Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened/Chapter XXIII
CHAPTER XXIII.
TURKISH LIFE AND CUSTOMS.
1. The Scenery in a Turkish Street. The Turkish cities are generally in good locations. The streets are narrow, irregular and dirty. The houses are large and strong, but not attractive. They have but few and small windows, and are on the second floor. Every house is surrounded by a high and thick stone wall, with only one gateway, which is locked or barred day and night. In the interior of Turkish houses, from the most destitute to the most elegant and royal, in the houses of poverty and wealth, we find the same degree of sin and misery.
The scenes and events of a Turkish street cannot be told on paper. Muleteers and carriage men drive and curse their animals and cry to the passing multitude, "Be careful; let it not touch you." Street sellers are crying in every style and tone. Porters are carrying heavy burdens on their backs. Dervishes are howling and the fortune-tellers prophesying. The public criers are making official announcements: "O, Moslem servants! may Allah give long life to our padishah (Sultan)! Hereafter whoever walks in the streets after three o'clock in the evening (three hours after sunset), whether he has a lamp or not, will be arrested and imprisoned and heavily fined; this is the command of his excellency, our governor. Hear! you will have no excuse hereafter." Another: "Since last night a donkey is lost. Its tail is short; one front leg is lame; its hair is gray. Whosoever saw it will have three piasters, and whosoever finds it will have five piasters. Come! and make the owner glad."
In this Babylonian confusion many children, large and small, curse and cry. The pasha (governor) passes from his harem to his office with half-a-dozen servants before him and a dozen officers behind him. Everybody must recognize him by stopping and bowing, almost touching the ground with the back of the right hand, then lifting it up to their lips and then to their forehead in perfect silence. He returns this homage by a slight motion of his right hand. The countless hungry dogs are barking and biting each other, and sometimes trying to attack the passers-by, in imitation of their legal protectors (Moslems).
2. Traveling in Turkey. The Arabic proverb, "Traveling is a portion of hell," is applicable to Turkey, for there is no facility, no safety, and therefore no pleasure, even in a country which is unique for its natural beauty and healthy climate; no bridges over the large rivers, no prepared roads in miry places, no wide passages on the precipices. The only means of transportation are large camels, lazy horses, small donkeys and mules, and sometimes oxen and cows, driven by muleteers—the very ignorant villagers. In all Asiatic Turkey there is not more than 400 miles of railroad, therefore all journeys must be made by animals or walking, with an average of twenty miles a day. The animals are meanly fed in summer on grass, in winter on straw and very little barley. On winter nights the animals and the riders are sheltered together under the same roof of a khan (a rude, low and large building with only one room). There can be no fixed plan for the day. If you ask the muleteer the distance to the next town, khan or stream, he answers, "O, it is just here; about half an hour." You go on for hours and ask again, and get the same answer. You ask, "Where will you spend the night?" He replies, "Allah knows; I don't know; wherever the night comes we will halt there; don't worry about it; these places are very dangerous; the other day highwaymen killed three merchants and captured all their properties just in yonder valley."
In traveling, women, and especially children, are carried in mafa (two boxes), fastened one on each side of the horse. Owing to the constant dangers the travelers have to go in caravans (a large company of muleteers and passengers, with scores of various animals). They have carriages in the sea coast cities and in some parts of Anatolia, but for the lack of safety and regularity they are not of much use.
3. Language and Conversation of the Turks. The Turkish language, being composed of coarse Tartaric dialect and Persian and Arabic words and phrases, has its own beauty when spoken by the educated, but among the uneducated it represents the coarsest mode of speech. Turkish conversation is characterized by many and unnecessary adjectives, exaggerations and obscenity, spoken in an imaginative and proverbial style. Among the educated the rule is that the first person of the pronoun is expressed in humblest style and the second person just the contrary, for instance: I—"your servant," "your humble servant," "your most worthless slave;" you—"your highness," "your excellency," "your highest excellency;" holy are you—"how is the honored pleasure of your excellent nobility?" The answer is, "your servant kisses the sacred hands of your highest personality."
The Turkish style of addressing a letter: "By the grace of the Most High. Behold this letter is offered to the sacred direction of sagacious Ali Effendi, the assistant clerk in the financial department of the County of Keller, in the State of Bagdad."
In anger and quarreling the following expressions are very commonly used: "May your eyes be blinded, and you be left by the walls helpless;" "may your bread run from you on horseback, and you pursue it on foot and never reach it;" "may you not own two garments;" "may your lamp be extinguished suddenly" (die); "may you fall down like a pine tree;" "may melted lead be poured into your ears;" "may you be a vagabond in your life, and be dead in a stormy day;" and many indecent words which we can not put here.
The expressions for good wishes also are many and flattering, as: "May God hold your hands;" "may God build your household;" "whatever you touch as dust may be turned to gold;" "may Allah give you a dark-eyed sweetheart;" "may you enjoy the benefit of your child;" "may your enemies be blinded," etc.
4. Some Turkish Riddles, Proverbs and Love Songs. "When I go it goes galloping behind me." (Shadow.)
"A well and water in it, and a snake in the water with a pearl in its mouth." (A lamp.)
"It can jump down the mountain without hurt, still it cannot step in a stream." (Paper.)
"If you tie, it goes; if you let it loose, it stops." (Shoes.)
"It is woman that builds or ruins a house."
"The girl makes a woman like her mother."
"He begs at the door of St. Sophia, and gives alms at Sultan Ahmed." -(Two mosques that are very near each other in Constantinople.)
"When you ask a lazy man to work he will preach you a long sermon."
"Two captains sink the ship."
"Little bread, peaceful head." (Content and peace.)
"Death is a black camel that kneels before every door."
"He tries (in vain) to dig a well with a needle."
"A stone rolled into the well by a fool, cannot be taken out by forty wise men."
"Know the man by his friends."
"He who eats without desire digs his grave with his teeth."
"He thinks he has created the small mountains." (Shows vanity.)
"Eh, no money, no money,
In his pocket no money;
Unminding his blindness,
That fool man tries to own me."
"I'll tell you don't madden me,
Or I'll cut your willow-tree;
If you marry some one else,
I'll surely leave this country."
"Water pail in hand has she,
Walks to the fount slowly;
Girl, your sweetheart is coming,
Run back homeward, make hurry."
"Moon rises leaping, leaping,
Through the branches peeping;
I have got sad news to-day,
My love for me is weeping"
"My daughter, pearly, pearly,
Soon grow be a lady;
I'll marry you a gypsy,
Play your gong, be happy."
5. Miscellaneous Customs Among the Turkish People.—Medication. They do not use many medicines, and those which are used are such things as the blood of a black hen, the skin of a black cat, certain animals' manure, roasted snake, the mixture of seven flowers from seven fields, the milk of a woman who nurses a girl baby, the fat of the bear, the milk of a bird, the rain-water that falls in the month of April, and other things that cannot be found easily, if at all. They believe in supernatural power of relics, reading from Koran, touch of a dervish, favorable words of an idiot, the tombs of certain saints, waters by a witch, or rags tied to certain bushes.
Eating. They sit flat upon the ground and eat from the same dish with wooden spoons, or dip the bread, which, being thin and soft, is folded like a dipper or cup-shape. As a rule, women do not eat with men; they have their black coffee after each meal. Tea is very little used among the Turks; wine never, but brandy and other liquors are much used. Among the fruits, grapes are used the most, because they are plenty and very cheap. They are gluttonous in their eating; their motto is, "never mind the death of a horse if it is from barley."
Dreaming. They give vital importance to dreams. To dream of a white horse is wealth, riding upon it is gaining wealth; of red color is some event which is going to take place soon; of a girl is some "hot news;" of fifth, is luck; of a Christian priest, is angel; of water is trouble, bathing is bad. Pulling the tooth in a dream shows the death of some friend, the nearer to the back teeth the worse. To take food from the hand of a dead friend is an ill-omen for the taker.
Burial. They bury their dead as soon as possible, while the sun is up. The corpse is washed with hot water and soap and wrapped in a white, cotton cloth like a mummy. The body is put in a long bier (frame) and carried upon the shoulders of four men, changing hands frequently for an honor to the dead, and for the religious merit which is promised by Mohamet to those who carry a Moslem corpse seven steps. A religious service is held in the cemetery by all the friends and neighbors, which is a common Mohametan prayer. They believe that the departed soul unites with them in that prayer. At the end of the prayer the priest asks the opinion of the congregation about the character of the deceased. If two among them can give favorable testimony the soul goes to happiness.
6. A Common Turk's Idea about the Foreigners. As the Turks never wear hats and do not allow their Christian subjects to have them (except in a few sea-coast cities), the common name given to the foreigners is "hat-wearers," and when they are angry at them they use indecent expressions for their hats, blue eyes and whiskers. When the American travelers happen to pass through a Turkish village and stop at the edge of the town, the people come and gather around them, looking amazed; and if some lady is found in the company the women come near by and touch her hat, clothing and jewelry, and ask about their prices. They will not forget to ask whether she is married or not; if they get a negative answer, they seem surprised, and inquire the reason. If they get a positive answer, they ask which one of the gentlemen is her husband; has she children and how many, and why she did not bring them with her, etc.
Ninety-nine in a hundred Turks have never heard the name of America, and nine in ten who have heard have not the right idea what and where "Amelikan" is. All foreigners are called "Frank." Russia their immediate neighbor and memorable enemy for centuries, is called "Mosgof" (Moscow), and her people "Black giaour," "Blind Mosgof," "Blind hog." They say "Hog Frank has sharp mind." They call a railroad (without having seen it), "ship on the land;" bicycle, "the devil's horse." Balloon is called "ship in the air," and they talk about Armenians having passed arms and ammunition into the interior through these "air-ships," and even some have declared that they saw them passing in the night. They say "Frank can destroy a whole army by holding a huge looking-glass against the sun and burning the enemy with its light," and sometimes use this means by night. They think about the telegraph that you strike here and the words are heard at the other end. They are very cautious not to touch the wire, thinking that it will cause wrong news at the other end, and you will be held responsible for it. When they hear the sound produced upon the wires by the wind they say, "There, the news is going!"
Some think that "the people in the interior" (Europe) walk with their heads down, and there are people in China that have one eye, which is at the top of their heads. When they hear an American talk English they say "he is talking bird language," and ask the native Christians whether they know this language. If they say "no," they are surprised and ask "Why do they not talk giaourish" (infidelist)? All the customs of the foreigners seem to them very strange and unnatural, especially their tables, where men and women sit together, talk and laugh while eating. They most bitterly detest the foreigners, be they missionaries or merchants, for their neglect to invite the stranger or visitors to eat who may happen to come in while they eat, because hospitality is the highest ideal of every Oriental.
