he was sometimes caUed the " prince of liars," but he deceived diplomats by teUing them the truth. His statement was not far wrong. His manner was that of a man who prided himself on being a soldier rather than a diplomatist, and it is only fair to say that I never knew a false statement brought home to him. From the moment of Lord Salisbury's arrival in Constantinople, he and the representative of Russia got on well 218 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE together. Both were big men physically and mentaUy. The two countries were believed by a great number of people to be watching each other, and ready to spring at each other's throat ; for the old hatred and jealousy due to the Crimean War was stiU strong within the memory of the inhabitants of both countries. But Russia did not want war and the aim of the Conference was to avoid it. In the preliminary meetings held before the Turkish delegates joined, the Russian ambassador " surprised his coUeagues by the facUity with which he made one con cession after another." On December 21, the fuU Con ference began its sittings. The Turkish delegates were both able men, Safvet Pasha and Edhem Pasha. Each subsequently became Grand Vizier. They had received instructions to make no concessions. They knew, unfortunately, that the Powers were not united to coerce Turkey. The project of reforms on which aU the non- Turkish delegates had agreed was rejected. Sentence by sentence the project was whittled down untU many of us thought that if the remainder were accepted it would be useless. Much, however, might be sacrificed to avoid war. But Sultan Abdul Hamid who had suc ceeded to the throne six months earlier would not have the reforms at any price. On January 18, 1877, the Conference broke up without having accomplished anything. The inspired Turkish papers weie jubUant at the faUure. It was currently believed that Lord Salisbury was opposed by his coUeague, Sir Henry EUiot, and whUe the Turkish papers sneered at the first, they had nothing but praise for the second. " Bravo, Sir EUiot," was the heading of one paper, when the faUure of the Conference was announced. I was present at a small reception given by Lord Salisbury the night before he left Constantinople. In conversation with me and the late Mr F. I. Scudamore he spoke freely and regret- MACEDONIA 219 fuUy of the faUure. " We have aU tried," said he, " to save Turkey but she wiU not aUow us to save her." He did not wonder that some of us in the press had com plained of the whittling down of the project, but their great objects were to avoid war and maintain the integrity of Turkey. There would be a war to a certainty and Russia could not afford, whatever the cost, to lose. Lord Salisbury was right. Russia perhaps more than any other Power, wanted to avoid war, and this not merely on account of its heavy expense and risks, but because she was not prepared for it. One person after another published statements in the local press showing that nothing was ready for war in Russia, and Sultan Abdul Hamid lent a willing ear to such statements. Meantime the diplomatists made one more effort to save Turkey from loss of territory. On the 3rd March the representatives of every European Power signed a Protocol at the British Foreign Office urging measures to be taken to satisfy the disaffected provinces. The reply to this Protocol by the Porte on AprU 9, was to reject it with contumely. Thereupon the Tzar of Russia on AprU 24, issued a dignified manifesto, in which he declared that having exhausted aU pacific measures, Russia was " compeUed by the haughty obstinacy of the Porte to proceed to more decisive acts." On the same day she announced to the Powers that she had declared war. Of the war itself, I have little to say. I was in Con stantinople during its continuance. The city was full of refugees from Bulgaria. The first who came were Circassians and other unattached persons, who brought great quantities of plunder, horses, asses, cattle and especiaUy the furniture and belongings of Bulgarian churches for sale. Prices were low on account of the large supphes offered. The spoils of the churches were 220 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE especiaUy cheap because the Greeks and Armenians thought it sacrUege to buy them and the Turks believed they would bring ill-luck. Some of us considered whether it would not be worth whUe to buy in order to return the objects to the churches plundered, but we concluded that it would be impossible to find the owners. I bought a sUver and gold chalice for its weight in sUver, a beautiful altar frontal for a trifle. A friend bought a complete set of priest's beautifuUy embroidered vest ments for about half a sovereign. Then afterwards came crowds of Moslems who on the advent of the Russians fled before them fearing vengeance on the part of the Bulgarians. They crowded our streets and suburbs driving cattle before them and bringing typhoid and other deadly diseases. It was a horrible time. After a long and weary war, during which there was exceptional suffering, occasioned by a very severe winter, the end came somewhat suddenly. When Plevna was captured by the Turks after a defence by Ghazi Osman Pasha which showed the best qualities of the Turkish soldier, General Gourko advanced with the largest division of the army towards Sofia with the view of pushing on through the ancient gates of Trajan, and down the vaUey through which the raUway between that city and Constantinople now passes. AU newspapers' correspondents with the Russians accompanied him. But another movement of at least equal importance had been arranged which was kept strictly secret. It was due to the genius of General Skobeleff. Winter in the Balkans was at its worst. The snow-covered range was believed by the Turks to be impassable. The most important pass debouched near the village of Shipka. Through it there was a good mUitary road, but it was defended on its southern side by strong forts held by the Turks. Below the forts and on the plain was a Turkish MACEDONIA 221 army of about 100,000 men under Vessel Pasha en camped around a village known as Shenova, while to the west of the vUlage, at a position where they would be ready to strike at the flank of Gourka's advance was another Turkish army with which was General Valentine Baker, then a pasha. Skobeleff saw that to attempt to cross the Balkans by the mUitary road was useless. But he learned from Bulgarian peasants that to the east and w-est of it were goat tracks, where men travelling Indian file could cross. Accordingly whUe sending men to make a feint of attempting the road, he sent a detach ment to cross to the east of the road, whUe he took command of a second which attempted to cross by the track to its west. Both these divisions could be seen by the Turks at the forts. The thin line of men was so long, that by the time the first had reached the southern end of the pass the last had not yet started. Skobeleff's division, however, as weU as that to the east of the road, crossed without molestation. Then they joined forces, attacked the army under Vessel Pasha and utterly routed it. Vessel with his large army submitted, and consented to send orders to the Turks who were defending the forts on the Shipka road to surrender, orders which were obeyed. Before night feU, there were eighty thousand Turkish prisoners on the march northwards to Russia. The battle of Shenova was the most im portant incident in the war, if the heroic defence of Plevna be left out of account. Skobeleff was authorized by the Czar to inscribe its name upon his flag. As not a single correspondent was with either of the armies which took part in the battle, only the results came to be known in Western Europe, and then only graduaUy and partiaUy. I was the first to give an account of it. When the war was concluded Skobeleff came to Constantinople and was kind enough to give me a full description. I took 222 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE this to my neighbour Baker Pasha, who made various corrections and additions rendered necessary by my then ignorance of the locality and of mUitary matters and I published it under the heading, " The Battle of Shenova ; An omitted Chapter of the War." The conclusion of the war may be shortly told. Plevna fell on ioth December 1878. By 5th January, Gourko's army was in Sofia. Skobeleff's army had crossed the Balkans on 9th January, and within a week of its start was on its way towards the capital. On 3rd March 1878, the Treaty of Peace was signed at San Stefano and Bulgaria became free. In many respects the rapid and immense progress made by Bulgaria since the war recaUs that of Japan. In the days of my youth, I was in Java and heard of the limited visits of a limited number of Dutch ships and remembering all one has heard and read of the progress of the island empire during the last half century, one thinks of a fabled giant awakened after centuries of sleep. So also with Bulgaria. Its existence was practicaUy forgotten. Its power of resisting Asiatic religion and its professors was unrecognized. Yet its advance since 1878 far surpasses that of any state in Europe. Like the Japanese the Bulgarians felt the need of foreigners to instruct them in the arts of the West. Like them again having carefuUy profited by what the West could teach, they manage now to depend on their own resources with little aid from foreigners. It is difficult to make a satisfactory comparison of the condition of the country now, with what it was in 1878, because no statistics of or before that year are in exist ence. Almost everything in the country has been created since then. Before this the name Bulgarian stood for ignorance, submissiveness, and unrecognized nationality ; the Bulgarians were rayahs or cattle. It is MACEDONIA 223 now a name to be proud of. Under Turkish rule every part of the country was unsafe. Mr Stambouloff the last time I saw him gave me a vivid description of how he had put an end to brigandage in the district south of Burgas. It had long been unsafe for traveUers, but a strong hand, inflexible justice and swift execution, gave a valuable district back to civUization. Now, in that district as throughout Bulgaria, it is a pleasant sight to see groups of school boys and girls with knap sacks on their backs making excursions in even remote mountain districts without any thought of danger. A few facts wiU show the progress made since the country became free. Sofia, when I first saw it, was a wretched village of mud huts and Ul-buUt houses never more than two stories high. Its principal streets, then mere mud tracks, have now weU-buUt houses four or five stories high with electric trams and lighting. The value of land has enormously increased. The city has many handsome pubhc buUdings. As with Sofia so with nearly every town in the newly established kingdom. Everywhere one sees good houses replacing mud huts. The first visible sign from the raUway a year or two after the war were new schoolhouses which bore witness to the keen desire for education. Every year showed progress in that direction. As far back as 1892, I was astonished to see second grade schools or lyceums at Slivna and else where, weU fiUed with educational appliances, under teachers who had received training in Germany or some foreign country, a people who were enthusiastic for educational progress. I remember that during many years the largest number of students and graduates at Robert CoUege on the Bosporos were Bulgarians. Then their numbers graduaUy feU off, untU in the year 1906, for the first time on its record there was no Bulgarian in the graduating class. It looked as if the great American College had completed its work for Bulgaria, by showing 224 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE its people how to organize their own teaching. But the year in question was the only one in which such a record has been noted, for Bulgarians stiU seek the advantages of an English training. Under Dr George Washburn, the Arnold of education in the Near East, and Dr Long, it had trained a succession of Bulgarians to think care fuUy and soberly ; to avoid impracticable projects, to be self-reliant, to act for themselves and above aU to endeavour to maintain a high standard of morality. Besides supplying able ministers like the premier StoUoff and the permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mr Demitroff, a man full of knowledge on every subject connected with the questions of the Near East, and Mr Gueshoff the present premier, it furnished also useful administrators like Matthieff. It equipped likewise a number of men like Calchieff, Slavekoff, Professor Panaretof of Robert CoUege and a number of others who have been leaders in Bulgaria in its wonderful career of progress. HappUy, there is reason to hope that Robert CoUege is now going to exert a like useful influence on Turkish students as it did on Bulgarians and is already doing on Greeks and Armenians. In Bulgaria education is free and obhgatory. There are 3506 primary schools ; 94 pro-gymnasiums, each with from three to five classes ; 33 gymnasiums each of seven classes and several with technical courses of instruc tion. During the year 1909, there were 469,550 chUdren attending school. The educational system is crowned with a university which had in 1909 no less than 1569 students of whom 217 were young women. The results of the instruction given are no less striking. The census taken in 1905 showed that in the towns 93 per cent, of the Bulgarians and 83 per cent, in the viUages between the ages of ten and fifteen could read and write. Though the law regarding public instruction applies to Mahome- MACEDONIA 225 tans as well as Christians, only 21 per cent, in the towns and 4 per cent, in the viUages between the same ages could read and write. The great difference is not attributable to the government but to the same causes which in India make the Moslem population unable to compete with the Hindoo. Out of Bulgaria's budget for 1910 showing a revenue of £6,880,000 sterling, no less a sum than £880,000 is assigned to education. Bulgaria has constructed, including some which are not quite finished, 12,500 mUes of roads and, excluding those which had been buUt previous to 1878, 2380 mUes of raUways. AU these are the property of, and are worked by the State. Immediately after gaining her freedom, Bulgaria established postal and telegraphic services. In 1879, she had 42 post-offices ; in 1910, these had increased to 2070, with an additional 323 attached to raUway stations and summer resorts. I remember visiting the PhUippo- pohs exhibition in 1892, and being surprised to find that we could be in telephonic communication with Sofia and most of the important towns in the country. We were impressed, because then, as even now, there was no tele phonic service in Turkey. In Bulgaria at present the important towns can communicate by telephone with each other, with Belgrade and Budapest. A post- office Savings Bank was introduced in 1896. Twelve years later, the year's returns in 1908, showed that 23,458,894 francs had been deposited and 21,886,410 withdrawn. StiU more striking as showing at once the thrift and enterprise of the Bulgarian peasant is the fact that in 1908 there were 727 co-operative societies. There were also 33 Bulgarian banks with a paid up capital of nearly a mUlion sterling. The Bulgarian national bank, founded in 1880, had had deposited in it during the year 15 226 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE 1908, roughly two mUlions sterling (53,696,033 francs). Industries of various kinds have been commenced with Bulgarian capital and are prospering. The export of cloth, leather, wool, mining produce, food stuffs, etc. in 1879 were Jus* over two miUions sterling. In 1908 they had increased to nearly ten mUlions. On my first visit almost the only manufacture worth speaking of was of the famous attar of roses in Kezanlik. It is an ideal industry. Thousands of rose bushes on a lovely plain at the foot of a bold spur of the Balkans ; the roses in full bloom, cream coloured, white, or red, the air redolent with their exquisite scent ; the rose- gathering mostly by girls and women in their bright and picturesque dresses ; cloth and home-made on patterns, traditional and uninfluenced yet by western fashions ; the home bringing of the leaves ; the handling of them with something like affection, and finaUy the extraction of the essential oU, so powerful that a few drops will suffice to make a half bottle pass as exceUent rosewater - the experience was altogether delightful. At Kezanlik I was courteously entertained in the house of one of the largest makers of attar of roses, a young man who had been at Robert CoUege and had imbibed something of American energy and pushfulness. He had already been to America as weU as the chief cities of Europe. In my bedroom were a series of glass jars containing the precious attar and to my surprise I was informed that the total value of their contents amounted to something over £3000. Even in the 'eighties I found at Slivan that exceUent native wooUen cloth was being made in large quantities, and it caUed up a smUe to learn that a large order was being executed for the Turkish army, with whom a few years ago the Bulgarians had been fighting. It sug gested a new reading of the text, " If thine enemy MACEDONIA 227 hunger, feed him, if he is naked give him the where withal to be clothed," I may mention that students of the Mir system, as it recently existed in Russia and as to a considerable extent it stiU exists in the VUlage Communities of India, may find many survivals of the kind in Bulgaria. House- communities are the most prominent examples. Several famUies in some portions of the kingdom occupy a huge house, or as it is called a Zadruga. The men leave the community to earn their living outside the village or even outside Bulgaria. Their earnings are thrown into the common stock according to weU established rules. Under the Treaty of Berlin, the Bulgaria of the San Stefano Treaty was divided into two provinces after a considerable portion to the south had been returned to Turkey. The northern province was erected into a principahty under an independent prince. The southern, named Eastern Rumelia, was to be under a prince named by the sultan. The arrangement did not work well, and when in 1885 the population expeUed the prince of Rumelia even Sultan Abdul Hamid made no effort to enforce his rights under the Treaty. When in October 1908 prince Ferdinand proclaimed himself king, no one seriously opposed. Certain financial questions occasioned some difficulty, but the Turks took up the position that as the country had for thirty years ceased to be under their rule, it mattered httle whether the ruler was caUed king or prince. Macedonia — Part II Present Condition and Probable Future The history and condition of the countries I have described has to be borne in mind when writing of Macedonia, for Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, and Albania 228 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE nearly surround the country. The first three have escaped from bondage into freedom. Albania can hardly ever have been described as in bondage. A country thus surrounded was not likely to remain quiet under Turkish misrule. Valuable books have appeared within the last few years on Macedonia and its various races. Sir Charles N. E. Eliot's " Turkey in Europe " is fuU of information and valuable suggestions. Dr Brailsford's " Macedonia " abounds in the statements of a keen observer. A number of essays in French and German periodicals, published during the last ten years, show the interest taken in the Macedonian question and add to our stock of knowledge. Macedonia has indeed been and wiU continue to be the battle-field of writers on the questions of the Near East, and may become at no distant date the bloody battle-field of contending states. It is possible that but for the proclamation of the Turkish constitution in July 1908, it would ere this have become an autonomous state. The tendency of its history even now is in that direction. In order to understand and estimate this tendency, certain facts must be considered. Macedonia is a geographical term used to signify different extents of country. Sometimes it includes the whole of the Balkan Peninsula excepting Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, but even including that portion of European Turkey which comprises Adrianople and the country west of a line drawn from that city to the Struma, the ancient Strymon. Others would exclude Albania and the whole of the district between Constantinople and a line drawn roughly from Serres to the most southerly point of eastern Rumelia. A Greek author claims that the term Macedonia should be limited to the vUayets of Monastir and Salonika. Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia have each dreamed of a division of Macedonia, and each MACEDONIA 229 one has done its best to show that it is entitled to a larger portion of the country than the others are willing to concede. Serbia claims that there are many Serbians in northern Macedonia under Turkish rule, and that the territory which they occupy should be delivered to her if any partition of Macedonia should be made. This territory is caUed Old Serbia, but the name has no precise meaning. In the reign of the great Serbian king, Dushan, who was crowned in 1331 and died 1355, all Macedonia and Albania with a large part of Greece was under Serbia. That indeed might be caUed Old Serbia. But apart from the fact that Dushan is spoken of also as king of Bulgaria, which indeed for a time was under his rule, the pre cedent is as remote as that which caused our sovereigns to take and retain for centuries the title of kings of France. In like manner the claims of Bulgaria might be advanced ; for its kings ruled Macedonia, with an interval for a century and a half, their rule in that country ending in 1241. The Bulgarians however admit that, if a partition of Macedonia were made, a strip of country ought to go to Serbia because it is now occupied by Serbs. Serbian, Bulgarian, and Greek writers have been occupied during the last twenty years in discussing the ethnography of Macedonia. The object of this discus sion has been political rather than scientific. The writers have brought much careful research to bear upon it. But the object has not been to learn the truth. Each writer gives the impression of holding a brief for his own country. The principal advantage gained by outsiders from the discussion arises from the accumulation of testimony, ranging over many centuries, as to the movements of the Slav and other races south of the Danube. The general results which I gather from many studies on the subject 230 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE are that the word Bulgarian has often been used both by Slavs and others to indicate aU the Slavs in the Balkan Peninsula with the exception of the dweUers on the Dal matian coast ; some of whom are certainly of Albanian blood ; that at times the whole of such country has been caUed Bulgaria but that at other times Serbia has had a much more extended meaning than it now possesses. WUliam of Tyre, for example, caUs Harold Hardrage of Norway — who aided the Greek emperor in 1050 to subdue the inhabitants of Macedonia — Bolgara-brenner ; whUe during the same period, and for two centuries later, the country was known as Great WaUachia.1 The real questions of interest to Englishmen are only incidentaUy historical ; they are, who are the present inhabitants ? What is the actual condition of Mace donia ? and what is it likely to be in the future ? The Greek population predominates on the shores of the Aegean. During all historical times this statement would have held good. It would almost hold equaUy good if made about aU the shores of the Mediterranean. But in reference to Macedonia it is impossible to mention a period when the seaports and the immediate back country has not been occupied by Greeks. Let it be said also that Greek influence has been always in favour of civUization and commerce. Salonika is the most im- 1 Those who wish for information on the subject will find it in Cvijic's " Remarques sur l'Ethnographie de la Macedonie" and in a " Response " to it by Dr A. Tchircoff, pubhshed in Serbia in 1907 : The first gives the Serbian, the second the Bulgarian view of the question. Another book on the subject is worth examination "La Macedonie au point de vue Ethnographique, Historique et Philologique par Oleicoff," published in Philippopohs in 1888. In these works a mass of authorities, Slav and foreign, are cited. One of the writers best worth consulting is C. Lejean who gives a carefully drawn Ethnographic map of Turkey in Europe and the autonomous states. See his " Ethno- graphie de la Turquie." He was a young and energetic engineer who had travelled through all parts of the Balkan peninsula and died all too soon for the interest of geographical knowledge. The Greek view is well given in "La Macedonie et les Reforms" a valuable paper prepared by the Macedonian Syllogos of Athens. MACEDONIA 231 portant city on the sea-coast of Macedonia. It is true that its influence and its commerce are now mostly due to its Jewish population. The Jews, largely of Spanish descent, the offspring of exUes driven out of Spain under Ferdinand and IsabeUa in 1492, stiU speak Spanish. But except during the last half century the Greeks had most of the business in their hands. Even now, the Greeks are by far the most important element after the Jews. As we penetrate inland we find at once Greek vUlages side by side with Bulgarians ; but on the shores the great majority of the people are Greek. Unfortunately no trustworthy statistics exist as to the population of Macedonia. The one factor in regard to it which is pretty certain is that the Bulgarians are the largest element. It may be safely affirmed that outside the Turkish provinces of Monastir and Salonika no Greek population exists. The Slav population are agricultural ists ; the Greeks very rarely. Away from the shore it is rare to find a purely Greek village except near the confines of Greece. It is aUeged by the Greeks that out of a total of 1,873,000 people in the two provinces named there are 777,000 Moslems, 659,000 Greeks, and 374,000 Bulgarians.1 Probably the number of Moslems equally with that of the Greeks is over-estimated. Rittich, an author quoted with approval by the Bul garian Oleicoff, in his " Le Monde Slave " gives figures which may be compared with those put forward by the Greeks. In the same provinces, Monastir and Salonika, he estimates the Bulgarians at 682,714 instead of 374,000 ; the Greeks at 30,482 instead of 659,000, and the Turks at 175,968 instead of 770,000. The figures are of course incorrect and I believe that each set is grossly exaggerated. It is impossible to draw a line between the Greeks and 1,1 La Macedonie et les Reforms": Memoive du Syllogue Mace- donien d'Athenes, published in 1903. 232 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Bulgarians and to say that all north of it are Bulgarians and aU south, Greeks. In a conversation with the late Mr Tricoupis, the prime minister of Greece, he admitted this fact but added that though to the south of any line drawn there would be Bulgarian villages, after a genera tion under Greek rule the inhabitants would consider that their ancestors had always been Greeks. Then with the frankness which was characteristic of the man, he added that there would be Greek viUages to the north of any reasonable line which if placed for the same time under Bulgarian rule would believe themselves to be of Slav descent. The manner in which Greek and Bulgarian villages are dotted about in many parts of the country makes it incorrect to assign such country to either race. One of the many good stories told of General Ignatieff emphasizes this statement. When at the Conference after the Russo-Turkish War it became necessary to define the boundaries of Bulgaria, Ignatieff told the Turkish delegates that he was ready to take those marked by the Turks. They replied that they were ignorant of such boundaries. The Russian ambassador then explained that there were a number of viUages burned by the Turkish troops because the inhabitants were Bulgarian. As one of these was within twenty mUes of Constantinople, and others far south of the proposed new Bulgaria, another means of establishing a boundary had to be devised. A comparison of various accounts leads me to the con clusion that the population of Macedonia, excluding Albania, is about 1,750,000 ; that of these about one mUlibn are Slavs, whUe the remainder may be divided about equally between Greeks and Turks. The Bul garians claim that to their race belong sixty-nine per cent. of the population.1 The troubled condition of the country during the last 1 " La Macedonie," p. 55, par Oleicoff. MACEDONIA 233 fifteen years has considerably reduced the total popula tion. Hundreds of Bulgarians emigrated into Bulgaria. It is asserted that even now, after some have returned to their desolated homes, there are 20,000 Macedonians in Sofia itself. But aU along the borderland of Bulgaria famUies quitted the country which was the scene of violent anarchy and disorder in order to escape into the land of their countrymen which had obtained freedom. Emigration to America has also been going on quietly but constantly. In 1904 from the vUayet of Monastir, 3000 men are stated to have crossed the Atlantic. In the foUowing year the emigrants had increased to about 7000, while in the first half of 1906 the number had grown to nearly 15,000. In ten of the viUages round Fiorina only women and chUdren remained. It is not my intention to write the recent history of Macedonia. It is sufficient to recaU that the consular reports, written by a number of Englishmen and French men who have hved in or visited Macedonia, have placed on record a condition of anarchy which during the same period had no paraUel in Europe. It was justly described by Victor Berard in 1906 as " une Macedonie pUlee et massacree, unproductive pour eUe-meine et inutUe pour le reste du monde, intenable aux indigenes et impene trable aux etrangers." 1 The congress of Berlin was not entirely content to leave Macedonia to the tender mercies of Abdul Hamid. In conformity with its provisions a mixed commission was formed to draw up a scheme of reforms for European Turkey. The British com missioner was Lord Fitzmaurice. Its work was done thoroughly. An organic law was produced. But it was thrown into the wastepaper-basket by the Turks. If the country had been in Asia-Minor probably it would 1 "La Macedonie et les Reforms," by Dragonof, with preface by Berard, p. 1 34. 234 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE have suffered less at the hands of the Sultan ; for the Macedonians were surrounded by four free states, and they naturally compared their condition with that of their neighbouring brethren. The influence of Greece made for civUization in the south. The newly created prosperity of Bulgaria and Serbia on the north and east awakened the energy of the Slavs, and the state of security in Montenegro and the other Christian states of the peninsula, aroused the desire for a like security from misrule. Oppression of a kind which no race is justified in tolerating, if it has a reasonable chance of setting itself free, drove many into voluntary exUe and caused others to take to the mountains. In Bulgaria the exUes worked in collusion with their relations and friends to avenge their wrongs and to prevent others being committed on men and women of their race. They formed commit tees. They organized means of punishing noteworthy offenders and of striking terror into the oppressors. In many instances the committees formed a kind of law court which did justice upon offenders, rough justice it is true, but like lynch law better than no justice whatever. Race hostUity entered and complicated the situation. Greeks and Slavs were jealous of each other. Each feared that the other would establish a claim in case of a partition of the country to a larger share than that to which it was entitled. StiU further to increase the difficulties of the situation, the Church came in with its division of the people into adherents of the patriarch and those of the exarch. Without the difference of an iota on matters of dogma, with none in reference to the forms of religious worship — for the division in the Eastern Church is racial rather than ecclesiastical — the odium theologicum added unusual bitterness to the political struggle between Slav and Greek. Greek bands flocked across the frontier to join the bands which had been MACEDONIA 235 formed to attack the Bulgarians. Officers from, the Greek army joined such bands. Abdul Hamid, with the cunning which sycophants chose to call capacity, took advantage of the hostUity between the Christian races. The Greek bands were encouraged to attack the Bul garians. One remembers with satisfaction that when the most self-sacrificing and daring of the missionaries of the revolutionary party, Dr Nazim Bey, who was already proscribed as a rebel, determined to place his life at the service of the Committee of Union and Progress in Salonika, he disguised himself in the Greek brigand's fustaneUa, crossed the frontier from Greece and descended into the town of Salonika, fearless of arrest by Turkish zaptiehs and rightly confident that his disguise would cause him to be regarded as friendly to Abdul Hamid's government. Without entering into detaUs of the anarchy and misrule which prevaUed in Macedonia during the first seven years of the present century, it may yet be gener ally stated that there existed the minimum of security for life and property. Valuable mines were shut down on account of the risks of carrying provisions to the workmen or material for mining. Landowners, Moslems, and Christians alike, natives and foreigners were unable in hundreds of cases to visit their properties. Bulgarian and Greek bands of brigands held possession of many parts of the country and made life almost unsupportable. The Turkish peasants or proprietors were aUowed to plunder their neighbours. The Turkish troops some times favoured one and sometimes another band. They lived upon the peasantry and were useless as a protection for the innocent. Even when at the demand of Europe foreign gendarmerie officers were appointed they were prevented from examining and reporting upon the de vastation caused by Turkish soldiers or Bulgarian or 236 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Greek bands. It was in vain that ambassadors obtained promises from the Sultan that such officers should have the right to examine ; for orders were either never sent or disobeyed by men knowing weU that YUdiz would be best pleased by disobedience. Massacres upon a scale comparatively smaU when measured by those of Bulgaria and Armenia, but great in the aggregate, went on aU throughout the period in question. ViUages were pillaged and burned by one or other of the bands, or by Moslem neighbours, or by the troops themselves, and scores of independent reports were furnished and photographs taken showing the desola tion of these places and the ordered indifference of the authorities in regard to them. The law courts were abominably corrupt. Sentences were notoriously bought and sold. When a criminal outrage was com mitted it was used as a pretext to extort from the accused man or from his relations whatever could be obtained. If a man were kUled a whole vUlage would be attacked. Administrative and judicial extortion in the coUection of taxes was common throughout the country. Men were kept in prison " administratively," as it is caUed, with out being brought to trial, the term of such imprison ment being often measured by the time within which his relations and friends, or one of the committees, could find the money to buy his release. Though there is nothing in Turkish law to correspond with our writ of Habeas Corpus, the noblest legal invention of the British race for the safeguard of mdividual hberty, yet even under Turkish law such indefinitely long administrative imprisonments were grossly Illegal Nobody, however, could interfere to prevent them. The public opinion of Western Europe and notably of England and France became aroused. Something must be done to clear out the foulest Augean stable which MACEDONIA 237 existed in Europe. But no government was anxious to take the lead. Each one knew that Abdul would be hostUe to any interference. One might suppose that he was foolish enough to beheve that disorders would be beneficial to Turkey or would at least show Europe that her interference could not mend matters. The latter suggestion wiU not bear examination ; for the whole history of sultanic rule in Turkey shows that reforms have never come from Turkish initiative. Germany had already begun her policy of shutting her eyes to abuses in Turkey and making friends with the Sultan in order to further her commercial interests. Even as far back as the Armenian massacres in Constantinople, friends and weU-wishers of Germany had deeply regretted her careful abstention from any acts which showed disapproval of the brutal massacres at our doors, and this at a time when France and Great Britain even ostentatiously sheltered Armenian fugitives from the knives and sticks of Abdul Hamid's barbarous sopajis. But Germany had not yet disassociated herself from the Powers in endeavouring to obtain decent government for Macedonia. Russia looked on coldly because at the time she was dissatisfied with Bulgaria. She could not how ever refuse to join England and France in efforts to better the condition of the Slavs. Austria from the first was so half-hearted in her action with the other Powers to obtain reforms as to leave the impression that she preferred that the disorders in the country should continue untU Europe in general should ask her to take possession of the country in the interests of international peace. Among the papers of the ex- grand vizier HalU Rifaat Pasha were found several reports which he made in 1898, after the Turko-Greek war, which throw light on the attitude of Austria. These were published in Paris after his death with facsimUes 238 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE of the originals and translations. In one he reports a meeting of the representatives of the European Powers. An original of the minutes, which was signed by the ambassadors of the seven Powers, was shown to him by the Austrian ambassador. The latter, according to the report, spoke of the great insistence (grande intran- sigeance) of the French, Russian and British ambassadors in their determination to submit to the Porte a proposal for putting into execution the scheme proposed by the joint commission of 1880. He claims credit for being the only ambassador who resisted this demand and for obtaining an adjournment in order to gain time. The grand vizier concludes by advising that his government, in order to shut the mouths of its enemies, should itself put into operation some of the reforms which would be submitted by the Powers. The advice was wise though it was not foUowed. But, if the grand vizier's report is a fair representation of what he was told, Austria then did not desire Macedonian reforms. Readers wiU remember that whUe the three Powers in question, to which Italy must also be added, worked hard to show the Porte that it was to its interest that security for hfe and property should be conferred on Macedonia, traveUers and newspaper correspondents of aU shades of political colour who watched events on the spot never believed in the sincerity of Austrian support. WhUe on the subject of an attempt to persuade Abdul Hamid to institute reforms or to accept those proposed by the Powers, let me bear my testimony to the sincerity of the late Sir Nicholas O'Conor's labours on their behalf. Long years of training in the diplomatic service and something in his native character made him an extremely cautious man. In everything which he undertook he was painstaking and industrious. He saw the various sides of any question submitted to him and carefuUy MACEDONIA 239 selected what he deemed to be practicable. When, there fore, from 1900 untU his death in 1908, it was his duty to examine the proposed reforms for Macedonia he set about his task with the utmost care. This was the more important, because though he was the representative of only one of the Powers, it was notorious that the assist ance given by the representatives of the others favouring reforms left to him the bulk of the work. The establish ment of a financial commission for Macedonia, the great improvement in the control of the customs of the same country, and above aU the foundation of a school of gendarmerie, were benefits which the country owes largely to his initiative, plodding industry and determination not to aUow the purposes of his government to be defeated. He was aware that the Turkish officials knew that if they wished to stand weU with YUdiz they must make the reforms impossible of execution. With luke warm supporters and active enemies what he did was remarkable and his labours are bearing fruit to-day. I have no intention of writing the story of the at tempted reforms. It is constantly asserted that the Muerzeg programme and the steady and slow progress which the reforms were making precipitated the revolu tion of July 1908. The fear which existed among young Turks was that the Powers would declare that Macedonia should be formed into an autonomous state, and thus be separated from Turkey. I do not know whether such a course had been agreed upon. Probably not ; but the possibility of it was at least one of the causes which made the Committee of Union and Progress quicken their pace. Every one knows that the revolutionary movement began in Macedonia, that its headquarters, from which action was directed, was at Salonika, and that Albanians, Bulgarians and Greeks joined hands to bring it about. Such a union of hitherto hostUe races in Macedonia had 240 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE never been before seen. We hoped that under a con stitutional form of government a better day had dawned upon Macedonia. To that hope most of us are stUl constant. When the mUitary revolt occurred in the capital on 13th AprU 1909, the object of which was to overthrow the constitution, the Macedonian army at once took measures for its defence. Dr Carasso one of the deputies for Salonika with three or four others caUed upon Mahmud Shevket Pasha, the Commander-in-chief, on the evening of the 13th AprU, as soon as they learned the news of the revolt and asked what he proposed to do. The reply of Shevket was manly and soldierly. " I have sworn to defend the constitution and shaU do so." His action was as prompt as his words, and the next day his army had commenced that journey which terminated happUy by the capture of the capital on 24th AprU, and by the deposition of Abdul Hamid on the 27th. Mace donia had saved the constitution. The subsequent history of that province is far from making altogether pleasant reading. A series of blunders were made by the government which has gone far to compact Albanians, Bulgarians and Greeks, into opposition against the Turks. The Committee of Union and Progress, containing some enlightened men among them, decided apparently to Turkify every race and institution in the Empire. Not only must the Albanian learn to read his own language only through Turkish char acters, but Turkish must be taught in every school. The Arab with his semi-sacred language must communicate with government in Turkish. So also with the Greeks and Armenians. Old established institutions which for half a century like the Ottoman Bank had communicated in French were informed that henceforward their letters must be in Turkish. Nowhere was this drastic Turki fication pressed more harshly than in Albania and Mace- MACEDONIA 241 donia. Schools were closed because the teaching was not solely in Turkish. This attempt at Turkification was the first step towards alienation. In mitigation of the blunder of the Committee, the foUowing facts should be remembered. It soon came to be noted that in spite of the popular demonstrations in the capital and elsewhere for brotherhood and equality, the adherents of the old system, the legion of spies and dismissed employes, pointed to the Committee and the government as one composed of atheists, Jews, and enemies of Islam. The sneer was, of course, unjust, but the presence of Ahmed Riza, who with his transparent honesty avowed himself a Positivist, the outspokenness of some of the orators in the first bloom of the revolu tionary period and the presence of one or two Jews, able and loyal as they had proved themselves to be, gave colour to the slander. It was scattered broadcast. Needless to say that in a country where the inhabitants are so backward as in Turkey such a charge was peculiarly dangerous. The danger was greatly increased when a strong party was formed with the real object of destroy ing constitutionalism, but with the avowed object of establishing the religious law of the Sheriat. This party had its newspapers. Its members, whUe secretly opposed to the constitution, cheered for it, but carefuUy accompanied their cheers with cries for the Sheriat. The mUitary revolt on 13th AprU 1909 showed to the world what was their intention. Real Hodjas, and others dis guised to look like them, made the Sheriat the cry of the revolt. " We want the Sheriat," said a deputy springing upon a chair in the Chamber of Deputies on the morning of that day. That deputy is now in prison for his cry. " We wiU die for the Sheriat," said a white-bearded mUitary officer on the same day in inciting the troops to rebeUion. ., He expiated his offence by being hanged a 16 242 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE fortnight later near the place where he had offended. The only cries during the revolt were for the constitution and the Sheriat, these cries coming from the same mouths. There can be no reasonable doubt that among the thousands of men in the streets the only intelligent demand was for the Sheriat, which they had been taught to believe would put an end to giving equality to Chris tians. The cry meant that there must be no more talk of rehgious equality or of brotherhood with giaours. AU that was against the Sheriat. It was treason to the faith. The prominent members of the Committee, of the Chamber of Deputies and newspaper writers, who had been in favour of the new regime, had to run to earth, Ahmed Riza being one of those most eagerly sought for. The leaders of the new movement when they recovered power had to appease their foUowers by showing that they were good Moslems and neither atheists, Jews, nor unbelievers. Hitherto they had proclaimed that Osmanli was to be the name common to aU subjects independent of race or religion. This tune was now varied. It was necessary to conciliate the ignorant Turkish Moslem. It was at this critical moment that dissatisfaction arose among the Albanians. It was due mainly, if not entirely, to the efforts to make them conform to Turkish models. WhUe Albanians were being suppressed, it was not likely that the Christian elements of the population would be fairly treated. The Hamidian methods employed against the race declared to be revolt were applied, especiaUy during the disarmament, against the Bulgarians of Macedonia, and the populations for a time at least were alienated from loyalty to the young Turkish party. It is impossible to exonerate the government from blame, but it is just to point out their difficulties. The first and most important was the absence of men accus tomed to administration. The government had to choose MACEDONIA 243 between trustworthy men entirely without experience and men whose experience had been on Hamidian lines. In many cases they were under the necessity of choosing the latter. But such men had aU the old prejudices against the Christians, the old traditions of stamping out opposition to the government by means of arbitrary arrest and torture and cruel punishment. They were tolerated in Macedonia probably because it was believed that their methods would show the Anatolian Moslem that the government was determined to carry out its designs. It may be admitted that the Albanians once in revolt invited a serious lesson ; and that the Bulgarian inhabit ants were dissatisfied with the treatment meted out to them. Nevertheless it was unfortunate that the govern ment had not faith in constitutional principles. They governed under panic and, instead of stoutly maintaining legal procedure and practices whUe ruling with a firm hand, aUowed their subordinates to use the old brutal methods under the sanction of martial law. The govern ment blundered and committed grave errors, errors which, it must be said, they are now trying to correct. As to what the future of Macedonia wiU be, the factors are too numerous to justify a satisfactory forecast. Serbia has for some years advocated a partition of the country between herself, Bulgaria, and Greece. Bulgaria, on the other hand, has been in favour of its erection into an autonomous State. Greece would prefer a partition if her share were larger than the Bulgarians would admit. The theory of many Greeks a generation ago, and the dream of many more, was that Greece should extend her rule along the coast of the iEgean as far as and including Constantinople itself. They claimed that the long-shore population was and always has been Greek. But the so-called Greek population of the capital was never 244 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Hellenic Greek. The Greek-speaking peoples of the eastern shore of the ^Egean had quite as much, md probably more, influence on its life and thought than those of Greece. The people of Macedonia, always with the exception of the Turkish minority, would probably prefer an autonomous State under a separate ruler named by the Sultan. But it is to be feared that Austrian in fluence would prevent Serbia from approving autonomy, Austria's ultimate object being to reach Salonika. In these^ aspirations Turkey cannot be overlooked. Apart from the reluctance of every Moslem to sacrifice an inch of territory, the important part played by Macedonia in the revolution of 1908 and in the mUitary rising in 1909 would make Young Turkey stoutly resist partition. It is true that Bulgarians, Greeks, Albanians, and Jews aided the Turks, and that happUy aU worked harmoniously together, but the Turks were the most numerous. Everything promised weU untU the Albanian rising in the winter of 1909-1910 and the events which followed it. Arbitrary measures, lawless im prisonment and torture destroyed the rising hopes of Christians and Albanians alike and their wiUing accept ance of Turkish rule. It may be that time and improved administration wiU effect a reconcihation. But the alienation of the races in Macedonia from the Turks is the most severe blow which constitutionalism has received in Tuikey, and lessens the chance of the Turks henceforward taking the lead. From these and a number of other causes it appears to me that Macedonia is returning to the status quo of three or four years ago. If Turkey can regain the sympathy of the various races which she held during twelve months after the revolution Macedonia may con tinue to be an integral part of Turkey. It is possible that the Turks themselves may come to recognize that MACEDONIA 245 to erect it into an autonomous State under her own pro tection and subjection would be in their interest. The Macedonians would be satisfied, for their feeling of nationality is strong. No considerable portion of them desires annexation either to Bulgaria, Serbia, or Greece except as a means of getting rid of misgovernment. The genuine Macedonian considers 'himself the superior of the subject of either of those States. Bulgaria also has constantly declared that she too would be satisfied with Macedonian autonomy. She fears that Austria intends to employ Serbia as a means of getting down to Salonika. The conduct of the Turkish government is the most important factor in estimating what the immediate future of the country wiU be. If it can repress disorders, and content the various races, the country, which is one of the most fertUe in Europe, wiU become prosperous and satisfied to remain under Turkish rule. But to attain this result Turkey must abandon Hamidian methods. The danger for the Turks, as for the Bulgarians, is that Austria, supported by Germany, shaU remain constant to her design and persistent in her efforts to get to the iEgean. An autonomous State under Turkish rule with a contented and prosperous people would constitute a moral barrier which European public opinion would make it difficult for Austria to break down. A condition of things like that which existed three years ago would make many observers and weU-wishers to Young Turkey echo the words of the late Lord Salisbury, that if Austria were about to take possession of Salonika it would be " glad tidings of great joy." My conclusion, therefore, is that the future of Macedonia depends mainly on the conduct of the Turkish government. Have they learned the lesson that mere repression, without liberty in its various forms, is not enough to enable them to keep their hold over a people and a province ? The future wUl show. CHAPTER XI ASIA MINOR Physical features — Isolated communities, racial and rehgious — The Nomad races — Turcomans — Euruks, etc. — Druses, Maronites, Nestorians, Crypto-Christians — Kizilbashis, Stavriotai. IN this chapter I deal with Asia Minor. I have already spoken generaUy of the Turkish population who, in their more normal condition, are found in this portion of the empire. The Armenians, who are the most important element of the Christian population east of the Bosporus, wiU require a separate chapter. But in addition to the adherents of the two great religious systems of Islam and Christianity there are in Asia Minor a number of smaU communities, some of which appear to have halted between the two systems whUe others have retained more ancient forms of worship or of superstition. Taken singly each of these communities is smaU, but taken altogether they form a far from unimportant section of the popula tion. Asia Minor contains the debris of many races, the drift of many religious or theological storms. Scattered about its mountains or in its almost unvisited vaUeys, in out of the way corners whither they have been pushed by new-comers into the country, the student of comparative religion may find almost virgin country for his investigation. Before attempting a description of these communities some account must be given of the physical conformation of Asia Minor ; for it is this conformation which has largely aided the survival of the remnants of ancient races and religious beliefs. 246 ASIA MINOR 247 Asia Minor is in shape like an inverted dish, the larger portion being an elevated tableland. In its slope towards the north are many fissures in which various rivers flow to the Black Sea. In the west the slope is gradual, and the fertUe vaUeys of the Mendere, the ancient Meander, and other less important rivers have always supported a considerable population. In the eastern portion, my in verted dish is without a rim, the mountain ranges and the tableland extending east of the Tigris to the Persian frontier and beyond it. The southern portion slopes off somewhat rapidly in a line continuous with that of the coast of CUicia, where the Taurus is the southern bound ary of the tableland, to the plain between Alexandretta and the Euphrates. It is the drainage from the tableland which supplies the water for that river and the Tigress. The tableland varies in height, but its eastern portion is lofty through a large area. Lake Van is 5300 feet above sea-level. The plain extending from Van to Erzeroum is nearly everywhere above 5000 feet. South of this central tableland and west of the Euphrates is the Syrian desert. Along this roam many tribes of Bedouins not more advanced in civUization than the Red Indians of America. When I was in Damascus a marriage took place at which the dowry contracted to be paid by the bridegroom, a Bedouin chief, or sheik, was the value of what he could plunder from the next caravan of the Sacred carpet. A friend, who had known the Bedouin for many years, assured me that this form of dowry was not unusual. The caravan aUuded to was the one sent annuaUy from the capital to Mecca with great ceremony by the Sultan. It carries the presents of the sender, the most notable of which is a carpet to be used in the mosque of the Kaaba. An ordinary Bedouin traveUhig party is singularly unromantic and not more picturesque than gipsies on the tramp. 248 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Where water is avaUable the desert to the immediate south of the tableland blossoms as the rose. I have stood at the place where Mahomet, looking down on the green oasis of Damascus, declared that he would not enter because he could only hope to behold one Paradise. The mass of green is strikingly beautiful because it is set in the midst of a yeUowish red desert, with a background of white mountain limestone. It is the nakedness of the neighbouring land in comparison with the fertUity pro duced by the rivers Abana and Pharpha which gives the oasis of Damascus and the plain of Sharon their reputa tion for beauty. The north-west corner of Syria has a like beauty due to its water supply. Mr Hogarth remarks with justice that Palestine itself is not a fruitful country except by comparison " with the awful aridity of Sinai." The great road from Syria to Constantinople in Roman times, and untU the destruction of the Greek Empire, was through the pass in the Taurus, known as the CUician Gates, and along the country through which the Konia raUway has been buUt. The country west of that road has been invaded and settled by men coming from the south and from the shore of the JEgean. It is stiU being peacefuUy penetrated by a largely increasing Greek population which now, as formerly, comes in from the western shore of the .ZEgean. As it appears pretty certain that the days of massacre in that part of Asia Minor are ended, the ancient method of thinning out the Christian population wiU no longer be avaUable to pre serve the balance in numbers between Moslems and unbelievers. Owing mostly to economic causes the Moslem population in that portion of Turkey is giving place to the Christian. It must be noted also that in this western part of Anatolia the population, and especiaUy the Christian, is ASIA MINOR 249 fairly industrious. Within the last generation the in habitants have had two inducements to industry which were wanting to their predecessors. First and most important, the existence of two raUways running almost at right angles from the coast and each beginning at Smyrna, enables the peasants to get their produce down to the coast and find a market. The second is that European merchants and capitalists have opened markets for the sale of Turkish carpets, and have thus, as already mentioned, largely increased an industry which already gives home employment in the viUages to many thousands of men, women and chUdren. If security to life and property, such as exists in civUized countries, can be provided, the development of the western portion of the country may be regarded as secure. Early traveUers, as weU as recent ones like Miss Lothian BeU andvSir William Ramsay, American and other mis sionaries who reside at centres in Asia Minor and who visit the less known parts of the neighbouring country, teU of encounters with people in isolated viUages, whose faces and even dress recaU those of Assyrian and even Hittite sculptures. The nature of a large portion of the country facilitates survivals.1 Perhaps it is in the great central tableland and in the north-west corner of Syria that the isolation of smaU communities, which I have caUed survivals, is most noticeable. But it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that there are survivals of aU the peoples which have ever occupied Asia Minor and representatives of aU the heretical sects, Christian and Moslem. The Armenian community of Zeitoun can hardly be caUed a survival, though, strictly speaking, it is one. Its peoples are a brave remnant, the survivors of Little Armenia, a king- 1 This is well brought out in Mr D. G. Hogarth's " Nearer East," the best book yet written on the influences of the physical geography of Turkey upon the history of its inhabitants. 250 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE dom erected by the crusaders and itself the fragment of a larger state which once extended from the Mediter ranean to Persia. Secure in their mountain fastnesses they have repeatedly defied Turkish armies, and have done deeds of heroism as great as even Montenegro can show. A dozen years ago Abdul Hamid determined to extirpate them. But the troops he poured across the mountains lost so many men, and the resistance offered by the mountaineers was so successful that, when the Powers, and principaUy England, let the Sultan know that Europe would not tolerate a wanton massacre of brave men, he was probably weU satisfied to say that he had been obliged to yield to diplomatic pressure, and the Zeitoun Armenians were saved. Other communities, both Christian and Moslem ; Yezidis and others unattached to any recognized cult, foUowers of some dervish or Christian heretic, are hidden away and owe their safety to their obscurity and in significance. They are survivals who have got into backwaters and are out of the main stream of their race's history. In Lycia, in the Taurus mountains, and in many other parts of Asia Minor, they are occasionally encountered. They have kept the habits and customs, the weapons and in many cases the dress of their ancestors. The Holy Places of their remote ancestors in their midst have continuously been reverenced, sometimes under Pagan forms, sometimes under the form of Christian, and later under that of Mahometan sanctuaries. In the province of Konia, at Sinason, where there are no Turks, there is a survival of ancient Greek-speaking people who keep many words and forms of the ancient language which modern Greeks have forgotten. The same district abounds in rock dweUings. There are stiU troglodytes with many of the characteristics that are attributed only to prehistoric man. ASIA MINOR 251 One of the most important causes which contributed not only to the survival of isolated communities, but to the impoverishment of Asia Minor under Turkish rule, is to be found in the constant incursions and perpetual wanderings of Asiatic nomads. I propose to indicate the more important of these nomads and to give such a summary of their condition as wiU show that they have exercised an influence which has been largely mischievous. In doing so I am aware that I am rummaging amid the debris of many races and religions, in which a careful searcher with ample time and knowledge of the languages and people would make valuable discoveries. Nomads in Turkey The nomadic races which migrated into Turkey are mainly four in number — Turcomans, Euruks, Araplis, and Abdals. The Turcomans, commonly known in Turkey as Tartarjis, are numerous throughout the central tableland. Their supreme head is supposed by his foUowers to hve in Korassan, but I am told that actuaUy he resides in India and is a pensioner of the British government. They profess a form - of religion which can hardly be classed either as Moslem or Christian. They acknowledge the authority of one hereditary high priest who, when he reaches a village or camp, is placed in a tent apart. In this tent he receives the confessions of men and women. If any man has quarreUed with his neighbour, he caUs both before him and tries to induce them to settle their differences amicably. If either refuses, he has the power of excommunication, which is put into force as foUows. On the great day of a religious service, resembling either a Christian communion or love feast, Agape, there are two tables spread, one for the married, the other for the unmarried. Each famUy brings a dish together with wine or raki (mastic). The dishes 252 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE are held by each person providing them till the priest authorizes his placing them on the table. In case the priest does not permit him to do so, he or his household cannot take part in the feast, a much dreaded punish ment, as it entaUs the refusal of aU intercourse with the other members of his tribe. Before the feast is eaten the priest blesses the food and passes the wine cup round. There is no divorce amongst the Tartarjis, and they can only marry a second wife in case the first proves sterile. The above practices look like a remnant of Christianity. So also does the fact that they observe certain Christian saint days. But the same people keep the month of Moharrem as a time of abstinence, eating only of lenten dishes. They do not, however, keep the sacred month of Ramazan, which orthodox Moslems observe, though they in certain places profess to do so. The priest or sub stitute kills aU the animals intended for food, receiving a smaU sum of money per head. They claim to be foUowers of Ali, the son-in-law of Mahomet. Their tradition is that when Ali was at death's door he commissioned his sons to hand over his body to an Arab on a black camel who would caU for it. When the body was delivered to the Arab, the sons, out of curiosity, by taking a short cut, overtook the Arab and to their surprise found their father leading the black camel. From this and from other traditions they con clude that Ali was incarnate God. On the tenth day of Moharrem they prepare the Ashoureh, smaU baked cakes, something like the koliba by which the orthodox Greeks commemorate their dead after forty days. Two of the other nomad communities may be dis missed as of slight importance : first, the Araphs, or Arablis, who are believed by the population to be of African descent. They are nearly all charcoal burners or wood-cutters ; and second, the Abdals, who are not ASIA MINOR 253 numerous and are unfavourably regarded by their neighbours. Of aU the nomad races the Euruks are the most numerous. They are found in smaU communities throughout central Asia Minor, from Smyrna to Armenia. They consist of several tribes, of whom the Tekelis have the best reputation for honesty, whUe the Chiplis have the worst and are dreaded as thieves and generaUy untrustworthy. It is difficult to decide when the Euruks entered the country. Some maintain that they are the descendants of one of the ancient autocthonous races which was never subdued. Whether this be true or not, it is certain that their numbers increased greatly on, and immediately after, the invasion of Genghis Khan in the first quarter of the thirteenth century, and again after that of Timour at the end of the fourteenth. The only nomads with which Western Europe is familiar are the Gipsies. But they have nowhere been sufficiently numerous to constitute an element of general danger. Many of the nomads who came into Asia Minor were vigorous and wUd barbarians from the steppes of Central Asia. Ignorant of, and unused to, agriculture, they treated the settlers who had been under the empire as their lawful prey. The Seljuk Turks showed a power of assimUating much of the civUization possessed by the people whom they conquered, but they were either unable or unwilling to check the inroads of the Euruks. They probably made use of them to devastate the enemy's country. In presence of the constant stream of nomad immigrants, deterioration rapidly ensued. The country population was driven into the towns or their immediate neighbourhood for protection. The great roads, which the Romans and subsequently the Byzantine rulers of the empire had maintained, became unsafe. Never repaired, they were destroyed by rainstorms and graduaUy 254 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE perished. Communication between neighbouring towns almost ceased to exist. Produce could not be got to market. Poverty followed, and with it knowledge of art and literature perished and industry ceased. The people feU back into barbarism, content to grow enough food to keep body and soul together. The Euruks exist throughout large tracts of Asia Minor, sometimes merely harmless, driving smaU flocks of sheep and living much like our own Gipsies, but every where justly regarded with distrust as thieves who reck little of life. I have a vivid recoUection of seeing a number of these nomads at, and near, Hierapolis. The ruined city is intensely interesting and suggestive. BuUt upon the slope of a mountain forming one side of a magnificent vaUey in a district which the Europeans of Smyrna caU the Anatolian Switzerland, its situation is superb. Laodicea, with its ruined theatre and deserted buUdings, is distant some five or six mUes. Three or four walled towns, absolutely deserted and not aU even identi fied, exist between Aidin, the ancient Tralles, and the vaUey in question. But Hierapolis must have been a large and fashionable city. Its two noble theatres which stiU remain were capable of seating thirty thousand people. Its ruined churches speak of a time when there was a large Christian population. Indeed Renan asserts that even as early as the third century the Christians formed a majority of its population. The chief attractions of the city were its hot baths, whose extensive ruins suggest that it was once a Roman Harrogate or Bath. A spring of hot water weUs up in large volume which yet flows along channels carefuUy constructed by the side of some of the principal streets to the great baths. In the course of many centuries it has deposited in these channels a coating of limestone which has raised the level of the channel six inches ; ASIA MINOR 255 and in another part overflows down the rocks forming a series of beautiful terraces somewhat resembling, though on a smaller scale, the famous terraces of New Zealand. Everything bears witness that at one time the city was the inland resort of a weU-to-do population who could afford to spend time and money amid luxurious surroundings. The city is now a desolation. Churches, theatres, markets, baths, aU of which have been solidly buUt, have faUen to ruins or have entirely perished. There is not a single habitable house ; not a single resident. But in the great cemetery there are large tombs and sarco phagi, and among them on my visit was a temporary encampment of Euruks. Most of the tombs had been broken open. Works of art with valuable inscriptions had been destroyed ; and the explanation given was that the Euruks had broken them either out of pure wanton ness or in hopes of finding treasure. The members of our party who weU knew the country between Hierapolis and Aidin agreed that to be caught alone by these nomads would certainly imply being robbed of everything and killed in case of resistance or even merely to save possible trouble. In fact, they were looked upon much as settlers in Western America look upon the savage Red Indians, as dangerous men, enemies of civUization, and a curse to the country where they are found. It was such nomads who completed the work of destroy ing Anatolian civilization which other Asiatic invaders had commenced. Among the remnants of races which have been driven into isolation are three or four communities who inhabit the north-west corner of Syria, the Lebanon, Anti- Lebanon and the Ansarieh, the highland district from the Lebanon to Alexandretta. Most of the inhabitants are Shiah Mahometans (not Sunnis like the Turks) The 256 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Metuali number about 30,000. It is probable that the fact that they are not Sunni gave rise to the belief that they came from Persia where the Shiah sect is dominant. There is also a remnant of the Hashashin. Their evU reputation has given Western Europe the word assassin, on the supposition that before kUling their victims they intoxicated themselves with hashash, a species of hemp. But by far the most interesting of these refugees or sur vivals in Syria are the Maronites and the Druses. The first are now Christians and in union with the Church of Rome. It is among the second, or Druses, that the most interesting traces of an early race exist. Druses A century ago the Druses were hardly to be found outside the Lebanon. During the last three generations great numbers migrated into the Hauran, the fruitful district around, but principaUy south, of Damascus, where their numbers have largely increased. A not inconsiderable number have emigrated into Egypt, since native reports from that country have spoken of the security for life and property under British rule. Others have gone further afield and even to America. As usual in Turkey no trustworthy statistics of their numbers exist, but two American friends, who know the Druses weU and reside in Syria, made an estimate of the popula tion in the autumn of 1910, with the result that they found the total number to be 225,000, of whom 60,000 are in the Lebanon. The Druses are a fair-haired Indo-Germanic people who at some early period were driven into the mountains of Lebanon. I can find no information which appears trustworthy as to their origin. They believe themselves to have occupied the Lebanon since Noah's flood. Though there is a considerable literature of the Sacred ASIA MINOR 257 Books of their community, and though many volumes have been written about the Druses themselves, both their religion and history remain a mystery. When visited by the famous Jewish traveUer, Benjamin of Tudela, in 1163, he found them friendly to his people, but " of no religion, and regarded by their neighbours as heathens." As professing neither Judaism, Islam, nor Christianity, the description was not unnatural. At an early period the Druses seem to have given refuge to fugitives of various creeds and races, to Kurds and even to Yezidis, or DevU Worshippers. They stiU continue the practice. They profess to do this on the principle that aU men are brothers and equaUy the sons of God. In 1019, Hamze, a Persian mystic, preached among them, and one of his supporters claimed to be the incarna tion of Christ. Apparently their tenets and practices have always been mysteries. The Druses are enjoined to keep their rehgion secret. They are said to be aUowed to profess whatever faith is dominant in the country where they hve. The same statement is made, however, in regard to various sects of Dervishes. WhUe I admit that there are many expressions in Eastern phUosophies which would justify such a belief, I doubt very much whether any sect has formaUy adopted the proposition that so long as the spirit of rehgion is kept any form may be professed. But the Druses appear to hve up to it. They are ready to sprinkle themselves with holy water in the Maronite Church, or to perform the Moslem ablu tions. Prayer, however, is regarded as an insult to the Creator, as attempting to interfere with the Divine WiU. But so entirely is the obligation to secrecy observed that only a few initiated persons are supposed to know the secret doctrines of the sect. Such initiated persons are the Elect, and it may weU be that they have adopted the formulae of some of the Dervish sects and believe that the 17 258 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE Elect are divine. They are said to believe it to be their duty to kiU any uninitiated person who obtains posses sion of their Sacred Books. Nevertheless, such books have found their way to Rome and elsewhere. The meetings of the Diuses are on Thursday evenings. So long as strangers are present nothing extraordinary takes place. The Koran is read and not their own Sacred Book. The opinion of their neighbours is that, U there are no strangers in their meetings, the lights are extin guished and a ceremony takes place at which the break ing of bread and the distribution of wine form an essential part. If true, this suggests a Christian origin. Their neighbours, the Maronites, assert that on such occasions there take place orgies of an indescribable character. ChurchiU, whose books on the Druses stUl remain authori ties on the subject, appears to support this opinion, and speaks of many of the Druses indulging in the " dark and unscrupulous libertinism of Darazi," a Druse heretic of the eleventh century. He is careful, however, to point out that the majority of the people foUow the teaching of Behr-ed-din, which is unobjectionable. They consider their community responsible for all its members, so that Druse beggars are unknown. Many traces of this solidarity and mutual interdependence of the community exist in Turkey. The community is responsible for the criminal acts of its individual members. WhUe it exercises a tribal jurisdiction over them, it also is bound to grant them protection. To those who are outside it constitutes a unit. Men of other races, including Europeans who have lived among the Druses, speak highly of their hospitality. It is noteworthy, however, that they do not carry their hospitality to the length of the Arab tribes. It does not foUow that because a man has shared their bread and salt that he wiU be safe from attack. Lord Carnarvon, who ASIA MINOR 259 visited them in 1861, speaks of the " refinement which distinguished the conversation and manners of those amongst the Druse chiefs " whom he met. The char acteristic of the Druses which impressed me most was their self-respect ; the absence of anything like loutish- ness or gaucherie in the manners of peasants and chiefs alike. Further experience taught me that this feature was general throughout aU the population of the empire. A man who, by his manners, dignity of carriage, natural politeness to everybody, was one of the most distinguished I have ever known was my own Armenian head porter. Freedom from awkwardness is almost universal in Turkey. My late friend, General Blunt, himself a model of charming manners, was fond of caUing attention to the trait in question among the poorest men in the community. Even a beggar wiU ask for a hght for his cigarette with as much confidence and delicacy as would any gentleman. The labourer who passes and observes that you are in want of a hght wUl offer it with the like absence of awkwardness. In this respect the General would remark, the people are more advanced in civilization than our own. Nevertheless, the self-respect of the Druses is not a mere question of manners. Like the Albanians, they are proud of their famUies, of their race, and of their history ; and like the Albanians they have great names and reputations among them ; princes, like Shehab, whose pedigree goes back to times beyond the Crusaders, against whom their ancestors fought ; chiefs with long lines of ancestry of which they are as proud as any sons of the Crusaders in the West. Enghsh and American residents in Syria like the Druses, because they are men, strong, truthful, trustworthy and independent, because they are a fighting race and wiU not cringe or lie before any man. I may conclude this notice of the Druses with an account of their origin as given by themselves. It was 260 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE related to me by a trustworthy Roman Catholic who resided in the Lebanon and knew them weU. Their version is, that after the Noachian deluge, aU the sur vivors lived in the great garden of Paradise on and around the Lebanon. Centuries passed, and then AUah sent a prophet named Moses. Many foUowed him and left the garden. More centuries passed, and then a greater prophet came from AUah named Jesus. A larger host left the garden to become His disciples. Then again centuries passed, and AUah sent the last prophet, Maho met ; and so large a host quitted the garden that only a remnant of the inhabitants was left. Finally, AUah sent the archangel Gabriel, who asked of the elders why they also had not quitted the garden : " AUah has sent three great prophets ; why have you not foUowed one of them ? " The elders took counsel together and answered the archangel, " Allah is Great and we thank him for sending the three Great prophets. But we have no need of one. " Allah is sufficient for us." Maronites The largest community in the Lebanon is the Maronites. In the fourth century they were monotheletes. By this name they were distinguished from the monophysites, who claimed that Christ had only one nature instead of two as Christians generaUy hold, a divine and a human. The monotheletes desired apparently to indicate that, whether there was only one or two natures, as to which they expressed no opinion, there was at least only one wiU or source of action. The controversy was a curious one, and the class of questions to which it belonged remains, like extinct volcanoes, though at one time their fires burnt fiercely. The clauses in the Nicene and Athanasian creeds in regard to them have been happUy described as the tombstones of buried heresies. The ASIA MINOR 261 heresy of the Maronites separated them from the other Christian churches. They became a distinct community perhaps as early as the fourth century, under a certain S. John Maro, from whom their name is derived. Whether they aie a distinct community by race is, how ever, doubtful. The evidence appears to me to suggest that they are ; that, like the Druses, they are the remnants of an ancient race who became isolated in the mountains and developed on their own lines, and were persecuted as heretics. When the Crusaders entered the Holy Land they were ready to ally themselves with Christians who were generally hostUe to their persecutors. As early as 1182 their patriarch admitted Roman supremacy, and since then they have always been Maronite Catholics. It is claimed that they number about 300,000. During the last century they were under special protection of the French government, just as the Druses were, or at least were supposed to be, under that of the British. The Nestorians These Christians are found near and around Bagdad and in the country to the north and east of that city as far as, and within, Persia. Nestorius, from whom the name is derived, was patriarch of Constantinople between 428 and 431. His heresy is another illustration of how burning questions come to resemble burnt-out volcanoes. Very hot controversy raged about his teaching. As he began his short patriarchate by being a bitter persecutor of others, no surprise arises at his being swept aside when his opponents came into power. His heresy consisted in denying that Christ was born God, though he taught that God dwelt in Christ. Hence he held that though Mary was the Mother of Christ she was not the Mother of God. Indeed, the controversy raged about the test 262 TURKEY AND ITS PEOPLE word 0eoTOKO