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+} +.xd20e1890 +{ +text-indent:2em; +} +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Armenian Legends and Festivals, by Louis A. Boettiger + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Armenian Legends and Festivals + +Author: Louis A. Boettiger + +Release Date: November 25, 2011 [EBook #38129] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARMENIAN LEGENDS AND FESTIVALS *** + + + + +Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="front"> +<div class="div1 cover"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first"></p> +<div class="figure xd20e117width"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt= +"Original Front Cover." width="445" height="720"></div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div1 titlepage"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first"></p> +<div class="figure xd20e123width"><img src="images/titlepage.gif" alt= +"Original Title Page." width="445" height="720"></div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="titlePage"> +<div class="docTitle"> +<div class="seriesTitle">Research Publications of the University of +Minnesota</div> +<div class="seriesTitle">Studies in the Social Sciences<br> +Number 14</div> +<div class="mainTitle">Armenian Legends and Festivals</div> +</div> +<div class="byline">By<br> +<span class="docAuthor">Louis A. Boettiger, M.A.</span></div> +<div class="docImprint">Price: 75 Cents<br> +<i>Published by the University of Minnesota<br> +Minneapolis, January, 1920</i></div> +</div> +<div class="div1 copyright"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first xd20e154"><span class="sc">Copyright 1920<br> +by the<br> +University of Minnesota</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div1 preface"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Preface</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The author of the study which follows responded to the +lure of his task for both theoretical and practical reasons. He seemed, +because of his intimate personal relationship to Armenian life, to be +peculiarly qualified to study and interpret a cross-section of that +country’s life. It is particularly urgent that we as Americans +have authentic studies of Armenia and Armenian social life. Heretofore +there has been a striking lack of such materials readily accessible in +English. Because of the not inconsiderable immigration which reaches us +from Armenia, and because also there has been a call for the United +States to act as mandatory for this country under the peace treaty, we +should penetrate more deeply into the Armenian heart than we have been +able to do so far, if we are to carry through successfully our job +either as assimilator or as friendly guardian. Moreover there is +incumbent upon the United States in particular the duty of +understanding a country like Armenia, since we have been foremost in +proclaiming the doctrine of the rights of small nationalities. Those +are the practical purposes from the standpoint of social politics which +have given rise to and confer full warrant upon this study.</p> +<p>Of no less importance, however, is the contribution which Mr. +Boettiger’s study makes to theoretical sociology. He has sketched +out for us the picture of a refractory culture which refuses to +amalgamate with or yield to or be permeated by rival cultures. The +social history of this sturdy people offers us a very clear-cut example +of what really makes a society or a nation. Not mountains, not +dynasties, not blood, but common interests, common traditions, common +beliefs; in short, mental community.</p> +<p>The theoretical joins with the practical service of this study if it +can strengthen our understanding that only as our own blood and that of +our Armenian friends reach the place where they boil at the same +temperature, or are cooled by the same application of reason, can we +minister to each other or carry out the new partnership which may lie +immediately ahead of us in the reëstablishment of peace and the +reorganization of world comity.</p> +<p class="signed"><span class="sc">Arthur J. Todd</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="toc" class="div1 contents"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Contents</h2> +<table class="tocList"> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"></td> +<td class="tocPageNum"><span class="sc">Pages</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"><a href= +"#intro">Introduction</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">1–2</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum">Part I.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"><a href="#pt1">Legends</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum"></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Chapter I.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="4"><a href="#ch1.1">The geography of +Armenia</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">5–8</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Chapter II.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="4"><a href="#ch1.2">Ancient historical +legends</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">9–23</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Section 1.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch1.2.1">The legend, of +Haic</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">9</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">2.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch1.2.2">The legend of +Ara and Semiramis</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">3.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch1.2.3">Historical +background of the legend of Ara and Semiramis</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">4.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch1.2.4">The legend of +Vahakn</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">5.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch1.2.5">The historic +background of the legend of Vahakn</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">6.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch1.2.6">The period of +national integration</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">7.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch1.2.7">Legends of +Artasches and Artavasd</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">20</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">8.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href= +"#ch1.2.8">Conclusions</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">22</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Chapter III.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="4"><a href="#ch1.3">Legends of the +conversion to Christianity</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">24–38</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Section 1.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch1.3.1">Pre-Christian +mythology and religion</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">24</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">2.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch1.3.2">Legends of +Abgar, Thaddeus, and St. Bartholomew</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">3.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch1.3.3">Legends of +Rhipsime and Gregory</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">29</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">4.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch1.3.4">The Armenian +church as a social force</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">34</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Chapter IV.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="4"><a href="#ch1.4">Locality +legends</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">39–44</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Section 1.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch1.4.1">Ararat</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">39</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">2.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch1.4.2">Khor-Virap and +Erzerum</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">43</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Chapter V.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="4"><a href="#ch1.5">Interpretation and +conclusions</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">45–48</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum">Part II.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"><a href="#pt2">Festivals</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum"></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Chapter I.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="4"><a href="#ch2.1">The Gregorian +church</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">51–55</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Chapter II.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="4"><a href="#ch2.2">Pagan folk +festivals</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">56–66</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Section 1.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch2.2.1">Vartavar and the +Festival of Mihr</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">56</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">2.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch2.2.2">The Day of the +Dead and Vartan’s Day</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">58</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">3.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch2.2.3">Fortune-Telling +Day</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">62</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Chapter III.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="4"><a href="#ch2.3">Christian folk +festivals</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">67–78</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Section 1.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch2.3.1">Christmas, +Easter, and New Year</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">67</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">2.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch2.3.2">Special church +ceremonies</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">71</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Chapter IV.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="4"><a href="#ch2.4">Private festival +occasions</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">79–90</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Section 1.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch2.4.1">Baptism</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">79</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">2.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href= +"#ch2.4.2">Betrothal</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">80</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">3.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href= +"#ch2.4.3">Marriage</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">83</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">4.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href="#ch2.4.4">Funeral</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">87</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tocDivNum">Chapter V.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="4"><a href="#ch2.5">Summary</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">91–96</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"></td> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="3"><a href= +"#ch2.5.1">Conclusions</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">92</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"><a href= +"#bibl">Bibliography</a></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">99–100</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb1" href="#pb1" name= +"pb1">1</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="intro" class="div1 introduction"><span class= +"pagenum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Introduction</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The study which follows has a very definite objective +apart from the mere gathering of materials, namely, to interpret as far +as the subject-matter would permit, the social life of the Armenian +people. The legends and festivals described have thus been selected +from a larger mass of material with this principle in mind. I have, +therefore, omitted such as seemed to me to be of little or no social +value. Also, in full accordance with this plan, I have chosen to +include certain church ceremonies which give rise to such festivals, +and are of such social importance that I considered them an organic +part of my subject. Otherwise I think I have kept within the strict +confines as indicated by the title of this study.</p> +<p>It must, therefore, be evident that neither Part One on legends, nor +Part Two on festivals, is exhaustive, and this is necessarily so, not +only because of my selective plan, but also because much of the work on +this and kindred subjects has been done by the French, and is available +only on the continent. All of the sources used are, however, original +in two possible constructions of the term; that is, they are the works +of Armenians who have lived for many years in their native land, or of +foreigners, generally French or English, who have traveled through the +country and gathered their material first hand. A large portion of this +matter I have been able to check up and add to through my wife, an +Armenian, who lived in Constantinople most of her life, and who is +naturally versed in the folk-lore of her native land. While this has +been the chief source of my interest, it is not the only one, for +during my three years’ work in Beirut, Syria, I became acquainted +with many Armenians.</p> +<p>To describe a legend, or a festival, and to tag it Armenian, is +about as purposeful and enlightening as to explain Plato’s idea +of social unity to a person who has no picture of Greek civilization. I +have, therefore, found it necessary to fit these legends and festivals +into the particular settings that seemed to me most natural. The +legends that date from pagan times are meaningless apart from their +historical background; the church legends and festivals are without +value apart from their religious-historical setting, while such legends +as those of Ararat require a description of the natural environment to +which they belong. The conclusions and interpretation which this study +gives rise to, as well as the manner in which I have organized and +attempted to weave the material together into a unified fabric, are my +own.</p> +<p>Most of the books used have been supplied by the Case Memorial +Library of Hartford Theological Seminary, and I owe the Reverend M. H. +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb2" href="#pb2" name= +"pb2">2</a>]</span>Ananikian of that institution my thanks for his +gracious coöperation in suggesting materials and providing me with +them. I am also deeply indebted to Professor J. W. Beach for his +painstaking criticism and valuable suggestions, and for the corrections +and suggestions offered by Professor W. S. Davis and Professor A. E. +Jenks. To Professor A. J. Todd I am especially grateful, for it was +under his direction and supervision that this study was carried +out.</p> +<p class="signed"><span class="sc">Louis A. Boettiger</span> +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb3" href="#pb3" name= +"pb3">3</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="body"> +<div class="div0 part" id="pt1"> +<h2 class="label">Part One</h2> +<h2 class="main">Legends</h2> +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb5" href="#pb5" name="pb5">5</a>]</span> +<div id="ch1.1" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="label">Chapter I</h2> +<h2 class="main">The Geography of Armenia</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">Armenia is a huge plateau, a westward extension of the +great Iranian highland, bounded by the Caucasus Mountains on the north, +the Taurus Mountains and Kurdistan on the south, the Persian lowlands +on the southeast, and the Black and Caspian seas. The average height of +the plateau is 6,000 feet. As it ends abruptly at the Black Sea on one +side, so on the other it breaks down in rugged terraces to the +Mesopotamian lowlands; on the east it sinks gradually to the lower +levels of Persia, and on the west to the plains of Asia Minor. The +chief mountain ranges run from northeast to southwest, rising above the +general level of the plateau to an altitude ranging from 8,000 to +12,000 feet and culminating in Ararat, the lofty summit of which stands +17,000 feet above sea level. Broad, elevated, and fertile valleys range +themselves between the mountains, the main lines of which are +determined by the four chief rivers of the country, the Tigris, the +Euphrates, the Aras, and the Kur. All four rise in the plateau, the two +former emptying into the Persian Gulf, and the latter two into the +Caspian Sea. The Euphrates divides the country into what is known as +great and little Armenia, or Armenia major and Armenia minor, Armenia +major on the east and Armenia minor on the west. Although the valleys +are generally broad expanses of arable land, grass covered and +treeless, the gorges of the Euphrates and Tigris can not be surpassed +in grandeur and wildness. The winters are long and severe, and the +summers short, dry, and hot. In the city of Erzerum the range of +temperature is from -22° to 84°, and snow is usually present in +June.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e600src" href="#xd20e600" name= +"xd20e600src">1</a></p> +<p>In consequence of the long and severe winters the villages are built +on gentle slopes of the hillsides in which the houses are excavated. +Robert Curzon, who traveled through the country about 1850, has written +the best description of them.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e611src" href= +"#xd20e611" name="xd20e611src">2</a> A rectangular plot of ground about +the size of an English acre is laid out and excavated to a depth of +seven or eight feet at the back side, decreasing gradually with the +slope of the hill to a depth of about two feet. After a careful +leveling of the ground, trunks of straight trees are cut and arranged +in rows for the support of the ceiling, which consists of cross-beams +interspersed by a wooden frame-work upon which the removed soil is laid +to a considerable thickness. The walls are made of stone. In entering +the habitation at the lower slope of the hillside, one is obliged to +descend three or four steps to the outer door, which <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb6" href="#pb6" name="pb6">6</a>]</span>opens to a +passage six to ten feet in length, at the end of which is a second +door, constructed of wood like the first. This door swings to through +the operation of a curious wooden weight passed over a kind of pulley, +in order to keep the outside cold from entering the inner chamber. The +inside of the door is usually covered with a rough, red-dyed goatskin. +Directly before the inner door is a wooden platform raised some two +feet above the ground and known in Turkish as the +“Salamlik,” the hall of reception of the head of the +family. Chairs and tables it possesses none, only divans richly draped +with Kurdish stuffs placed against the stone walls that bound the two +sides of the platform. The floor is carpeted with tekeke, a kind of +grey felt, and the walls are decorated with swords, knives, pistols, +and other weapons. On the other two sides, the Salamlik is bounded by +wooden rails to keep away the sheep and cattle which occupy the +greatest proportion of floor space, and whose breathing helps +materially to keep the chamber warm. The other members of the household +are confined behind the stone wall where the space is sometimes split +up into two or more chambers for the various families of the +patriarchal household. One of these rooms is the common eating-room, +and is provided with an open hearth, fireplace, and chimney which leans +forward over the fireplace and draws up the smoke through a hole in the +turf-covered roof. A great stone is placed over the chimney to keep +children at play and grazing animals from falling through. In traveling +through the country on horseback, particular care must be taken lest +the horse step through an old chimney hole and break his leg. The +windows are funnel shaped holes through the ceiling spanned with oiled +paper.</p> +<p>Such is the Armenian household in which the people live day and +night during eight winter months of the year in the coldest section of +the country, as Erzerum and Mush. That many of the evenings were passed +in listening to the tales and gossip of a wandering minstrel, or to the +legends and folk-beliefs of the grey-haired members of the family, +there can be no doubt. That the national tradition was passed on in +this manner from the aged to the younger, to be again passed on in +their turn, is a matter of as much certainty as that part at least of +this same tradition has been preserved through the continually +recurring storms of the passing centuries. The recounting of national +legends and folk-lore is a chief means of amusement even in the warmer +sections of the country, where the climate makes a free community life +possible. How much more place, then, must it have had in these colder +sections where only the head of the family ever left the household in +winter-time, and then only in case of absolute necessity.</p> +<p>As has been suggested, this style of dwelling-place is not common to +all parts of Armenia. In some places the houses are built entirely +above ground, usually of stone, and sometimes, especially in the case +of the poorer inhabitants, of mud. Though the winters are not so long +or severe as in <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb7" href="#pb7" name= +"pb7">7</a>]</span>the district of Erzerum, they are nevertheless +sufficiently cold to require a fire six or seven months of the year. +The characteristic feature of every living- and dining-room is the +large “toneer” or circular fireplace dug out to a depth of +three to four feet in the center of the room. Here the fire is built in +the morning, usually with “tezek,” the most common variety +of fuel which is a sun-baked mixture of straw and sheep or cow dung. +The bread is baked and the meals are cooked in the “toneer” +and when it is time to eat, the members sit about the open space, +letting their feet hang over the fire to keep warm. In the hut +described by Montpèreux, there was but a single opening in the +roof which served for window and chimney at the same time, and which +was often carefully sealed up with straw to keep out the cold.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e625src" href="#xd20e625" name="xd20e625src">3</a> +This author has given a clear picture of the common family fireplace +and sleeping chamber in which each person fell asleep as best he might +upon rugs and skins, keeping as near the “toneer” as +possible. And if the traditions, legends, and folk-lore that will make +up the body of this thesis are the common possession of the people, as +I have reason to believe them to be, in spite of drastic measures taken +to suppress them, how better could they have been told and retold than +while lounging about the “toneer” during long winter +evenings before sleeping time?<a class="noteref" id="xd20e631src" href= +"#xd20e631" name="xd20e631src">4</a></p> +<p>In what other respects the natural environment of the people moulded +the common life, one can only conjecture. That the cold winters and +deep river valleys have tended to the formation of isolated +communities, clannishness, and provincialism, as is contended by some +writers, has not generally been true. Tidal waves of conquering +civilizations have passed over the country too frequently to make such +an influence possible.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e641src" href= +"#xd20e641" name="xd20e641src">5</a> Furthermore the people are bound +together by a national religion, whose chief officials are chosen by +the lay members and priesthood of the many communities.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e644src" href="#xd20e644" name="xd20e644src">6</a> +These representatives to the national religious assemblies return to +their own people brimming with news and reports of political as well as +religious and social matters. Such facts together with a common +ancestry, a common tradition, and a common language have moulded a +nation, and not a thousand differentiated groups among a people who +were once a nation. They have tended to solidify and unify the national +character, and it is just this process of solidification that gives +significance to the whole fabric of beliefs, legends, and festivals of +the people. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb8" href="#pb8" name= +"pb8">8</a>]</span></p> +<p>As a nation, the Armenian people are exclusive, but this is an +entirely different matter. For three years I have had occasion to +observe groups of students belonging to different nations, chiefly +Egyptians, Syrians, Greeks, Jews, Persians, Turks, and Armenians, and +the latter always showed a most persistent determination to confine +their friendships and social intercourse to themselves. Perhaps this is +due to the fact that nearly all of the nations above mentioned have at +one time or another dominated the Armenians; perhaps it is due to the +persecution they have recently suffered, which, though it has been a +sufficiently important fact to result in serious social and +psychological changes, has by no means been characteristic of the +history of the people, as it has been, for example, of the Jews; or +perhaps it is due to the solidarity and oneness of the people as a +whole. I am inclined rather to the latter explanation, and may perhaps +be able to prove it so.</p> +<p>Nevertheless, the singularity of the physical environment has placed +its irremovable stamp upon the people. The words that best describe the +country are not trees, hills, forests, gently flowing streams, such +words as commonly express American landscape, but rather, gorges, +mountain ranges, broad river valleys, treeless expanses of country. +There is space to make one think of other worlds and other shores, and +there are mountains suggestive of strength, that rise majestic above +the plateau, to fill one with awe and wonder. Religious the people are +naturally, but more than that, they are thoughtful, reflecting, +considering. No writer that I have read but has spoken of the Armenian +as intellectually alert and capable. That this thoughtfulness, this +robust element in their idealism is in part the stamp of physical +nature, there can be little doubt. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb9" +href="#pb9" name="pb9">9</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e600" href="#xd20e600src" name="xd20e600">1</a></span> Detailed +descriptions of geography and geology may be found in Lynch, +<i>Armenia</i>; St. Martin, <i lang="fr">Mémoire sur +l’Arménie</i>, 2. Summary descriptions may be found in the +New Schaff Herzog and Britannica encyclopedias.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e611" href="#xd20e611src" name="xd20e611">2</a></span> Robert +Curzon, <i>Armenia</i>.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e625" href="#xd20e625src" name="xd20e625">3</a></span> Dubois de +Montpèreux, <i lang="fr">Voyages</i> 3:400.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e631" href="#xd20e631src" name="xd20e631">4</a></span> There is a +belief that the toneer is sacred. <span lang="de">“Nur der alte +T’onir, der offen Backofen, der von den Iraniern entlehnt ist und +am fünften Jahrhundert schon gebraucht wird, gilt überall in +Armenien als heilig.” Abeghian, <i>Der armenische +Volksglaube</i></span> p. 3.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e641" href="#xd20e641src" name="xd20e641">5</a></span> Surrounded +as Armenia was with almost all of the ancient civilizations, including +the Parthians, Scythians, Medes, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, +Greeks, and Romans, she was inevitably involved in continual warfare, +while the central situation of the territory made it a common stamping +ground for hostile armies. Langlois 1:ix.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e644" href="#xd20e644src" name="xd20e644">6</a></span> Ormanian, +<i>The Church of Armenia</i> pp. 151–54.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.2" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="label">Chapter II</h2> +<h2 class="main">Ancient Historical Legends</h2> +<div id="ch1.2.1" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 1. The Legend of Haic</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">Armenians do not call themselves Armenians nor their +country Armenia. They are descendants of Haic, as the legend goes, who +was the son of Togarmah, the son of Japhet, who was the son of Noah, +and they call their country Haiasdan after the patriarchal progenitor +of their people.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e666src" href="#xd20e666" +name="xd20e666src">1</a> Haic dwelt in the plain of Shinar and was a +prefect or director in the building of the tower of Babel. He was +beautiful as a god and strong as a giant, mighty in battle and +especially adept in spear throwing. In the days of his youth, Bel or +Nimrod, who was the patron god of Babylon, established himself over all +and wished to be worshipped. But Haic refused to obey, and taking his +sons, who numbered about three hundred, his daughters, his sheep and +cattle, he journeyed north until he came to the land of Ararat. Bel +tried in vain to persuade his rival to come back.</p> +<p>“Thou hast departed and hast settled in a chill and frosty +region,” urged the Assyrian god. “Soften thy hard pride, +change thy coldness to geniality; be my subject and come and live a +life of ease in my domain.”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e674src" +href="#xd20e674" name="xd20e674src">2</a></p> +<p>But Haic refused the cordial invitation, which so much angered Bel +that the latter brought his army to force the Armenian hero into +submission. Haic, however, was victorious, for he slew Bel with an +arrow from his own bow. The place where Bel was buried is called +“Kerezman,” meaning grave, and is pointed out to this day. +Armenians sing songs and tell stories of the great beauty and valor of +Haic. He died at the age of four hundred in about 2028 B.C.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e682src" href="#xd20e682" name= +"xd20e682src">3</a></p> +<p>This oldest of Armenian legends, quaint and simple as it is in +accounting for the beginnings of a people, savours of the Old Testament +and is suggestive of the Assyrian invasion which took place about the +ninth century before Christ. It is significant that the Armenians +refused the protection of Bel, and that in the very beginning of their +legendary history, they insisted on standing firm and maintaining their +independence, for no single quality is more characteristic of this +people than a proud, haughty, even at times disdainful independence. It +is also suggestive that their patriarchal hero was no saint, but a +mighty giant, beautiful as he was strong, whose greatest pride was in +the throwing of a spear, for his descendants have not been a peaceful +people. To be sure, they were the first nation to be converted to +Christianity, which would say little for <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb10" href="#pb10" name="pb10">10</a>]</span>their firmness and +independence, were it not that the priest with the cross was followed +by a powerful king with a sword at the head of an army that had learned +to fight as the Romans fought.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e692src" href= +"#xd20e692" name="xd20e692src">4</a> The songs that were sung in memory +and honor of Haic are seldom sung to-day unless it be in some remote +village where the civilization of the Turk has not yet pressed, and +there are few such villages if any. For many of them breathe of a +national spirit not beseeming a subject nation, and have been +suppressed for many years.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.2.2" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 2. The Legend of Ara and Semiramis</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">Dating back to the Assyrian invasion which took place +during the seventh and eighth centuries before Christ, one of the +oldest of Armenian legends, that of Semiramis, queen of Assyria, and +Ara, king of Armenia, is told.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e700src" href= +"#xd20e700" name="xd20e700src">5</a> Ara was very beautiful, and +Semiramis having heard speech of his beauty for many years, wished to +possess him. But she dared do nothing for fear of Ninus, protector over +Armenia. After the death of Ninus, however, the queen sent messengers +to Ara, with gifts and offerings, with prayers and promises of riches, +begging him to come to her at Nineveh and either wed her and reign over +all that Ninus had possessed, or <span class="corr" id="xd20e710" +title="Source: fulfil">fulfill</span> her desire and return in peace to +Armenia with many gifts. But when the messengers had been turned away +repeatedly, Semiramis became angry, and taking her army she hastened to +Armenia. The battle was fought on the plain of Ara, called after him +Ararat; and although the queen had given careful orders to her generals +to devise some means of saving the life of Ara, the Armenian king was +slain. She found the dead body among the others that had fallen, and +ordered her servants to place it in an upper chamber in her castle. And +when the Armenian army again arose to drive away the foe and avenge the +death of Ara, the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb11" href="#pb11" +name="pb11">11</a>]</span>queen said, “I have commanded the gods +to lick his wounds and he shall live again.” She tried to bring +Ara back to life by witchcraft and charms, but the body began to decay +and she commanded her servants to cast the corpse into a deep pit and +to cover it. And having dressed up one of her men in secret, she caused +the following proclamation to be spread among the people: “The +gods have licked Ara and have brought him back to life again, thus +fulfilling our prayers and our pleasures. Therefore from this time +forth shall they be the more glorified and worshipped by us, for they +are the givers of joy and the fulfillers of desire.” And she +erected a statue to the gods, making it seem as though they had brought +Ara back to life again. This news was spread over all the country of +Armenia, and having satisfied the people, she put an end to the +fighting. The twelve-year-old son of the king was taken by the Assyrian +queen and appointed ruler over Armenia. She called him Ara, in memory +of her love for Ara the Beautiful.</p> +<p>To Semiramis is attributed the building of the ancient city of Van +on the shores of the beautiful lake of Van, where she made her summer +residence until the time of her departure.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e717src" href="#xd20e717" name="xd20e717src">6</a> She might well +have lingered there, for the Armenians have a proverb, “Van in +this world, paradise in the next.” Nevertheless, Semiramis and +Ara are mythical characters, although the latter is spoken of in the +history of St. Martin as having lived along about 1769 B.C.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e723src" href="#xd20e723" name="xd20e723src">7</a> As +regards the popular belief in the legend, however, there is not the +slightest doubt. This is proved by the fact that even to-day the city +is called “Sham-iram-agerd” by the Armenians, meaning the +city of Semiramis. Lynch says that Ara and Semiramis are Tannuz and +Istar, the Adonis and the Aphrodite of the Hellenic myth, and that the +quest of the Assyrian queen may be connected with the introduction into +Armenia of the worship of Istar whose name is mentioned in one of the +cuneiform inscriptions at Van.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e726src" href= +"#xd20e726" name="xd20e726src">8</a> However, the results of modern +scholarship are by no means conclusive on this point, as we shall +see.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.2.3" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 3. Historical Background of the Legend of Ara +and Semiramis</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">Moses’ history was read by St. Martin who became +exceedingly interested in Van, and in the cuneiform inscriptions spoken +of. It was due to him that the French government dispatched a mission +to Armenia in 1827, under the direction of a young German Professor, +Friedrich Edward Schulz. Schulz was murdered by the Kurds, a thing +which rarely happens in Armenia, and his work was left incomplete. He +had succeeded, however, in making copies of forty-two inscriptions, +which were published <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb12" href="#pb12" +name="pb12">12</a>]</span>in 1840, and proved to be remarkably +accurate. Shortly afterward, orientalists made great discoveries in the +Mesopotamian valley, but the inscriptions at Van did not tally with any +syllabaries discovered up to that time, nor could they be translated in +any known language. A number of them were found to be Assyrian, but the +great majority were peculiar to Van, and entirely baffled the students. +Not until 1880 were they finally unravelled. M. S. Guyard discovered at +that time that the concluding phrase of many Vannic texts represented +an imprecatory formula found in exactly the same place in Assyrian +counterparts. This discovery enabled Professor Sayce, of Oxford, to +decipher the inscriptions at a rapid rate.</p> +<p>Among the important facts discovered were that the nation was a +rival nation of Assyria, and that its people were called Khaldeans, or +children of Khaldis, much in the same way as the Assyrians reflected +the name of their god, Assur. The country was a theocracy and Khaldis +was supreme. In the tablets, his wrath was invoked against whomever +should destroy them. The capital city was Dhuspus, modern Van, which is +the Disp, or Tsp of Armenian writers, and the Turuspa of Assyrian +annals. The Assyrians styled the kingdom Urardhu, or Urarthu, which is +the name appearing in the Bible in the familiar form Ararat.</p> +<p>The earliest inscriptions date back to the ninth century before +Christ, and as the language is neither Semitic nor Indo-European, the +people could neither have been Assyrians whose language was Semitic, +nor Armenians, whose language is Indo-European. The first mention made +of Urardhu was in the reign of Ashur-Nazir-Pal (885–860 B.C.) +whose successor, Shalmanasar II (860–825 B.C.) was the first +Assyrian king to invade Armenia.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e740src" +href="#xd20e740" name="xd20e740src">9</a> Raffi, however, (the son of +the famous Armenian poet) speaks of an account given by +Assur-Nazir-Haban (1882–1857 B.C.) of one of his victories. +“They” (i.e., the people of Ararat or Urarthu), he said, +“fled to the impregnable mountains so that I might not be able to +get at them, for the mighty summits were like drawn swords pointing to +the skies. Only the birds of heaven soaring on their wings could reach +them. In three days I was there spreading terror in places where they +had taken refuge. Their corpses like autumn leaves filled the clefts. +The rest escaped to distant inaccessible heights.”<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e746src" href="#xd20e746" name="xd20e746src">10</a> +This, clearly, is a much older record than any that Lynch found trace +of, and although Raffi cites no authority for the quotation, I presume +that it has been taken from a recent discovery. If this be true the +Khaldeans were a very ancient people. One of the tablets shows that +King Memas was the principal author of the magnificent canal which +conducts the water of the river <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb13" +href="#pb13" name="pb13">13</a>]</span>Khoshab to the suburbs of Van, +and which is to-day called “Shamiram-Su” or river of +Semiramis.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e756src" href="#xd20e756" name= +"xd20e756src">11</a> The line of Vannic kings is traceable as far down +as 644 B.C.</p> +<p>Most of these inscriptions are to be found on a huge isolated rock, +situated in the curve of the bay, and known as the “rock of +Van.”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e761src" href="#xd20e761" name= +"xd20e761src">12</a> Among them are inscriptions left by Xerxes (485 +B.C.), the Persian conqueror whose father’s empire (Darius, +521–486 B.C.) succeeded the loose Scythian rule.</p> +<p>But the ancient Khaldean kingdom had already vanished when +Xerxes’ victorious army overran the country, for shortly after +the great influx of Scythians and the break-up of Assyria, came another +horde from the west, perhaps to fill up the void left by the Scythian +ravages. It is at this time that the Armenian people are first heard +from, and it is this horde, therefore, that is regarded as the +foundation stock of the Armenian people. They seem to have been an +Indo-European people residing in the territory north of the Black Sea, +for, coming from the west they must have entered Asia from Europe by +crossing the straits. The ancient Khaldeans were assimilated to some +extent, but for the most part, they were driven to the north and south, +where they have left traces that have been recognized and recorded by +Xenophon and Herodotus.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e766src" href= +"#xd20e766" name="xd20e766src">13</a></p> +<p>That the civilization and culture of the ancient Khaldeans were +utilized is beyond doubt. Their most ancient cities, Van, Armavir, were +foundations of Vannic kings, while recently it has been disclosed that +the city of Hajk, southeast of Van, shows some of the familiar features +of a Khaldean settlement. But their supreme god during the +pre-Christian era was not Khaldis, but the Persian Ormuzd, which +indicates that the Persians exercised an even greater influence.</p> +<p>How then could Semiramis ever have come to Van in quest of an +Armenian king, since it seems that the Scythians had already conquered +Assyria before the great influx of Armenian hordes? Nor does it seem +that the city of Van was built by the Assyrian queen, for the +inscriptions make no mention of her name. King Memas who, in the view +of Lynch, constructed the famous canal, was in all probability the +author of the garden city. The belief, according to Lynch, as already +stated, is that this legend is the Armenian version of the old Hellenic +myth of Aphrodite and Adonis, taken over during the domination of the +Seleucid dynasty which followed the conquest of Alexander about 325 +B.C.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e774src" href="#xd20e774" name= +"xd20e774src">14</a></p> +<p>But this is unreasonable. That a myth should be taken over by a +subject people and the characters rechristened is not difficult to +understand, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb14" href="#pb14" name= +"pb14">14</a>]</span>but that the name of one of them should be applied +to the ancient city is very improbable to say the least. Furthermore, +the legend is flavored rather strongly with Persian voluptuousness, and +is not at all suggestive of Greek delicacy and refinement. Nor is the +fact that the horde overran the country after the destruction of +Assyria in any way conclusive, for if there were any assimilation at +all, as there must unquestionably have been, the Khaldean culture and +history was to that extent the actual possession of the Armenians. Even +intermarriage would perhaps be unnecessary, for what Irishman who has +been in the United States two months does not speak of Benjamin +Franklin and George Washington as his forefathers? It is to be noted +also that to this day the canal spoken of is called +“Shamiram-Su” or river of Semiramis, by all +Armenians.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e781src" href="#xd20e781" name= +"xd20e781src">15</a> On the whole it seems to me conclusive, therefore, +that the legend of Semiramis and Ara has its roots in Armenian history, +and is not at all a version of the Hellenic myth.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.2.4" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 4. The Legend of Vahakn</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The legend of Vahakn, king and god of Armenians, is +very clearly attributable to the Greek period, which followed the +Persian conquest under Xerxes. Vahakn was deified because of his great +valor and made the fire-god of the Armenian people.<a class="noteref" +id="xd20e789src" href="#xd20e789" name="xd20e789src">16</a> He was +called “Vishapakagh,” uprooter of dragons, since he cleared +Armenia of monsters and saved it from evil influences. His exploits +were known in the abode of the gods as well as in Armenia. The most +famous of them was the theft of corn from the barns of King Barsham of +Assyria, from whom he ran away and tried to hide in heaven. Because of +the ears he dropped in his rapid flight, there arose the Milky Way +which is called in Armenian the “track of the corn +stealer.”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e792src" href="#xd20e792" +name="xd20e792src">17</a></p> +<p>Moses of Khorene writes as follows:</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p class="first">Concerning the birth of this king the legends say,</p> +<div class="q"> +<div class="body"> +<div class="lgouter"> +<p class="line hangqq">“Heaven and earth were in travail,</p> +<p class="line">And the crimson waters were in travail,</p> +<p class="line">And in the water, the crimson reed</p> +<p class="line">Was also in travail.</p> +<p class="line">From the mouth of the reed issued smoke,</p> +<p class="line">From the mouth of the reed issued flame,</p> +<p class="line">And out of the flame sprang the young child,</p> +<p class="line">His hair was of fire, a beard had he of flame,</p> +<p class="line">And his eyes were suns.”<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e822src" href="#xd20e822" name="xd20e822src">18</a></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb15" href="#pb15" name= +"pb15">15</a>]</span></p> +<p>With our own ears did we hear these words sung to the accompaniment +of the harp. They sing moreover that he did fight with the dragons, and +overcame them; and some say that his valiant deeds were like unto +Hercules. Others declare that he was a god, and that a great image of +him stood in the land of Georgia, where it was worshipped, with +sacrifices.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e832src" href="#xd20e832" name= +"xd20e832src">19</a></p> +</div> +<p>The wife of Vahakn was Astghik, the goddess of beauty, a +personification of the moon, corresponding to the Phoenician and +Sidonian Astarte. This is suggestive of Greek influence, for Venus, the +Greek goddess of beauty, was also the wife of a fire-god, +Vulcan.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e840src" href="#xd20e840" name= +"xd20e840src">20</a></p> +<p>The flight of Vahakn before the Assyrian king is certainly more +suggestive of the fear in which the Assyrians must have been regarded +than of the valor of their god. The originators of the legend were good +psychologists, however, in regarding the instincts of fear and of +pugnacity as compatible. For even the slayer of demons must some day +face his superiors in strength, and when he does, will he not be +afraid? In fact he would be more afraid than another, for he could not +well impute more mercy to his superior than he himself had shown to his +inferiors.</p> +<p>The vein of humor is too rich to be left unnoted. If the Greeks +could laugh at their gods, and even mock them, the Armenians could also +make sport of them. For what could be more delightfully humorous than +the picture of a bearded god, a slayer of dragons, whose hair was of +flame and whose eyes like suns, stealing corn from the Assyrian king +and dropping the ears from his shoulders in his hasty flight across +heaven? The character thus brought out, together with the richness of +imaginative quality, especially in the song of his birth, the wholesome +and unveiled anthropomorphism (wholesome because it is unveiled), and +the correspondence between the Greek fire-god Vulcan whose wife was +Venus, the goddess of beauty, with the fire-god Vahakn whose wife +Astghik was also goddess of beauty, stamp the legend with its +unmistakable origin in Greek mythology.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.2.5" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 5. The Historic Background of the Legend of +Vahakn</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The Greek period from which this legend dates began +with the defeat of the Armenian king Vahy, who was overcome by +Alexander the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb16" href="#pb16" name= +"pb16">16</a>]</span>Great somewhere about 328 B.C.<a class="noteref" +id="xd20e854src" href="#xd20e854" name="xd20e854src">21</a> The Greeks +chose their own representative to rule over the province, who at the +time of Alexander’s death was Seleucus. Historians have taken the +name of this governor to indicate the dynasty of Greek supremacy which +followed; i.e., the Seleucid dynasty. This method of the Greeks of +selecting their own man to govern a subject people, which was of course +in pursuance of their policy of superimposing their own culture upon +all subject nations, was contrary to the policy of the Parthians, +Romans, and Persians, who allowed the Armenians to maintain their +national independence provided they permitted the use of their armies +and duly paid their taxes. And it is this policy of the Greeks that +accounts for the fact that large portions of Greek mythology and +religion were taken over by the Armenians.</p> +<p>Although the period of political supremacy was short-lived, the +influence of Greek culture continued to permeate the social life of the +people through the reign of the Arsacid kings.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e862src" href="#xd20e862" name="xd20e862src">22</a> In 246 B.C. +Arsaces, a Parthian, made himself master of the Parthians, Persians, +Medes, Babylonians, and lastly Armenians.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e868src" href="#xd20e868" name="xd20e868src">23</a> His grandson, +Arsaces the Great, conquered as far as India, and after seating himself +securely upon the throne of Persia, placed his brother Valarsace upon +the Armenian throne, so founding the Persian and Armenian Arsacid +dynasties (150 B.C.).<a class="noteref" id="xd20e874src" href= +"#xd20e874" name="xd20e874src">24</a> The Persian Arsacidae became +extinct in A.D. 226 when they were overthrown by the Persian Sasanidae, +whereas the Armenian Arsacidae line continued up until A.D. 428, when +the Armenian kingdom was divided between Persia and Rome by Shapuh, the +Persian monarch, and Theodosius II.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e878src" +href="#xd20e878" name="xd20e878src">25</a> This makes a period of 578 +years (150 B.C.-A.D. 428) during which Armenia was governed by her own +line of kings, and enjoyed the liberties of national independence. To +be sure after the conquest of Lucullus and Pompey (66 B.C.) Armenia +became tributary to Rome, but the right of succession remained with the +Armenian royal family, even during Roman supremacy, so that the +national life was in no manner interfered with.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e887src" href="#xd20e887" name="xd20e887src">26</a> <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb17" href="#pb17" name="pb17">17</a>]</span>The +greatest Armenian king of the Arsacidae line was Tigranes the Great, +who extended his domains by conquest and established himself in his +capital, Tigranacerta, with a court of matchless splendor.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e895src" href="#xd20e895" name="xd20e895src">27</a> +He is spoken of by historians as a king of kings, and as having ruled +with a pomp, splendor, and pride never before known. Defeated by Pompey +within the walls of his own capital city, his kingdom became tributary +to Rome.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.2.6" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 6. The Period of National Integration</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The continuity of the period of the Armenian Arsacidae +makes it the time when the process of national solidification and +unification was carried out to the point that made Armenia a nation, +and beyond this point. Raffi asserts that the introduction of Greek +culture during the Arsacid dynasty not only changed the religion of +Armenians, but also so affected their language and customs that they +became different from the Persians, which is proof that a process of +social readjustment was going on.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e903src" +href="#xd20e903" name="xd20e903src">28</a> It was during this period +that the wandering minstrels spoken of by Langlois journeyed from one +end of the nation to the other, singing their songs, repeating the +national legends, relating the news of the world and the court gossip +which probably made up the largest portion of it.</p> +<div lang="fr" class="blockquote"> +<p class="first">Les chants de l’antique Arménie +rappellent principalement des événements la plupart +héroiques et légendaires, accomplis à des +époques très différentes, ce qui donne à +penser qu’ils ont dû être composés à +diverses reprises, par des rhapsodes dont les noms ne nous sont point +parvenus. Les sujets traités dans ces chants demontrent +clairement qu’ils n’ont été inspirés +ni à des prêtres païens, ni à des +poètes qui auraient vécu sous leur influence, en vue +d’être recités dans des fêtes religieuses ou +en face des autels. Au contraire, on reconnait de prime abord que ces +chants sont l’oeuvre de bardes nationaux, ayant un libre acces +dans les palais des souverains et à la cour des satrapes. +C’est ce qui fait supposer que ces poèmes sont +peutêtre dûs à des ménestrels, à la +solde des rois et des nobles et ayant pour emploi de +célébrer leurs vertus et leurs prouesses.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e909src" href="#xd20e909" name= +"xd20e909src">29</a></p> +</div> +<p>This is putting the case conservatively, for Moses speaks often of +“<span lang="fr">les chantres</span>” and +“<span lang="fr">les chants</span>.” They traveled as far +as Persia and returned, for it is related by the Italian Countess +Evelyn Martinengo how a wandering minstrel, who had just returned from +that country, was entertained by an Armenian patriarchal family living +in the kind of underground <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb18" href= +"#pb18" name="pb18">18</a>]</span>habitation described in the beginning +of this thesis.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e925src" href="#xd20e925" +name="xd20e925src">30</a> No one was ever more welcome than the +minstrel. He was assigned to the guest chamber usually prepared +especially for him, and always the best chamber in the household. His +head and feet were washed for him by the wife of the patriarch, and at +meal time all the delicacies of the household were spread before him. +All guests were welcome, but no guest more welcome than the minstrel. +They must have listened to his tales in a kind of petrified awe, and +heard him sing his songs in speechless enjoyment.</p> +<p>It was a practice among the minstrels of the time to compete with +each other in public, and it is related how two minstrels entertained +by a Persian prince were led out upon an open grass plot and seated, +one facing the other. Five thousand people made a circle around the +competitors while the rivals contended in song and verse, riddle and +repartee. Each began where the other left off, until finally one failed +to perceive the drift of his adversary, and answering at random, the +spectators proclaimed him beaten. The triumphant bard was led to the +vanquished, whose lyre was taken from him and broken. Robed in a +prince’s mantle, the victor was taken to the highest seat in the +banquet hall.</p> +<p>That the people were the judges of the contest, indicates how well +they must have been acquainted with the current folk-songs, legends, +and tradition. How generally and frequently the custom of minstrel +competition was practiced throughout Armenia is not known, but it +certainly is proof, besides Moses’ own statements to the same +effect, that the national legends and folk-songs were the possession of +the common people. And what is more important, this same body of +legends, folk-songs, and tradition did more than any other one thing to +weld the sentiments of the people into a single national sentiment, +which crystallized into a real patriotism, a real loyalty and devotion +to any cause that was a national cause, because it was the natural, +spontaneous expression of the life and thought of the people, and no +mean, artificial thing superimposed from outside.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e935src" href="#xd20e935" name="xd20e935src">31</a></p> +<p>There are other reasons for giving this period the social importance +that I have ascribed to it. The conversion of the people to +Christianity about the third century after Christ was achieved in no +sentimental fashion, but, as I believe, in a manner in which it alone +could have been done, namely, at the point of the sword of their own +king, Tiridates, who was converted from paganism to Christianity by +Gregory the Illuminator. The traditions in connection with this +important event will be told later. Suffice it to say at this point +that the whole process of conversion was carried out so thoroughly and +completely, that it may be described as a national volte-face, and +therefore did not result in the disintegration, <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb19" href="#pb19" name="pb19">19</a>]</span>civil +strife, and social chaos that would unquestionably have been the result +had the process been carried out by means of peaceful penetration and +propaganda.</p> +<p>The third and last argument in support of the social and national +importance of the period of the Arsacid kings is in respect to the +alphabet which was compiled by St. Mesrob Maschtotz. St. Mesrob was a +former secretary of the king, and desired to extirpate the last +remnants of paganism in the province of Akoulis, but in the absence of +an alphabet he was unable to carry out any scheme of propaganda. He +therefore besought the king, Vramschapouh, to put an end to this state +of things and the latter, in response to the request, placed all +available material at the disposal of the saint. The task was +accomplished in 404, somewhat at the expense of the future devotees of +the language, for the alphabet contains thirty-eight letters.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e944src" href="#xd20e944" name="xd20e944src">32</a> +Nevertheless, most of the sounds of foreign languages were represented, +making it particularly useful as a foundation language for other +languages. St. Mesrob, with a body of translators trained by himself +and St. Sahak, then proceeded to the translation of the Bible, which +was not completed until 433. Liturgies and song-books quickly followed. +To be sure the effect of the invention of the alphabet and the +distribution of the various religious publications that followed were +not felt during the period of the Arsacidae, for the Bible was not +published until after the break-up of the kingdom in 428, when it was +divided between Persia and Rome. But the important point is that the +time had come when the need for an alphabet was making itself very +strongly felt, and this could not have been true of a diversified, +heterogeneous population.</p> +<p>For the three reasons above mentioned, i.e., first, the work of +minstrels, second, the Christianizing of the nation, and third, the +invention of the alphabet, all occurring during the successive reigns +of the Arsacid kings, I should ascribe to this period (150 B.C.-A.D. +428) the integration of the Armenian people into a national +unit.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e949src" href="#xd20e949" name= +"xd20e949src">33</a> Christianity must have come as a disrupting force, +as a terrible shock, necessitating a complete social readjustment, but +the fact that the readjustment was made shows that the people were +ready for it. For better or for worse the yoke of Christianity was +fastened to the neck of the people, and with it they had to +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb20" href="#pb20" name= +"pb20">20</a>]</span>replow the social soil. The job was a good one, +for the Armenian church has been the chief power during the last ten or +fifteen centuries in keeping alive the streams of national life, and in +holding the people together in the face of invasion and repeated +attempts at proselytization by the Persians and by the Greek and Roman +Catholic churches.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.2.7" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 7. Legends of Artasches and Artavasd</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The legends of Artasches and Satenik, and of Artavasd, +the son of Artasches, belong to the Arsacid period, for Artavasd and +Artasches are Armenian kings of the Arsacid dynasty, according to +Moses.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e965src" href="#xd20e965" name= +"xd20e965src">34</a> The Alans who, according to the legend, were a +neighboring people residing in the mountain region in the vicinity of +Georgia, spread themselves over Armenia while Artasches, the Armenian +king, collected a great army and forced the Alans to retreat across the +river Kur where they pitched camp. The son of the Alan king was taken +captive and brought to Artasches, which forced the former to seek peace +on whatever terms the Armenian king might wish, provided only his son +was returned in safety. But Artasches refused, whereupon the sister of +the captured boy came to the river bank, and standing upon a great rock +spoke to the camp of Artasches by means of interpreters saying: +“Oh brave Artasches, who hast vanquished the great nation of +Alans, unto thee I speak. Come, hearken unto the bright-eyed daughter +of the Alan king and give back the youth. For it is not the way of +heroes to destroy life at the root, nor for the sake of humbling and +enslaving a hostage to establish everlasting enmity between two great +nations.”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e968src" href="#xd20e968" +name="xd20e968src">35</a> Artasches, having heard of these sayings went +to the river bank and having seen that the girl was beautiful, and +listened to her words of wisdom, wished to marry her. His chamberlain +considered it a wise stroke of policy, and therefore went to the Alan +king, soliciting the hand of the princess for his master, whose oaths +and assurances of peace he vouched for, together with the promise to +return the boy. The king of the Alans answered, “From whence +shall brave Artasches give thousands upon thousands, and ten thousands +upon tens of thousands in return for the maiden?”</p> +<p>Writes Moses:</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p class="first">Concerning this, the poets of that land sing in their +songs:</p> +<div class="q"> +<div class="body"> +<div class="lgouter"> +<p class="line hangqq">“Brave King Artasches</p> +<p class="line">Mounted his fine black charger,</p> +<p class="line">And took the red leathern cord</p> +<p class="line">With the golden ring.</p> +<p class="line">Like a swift winged eagle</p> +<p class="line">He passed over the river</p> +<p class="line">And cast the golden ring</p> +<p class="line">Round the waist of the Alan Princess; <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb21" href="#pb21" name="pb21">21</a>]</span></p> +<p class="line">Causing much pain to the tender maiden</p> +<p class="line">As he bore her swiftly back to his camp.”</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<p>Which being interpreted meaneth that he was commanded to give much +gold, leather, and crimson dye in exchange for the maiden. So also they +sing of the wedding:</p> +<div class="q"> +<div class="body"> +<div class="lgouter"> +<p class="line hangqq">“It rained showers of gold when Artasches +became a bridegroom,</p> +<p class="line">It rained pearls when Satenik became a +bride.”</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<p>For it was the custom of our kings to scatter coins amongst the +people when they arrived at the doors of the temple for their wedding, +as also for the queens to scatter pearls in their +bride-chamber.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1017src" href="#xd20e1017" +name="xd20e1017src">36</a></p> +</div> +<p>The couplet quoted is still sung by the Armenians, and it is still +customary for the bridegroom to scatter money on his way to the church, +and though it may be for queens to scatter pearls, the Armenian bride +is not to be outdone. She is given a partly opened pomegranate which +she throws at the door of the bridegroom upon the arrival at the +bridegroom’s home after the ceremony at the church, the bits of +pomegranate scattering themselves about as pearls.</p> +<p>After fifty-one years of a very prosperous reign, Artasches, who was +very much beloved by his people, died. The funeral procession was a +most magnificent one, and many of the people killed themselves, out of +love for their dead king, according to the custom of the time. And when +the body was laid in the grave they threw precious jewels, gold, and +silver after it. Nor did the lamenting and suicide stop after his +burial, for upon the grave of their dead king the nobles and the people +continued to kill themselves. So great was the slaughter that Artavasd, +son of Artasches, and king after his father’s death, addressed +the spirit of his dead father, saying, “Behold, thou art taking +all with thee; dost thou leave me to rule over ruins and the +dead?” The words given by Moses of Khorene are: “Now that +thou art gone, and hast taken with thee the whole land, how shall I +reign over the ruins?”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1043src" href= +"#xd20e1043" name="xd20e1043src">37</a> Whereupon the spirit of +Artasches cursed him and said,</p> +<div class="lgouter"> +<p class="line hangqq">“When thou ridest forth to hunt</p> +<p class="line">Over the free heights of Ararat,</p> +<p class="line">The strong ones shall have thee,</p> +<p class="line">And shall take thee up</p> +<p class="line">On to the free heights of Ararat.</p> +<p class="line">There shalt thou abide,</p> +<p class="line">And never more see the light.”<a class="noteref" +id="xd20e1061src" href="#xd20e1061" name="xd20e1061src">38</a></p> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb22" href="#pb22" name= +"pb22">22</a>]</span></p> +<p>These words together with those of Artavasd spoken to his +father’s spirit were sung by the singers of the time.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1066src" href="#xd20e1066" name= +"xd20e1066src">39</a></p> +<p>One day while out hunting Artavasd was seized by some visionary +terror and lost his reason. Urging his horse down a steep bank he fell +into a chasm where he sank and disappeared. Old women told how he was +confined in a cavern and bound with iron chains which his two dogs +gnawed at daily in order to set him free. But somehow at the sound of +the hammers striking on the anvils, the chains were continually +strengthened, and it was customary among the blacksmiths of the time to +strike the anvil three or four times to strengthen, as they said, the +chains of Artavasd. And so the tradition was kept up by singers and +blacksmiths; the blacksmiths and old women having consigned the jealous +king to the world’s nethermost regions, while the singers left +him to the solitude of Ararat in accordance with the curse of +Artasches.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.2.8" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 8. Conclusions</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">Such are the ancient legends of Armenia, in their +respective historical settings: the legends of Haic, of Semiramis and +Ara, of Vahakn, of Artasches and Satenik, and of Artavasd. All of them +antedate the Christian era, and some of them by many centuries. Each +one of them is told by Moses of Khorene. But as to origin and probable +historic roots Moses was silent, for he was writing a history. He +constantly laments the absolute dearth of material and sources and +begins his accounts of these legends with the words “This is as +it is told,” or “the singers say,” indicating that +his only sources for them were the songs and reports current among the +people during his own time. The legends of Haic and of Semiramis and +Ara are told by Moses as though he believed them historic fact, but of +course Moses had no materials to serve as a basis of criticism. He is +careful to quote Mar Apas Catina as his only source for this material. +The other three legends are regarded as such. Artavasd is spoken of as +an historical king who lost his reason while riding horseback and fell +into a deep chasm. The practice of suicide at the death of Artasches, +his father, was a pagan custom. The curse of the spirit of the dead +father, the chains, the dogs, and the anvils were of course recognized +as the work of ingenious fancy. In view therefore, of the questionable +character of Moses’ sources these legends have very little +historic value. They do, however, have a high social value inasmuch as +the common knowledge of them among the people was the only ultimate +source at the disposal of the historian.</p> +<p>The second conclusion is that these legends formed a very important +part of the larger mass of tradition and songs that served to cement +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb23" href="#pb23" name= +"pb23">23</a>]</span>the people into a nation. Just how important, it +would be difficult to say, but the fact that they were current at the +time Moses wrote indicates that they were current and passed on from +generation to generation during the whole period of the Arsacidae +kings. And as the people had no alphabet during this whole period, they +must have been passed on by song and word of mouth. This was a time of +special activity on the part of the minstrels and singers, and +therefore the development of the national consciousness characteristic +of the period must have been brought about in a large measure through +the medium of these legendary beliefs.</p> +<p>Furthermore these legends are known by the Armenian people to-day +and are taught in the schools that are not too severely under the rules +of Turkish and Russian censorship. Naturally enough, they are a source +of great pride since they breathe national independence and loyalty. +But of course, the Turks and Russians have suppressed all public +singing of songs, and public teaching of history and legend that may +possibly be construed as partaking of the national spirit.</p> +<p>It may be argued that these legends slumbered between the covers of +Moses’ history during the centuries known as the dark ages, and +that they had no social value until the contagion of the European +spirit of the Renaissance awoke the legends and the people at the same +time. But the mere dearth of record is no proof of this Rip Van Winkle +theory. There is at least one reliable authority sufficient to disprove +it, viz., Grigor Magistros, a scholar of the eleventh century who wrote +that he heard the Artasches epic sung by minstrels.<a class="noteref" +id="xd20e1084src" href="#xd20e1084" name="xd20e1084src">40</a> Besides +the unreasonableness of the supposition, there is the added fact of an +independent Armenian kingdom known as the Bagradouni dynasty, whose +capital seat was at the famous city of Ani. This kingdom included +greater Armenia and continued from A.D. 887 to 1079.<a class="noteref" +id="xd20e1087src" href="#xd20e1087" name="xd20e1087src">41</a> But 1079 +does not mark the end of Armenian independence though it marks the +destruction of Ani, for Reuben, a member of the royal family, made his +way into Cilicia in the year 1080, and rallying a handful of Armenians +about him, overpowered the Greeks and founded what is known as the +Rupenian Kingdom of Cilicia, which continued during a period of 300 +years. So that here again is a period of very nearly five hundred years +(889–1380), during which time the Armenian people enjoyed +national political independence.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1090src" +href="#xd20e1090" name="xd20e1090src">42</a> And this during the very +period of the dark ages, about which we know so little! We could not, +therefore, for a moment suppose the traditions and legends to have had +no social importance during these centuries, for such an assumption +would be in flat contradiction to the witness of Grigor Magistros, and +to the facts of Armenian history. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb24" +href="#pb24" name="pb24">24</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e666" href="#xd20e666src" name="xd20e666">1</a></span> Mar Apas +Catina. Langlois’ <i lang="fr">Collection des Histoires de +l’Arménie</i> 1:16.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e674" href="#xd20e674src" name="xd20e674">2</a></span> St. Martin, +<i lang="fr">Mémoire sur l’Arménie</i> 1:281.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e682" href="#xd20e682src" name="xd20e682">3</a></span> Mar Apas +Catina. Langlois 1:15–18.</p> +<p class="footnote">Moses of Khorene. Langlois 3:63–64.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e692" href="#xd20e692src" name="xd20e692">4</a></span> St. Martin +1:306.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e700" href="#xd20e700src" name="xd20e700">5</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i> 1:282–3. Moses of Khorene 2:67–69.</p> +<p class="footnote">Mar Apas Catina 1:26–27.</p> +<p class="footnote">The first Arsacidae king of Armenia, Valarsace, +whose reign began in 149 B.C. found the kingdom in general disorder and +was the first to organize the country along national lines. As a +Parthian he was unacquainted with the history and institutions of the +people, and desiring to build upon the established foundation, such as +it was, he sent a Syrian scholar, Mar Apas Catina by name, with a +letter to his brother, Arsace, king of Persia, requesting the latter to +allow the Syrian access to the royal archives with the view of finding +a history of Armenia. Mar Apas Catina found an old MS containing a +history of ancient Armenia which bore the name of no author, and which +was translated from Chaldean to Greek by order of Alexander the Great. +It was translated into Syriac by the Syrian scholar for the benefit of +Valarsace, but the MS has been lost, and there is not the slightest +trace of it anywhere. It must have been in existence however, during +the fifth century after Christ for Moses of Khorene used it as his only +source for Armenia’s ancient history, in writing his general +history of Armenia. The old MS being lost, the translation by Mar Apas +Catina and the first part of the history of Moses are given as +identical to each other in Langlois’ collection of Armenian +historians. The ancient history contains the legends of Haic, of Ara +and Semiramis, and of Vahakn, some of the songs of heroes, still sung, +and other matter which is strictly speaking not historical. As a +history, therefore, it is unreliable and unauthentic, but from the +standpoint of the social historian it is invaluable, for a belief is as +important a fact to sociology as the dethronement of a king is to +history.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e717" href="#xd20e717src" name="xd20e717">6</a></span> Boyadjian, +<i>Armenian Legends and Poetry</i> p. 33.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e723" href="#xd20e723src" name="xd20e723">7</a></span> St. Martin +1:409.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e726" href="#xd20e726src" name="xd20e726">8</a></span> Lynch +2:65.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e740" href="#xd20e740src" name="xd20e740">9</a></span> Lynch, +<i>Armenia</i>, chapter entitled “Van.”</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e746" href="#xd20e746src" name="xd20e746">10</a></span> Raffi, +article in Boyadjian’s <i>Armenian Legends and +Poetry</i><span class="corr" id="xd20e750" title= +"Not in source">,</span> p. 125.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e756" href="#xd20e756src" name="xd20e756">11</a></span> Lynch, +chapter on Van.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e761" href="#xd20e761src" name="xd20e761">12</a></span> Moses of +Khorene 2:69.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e766" href="#xd20e766src" name="xd20e766">13</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e774" href="#xd20e774src" name="xd20e774">14</a></span> Lynch +2:65.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e781" href="#xd20e781src" name="xd20e781">15</a></span> Moses of +Khorene 2:68, 69.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e789" href="#xd20e789src" name="xd20e789">16</a></span> St. Martin +1:285.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e792" href="#xd20e792src" name="xd20e792">17</a></span> Raffi p. +129. Abeghian pp. 49, 50.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e822" href="#xd20e822src" name="xd20e822">18</a></span> Moses of +Khorene 2:76. Translation from Moses, Boyadjian p. 10.</p> +<p class="footnote">Mar Apas Catina 1:40.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e832" href="#xd20e832src" name="xd20e832">19</a></span> Mar Apas +Catina 1:41. Moses of Khorene p. 76.</p> +<p class="footnote">Moses of Khorene, called the Herodotus of Armenia, +has written the best known history of the Armenian people. The work has +been translated into Latin, Italian, French, German, and Russian. Moses +lived in the fifth century, two centuries after the conversion of the +nation to Christianity. He belonged to the second order of translators +in the school of St. Sahag and St. Mesrob, and was sent to Syria, +Egypt, Greece, and Rome in order to complete his studies. Upon +returning to his country he found everything in disorder. St. Sahag and +St. Mesrob were dead, the king had been overthrown, and he chose the +life of solitude. Sometime later he was chosen bishop and requested by +an Armenian prince, Sahag Bagratide, to write a history of his country, +which task he took up with great enthusiasm. The translation of Mar +Apas Catina was his only source for Armenian ancient history. He +carefully differentiates hearsay from fact, never fails to stamp a +fable or legend as such, and generally quotes his authorities where he +has them. Considering the limitation of his materials, and the time in +which he wrote, Moses wrote a really remarkable book, although the +verdicts of a few critics have been unfavorable.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e840" href="#xd20e840src" name="xd20e840">20</a></span> Raffi p. +129.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e854" href="#xd20e854src" name="xd20e854">21</a></span> Lidgett, +<i>An Ancient People</i>. St. Martin 1:409. Mar Apas Catina p. 41.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e862" href="#xd20e862src" name="xd20e862">22</a></span> The +influence of Greek culture is chiefly indicated by the fact that the +pagan divinities were Greek and that many temples were erected to these +gods and goddesses all over the country. (Agathange, <i lang= +"fr">Histoire du Règne de Tiridate</i>. Langlois +1:164–70.) Secondly, there were formed by St. Sahag and St. +Mesrob in the fifth century after the conversion of the nation to +Christianity, schools of translators, who studied in Greece, Egypt, and +Rome and whose chief works were translations from the Greek. With the +conversion (301) came the necessity for a written language, the +characters of which were invented by St. Mesrob in 404. Thereupon were +organized the schools of translators whose chief study of necessity was +Greek, and whose translations and original works have given to the +fifth century the title of “Golden Age of Armenian +Literature.” (Langlois 1:xxi–xxvi, 2:vii.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e868" href="#xd20e868src" name="xd20e868">23</a></span> St. Martin +1:288, 289. Mar Apas Catina 1:41.</p> +<p class="footnote">Moses of Khorene 2:81.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e874" href="#xd20e874src" name="xd20e874">24</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e878" href="#xd20e878src" name="xd20e878">25</a></span> Gibbon, +<i>Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</i> 3:393.</p> +<p class="footnote">Moses of Khorene 2:155.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e887" href="#xd20e887src" name="xd20e887">26</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i> pp. 88, 89.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e895" href="#xd20e895src" name="xd20e895">27</a></span> St. Martin +1:291. Moses of Khorene p. 88.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e903" href="#xd20e903src" name="xd20e903">28</a></span> Raffi p. +126.</p> +<p class="footnote" lang="en"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" +id="xd20e909" href="#xd20e909src" name="xd20e909">29</a></span> +Langlois 1:ix, x. These songs of which Moses of Khorene very frequently +speaks are classified by Langlois into songs of the first order, the +second order, and the third order. The first are relative to the +prowess of Armenian kings and gods; the second concern a long series of +military exploits accomplished against the Assyrians, Medes, and +Persians; the third refer especially to traditions in connection with +the Assyrians. The birth-song of Vahakn is an illustration of the songs +of the first order (p. x, xi). Flint in his <i>History of the +Philosophy of History</i>, p. 42, speaks of this period of minstrelsy +as necessarily preceding the use of letters everywhere. “The myth +and legend interest primitive man more than real fact. His vision is +more largely of the imagination than of the sense of judgment. It is an +error to regard the rude minstrelsy which generally preceded the use of +letters as essentially historical.”</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e925" href="#xd20e925src" name="xd20e925">30</a></span> Countess +Evelyn Martinengo Cesaresco, <i>Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs</i>, +chapter on Armenia.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e935" href="#xd20e935src" name="xd20e935">31</a></span> The battle +of Avarair under the leadership of the celebrated Vartan, where Armenia +defended her national ideals against the intrusion of Persia, is proof +of this.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e944" href="#xd20e944src" name="xd20e944">32</a></span> Ormanian +p. 22. Moses of Khorene p. 158.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e949" href="#xd20e949src" name="xd20e949">33</a></span> There are +further proofs that may be cited. The history of English and French +literature shows that the golden age of their literature followed a +period of social integration along national lines. And it is true that +the golden age of Armenian literature dawned with the closing decades +of the Arsacidae dynasty, and continued several decades beyond. And +finally, when Valarsace, the first Arsacidae, ascended the throne of +Armenia, finding everything in a state of disorder, he organized the +country along national lines. Dividing the kingdom into provinces he +placed his governors at the heads of them; he organized a standing +army, appointed guardians of the granaries, established courts of +justice, a royal guard, and minutely regulated court life. What is most +interesting is that he appointed two reporters, one to remind him in +his anger, “<span lang="fr">le bien à faire</span>,” +the other to remind him of the necessity for doing justice. +<i>Ibid.</i> pp. 82–85.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e965" href="#xd20e965src" name="xd20e965">34</a></span> St. Martin +1:300. Moses of Khorene pp. 105–6.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e968" href="#xd20e968src" name="xd20e968">35</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i> p. 106.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1017" href="#xd20e1017src" name="xd20e1017">36</a></span> +Boyadjian p. 49. Moses of Khorene p. 106. Moses as translated by +Langlois, relates the story as legend, for after telling the tale, and +quoting the songs he writes, “<span lang="fr">Voici maintenant le +fait dans toute sa verité comme le cuir rouge est +trés-estimé chez les Alains, Artaschés donne +beaucoup de peaux de cette couleur, et beaucoup d’or en dot, et +il obtient la jeune princesse Satenig. C’est là la +lanière de cuir rouge garnie d’anneaux d’or. Ainsi +dans les noces, ils chantent des légendes, en disant,</span></p> +<div class="q"> +<div class="body"> +<div lang="fr" class="lgouter footnote"> +<p class="line hangq">‘Une pluie d’or tombait</p> +<p class="line">Au marriage d’Artaschés;</p> +<p class="line">Les perles pleuvait</p> +<p class="line">Aux noces de Satenig.’”</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<p class="footnote">Moses likewise relegates the legend and songs of +Artavasd to their proper places.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1043" href="#xd20e1043src" name="xd20e1043">37</a></span> Moses +of Khorene p. 111.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1061" href="#xd20e1061src" name="xd20e1061">38</a></span> +Translation from Moses by Boyadjian p. 65.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1066" href="#xd20e1066src" name="xd20e1066">39</a></span> Moses +of Khorene p. 111.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1084" href="#xd20e1084src" name="xd20e1084">40</a></span> Raffi +p. 42.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1087" href="#xd20e1087src" name="xd20e1087">41</a></span> St. +Martin 1:appendix.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1090" href="#xd20e1090src" name="xd20e1090">42</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.3" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="label">Chapter III</h2> +<h2 class="main">Legends of the Conversion to Christianity</h2> +<div id="ch1.3.1" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 1. Pre-Christian Mythology and Religion</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The second body of legends which I wish to consider is +chiefly concerned with the introduction of Christianity into the +country. These, together with the traditional beliefs centered about +the chief geographical feature of the land, Mt. Ararat, constitute a +group bearing a very distinct religious stamp. For this reason, and +also because they have a later origin, they are to be marked off very +distinctly from those already taken up. In view of their religious +bearing I shall introduce them with a brief account of the various +forms of pagan worship that preceded the Christianization of the +people.</p> +<p>The chief religious influences have been the Assyrian, the Persian, +and the Greek. It seems, however, that a kind of monotheism prevailed +before the gods of any of these were taken over. The very ancient +Armenian kings planted groves of poplars around their cities and the +worship was carried on in these groves.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1107src" href="#xd20e1107" name="xd20e1107src">1</a> An altar was +placed among the trees, where the first male descendant of the royal +family (and perhaps other families) offered sacrifices to the one God, +while the priests derived oracles from the rustling of the leaves. Even +now the poplar groves are held in uncommon regard. This is a survival +of the old belief that they were the dwelling place of God, and of the +later practice of consecrating children in them. The belief that God +dwelt among the leaves must have been suggested by the slightest +trembling of the leaves, even at the gentlest breeze, and one can well +imagine the people looking up at them in the impressive silence of the +forest with an awe and wonder no other environment could possibly +induce. The Armenian for poplar, “Sossi” is used to-day as +a name for girls, and the poplar tree, although not held sacred by +Armenian people to-day, is certainly regarded with great +reverence.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1113src" href="#xd20e1113" name= +"xd20e1113src">2</a></p> +<p>The influence of Persian worship is more clear. Aramazd, the +architect of the universe, lord and creator of all things, was the +chief <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb25" href="#pb25" name= +"pb25">25</a>]</span>Armenian god, and is unquestionably the Persian +Ormuzd named in the inscription of Xerxes on the rock of Van. Armenians +have given him the title of “father of the gods,” and the +qualifications “great, and strong, creator of heaven and earth, +and god of fertility and of abundance.” The Greeks identified him +with Zeus.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1123src" href="#xd20e1123" name= +"xd20e1123src">3</a> There were numerous sanctuaries erected in his +honor, and at the annual festival celebrated in his name, white +animals, especially goats, horses, and mules, were sacrificed and their +blood used to fill silver and golden goblets.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1129src" href="#xd20e1129" name="xd20e1129src">4</a> Tir, or +“Grogh” meaning in Armenian “to write” was his +attendant spirit, whose chief business it was to watch over mankind, +recording their good and evil deeds.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1135src" href="#xd20e1135" name="xd20e1135src">5</a> Upon the +death of a person “Grogh” conducted the soul of the +departed before his master, who opened the great book, and balancing +the good and evil deeds, assigned a reward or punishment. Grogh is also +the personification of hope and fear, and the expression “may +Grogh take you” is still very commonly used among the people, +especially by servant girls and those whose language has not undergone +the purification of a season of “<span lang="de">Sturm und +Drang.</span>” It is interesting to note that this and some other +expressions owe their survival to usage among women rather than among +men, which is not difficult of explanation when one considers the +social restrictions that women are generally subject to. +“<span lang="de">Viele Seiten des alten heidnischen Glaubens sind +in dem heutigen Volksglauben, besonders bei den tiefer stehenden +Volksschichten, bei alten Bauerinnen, als überbleibsel der +Vergangenheit erhalten.</span>”<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1145src" href="#xd20e1145" name="xd20e1145src">6</a></p> +<p>The god Mihr represented fire, and was the son of Aramazd.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1150src" href="#xd20e1150" name="xd20e1150src">7</a> +He guided heroes in battle, and was commemorated by a festival held in +the beginning of spring. Fires were kindled in the open market place in +his honor, and a lantern lit from one of these fires was kept burning +in his temple throughout the year.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1156src" +href="#xd20e1156" name="xd20e1156src">8</a> It is still a festival +among the people, although it has a different significance, and will be +described more in detail later on. This is practiced not only by the +Armenians, but also by the Syrian Maronites who reside in the Lebanon. +I have seen the mountainsides literally aglow with a thousand fires in +celebration of a Christian festival that has its roots in the pagan +ceremony in honor of Mihr. The practice of a continually burning +lantern was also carried over by some branches of the Christian church. +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb26" href="#pb26" name= +"pb26">26</a>]</span></p> +<p>Both Persians and Armenians were worshippers of Mihr (fire-worship), +although there was a very distinct difference between the two. The +Armenian sacred fire was invisible, whereas the Persian was material +and kept up throughout the whole year. It is for this reason that the +Armenians called the Persians fire-worshippers. The only visible +fire-god worshipped by the Armenians was the sun, to which temples were +dedicated, and after which the Armenian calendar month +“Areg” was named.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1171src" href= +"#xd20e1171" name="xd20e1171src">9</a> The “Children of the +Sun” as they were called, offered the most persistent opposition +to the introduction of Christianity, and a community of them continued +their worship in the face of persecution after Christianity became the +religion of the state. The phrase “let me die for your +sun,” and the oath “let the sun of my son be +witness,” are language survivals of this particular worship.</p> +<p>The Greek worship, introduced first during the Seleucid dynasty, and +emphasized and encouraged by the line of Arsacidae kings up to the +introduction of Christianity, exercised an even stronger influence than +the Persian. Many of the Greek divinities were rechristened and adopted +by the people. Chief of these was Anahit, “Mother of +Chastity,” known also as the “Pure and Spotless +Goddess,” who was the daughter of Aramazd, and corresponded to +the Greek Artemid and the Roman Diana.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1176src" href="#xd20e1176" name="xd20e1176src">10</a> She was +also regarded as the benefactress of the people. Writes Agathangelus: +“Through her (Anahit) the Armenian land exists; from her it draws +its life, she is the glory of our nation and its +protectress.”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1179src" href= +"#xd20e1179" name="xd20e1179src">11</a> Images and shrines were +dedicated to her name under the titles, “The Golden +Mother,” “The Being of Golden Birth.” A summer +festival was celebrated in her honor at which a dove and a rose were +offered to her golden image. The day was called “Vartavar,” +meaning “the flaming of the rose.” The temples of Anahit +and the golden image were destroyed with the conversion of the people +to Christianity, but the festival has continued as a regular church +festival under the same name “Vartavar” though of course +with a different meaning.</p> +<p>The second and third daughters of Aramazd were Astghik, the goddess +of beauty, and Nane, or Noone, the goddess of contrivance.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1184src" href="#xd20e1184" name= +"xd20e1184src">12</a> The former was the wife of Vahakn, the mythical +king-god, the legend in respect to whom has been told, and corresponded +to the Phoenician and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb27" href="#pb27" +name="pb27">27</a>]</span>Sidonian Astarte. It is stated by Raffi that +the goddess of contrivance was a necessary power to womankind, for then +as now woman had to make big things out of small. Sandaramet, the wife +of Aramazd, was an invisible goddess and personification of the earth. +Her master sent rain upon her, and brought forth vegetation. Later she +became the synonym for Hades. Perhaps the best summary of Armenian +worship as existing before the Christian time is that given by St. +Martin.</p> +<div lang="fr" class="blockquote"> +<p class="first">La religion Arménienne était +probablement un mélange des opinions de Zoroastre, fort +alterés par le cult des divinités grecques. On voyait +dans les temples de l’Arménie un grand nombre de statues +de divinités, auxquelles on faisait des sacrifices +d’animaux, ce qui ne se pratiquait point dans la religion de +Zoroastre, qui, à proprement parler, n’admettait pas +l’existence d’autre divinité que le temps sans +bornes, appelé Zerwan.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1195src" href= +"#xd20e1195" name="xd20e1195src">13</a> Les plus puissants des dieux +étaient Aramazd (Ormuzd), Anahid (Venus), Mihir (Mihr), ou +Mithra. On y adorait encore d’autres divinités +inférieures.</p> +</div> +<p>Anahit, however, was goddess of chastity, and did not therefore +correspond to Venus.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1201src" href= +"#xd20e1201" name="xd20e1201src">14</a></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.3.2" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 2. Legends of Abgar, Thaddeus, and St. +Bartholomew</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The first connection that Armenians had with +Christianity occurred in the reign of King Abgar, whose capital was at +Edessa (now Ourfa) during the time of Christ’s teaching in +Palestine.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1209src" href="#xd20e1209" name= +"xd20e1209src">15</a> The story is legendary and very popular. Abgar +was called a great man because of his exceeding meekness and wisdom. As +the result of several severe military campaigns, the health of the king +began to give way. This led to complications which developed into a +very painful disease. It was at this time that Abgar sent two of his +messengers to the Roman governor, Marinus, to show the Roman a treaty +of peace that had been made between Ardasches and his brother of +Persia, who had quarreled and had been reconciled by their kinsman +Abgar; for the Romans suspected that Abgar had gone to Persia in order +to collect and direct a Persian-Armenian army against the +Romans.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1212src" href="#xd20e1212" name= +"xd20e1212src">16</a> To clear himself of all suspicion, therefore, +those two messengers were sent to show the treaty of peace to the Roman +governor. On their return the messengers went up to Jerusalem in order +to see Christ, having heard of his wonderful deeds. And when they +returned to their king, Abgar, they told of the works of Christ, at +which the king marveled, and believed him to be the very Son of God. +The king, because of his sickness, sent Christ <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb28" href="#pb28" name="pb28">28</a>]</span>a letter +asking him to come and heal him of his disease. The letter is quoted as +follows:</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p class="first">The letter of Abgarus to our Saviour Jesus Christ. +“Abgarus, a prince of the world, unto Jesus the Saviour and +Benefactor, who hast appeared in the City of Jerusalem, Greetings.</p> +<p>“I have heard of thee, and of the healings wrought by thy +hands, without drugs and without roots; for it is said that thou givest +sight to the blind, thou makest the lame to walk, and thou cleanest the +lepers; thou curest those who have been long tormented by diseases, and +raisest even the dead. And when I heard all this concerning thee, I +thought that either thou art God come down from heaven that workest +these things, or the Son of God. I have written unto thee, that thou +shouldst trouble thyself to come unto me, and heal me of my disease. I +have heard also that the Jews murmur against thee, and think to torture +thee. My city is a small one, but it is beautiful, and it is sufficient +for us twain.”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1222src" href= +"#xd20e1222" name="xd20e1222src">17</a></p> +</div> +<p>The messengers delivered the message to Jesus in Jerusalem, to which +the gospel bears witness in the words, “There were some amongst +the heathen that came up to him.” But Jesus could do no more than +to send a letter in reply.</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p class="first">The answer to the letter of Abgarus, written at the +command of our Saviour by the Apostle Thomas: “Blessed is he who +believeth on me, though he hath not seen me. For it is written +concerning me thus: ‘they that have seen me believed not on me, +but they that have not seen me shall believe and live.’ And +concerning that which thou hast written unto me to come down unto thee, +it is needful that I fulfill all that for which I was sent; and when I +have fulfilled it I will ascend unto Him that sent me. And after my +ascension I will send one of my disciples, who shall heal thee of thy +disease, and give life unto thee and unto all that are with +thee.”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1230src" href="#xd20e1230" +name="xd20e1230src">18</a></p> +</div> +<p>This letter was duly delivered to Abgar, with the image of the +Saviour, which was still kept in Edessa at the time of Moses’ +writing. The legend concerning the image is somewhat as follows. One of +the three messengers sent to Jesus with the letter of Abgar was an +artist who was told to paint a portrait of Jesus in case the latter +found it impossible to take the journey. The artist tried in vain to +paint a good picture, and having noticed him, Jesus took a handkerchief +and passing it over his face a most exact likeness was stamped upon it, +which he gave to the artist to be given to the king.</p> +<p>The quaint ending of Abgar’s letter is worth the whole legend. +What could be simpler or more seductive than the invitation, “My +city is a small one, but it is beautiful, and it is sufficient for us +twain.”</p> +<p>The tradition of the Armenian church, or the Gregorian church, as it +is more commonly called, acknowledges St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew +as the original founders, who are therefore designated as the first +illuminators of Armenia.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1240src" href= +"#xd20e1240" name="xd20e1240src">19</a> Concerning the recognition of +the tradition <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb29" href="#pb29" name= +"pb29">29</a>]</span>of St. Bartholomew, which includes his apostolic +journeys, his preaching, and his martyrdom in Armenia, all Christian +churches are unanimous. The name Albanus given as the place of his +martyrdom, is the same as the name Albacus, hallowed by the Armenian +tradition. His mission covered a period of sixteen years (A.D. +44–60). There is difference of opinion, however, in regard to the +dates.</p> +<p>The traditions about St. Thaddeus vary. Some suppose him to have +been the brother of St. Thomas, and according to these, he traveled to +Ardaze by way of Edessa. There is an anachronism, however, in this +tradition which would transfer the mission of Thaddeus to the second +century. According to a second tradition he is not the brother of +Thomas, but one St. Judas Thaddeus, surnamed Lebbeus, who also is said +to have established a sanctuary of worship at Ardaze, a circumstance +admitted by the Greek and Latin churches. The Armenian church places +the time of this mission as a period of eight years from 35–43. +That this has been done to lay a strong foundation for the claim of +apostolic origin may be suspected, especially in view of the belief +that apostolic origin is essential to every Christian church, in order, +as stated by Ormanian, “to place her in union with her Divine +Founder.” The church, however, has us at its mercy, for +conclusive evidence one way or another is lacking. Nevertheless, the +fact of Thaddeus’ mission to Armenia wherever and whenever it +might have occurred, is undisputed.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1247src" +href="#xd20e1247" name="xd20e1247src">20</a></p> +<p>The matter is not especially important except to theologians with +their doctrines of “apostolic origins.” What is perfectly +clear is that both these men did their work in comparative silence, and +that they did not make very much headway, for if they had there would +have been less doubt concerning the traditions. The great work was done +by King Tiridates, and Gregory, who converted him about A.D. 301. The +traditions concerning these men are among the most cherished +possessions of the Armenian church.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.3.3" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 3. Legends of Rhipsime and Gregory</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">These traditions have their historical setting in the +reign of Tiridates, and of Chosroes the father of Tiridates.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1260src" href="#xd20e1260" name= +"xd20e1260src">21</a> Just as there was an Arsacid dynasty in Armenia, +dating and originating in the Parthian conquests and supremacy, so also +was there an Arsacid dynasty of Persia. The Persian king at the time of +Chosroes was a kinsman of the latter, called <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb30" href="#pb30" name="pb30">30</a>]</span>Ardavan, +who was overthrown (A.D. 227) by a Persian prince of the province of +Fars, named Ardashir.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1265src" href= +"#xd20e1265" name="xd20e1265src">22</a> His dynasty, a very powerful +one, known as the Sassanid dynasty, supplanted the Arsacid dynasty of +Persia. Chosroes of Armenia, fearing future difficulty with the new +Persian monarch, ardently supported his dethroned kinsman. The next +year (228), therefore, he led a huge army beyond the frontiers of +Persia, and laid waste her provinces to the gates of +Ctesiphon.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1268src" href="#xd20e1268" name= +"xd20e1268src">23</a> The war was continued for ten years, during which +time the Armenian capital, Vagharshapat, was filled with the booty of +successful raids. The reigning Caesar, Severus, also alarmed by the +success of the new Persian king, headed a Roman army against Ardashir. +Realizing the jeopardy of his position, the Persian resolved to put +Chosroes out of the way by whatever means possible. A Parthian of the +royal blood, Anak by name, consented to execute his king’s +desire, and went with his family to Vagharshapat as a refugee. A +friendship sprang up between himself and his future victim, enabling +him to execute his purpose, which he did in company with his brother +while preparation was being made for a spring campaign. But the +murderers were cut off in their escape by Armenian horsemen and +precipitated into the Araxes, while the dying king gave orders to +massacre the family of Anak. Only two of the children were rescued, one +of whom was Gregory, the Illuminator, founder of the Armenian national +church, called also the Gregorian church. The child Gregory was taken +to Cesarea where he was educated in the tenets of +Christianity.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1271src" href="#xd20e1271" +name="xd20e1271src">24</a></p> +<p>Ardashir died shortly after the murder of his foe, and thus failed +to follow up his advantage except for a few raids into Armenian +territory. Tiridates, a child at this time, was the oldest son of +Chosroes, and as heir to the Armenian throne was the chief obstacle in +the way of the ambitions of his uncles, whose treatment of the young +king compelled him to take refuge in Rome where he was +educated.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1279src" href="#xd20e1279" name= +"xd20e1279src">25</a> Having distinguished himself by personal bravery +in a Gothic campaign, his nation’s dominions were restored to him +by the support of a Roman army, for during his absence Armenia was +invaded by Shapur, the successor of Ardashir. The Persian king had +taken advantage of the disputes of Tiridates’ uncles. The +remainder of the story is legendary.</p> +<p>Gregory had been informed in the meantime of his father’s +deed, and seeking to make such amends for it as he could, he journeyed +to Rome, where he attached himself as a servant to the exiled king, +Tiridates. The latter, after his victory over the Persians and his +re-accession to the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb31" href="#pb31" +name="pb31">31</a>]</span>Armenian throne, entered the temple of Anahit +in company with his faithful servant Gregory, to offer sacrifices of +thanksgiving. A feast followed the ceremony, at which many guests were +present, and Tiridates, who must have known of Gregory’s +attachment to Christianity, commanded the latter to make an offering of +garlands to the great goddess. Gregory refused. The king was angry. +“How dare you,” exclaimed the king, “adore a god whom +I do not adore?” Persuasion and finally torture were used to +coerce the pious and firm-minded youth, but to no avail. In the +meantime, Tiridates had been informed as to Gregory’s identity, +i.e., that he was the son of his father’s murderer, whereupon the +king commanded that Gregory be cast into a deep pit where he was left +to perish.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1286src" href="#xd20e1286" name= +"xd20e1286src">26</a></p> +<p>For thirteen years Gregory languished in his well, and was only +saved from death by the ministrations of a widow who resided in the +castle of Artaxata just by the pit. This was done in great secret, for +Tiridates had issued an edict which admonished his subjects to beware +of the resentment of the gods, of Aramazd, Anahit, and Vahakn, and +following the practice of the Romans, to lay hands on all offenders +against the gods, chief of whom, evidently, were the Christians. They +were to be bound hand and foot, brought before the gate of the palace, +and if found guilty their lands and chattels were assigned to their +accusers.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1291src" href="#xd20e1291" name= +"xd20e1291src">27</a></p> +<p>While Christians were being robbed, and Gregory was slowly perishing +of misery in his prison well, there arrived at Vagharshapat a Roman +virgin of exquisite beauty, named Rhipsime, in company with her nurse +Gaiane, and thirty-three followers who were also virgins. They had fled +from the Emperor Diocletian, who had selected Rhipsime for his spouse, +after a most careful search of his kingdom for the most beautiful of +women.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1298src" href="#xd20e1298" name= +"xd20e1298src">28</a> Rhipsime, unfortunately had taken a vow of +chastity, and there was nothing to do but to flee. Meanwhile an +ambassador from Rome arrived at the court of the Armenian king bearing +a letter in which Tiridates was informed of the flight of the virgin to +his land, and bidden to discover the refugees, to send Rhipsime to +Rome, and to kill her companions. The emperor added, however, in truly +generous fashion, that he might himself marry her if he was overcome by +her charms.</p> +<p>The band was found, Rhipsime was recognized, and the king sent an +escort of litters to bring them to his court. As Diocletian suspected, +the Armenian king also fell in love, for the maiden, having refused the +pomp of a royal equipage, was forced to appear before him in court. The +Armenian’s suit was likewise a failure. Rhipsime would marry, +provided he became Christian, which the king took as mockery. Again the +girl <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb32" href="#pb32" name= +"pb32">32</a>]</span>succeeded in escaping, but she was tracked, +overtaken with her companions, bound with cords, and put to death with +great cruelty. Both Rhipsime and her nurse Gaiane are commemorated on +the calendar of saints, and at Etchmiadzin, the religious center of the +nation, there are three edifices; the largest and most important bears +the name of St. Gregory, while the other two respectively bear the +names of the two saints, Rhipsime and Gaiane.</p> +<p>Agathangelus relates the legend in his <i lang="fr">Histoire du +Règne de Tiridate</i> but unfortunately the book has been +tampered with and now contains much questionable material.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1310src" href="#xd20e1310" name= +"xd20e1310src">29</a> There are mentioned ominous thunderclaps, +openings of heaven, divine voices exhorting Rhipsime to stand firm in +her faith, and the transformation of Tiridates into a grass-eating boar +which was the punishment for his great crime. The sister of the king, +Khosrovitukht, had a vision, in which she was told that the only remedy +was to send for a prisoner named Gregory, who had been cast into a well +some thirteen years before. A rope was let down into the cavern, and to +the astonishment of all, there emerged a human form, blackened to the +color of coal. It was none other than Gregory. He also saw visions and +heard divine voices speak through curious openings in heaven. Strange +columns of fire and flaming crosses of light appeared to him in the +places where Rhipsime and Gaiane suffered martyrdom; and there appeared +a great deal more to him which is recorded, even as there must have +appeared yet more which is not recorded. The result of all of this was +that Gregory ordered the construction of two chapels, one to be erected +in honor of Rhipsime, the other in memory of Gaiane, both of which are +still standing in Etchmiadzin. Etchmiadzin means, “the place +where the Only-Begotten descended” for it was at this place that +Gregory beheld his miraculous vision. Having prayed for the healing of +the king, the horns fell from the royal head, and Tiridates, now a +Christian, shared in the work of constructing the chapels.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1313src" href="#xd20e1313" name= +"xd20e1313src">30</a> He ascended Ararat and returned with huge blocks +of stone which he laid at the portals of the chapels in expiation of +his sin. It was customary among Armenians to place <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb33" href="#pb33" name="pb33">33</a>]</span>huge +blocks of stone at the entrance of a church by way of offering. Dubois +de Montpèreux saw a number of such stones, six or seven feet +high, in front of the cathedral at Etchmiadzin, but Lynch found no +trace of them.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1318src" href="#xd20e1318" +name="xd20e1318src">31</a></p> +<p>Such are the legends of Gregory and of Tiridates’ conversion +to Christianity. In all justice, the highly imaginative material which +was probably the work of an enthusiast, and in all certainty a +surreptitious insertion in the work of the historian, should be +distinguished from the less fanciful material concerning the +imprisonment of Gregory and the martyrdom of the virgins, which though +legendary, may probably be connected with the events of history.</p> +<p>Although Dubois de Montpèreux recognizes that all traditions +point to the conversion of Armenia as having taken place before the +conversion of Constantine (in 312), he does not consider this as +probable, for Tiridates, as a tributary king, and imitator of the +Romans in all things, could not have had the courage to take so +important a step except in following out the policy of the +emperor.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1325src" href="#xd20e1325" name= +"xd20e1325src">32</a> Gregory, according to the view of Dubois, +remained in his prison well until Constantine accepted Christianity, +when the Armenian king called for him and was converted as a matter of +diplomacy after listening to his exhortations.</p> +<p>But this is not accepted by modern writers, any more than it was by +the ancient historians. Bryce places the conversion at 302, and states +that the so-called conversion of Constantine happened either twelve or +thirty-seven years later, according as one reckons to the battle of the +Milvian Bridge, or his baptism.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1330src" +href="#xd20e1330" name="xd20e1330src">33</a> Armenia, therefore, was +the first country that adopted Christianity as a religion of state, a +matter of no small pride to the Gregorians, and it has been maintained +as the national religion ever since in a form so intact as to surpass +the dreams of the most ultra-conservative. And this, too, in the face +of attacks by Persian fire-worshippers who attempted to force their +religion upon the people, Greek and Latin popes, Mohammedan khalifs, +and Turkish sultans. Ormanian, former Armenian patriarch at +Constantinople, who gives the date as 301, considers the existence of +the churches of St. Rhipsime and St. Gaiane with their inscriptions as +positive proof, and mentions also the testimony in the writings of +Eusebius, who cites the war of the year 311 which the Emperor +Maximianus, the Dacian, declared against Armenians on account of their, +at that time, recent conversion.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1333src" +href="#xd20e1333" name="xd20e1333src">34</a> The critical studies made +since the journey of Dubois (1837) are conclusive at least in this, +that the conversion of Tiridates and of the nation could not have taken +place later <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb34" href="#pb34" name= +"pb34">34</a>]</span>than the year 302, and there is no doubt therefore +of the claim that the Gregorian church is the oldest national Christian +church of the world.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.3.4" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 4. The Armenian Church as a Social Force</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The conversion of the people followed close upon the +conversion of the king, for Gregory was a temple-building priest not +without ambition, and the king was an acknowledged hero. The business +of converting the nation was not a matter of priests and preaching as +suggested by Dubois;<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1343src" href= +"#xd20e1343" name="xd20e1343src">35</a> as indicated before, it was +rather a matter of fire and sword. Ormanian supposes that it was due to +the work of the Christian communities already established, whose work +was stimulated and encouraged by the king’s conversion.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1346src" href="#xd20e1346" name= +"xd20e1346src">36</a> “Indeed,” he says, “the almost +instant conversion of the whole of Armenia at the beginning of the +fourth century, can not be explained but by the preëxistence of a +Christian element which had taken root in the country.” And +again, “The first nucleus of the faithful, by its steadfast +energy, at length succeeded in gaining the mastery over both obstacles +and persecutions.” This does not seem to me to be correct, for in +the first place the Christianity of the first, second, and third +centuries was not the Christianity of Gregory; it was one of the many +forms of worship killed by Gregory; and in the second place there are +sufficient records to prove the wholesale destruction of pagan temples, +images, idols, and inscriptions as carried out by the king and saint, +and of the use of the sword in forcing the people to change their +faith.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1349src" href="#xd20e1349" name= +"xd20e1349src">37</a></p> +<p>First, then, what was the Christianity of the first centuries? It is +clear that the ideal was one of communal simplicity of life. That it +was opposed to all hierarchies and established priesthoods there can be +no question. The irksome round of daily toil was idealized in the +fellowship of a common faith, the central point of which was the +indwelling of the Spirit of God. Hence baptism was the all-important +event, for through baptism the Holy Spirit descended into the human +heart even as into Christ when he was baptized by John in the Jordan. +Jesus was no God come to earth in human form by a miraculous +conception; he was the son of Joseph and Mary. Feeling his kinship with +God he was baptized, which ceremony was merely symbolic of the +Indwelling Spirit. These early Christians have been called +adoptionists, for the ceremony of baptism is said to represent the +adoption of the individual by God, or by the Holy Spirit, both +expressions having been used synonymously. Simple and pure, it seems +that the adoptionists came as near carrying out the <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb35" href="#pb35" name="pb35">35</a>]</span>spirit +of the teachings of Jesus as any Christian sect that ever +existed.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1356src" href="#xd20e1356" name= +"xd20e1356src">38</a> But how utterly opposed, how perfectly +contradictory to the brick and mortar religion of Gregory! That the +adoptionists were objects of persecution by the orthodox church is a +certainty, and it was very probably this sect that was referred to in +“that stubborn heresy of their native land” mentioned so +frequently by Armenian writers. The following picture was clearly set +forth in a disputation between two Armenian church-men occurring at the +close of the third century. “Tell me,” says Archelaus, +“over whom it was that the Holy Spirit descended like a dove? Who +is this one whom John baptized? If he was already perfect, if he was +already the Son, if he was already Virtue, the Holy Spirit could not +have entered into him. A kingdom can not enter into a +kingdom.”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1362src" href="#xd20e1362" +name="xd20e1362src">39</a> What is also to the point is the celebrated +formula of Nice (325) at which the nature of Christ was defined as +essentially and continuously divine. “Christ a very God, begotten +of God, but not a creature of God; Son of God, of one nature with God; +who came down from heaven and took flesh, and became man, and suffered +and ascended unto heaven; who was before he was begotten, and who has +always been.” The decision was in absolute contradiction to the +adoptionist faith, and it was legislated by this august council, that +the members of such faith, who were called Paulicians, after their +leader Paul of Samosata, should be rebaptized before admission to the +church.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1376src" href="#xd20e1376" name= +"xd20e1376src">40</a> The recalcitrants were driven to the mountains, +where they increased in number as in strength until the persecution of +the ninth century. Both Agathangelus and Faustus of Byzantium were +silent concerning these people, and, one suspects, advisedly so.</p> +<p>Such was pre-Gregorian Christianity. How ridiculous to suppose that +the conversion of the nation was due to the firm roots already +established by the Christians when the Christians themselves had to be +converted!</p> +<p>On the contrary, it was the right of might that established the new +religion. The troops of the capital city were led by the king and +priest in such an image- and temple-smashing campaign as was never +before seen. Proceeding down the Araxes valley, the temple of the god +Dir was levelled to the ground; the temple of Anahit was stoutly +defended but to no avail; the temple was burned. One after another of +the most famous sanctuaries were destroyed; temples of Aramazd, of +Mithra, of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb36" href="#pb36" name= +"pb36">36</a>]</span>Nane, and of Anahit, many of which were defended +by the vanquished until overpowered.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1387src" href="#xd20e1387" name="xd20e1387src">41</a> Shrines of +Vahakn and of Astghik were laid to waste to be replaced by Christian +churches which grew up over the ruins as if overnight; and if a temple +was destroyed, it was only to build a Christian church in its stead. So +construction followed in the wake of destruction, the old was +supplanted by the new, and when all armed resistance was beaten down, +the king and priest continued the work by preaching.</p> +<p>When the work was fairly under way the ambitious priest journeyed to +Cesarea in Cappadocia where he got himself ordained. This Gregory was +no meek-spirited adoptionist. He was the son of Anak, of royal blood, +ambitious, zealous, suffering and doing all things to gain his +ends.</p> +<p>In view, therefore, of the actual character of preëxisting +Christianity, and of the methods employed in converting the people, how +can one reasonably suppose that the “instant conversion of the +whole of Armenia to Christianity can not be explained but by the +preëxistence of a Christian element which had taken root in the +country”?</p> +<p>The state-authorized religion, however, did take root in the +country, and became inextricably interwoven with the self-consciousness +of the nation. It became the organ of national expression, and for many +centuries has been the very backbone of the people. If the molten +metals of national life had hardened during the reign of the Arsacidae +kings they were at the time of the conversion in a molten state, ready +to be remolded. This did not require much time. Old festivals were +carried over intact, except that they were given a new meaning. The old +national traditions, legends, and folk-lore were in the common +possession of the people, and there was no reason for discouraging +them. In fact the Armenian church even more than the state encouraged +them, for it recognized in them a source of solidarity and national +unity, as essential to the life of the church as its hierarchies, +liturgy, and calendar of saints. So much then was old; part of the past +carried over into the present to be carried over into the future. What +then was new? First the legends and traditions, already mentioned, +imbedded in the immediately past events of the new order. Legends of +Abgar, of Gregory, of Thaddeus, of Rhipsime, of Tiridates, passed like +magic fire from person to person, creating a common sentiment which +made the foundations of the new church absolutely secure. How firmly +this foundation was established is indicated by the reaction of the +church to the decisions at the Council of Chalcedon, where the dogma of +the dual nature of Christ was affirmed, in perfect contradiction to the +Nicæan dogma, and by the reaction against the Persian proposals +to accept fire-worship as the state religion. <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb37" href="#pb37" name="pb37">37</a>]</span></p> +<p>I shall consider the second point first. As already stated, the year +428 marked the end of the Armenian Arsacid dynasty. The nation was +divided between Persia and Rome at this time, largely as a result of +internal dissensions. In the year 450 the Persian king sent a letter to +the Armenian princes, setting forth the excellence of fire-worship and +the foolishness of Christianity, and summoned the Armenians to accept +the Persian religion.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1402src" href= +"#xd20e1402" name="xd20e1402src">42</a> A council of bishops and laymen +was held and a reply of unanimous refusal was drawn up. “From +this faith no one can move us, neither angels nor men, neither sword +nor fire, nor water, nor any deadly punishment.”<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1414src" href="#xd20e1414" name= +"xd20e1414src">43</a> A rather impertinent reply from a subject nation +to one which dominated it; but thoroughly characteristic of the +Armenians. The Persians did use fire and sword, and defeated the +Armenians in the plain of Avarair under Mount Ararat (451). But they +did not gain their end. An old historian wrote of the battle, +“swords of slayers grew dull, but their necks were not +weary,” and the Persian high priest having seen the utter +hopelessness of his project wrote, “these people have put on +Christianity, not like a garment, but like flesh and +blood.”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1419src" href="#xd20e1419" +name="xd20e1419src">44</a></p> +<p>Already, only one hundred fifty years after the conversion, the +foundation of the church was secure. This of course was made possible +by the completeness of the work of its founders; but this in itself +would not have been sufficient. A common favorable sentiment had been +created, which grew up under the natural conditions of life, and +inasmuch as the legends described are part of the common beliefs of the +people, it may be inferred that they played an important rôle in +the formation of this sentiment. The church, on the other hand, has +incorporated these legendary beliefs in its ritual and ceremony, and in +that way has given them the necessary sanction by which they are passed +on from generation to generation. They thus form part of the permanent +social tradition of the Armenian people.</p> +<p>The security of the church at this early time (450) was indicated +not only by the reaction of the nation to the Persian proposals of +fire-worship, but also by the reaction to the decision of the Council +of Chalcedon, at which, as stated, the dual nature of Christ was +dogmatically affirmed, in contradiction to the dogma established at the +Council of Nicæa (325), <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb38" href= +"#pb38" name="pb38">38</a>]</span>accepted by the Armenian church. But +at the time of the Chalcedonian council, the Persian difficulties were +taking place, the battle of Avarair having occurred during the same +year, and it was not until 491 that the Armenians held a synod of their +own which assembled at Vagharshapat, in order to take decisive +action.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1443src" href="#xd20e1443" name= +"xd20e1443src">45</a> The decisions of the Council of Chalcedon were +rejected and the action was repeated at subsequent synods. Of the three +sees or patriarchates, the Roman at Rome, the Greek at Alexandria, and +the Byzantine at Constantinople, the latter was gaining in power, and +it was at the Council of Chalcedon that the precedence of the see of +Constantinople was recognized. Naturally, neither the Roman nor Greek +sees acknowledged the decision of the council, but later both Greek and +Latin churches revoked their opposition, and recognized it as the +fourth Œcumenic Council. But the Armenian church would have +nothing to do with Chalcedon, in spite of Greek and Latin approval, and +since that time she has stood alone, absolutely independent of Greek +and Latin churches. Ormanian states: “She set herself to resist +every new dogmatic utterance said to emanate from revelation, as well +as any innovation which could in any way pervert the primitive +faith.”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1449src" href="#xd20e1449" +name="xd20e1449src">46</a> The “primitive faith” may be a +slight stretch of point, but the fact that the Armenian church adopted +an absolutely independent policy, which separated her from all other +Christian churches, and to which she has steadfastly adhered in spite +of persistent Greek and Latin influence and efforts at domination, is +in clear support of my assertion that the social foundations of the +church were firmly and securely established as early as 450, only one +hundred fifty years after the work of Gregory and Tiridates. +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb39" href="#pb39" name= +"pb39">39</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1107" href="#xd20e1107src" name="xd20e1107">1</a></span> Clark, +<i>New Englander</i> 22:507, 672. Raffi p. 127.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1113" href="#xd20e1113src" name="xd20e1113">2</a></span> That +trees are worshipped even to-day, and that certain superstitions are +bound up with them is clearly shown by Abeghian. “<span lang= +"de">In den Gegenden Armeniens, wo das Land mit Wäldern bedeckt +ist, werden viele sehr alte und grosse Bäume für heilig +gehalten und ähnlicher Weise wie die Quellen verehrt. Man brennt +vor ihnen Lichter. Weihrauch, opfert ihnen Hähne und Hammel, +küsst sie, kriecht durch ihren gespaltenen Stamm durch, oder +lässt magere Kinder durch ihre Löcher schlüpfen, um die +Einwirkung der bosen Geister aufzuheben. Man glaubt dass vom Himmel +Lichter auf die heiligen Bäume kommen, oder Heilige sich auf +denselben aufhalten. Auch die Bäume geben Gesundheit, einige +heilen alle Krankheiten.... Um von Bäumen Heilung zu bekommen soll +man ein Stück von seiner Kleidung abreissen und damit den Baum +umwickeln oder es auf den Baum nageln. Man glaubt dadurch seine +Krankheit auf den Baum zu übertragen.</span>” Abeghian pp. +58, 59.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1123" href="#xd20e1123src" name="xd20e1123">3</a></span> +Agathangelus p. 127. Emin, <i lang="fr">Recherches sur le Paganisme +Arménien</i> p. 9.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1129" href="#xd20e1129src" name="xd20e1129">4</a></span> Raffi, +article in Boyadjian’s <i>Armenian Legends and Poetry</i>.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1135" href="#xd20e1135src" name="xd20e1135">5</a></span> Tir is +mentioned only once by Agathangelus (p. 164) and he is not mentioned by +any other Armenian writers (Langlois 1:164). Emin compares him to the +Greek Hermes or Mercury, probably because Agathangelus speaks of him as +the recorder or reporter of Aramazd. (Emin p. 20, note 1.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1145" href="#xd20e1145src" name="xd20e1145">6</a></span> Abeghian +p. 4.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1150" href="#xd20e1150src" name="xd20e1150">7</a></span> He +corresponds to the Persian Mithra and is hence of Persian origin and +not Greek. The Greek translation of Agathangelus regards him as +<span class="corr" id="xd20e1152" title= +"Source: analagous">analogous</span> to Vulcan, which Emin considers to +be incorrect. (Agathangelus p. 168; Emin p. 20.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1156" href="#xd20e1156src" name="xd20e1156">8</a></span> Raffi, +article in Boyadjian’s <i>Armenian Legends and Poetry</i>.</p> +<p class="footnote">Seklemian’s <i>Tales</i>. Preface by +Blackwell.</p> +<p class="footnote" lang="de"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" +id="xd20e1171" href="#xd20e1171src" name="xd20e1171">9</a></span> +“Und auch heute pflegt man stellenweise niederzuknieen und zu +beten: ‘O du göttliche strahlende Sonne! Dein Fuss ruhe auf +meinem Antlitz! Bewahre meine Kinder.’” u. s. w. Abeghian +p. 43.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1176" href="#xd20e1176src" name="xd20e1176">10</a></span> +Although the Greeks have identified Anahit with their goddess of +chastity, Artemid, the Armenian goddess is not of Greek, but of +Assyro-Babylonian origin according to Emin. Her name +“Anahato” in ancient Persian means “Spotless.” +Agathangelus p. 126; Emin p. 10.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1179" href="#xd20e1179src" name="xd20e1179">11</a></span> +Agathangelus. Langlois 1:127.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1184" href="#xd20e1184src" name="xd20e1184">12</a></span> Raffi +p. 129.</p> +<p class="footnote">Both Nane and Astghik are mentioned by Agathangelus +who speaks of the latter as the Aphrodite of the Greeks. (Agathangelus +p. 173.) Emin likens Nane to Venus. The fact is that very little is +known of either. (Agathangelus p. 168; Emin, p. 16.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1195" href="#xd20e1195src" name="xd20e1195">13</a></span> St. +Martin 1:305, 306.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1201" href="#xd20e1201src" name="xd20e1201">14</a></span> In the +reigns of Artasches I and Tigranes II, many Greek statues were imported +from abroad, and the latter king not only constructed temples for the +worship of Greek divinities, but also ordered all to offer sacrifices +and to worship newly acquired gods and goddesses. (Moses of Khorene pp. +86–88.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1209" href="#xd20e1209src" name="xd20e1209">15</a></span> St. +Martin 1:295.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1212" href="#xd20e1212src" name="xd20e1212">16</a></span> Moses +of Khorene p. 95.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1222" href="#xd20e1222src" name="xd20e1222">17</a></span> Moses +of Khorene p. 96.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1230" href="#xd20e1230src" name="xd20e1230">18</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1240" href="#xd20e1240src" name="xd20e1240">19</a></span> +Ormanian p. 3.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1247" href="#xd20e1247src" name="xd20e1247">20</a></span> There +is another legend of St. Thaddeus, according to which he converted +Abgar and his whole court to Christianity, curing the king of his +disease at the same time. (Moses p. 97.) Abgar, who died shortly +afterword, divided his kingdom between his son and nephew. The former +at once resumed the pagan worship while the latter was forced to +apostatize. But the preaching and martyrdom of St. Thaddeus at the hand +of Sanatruk, the nephew, is recorded by Faustus of Byzantium, one of +the most reliable of early Armenian historians. (Faustus of Byzantium. +Langlois 1:210. See also Lynch, <i>Armenia</i> 1:278, and Moses of +Khorene pp. 98–99.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1260" href="#xd20e1260src" name="xd20e1260">21</a></span> Lynch +1:286.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1265" href="#xd20e1265src" name="xd20e1265">22</a></span> St. +Martin pp. 302, 303.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1268" href="#xd20e1268src" name="xd20e1268">23</a></span> +Agathangelus. Langlois 1:115.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1271" href="#xd20e1271src" name="xd20e1271">24</a></span> St. +Martin p. 303.</p> +<p class="footnote">Agathangelus p. 122.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1279" href="#xd20e1279src" name="xd20e1279">25</a></span> St. +Martin p. 304. Agathangelus p. 121.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1286" href="#xd20e1286src" name="xd20e1286">26</a></span> +Agathangelus pp. 126–33.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1291" href="#xd20e1291src" name="xd20e1291">27</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i> p. 135.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1298" href="#xd20e1298src" name="xd20e1298">28</a></span> Lynch +1:256. Agathangelus p. 139.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1310" href="#xd20e1310src" name="xd20e1310">29</a></span> Critics +have distinguished Agathangelus, the historian, from Pseudo +Agathangelus, the meddler, who evidently had religious interests at +stake. The former lived in the fourth century, and was secretary to +Tiridates, who unquestionably commissioned him to keep the records of +the events of his reign. He is spoken of by Moses and other ancient +historians as sincere and reliable. It is thus assumed that the +original work has been destroyed or lost, and that the Greek and +Armenian texts now existing are the work of an interpolater who desired +to weave the straggling skeins of religious sentiment into a single +garment by establishing an historic and literary sanction to the +religious events of the period of the conversion. There are many +indications of this, chief of which is the highly imaginative style of +narrative, undoubtedly designed with the particular intent of capturing +the minds of the people. (Langlois’ introduction to Agathangelus +1:99–108.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1313" href="#xd20e1313src" name="xd20e1313">30</a></span> +Langlois in his footnotes states that the chapel consecrated to St. +Gaiane was constructed by the Katholikos Ezdras in the year 630. and +repaired in 1652. The church of St. Rhipsime was built by the +Katholikos Gomidas in 618, and repaired in 1653. The main cathedral was +built by St. Gregory. They are situated in Etchmiadzin. (Dubois 3:213. +Langlois 1:160, 162.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1318" href="#xd20e1318src" name="xd20e1318">31</a></span> Lynch +1:291, note.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1325" href="#xd20e1325src" name="xd20e1325">32</a></span> Dubois +3:276.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1330" href="#xd20e1330src" name="xd20e1330">33</a></span> Bryce +pp. 314, 315.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1333" href="#xd20e1333src" name="xd20e1333">34</a></span> +Ormanian p. 13.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1343" href="#xd20e1343src" name="xd20e1343">35</a></span> Dubois +3:276.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1346" href="#xd20e1346src" name="xd20e1346">36</a></span> +Ormanian p. 8.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1349" href="#xd20e1349src" name="xd20e1349">37</a></span> +Agathangelus pp. 164–66.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1356" href="#xd20e1356src" name="xd20e1356">38</a></span> See +Conybeare’s translation and annotation of the <i>Key of +Truth</i>, the book of the Paulicians (Adoptionists) of Thonrak. This +book contains the baptismal and ordinal service of the Adoptionist +church. (Especially pp. vi–xcxii.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1362" href="#xd20e1362src" name="xd20e1362">39</a></span> +Conybeare p. xcvii. The original is given by Conybeare as follows: +“<span lang="la">Dic mihi</span>,” says Archelaus, +“<span lang="la">super quem Spiritus Sanctus sicut columba +descendit. Quis est etiam qui baptizatur a Ioanne si perfectus erat, si +Filius erat, si vertus erat, non poterat Spiritus ingredi; sicut nee +regnum potest ingredi intra regnum<span class="corr" id="xd20e1370" +title="Not in source">.</span></span>”</p> +<p class="footnote">Lynch 1:279.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1376" href="#xd20e1376src" name="xd20e1376">40</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i> 1:282.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1387" href="#xd20e1387src" name="xd20e1387">41</a></span> Lynch +1:294.</p> +<p class="footnote">Agathangelus pp. 164–66.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1402" href="#xd20e1402src" name="xd20e1402">42</a></span> St. +Martin 1: appendix.</p> +<p class="footnote">Elisée Vartabed<span class="corr" id= +"xd20e1407" title="Source: .">,</span> <i lang="fr">Histoire de +Vartan</i>. Langlois 2:190–91.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1414" href="#xd20e1414src" name="xd20e1414">43</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i> p. 195.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1419" href="#xd20e1419src" name="xd20e1419">44</a></span> +Lidgett<span class="corr" id="xd20e1422" title="Source: .">,</span> +<i>An Ancient People</i>.</p> +<p class="footnote">The detailed events of this struggle against the +Persians are told in the <i lang="fr">Histoire de Vartan et de la +Guerre des Arméniens</i>, by Elisée Vartabed who belonged +to the second order of translators and served under General Vartan +during the war, the history of which he narrates<span class="corr" id= +"xd20e1433" title="Not in source">.</span> After the sad ending of the +series of dramatic incidents that made up this struggle for religious +freedom, Elisée sought solitude and lived on herbs and roots in +a mountainside cave which came to be known as the “cave of +Elisée.” Because of a growing social intimacy he was +obliged to find a second cave in a more remote section of the country, +where he completed his work and died. His history is written in the +style of a religious mystic, is full of dramatic imagery, and has come +down as an Armenian classic. (Langlois 2:179–82.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1443" href="#xd20e1443src" name="xd20e1443">45</a></span> Lynch +1:313.</p> +<p class="footnote">Ormanian p. 35.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1449" href="#xd20e1449src" name="xd20e1449">46</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i> p. 36.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.4" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="label">Chapter IV</h2> +<h2 class="main">Locality Legends</h2> +<div id="ch1.4.1" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 1. Ararat</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">There is a third and last body of Armenian legends +more closely related to the second group discussed than to the first, +and yet marked off in some respects from the second as well. They have +a distinct religious stamp like those we have just finished describing, +and they are all related in some way to the stories of the Old +Testament. The legend of Haic is related to the Old Testament, for Haic +was the great-grandson of Noah, but it clearly belongs to the first +group taken up, for the reason that it has to do with the origin of the +Armenian nation. The first body, including Haic, and the legends of +Semiramis and Ara, Vahakn, Artasches and Satenik, and Artavazd, are all +concerned with ancient Armenian kings, real or mythical, and all go +back to a time before the introduction of Christianity. Vahakn was +deified, but that does not exclude him since he was first a king. The +second group, including the legends of Abgar, Rhipsime and Gaiane, +Gregory, Thaddeus, and Tiridates, are all concerned with historical +figures, real or supposed, and there is no doubt about their historic +reality, with the exception of Rhipsime and Gaiane. But what marks them +off from the other groups is that they are all concerned with the +introduction of Christianity into the country. Those of the third group +have no historic value whatever. They are legends based upon legends +that date back to a period even more remote than the legend of Haic, +and their social value does not approach that of the first two groups. +They are all connected in some way, either with the Old Testament +legend of Noah, or with the legend of the origin of man. No traveler +ever passed through Armenia without hearing of one or more of them.</p> +<p>“In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, +the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.”<a class="noteref" +id="xd20e1467src" href="#xd20e1467" name="xd20e1467src">1</a> Every +Armenian, and others, too, believe that this is the Ararat of Armenia, +or Masis as it is called, and it is true that there is absolutely +nothing to disprove such a belief. James Bryce has given a careful +consideration to the question, and states in conclusion that full +liberty is left to the traveler to consider the “snowy sovereign +of the Araxes plain” to be the true Ararat.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1470src" href="#xd20e1470" name="xd20e1470src">2</a> There are +several points that may be noted. First, there is nothing in the +statement of Genesis to show that the Ararat mentioned was a mountain +called by that <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb40" href="#pb40" name= +"pb40">40</a>]</span>name; it seems rather that Ararat was a section of +country, for the passage states that the ark rested “upon the +mountains of Ararat.” In the second place, the mountain is not +called Ararat by Armenians, but Masis. And thirdly, there is no +independent Armenian tradition of the flood so far as is known, for it +can not be shown that the modern tradition is older than the Christian +era.</p> +<p>These facts would be conclusive evidence that Armenian Ararat is not +the traditional Ararat of the Old Testament, were it not, first, for +the fact that there was in the region of the mountain a province of +Airarat which in all probability corresponds to the biblical Ararat. +Secondly, the biblical Ararat unquestionably corresponds to the +Assyrian Urarthu which is the section of country about Lake Van and +Mount Ararat. So that, although not absolutely conclusive, the Armenian +tradition enjoys a very high degree of probability.</p> +<p>In this connection the legend of the village of Nakhitchevan is +worth noting. It is situated just to the north of the mountain on the +left bank of the Araxes. Armenians believe it to be the place where +Noah first landed, and as proof, the name of the village, which means, +“the first place of landing,” is cited. One might suppose +the name to have been given by the Christians after the conversion to +Christianity, were it not that Ptolemy places in the same spot a city +named Naxuana which is the exact Greek for the Armenian name. Also +Josephus, fifty years before Ptolemy speaks of the place, as quoted by +St. Martin<span class="corr" id="xd20e1485" title="Source: ;">:</span> +“<span lang="fr">Les Arméniens appellent ce lieu +l’endroit de la descente parce que c’est là que +l’arche trouva un endroit de salut, et qu’encore +actuellement les indigènes montrent ses +débris.</span>”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1491src" href= +"#xd20e1491" name="xd20e1491src">3</a> Tavernier who traveled through +the country along about 1700 speaks of Nakhitchevan as the +“oldest city of the world” and gives the +tradition.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1494src" href="#xd20e1494" name= +"xd20e1494src">4</a> But many Jews, who undoubtedly gave the village +its name, lived in Armenia, long before the Christian era.</p> +<p>Situated on a broad plain four or five thousand feet above sea +level, Ararat rises majestic and solitary to a height of 17,000 feet. +There are no lesser peaks or ranges to destroy the grandeur of the +effect. Except for its companion<span class="corr" id="xd20e1502" +title="Source: .">,</span> Little Ararat, which rises beside it on a +common base to a height of 12,840 feet, it stands alone as monarch of +the broad plain it surveys. Little Ararat is in the form of a perfect +cone, whereas Ararat is broad-shouldered and dome-shaped, supported by +huge buttresses and capped with snow a considerable distance down the +slope through the entire year. It is truly symbolic of strength and +majesty.</p> +<p>Such is the mountain about which a thousand legends cluster. Marco +Polo says of the mountain: “There is an exceeding great mountain +on which <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb41" href="#pb41" name= +"pb41">41</a>]</span>it is said the ark of Noah rested, and for this +cause it is called the mountain of the Ark of Noah.” In 1254, a +little before Marco Polo’s time, a Franciscan friar, William of +Rubruck passed by the mountain upon which the ark is said to have +rested, which mountain, he said, could not be ascended, though the +earnest prayers of a pious monk prevailed so far that a piece of the +wood of the ark was brought to him by an angel, which piece, he said, +is still preserved in a church near by as a holy relic. He gives Masis +as the name of the mountain and adds that it is the Mother of the +World. According to a Persian tradition it is called “Cradle of +the Human Race.” Still more interesting is the account by Sir +John Maundeville, part of which runs as follows: “<span lang= +"en-1200">Fro Artyroun go men to an Hille, that is clept Sabisocolle. +And there besyde is another Hille, that men clepen Ararathe: but the +Jews clepen it Taneez, where Noas Schipp rested: and zit is upon that +Montayne and men may see it a ferr in clear wedre: and that Montayne is +well a myle high. And sum men seyn that they have seen and touched the +Schipp; and put here Fyngres in the parties where the Feend went out +when that Noe seyd ‘Benedicta.’ But they that seyn such +Wordes seyn here Willie, for a man may not gon up the Montayne for gret +plenties of Snow that is alle weys on that Montayne nouther Somer ne +Winter: so that no man may gon up there: ne never man did, sithe the +time of Noe: Saf a Monk that be the grace of God brought one of the +Plankes down, that zit is in the Mynstre at the foot of the Montayne. +And beside is the Cytes of Dayne that Noe founded. And faste by it is +the Cytee of Any, in which were 1000 churches. But upon that Montayne +to gon up this monk had gret desir; and so upon a day he went up and +when he was the third part of the Montayne he was so wery that he +mighte not furthere, and so he rested him and felle to slep, and when +he awoke he fonde himself liggyie at the foot of the Montayne. And then +he preyde devoutly to God that he wold vouch saf to suffre him gon up. +And an angelle cam to him and seyde that he scholde gon up; and so he +did. And sithe that Time never non. Wherefore men scholde not beleeve +such Woordes.</span>”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1512src" href= +"#xd20e1512" name="xd20e1512src">5</a></p> +<p>The legend of the monk is usually given in a form which confirms +still more the sacredness of the mountain. St. Jacob, as the monk was +named, tried three successive times to climb the mountain. Each time he +fell asleep intending to resume his journey the next morning, only to +wake up finding himself at the same point he had started from the +preceding day. An angel came to him after the third time, and told him +that God had forbidden mortal foot ever to tread on the sacred summit, +but that he should be given a fragment of the ark in which mankind had +been preserved as a reward for his devout perseverance.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1520src" href="#xd20e1520" name="xd20e1520src">6</a> +This treasure is still <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb42" href="#pb42" +name="pb42">42</a>]</span>preserved at Etchmiadzin and the saint is +commemorated by the little monastery of St. Jacob, which till 1840, +when a tremendous shaking of the mountain showered the little monastery +with rocks of destruction, stood above the valley of Arghuri on the +slopes of Ararat.</p> +<p>The little village of Arghuri, the single village on the +mountainside, was the city of Noah’s vineyard, and contained a +little church which is said to hallow the spot where Noah first set up +an altar.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1527src" href="#xd20e1527" name= +"xd20e1527src">7</a> But this village<span class="corr" id="xd20e1533" +title="Not in source">,</span> too, was completely destroyed by the +avalanche of 1840. Not the slightest trace of it remains, though only +three years before its destruction, Dubois de Montpèreux visited +the little city and described it together with the church of Noah, +Noah’s vineyard, and the monastery of St. Jacob.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1536src" href="#xd20e1536" name="xd20e1536src">8</a> +In the garden of the city were planted pear trees, apple, plum, cherry, +apricot, peach, and nut trees. This very garden was the site of the +first vine on which the old patriarch became drunk, and the inhabitants +showed Dubois some bits of creepers to prove it. “<span lang= +"fr">Dieu,</span>” they said, “<span lang="fr">pour punir +les ceps qui avaient ainsi entrainé le pauvre patriarche dans le +péché, les condamna a ne plus porter de +raisins.</span>” Naïve, yes, but very sweetly so. And the +church, the people said, marked the place where Noah offered his first +sacrifice after the deluge. Except for the garden of Arghuri, wrote +Dubois, this great mountain was absolutely destitute of verdure; an old +stunted willow, wound about with snow and ice was the only other +exception to this. According to the legend, it marked the spot where a +board of Noah’s ark had taken root and sprung up into a living +tree which the people venerated. One was not permitted to take away +even the smallest of its feeble branches.</p> +<p>All of this was blotted out so completely by the shower of falling +rocks and boulders that it is hard to imagine the places as ever having +existed. The primeval willow, the vineyard, the sacred church, and the +little monastery of St. Jacob have left not the slightest trace. The +bell of the old church is no more heard; the Christian service is not +chanted any longer on the sacred mountain of the Ark.</p> +<p>Of the numerous other legends associated with the mountain I shall +mention only two. One of them regards the summit of the mountain as the +site of Chaldean star-worship, and asserts that a pillar with a figure +of a star stood upon it.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1549src" href= +"#xd20e1549" name="xd20e1549src">9</a> According to the same legend, +twelve wise men stood beside the pillar to watch for the star of the +East, which three of them followed to Bethlehem. The other is in +respect to the spring situated above the spot where stood the +monastery. A bird, called by the Armenians tetagush, feeds on the +locusts which are such a plague to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb43" +href="#pb43" name="pb43">43</a>]</span>the country, and curiously +enough, the bird is attracted by the waters of the spring. When the +locusts appear, the people carry their bottles to the spring and +filling them with the peculiarly charmed water, take them back to their +fields where they are placed on the ground to attract the tetagush. The +people of Syria and Palestine were much in need of tetagush and Ararat +spring water during the spring and summer of 1915, for the swarms of +locusts not only devoured the crops but also the leaves and barks of +the trees.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.4.2" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 2. Khor-Virap and Erzerum</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">On the bank of the Araxes, in the plain of Armenia, +and in full view of Ararat are located the monastery of Khor-Virap and +the chapel of St. Gregory close beside it. An Armenian inscription is +cut in the walls of the portico of the monastery which marks the spot +where a monk, Johannes by name, appeared twice after his death saying +that he had seen Gregory the Illuminator. The chapel of St. Gregory +covers the traditional well into which he was thrown and imprisoned for +thirteen years by King Tiridates. Dubois descended into a sort of +tunnel, fifteen or sixteen feet below the pavement of the chapel, which +is part of an old fortress, and was shown the worn stones of a niche +where the saint prayed, as evidence of the thirteen years, quite as +though other pilgrims who knelt in the same place could not have +assisted somewhat the pious work of the saint.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1559src" href="#xd20e1559" name="xd20e1559src">10</a> The spot is +only a few steps from the famous temple dedicated to the principal god +of the Armenians, Aramazd, and it seems clear that the pagan king +intended to make a sacrifice to his gods in casting the young fanatic +into the well. The temple was called Achelichad, meaning “many +sacrifices” because of the many offerings here given up to +Aramazd. With the era of Christianity, the name Achelichad gave way to +the name Khor Virap, meaning dry well. Gregorius Magistros, already +mentioned, brought the body of the saint from Constantinople and placed +it in the bottom of the well, where it served to cure sick +pilgrims.</p> +<p>There is a tradition that the Armenian city of Erzerum, not far from +the source of the Euphrates, marks the vicinity of the Garden of Eden. +The Persian king Khosref Purveez is said to have encamped in the +neighborhood and to have received a message from the prophet Mohammed +during his sojourn, in which he was offered the protection of Islam if +he would embrace the faith. But the king spurned the proposal and +tossed the letter into the Euphrates. Nature, horrified at the +sacrilege, dried up the flowers and fruits of the ancient garden and +even parched up the sources of the river itself. And so the last relic +of Eden became waste.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1564src" href= +"#xd20e1564" name="xd20e1564src">11</a> <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb44" href="#pb44" name="pb44">44</a>]</span></p> +<p>In the same connection, there is a plaintive Armenian elegy, +composed in the person of Adam, who, sitting at the gate of paradise +and beholding cherubim and seraphim enter the garden, makes the +following defence: he did not eat the forbidden fruit until after he +had witnessed its fatal effects upon Eve, when, seeing her despoiled of +all her glory, he was touched with pity and tasted the immortal fruit +in the hope that the Creator, contemplating both in the same plight +might with paternal love take compassion on them. But in vain. +“The Lord cursed the serpent and Eve,” pathetically cries +Adam, “and I was enslaved between them.” The elegy closes +most touchingly,—“When ye enter Eden, shut not the gate of +paradise, but place me standing at the gate. I will look in a moment +and then bring me back. Ah! I remember ye, O flowers and sweet smelling +fountains. Ah! I remember ye, O birds, sweet singing, And ye, O +beasts.”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1573src" href="#xd20e1573" +name="xd20e1573src">12</a> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb45" href= +"#pb45" name="pb45">45</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1467" href="#xd20e1467src" name="xd20e1467">1</a></span> Genesis +8:4.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1470" href="#xd20e1470src" name="xd20e1470">2</a></span> James +Bryce, <i>Transcaucasia and Ararat</i> p. 210.</p> +<p class="footnote">St. Martin 1:264.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1491" href="#xd20e1491src" name="xd20e1491">3</a></span> St. +Martin 1:267–68.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1494" href="#xd20e1494src" name="xd20e1494">4</a></span> +Tavernier, <i>Voyages</i> 1:43.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1512" href="#xd20e1512src" name="xd20e1512">5</a></span> Bryce, +<i>Transcaucasia and Ararat</i>, chapter on Ararat.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1520" href="#xd20e1520src" name="xd20e1520">6</a></span> Dubois +3:465.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1527" href="#xd20e1527src" name="xd20e1527">7</a></span> Arghuri +means “<span lang="it">Il sema la vigne</span>.” St. Martin +pp. 266, 267.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1536" href="#xd20e1536src" name="xd20e1536">8</a></span> Dubois +3:465–68.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1549" href="#xd20e1549src" name="xd20e1549">9</a></span> Bryce, +chapter on Ararat.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1559" href="#xd20e1559src" name="xd20e1559">10</a></span> Dubois +3:468.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1564" href="#xd20e1564src" name="xd20e1564">11</a></span> +Countess Evelyn Martinengo Cesaresco, chapter on Armenian folk-songs. +<i>Fraser’s Magazine</i> (n.s.) 13:283–97.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1573" href="#xd20e1573src" name="xd20e1573">12</a></span> +<i>Fraser’s Magazine</i> (n.s.) 13:283–97.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1.5" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="label">Chapter V</h2> +<h2 class="main">Interpretation and Conclusions</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">Because these legends are for the most part based upon +older legends, and also because some of them are known only locally, +they can not be said to have played so important a rôle in +Armenian social life as the first two groups of legends. It would be a +mistake, however, to suppose that all of the Ararat legends have merely +a local value. Ararat is the center of the nation, the grand +geographical feature of the country, and many of the beliefs clustered +about it are held in common. In fact there is a very old belief which +considers the sacred mountain to be the center of the world, and to-day +it is the common point of meeting of the boundaries of Russian, +Turkish, and Persian Armenia. And this is no accident; it is because of +the veneration in which the mountain is held, and consequently, the +realization of the importance the mountain gives to any territory in +which it may be located. The belief that Ararat is the mountain of the +Ark, the legend of Noah’s vineyard, and the legend of St. Jacob +are very commonly accepted. The primeval willow, the church of Arghuri, +the legend, or perhaps one should say, the superstition of the +tetagush, and the legend of the wise men in search of the star of the +East, enjoy a more restricted circulation. Furthermore, it is natural +to suppose that the legends centered in the destroyed city of Arghuri +have not been told as frequently as of old, and are therefore dying out +gradually, although they seem still to be very much alive. A legend or +tradition that is objectified in an old willow, in a monastery, or in a +garden, is likely to die out gradually with the destruction of its +object. But some of them will never die out, object or no object, as +for example the legend of the devout monk who tried to gain the summit +of Ararat in order to see the holy Ark. There is something in his +waking up each successive morning only to find himself at the same +point he had started from the preceding day, which will keep its hold, +whether there be a monastery erected in his name or not. And if the +vineyard has been destroyed the people may very soon find another. In +fact I should be surprised if in traveling through the mountain region +of Ararat, I was not shown the legendary vineyard. This, however, would +more likely be true of a legend that had a commercial value to the +community because of the frequency of travelers, which could certainly +not be said of Ararat legends. The same general valuation may be placed +upon the Erzerum legends. A legend of this sort is not believed to be +true, unless the legend upon which it is based is commonly believed in, +and it is certainly safe to suppose that a majority of the Armenian +people accept the Old Testament legends. This is important, for when a +legend <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb46" href="#pb46" name= +"pb46">46</a>]</span>is not a matter of implicit belief by a people it +has little social value. The elegy of Adam can not be properly said to +be a legend at all.</p> +<p>The preceding pages point out certain points of resemblance, and +certain points of difference between the two words, legend and +tradition, which require to be brought out at this point, first, +because of vague and loose current usage, and second, in order to +establish my own use of these terms. In the first place they are +beliefs, and here lies the secret of their social value. Let them be +disbelieved in and they may furnish material for entertaining +after-dinner conversation, but they no more have the power of welding a +people together into a nation, a caste, or a sect; they no longer have +the power of creating a common sentiment among a large number of people +or of creating a national consciousness.</p> +<p>And in the second place, both the tradition and the legend are +passed on from person to person, and from generation to generation. +When a tradition is defined as a belief that is handed down orally from +father to son, it is not at all differentiated from the legend which is +also a belief, and which may also be passed on orally from generation +to generation. Neither does a legend or a tradition change its +character when the meaning is represented by symbols cut in rock, +inscribed on papyrus, or written on paper. The event of inscription is +very often a part of their history.</p> +<p>But when it comes to a question of historic value we mark the +parting of the ways. A tradition, used in the sense with which we are +concerned here, is always rooted in an indisputable historic fact. +Consider the traditions of Islam that are centered about the prophet +Mohammed. They may have a thousand variations, may have embodied +falsehood after falsehood in the course of their transmission from +place to place, and from generation to generation, as most of them +unquestionably have, but they are traditions, nevertheless, because +they are associated with a character who is an undisputed historic +figure. The refusal of St. Gregory to offer garlands to the goddess +Anahit, and his imprisonment in the well during a period of thirteen +years is a tradition because the belief is associated with a historic +character. Compare this with the beliefs concerning Haic, Vahakn, +Semiramis and Ara, and the distinction is clear, for these characters +are all mythical. Artasches and Artavasd are generally recognized as +historical kings, and are so spoken of by Moses. As such the beliefs +concerning them should be classed as traditions. However, Moses as a +historian has been relegated to a secondary position by +Carrière, who gave the work a critical examination. This would +make the beliefs concerning Artasches and Satenik and Artavasd purely +legendary, unless further research establishes more reliable sources of +which we do not know. The first group therefore are legends.</p> +<p>In regard to the second group of beliefs all having to do with the +introduction of Christianity, Bartholomew, Thaddeus, Gregory, and +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb47" href="#pb47" name= +"pb47">47</a>]</span>Tiridates are unquestionably historic; Rhipsime +and Gaiane are mythical; the historic authenticity of Abgar is also +questionable. We should therefore speak of the legends of Rhipsime, +Gaiane and Abgar, and of the traditions of Bartholomew, Thaddeus, +Gregory, and Tiridates.</p> +<p>The Ararat and Erzerum group are of course legends with one or two +exceptions. The belief concerning the scorning of the proposal of +Mohammed by the Persian king who was encamped on the Euphrates as +explaining the barrenness of the Garden of Eden certainly has to do +with an historic figure, and perhaps two. But it is a legend, +nevertheless, because both the prophet of Arabia and the Persian king +are accidental rather than fundamental to the belief. The fundamental +basis of belief is the legend of the Garden of Eden. The elegy of Adam +in explanation of his sinful conduct is neither legend nor tradition, +and the belief concerning the tetagush and the spring of Ararat is a +superstition. It results in a distinct type of conduct marking it off +from both tradition and legend.</p> +<p>I have stated my conclusions at various places, and it would be +pointless repetition to summarize them all. I shall therefore sum up +only the important ones. The first is that the legends and traditions +of Part One are an important part of a larger body of Armenian legends, +traditions, folk-songs, and folk-lore, and that their social value lies +in the power they have of creating a national sentiment. This national +sentiment is the direct result of a social process accomplished through +the medium of the traditions, legends, and folk-songs spoken of. An +analysis of the national sentiment of ancient Armenia would lead us to +the conclusion that it was made up of at least three elements: first, a +sentiment of loyalty to the state; secondly, a sentiment of reverence +amounting almost to worship for the past glory of the nation; and +thirdly, a sentiment of love for the country.</p> +<p>The last sentiment is an especially real experience to all +Armenians. Objectified as it was at first in the vast plains, the broad +river valleys, the mountain ranges, or simply in the soil that brought +forth its vegetation, it came to be objectified in a spirit of +independence and in the ideals of freedom and strength. These two +objects of the national sentiment of love, the one material, the other +immaterial, are not, however, to be dissociated in the social mind, as +I have dissociated them on paper. They are inseparable, the material +and the spiritual, and simply do not exist apart from each other. Only +the emphasis varies, symbolized in one case by the peasant’s +kissing his native soil, and in the other by the far-away look toward +the summit of some distant mountain. And when this sentiment of love is +the most important of those sentiments that go to make up a national +sentiment, that is, when it dominates all the others, holding them in +subjection, there has come to be a national self. A continuous stream +of consciousness envelopes the national self, and inasmuch as it +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb48" href="#pb48" name= +"pb48">48</a>]</span>implies a highly-organized and well-developed +national self, national-self-consciousness is the larger term. It may +be objectified and examined especially at a time of injustice from +without, and even at the time of an obvious act of injustice by the +state which usually results in civil strife. The latter case is +illustrative of how one of the sentiments that make up the national +sentiment may be under the domination of another, the sentiment of +loyalty to the state being subordinate to the sentiment of love for the +country in this case.</p> +<p>That the national self is organic, i.e., that it is functional, a +vital, living thing which grows and dies is clearly brought out by the +second group of legends considered. This is the second general +conclusion. The legends and traditions mentioned in this group are of +course again part of a larger body, all of which have to do with the +introduction of Christianity into the country. The important point is +that from this larger body of beliefs there resulted a new national +sentiment, new because something had come to be incorporated within it +which was not there before. This something was a sentiment of loyalty +to the church, evidenced in the readiness to uphold and protect the +church with all its recognized encumbrances of hierarchies and +paraphernalia against all foreign intrusion, whether peaceful or +military in character. With the destruction of the state, this +sentiment of loyalty to the church largely absorbed the sentiment of +loyalty to the state. Reverence for the past glory of the nation went +on unchanged except in so far as the church intensified it as a means +of intensifying the whole national sentiment.</p> +<p>A loosely organized, heterogeneous group of people can not boast of +a national sentiment, nor of the united action necessary in times of +national crisis, as when a people go to war. This united action is only +possible where the diverse sentiments of a more or less heterogeneous +people have been woven into a national sentiment of the kind spoken of. +This weaving process, as I have shown, is essentially a social process, +and the materials by means of which it is carried on are largely such +as I have been describing, namely, the legends, traditions, and +folk-lore that have somehow grown up among a people. <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb49" href="#pb49" name="pb49">49</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div0 part" id="pt2"> +<h2 class="label">Part Two</h2> +<h2 class="main">Festivals</h2> +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb51" href="#pb51" name= +"pb51">51</a>]</span> +<div id="ch2.1" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="label">Chapter I</h2> +<h2 class="main">The Gregorian Church</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">As the materials of Part One are part of a larger mass +of legends, traditions, and folk-lore, the social value of which lies +in their power of creating a national or group sentiment, so the +festivals and ceremonies to be taken up in Part Two are part of a +larger mass of festivals, ceremonies, and rites whose social value lies +in the fact that they constitute a necessary vehicle of expression for +this same national sentiment. The festivals are a necessary counterpart +of the legends, as the latter are a necessary counterpart of the +former. Activity is one of the most fundamental of nature’s laws. +The sentiment of love for an individual dies eventually in the absence +of some formal mode of active expression. But be the action ever so +little a thing, such as the laying of flowers upon the grave of the +dead, the visiting of a shrine, or the sight of some hallowed spot of +sacred memory, the sentiment is kept alive. To be sure a sentiment may +smoulder for a lifetime, even as a national sentiment may slumber for +centuries without a mode of expression, and then all of a sudden burst +forth into a flame, or awaken into life at a mere suggestion from +outside. Bereft of statehood, the sentiment of loyalty for the state +has slumbered for centuries within the breast of the Armenian people, +but how often, how too sadly often, has it not suddenly awakened into +hot, new life only to be pacified into slumber again. But the last +glow, the little flicker at the end is all that separates the living +embers from the dead ash.</p> +<p>How the Armenian church recognized the truth of this by putting into +operation a thousand various modes of action in which the new national +sentiment that it created has kept itself alive and fresh, may well +serve as an object lesson to many another church. She did not make the +mistake of imposing an entirely new body of festivals and ceremonies +upon the people; she utilized the past and carried over a number of +pagan festivals absolutely intact, which she clothed with a new meaning +slowly recognized by the people. These form the first group to be +considered. In the course of time she created certain new festivals +which constitute the second group. And then she identified herself with +all of the ceremonies of common life, such as betrothal, marriage, and +funeral ceremonies.</p> +<p>In this way the Armenian church has become absolutely and +inseparably identified with the life of the people, and the people in +turn have been held together into a nation which has continued to give +its artists and artisans to the world.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1629src" href="#xd20e1629" name="xd20e1629src">1</a> What is +Armenia? The national Gregorian church; much as Louis XIV, when asked +“What is the state?” replied, <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb52" href="#pb52" name="pb52">52</a>]</span>“I am the +state.” This is unquestionably an exaggerated view, but not as +much so as might be supposed, since the social life of the people is so +completely bound up with the church. The only betrothal and marriage +recognized is that sanctioned by the church. Whenever there is a common +danger, as has been the case repeatedly during the past twenty years, +the people flock to the church for protection. Such secret +revolutionary propaganda as has been carried on has been done largely +through the church. The young Armenian who returns from his academic +life in Paris, a sceptic if not an unbeliever, and certainly opposed to +the dogma and ultra-conservatism of his church, does not alienate +himself, for he realizes his utter impotence in any kind of work for +his people should he do so. In spite of the division of Armenia into +three slices, Turkish, Persian, and Russian, the church has retained +its hold, and if the position of the people as subject to Turkey, +Persia, and Russia has placed her (the church) at a decided +disadvantage in coping with the ever constant influence and propaganda, +schools, and missionaries of the Greek, Latin, and Protestant churches, +she has not at all given in, for the number of Catholic Armenians +amounts to only 3 per cent of the number of orthodox Armenians, while +the number of Protestant Armenians is only 1 per cent.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1637src" href="#xd20e1637" name="xd20e1637src">2</a> +Considering, as I say, the utter helplessness of the church in +combating outside influences, these figures indicate how closely the +life of the people is identified with her. Perhaps her very +helplessness has been a source of strength.</p> +<p>These facts together with such little practices as I have mentioned +(and I might also note the custom of the Armenian peasant of crossing +himself daily at the altar of his community church before beginning his +day of toil)<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1642src" href="#xd20e1642" +name="xd20e1642src">3</a> are sufficient to show that the church has +been the chief means of keeping alive the currents of national life, +that it is a national church, and that it has identified itself with +the common life of the people. The festivals and ceremonies which +constitute the second part of my paper thus form the vehicle of +expression of the national sentiment, and are all connected with the +church.</p> +<p>The participation of the laity in church matters, especially in the +election of its officials, is a chief reason for the essential oneness +of church and people. Priests, bishops, and patriarchs, who constitute +the three chief grades in the religious hierarchy, are chosen by the +people.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1649src" href="#xd20e1649" name= +"xd20e1649src">4</a> The approval of higher authorities is necessary in +most cases, but this only slightly detracts from the importance of the +rôle of the people. A married priest is the religious head of +every parish, and he is elected either by a <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb53" href="#pb53" name="pb53">53</a>]</span>direct +process of voting or by a deed of presentation. The religious council +of the diocese proceeds to examine the ability and qualifications of +the candidate, who is ordained if his examination proves successful; if +unsuccessful, a new candidate must be presented, for a bishop can not +of his own initiative ordain a priest. The laity have no voice in the +election of the celibate priesthood, which is only natural since the +celibate priests are not in any way connected with the life of the +community. Furthermore, they do not constitute a very important +element, for when Ormanian wrote in 1911, there were only 400 celibate +priests as against 4,000 married priests.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1660src" href="#xd20e1660" name="xd20e1660src">5</a></p> +<p>The married priest is very closely identified with his community. He +not only makes a regular practice of visiting the various households of +the parish, but he is sole confessor of the people.<a class="noteref" +id="xd20e1667src" href="#xd20e1667" name="xd20e1667src">6</a> As he +officiates at masses and church ceremonies and promotes a general +participation in the festivals, so also no betrothal, marriage, +baptism, or funeral can be sanctioned without his presence. He is as +well a kind of marriage agency, employment agency, and relief agency, +acting always of course in coöperation with the council of elders +of his parish. A priest called at the home of an Armenian lady I know, +and remarked casually that he was aware she had a daughter, whom he was +very anxious to see, for there were two young men of the community who +were very desirous to marry. So the people inform the priest of their +need and the priest does all in his power to help them. He does not +receive a regular compensation, being absolutely dependent upon the +voluntary offerings of his flock and the voluntary fees received for +official services rendered.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1672src" href= +"#xd20e1672" name="xd20e1672src">7</a> This works out sometimes to his +advantage, but more often not, depending generally on whether his +parish is poverty stricken or well-to-do.</p> +<p>There are several very curious usages practiced by the married +priest. He is recruited from all classes of society, but more often +there is a succession from father to son.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1680src" href="#xd20e1680" name="xd20e1680src">8</a> The +conditions demanded, besides parochial election, are acquaintance with +ecclesiastical and liturgical matters, an exemplary life, and the +consent of his wife. After his ordination he must fast for forty days. +He then prepares himself for his first mass by a life of retreat in the +church, restricting himself to a vegetable diet for twenty-four +hours.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1683src" href="#xd20e1683" name= +"xd20e1683src">9</a> The wife, who enjoys a certain precedence in +society, observes a customary abstinence in the absence of her husband. +One week or at least three days before the celebration of the mass, he +keeps away from <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb54" href="#pb54" name= +"pb54">54</a>]</span>home, passing the nights within the church. He may +engage in domestic or even professional work so long as this does not +interfere with the duties of his calling. Should his wife die, he may +not marry again unless he lays aside his priestly robe, nor may a +priest ever marry a widow. These practices are not dead letters, except +that the custom of sojourning within the church for three nights before +mass has, in Constantinople at least, been reduced to a single +night.</p> +<p>The bishops are chosen as chiefs of dioceses by the council of the +diocese, six sevenths of whose members are laymen, the remainder being +ecclesiastics.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1700src" href="#xd20e1700" +name="xd20e1700src">10</a> The patriarchs, including the Katholikos, +the supreme authority of the church whose seat is at Etchmiadzin, the +religious center of the nation, are chosen by an electoral assembly of +the religious heads (bishops or archbishops) and lay deputies who are +nominated by the dioceses as a whole.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1703src" href="#xd20e1703" name="xd20e1703src">11</a> The eight +members of the synod, which is an advisory body to the Katholikos, and +the seven oldest members of the congregation at Etchmiadzin have equal +share in voting. The electoral assembly, so constituted, chooses two +candidates, one of whom is selected by the Czar. The Czar, after his +selection is made, sends a deputy to meet the successful candidate, who +is decorated and escorted with due ceremony to Etchmiadzin where he is +officially ordained. There are only two patriarchates besides the see +of Etchmiadzin, i.e., those of Constantinople and Jerusalem. The +corresponding patriarchs are likewise chosen by a national assembly, +six sevenths of whose members belong to the laity. The patriarchs of +both Jerusalem and of Constantinople acknowledge the supremacy of the +Katholikos of Etchmiadzin, who is thus head of the church, though not +infallible.</p> +<p>The site of Etchmiadzin is the old capital city, Vagharshapat, the +ruins of which are all but washed away; and it marks the spot where St. +Gregory in his vision saw the descent of Jesus Christ. Etchmiadzin +means, “Descent of the Only Begotten.” The particular spot +is commemorated by the central altar of the Cathedral, which is the +chief church of the nation. This Cathedral is situated in the center of +a huge court bounded in the form of a large rectangle by the cells of +the monks, the long refectory building, the library, the theological +seminary, and the residence of the Katholikos. Outside this rectangle +are ranged buildings and open spaces, including the garden of the +Katholikos, the court for pilgrims, the printing establishment, and +dwellings for various uses, all of which is bounded by a huge wall in +the form of a still larger rectangle about 1,000 feet in length and 700 +feet in width.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1709src" href="#xd20e1709" +name="xd20e1709src">12</a> The chapels of the martyrs are some distance +from the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb55" href="#pb55" name= +"pb55">55</a>]</span>monastery, the church of St. Gaiane, commemorating +the spot of her martyrdom, being about one fourth of a mile distant, +while the church of St. Rhipsime, which likewise honors the spot of +Rhipsime’s martyrdom, is about three fourths of a mile distant. +The buildings now standing can hardly be those built by the +saint.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1717src" href="#xd20e1717" name= +"xd20e1717src">13</a></p> +<p>Etchmiadzin has been for many years a place of pilgrimage for the +faithful. There is not only the sacred Cathedral where Jesus Christ is +believed to have appeared; there is also the chamber of holy relics in +the rear of the Cathedral which is perhaps the chief attraction and +glory of the place. The most important of the relics here kept is a +hand of St. Gregory, or rather right arm, “atch,” as it is +called, now preserved in a silver case, and which was considered at one +time to be a necessary appanage of the patriarchal dignity. The poor +hand of the saint has been the cause of many peregrinations in +consequence.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1723src" href="#xd20e1723" +name="xd20e1723src">14</a> One patriarch seized it and carried it off +with him in order to justify his claims. Another restole it and brought +it back to Etchmiadzin, while others have pretended possession of the +holy “atch,” in order to make good their claims. It was +with this relic as well as with the holy chrism that consecrations were +performed, which made possession of it a necessary condition of the +patriarchal authority. Another much revered relic is the fragment of +the ark, which the angel who appeared to St. Jacob gave to him as a +reward for his perseverance in attempting so impossible a task as the +climbing of Ararat. Still another is the head of the “holy +spear” which was thrust into the side of Christ by the Roman +soldier at Golgotha.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1726src" href= +"#xd20e1726" name="xd20e1726src">15</a> There are others of lesser +importance, some of which are believed to possess the power of +effecting cures.</p> +<p>Such in brief are the broader and more important facts relating to +the church, which has thus come to sanction the festivals and +ceremonies that make up the second part of this thesis. These, as I +have said, naturally divide themselves into three groups, first those +that have been taken over bodily from the past; second, new festivals +and ceremonies created by the church; and third the ceremonies of +common life with which the church has identified itself. In the first +group are included the midsummer festival of Vartavar, the spring +festival, the festival in commemoration of the dead, Fortune-Telling +Day, and the festival of Vartan’s Day. All except the last have +their origin in pagan festivals; each one has been taken over by the +church and made its own. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb56" href= +"#pb56" name="pb56">56</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1629" href="#xd20e1629src" name="xd20e1629">1</a></span> Ormanian +p. 224.</p> +<p class="footnote">Bertrand Bareilles, preface to the French edition +of Ormanian p. xviii.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1637" href="#xd20e1637src" name="xd20e1637">2</a></span> Ormanian +p. 243.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1642" href="#xd20e1642src" name="xd20e1642">3</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i> p. 177.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1649" href="#xd20e1649src" name="xd20e1649">4</a></span> Ubicini, +<i>Letters on Turkey</i>.</p> +<p class="footnote">Ormanian pp. 151, 152.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1660" href="#xd20e1660src" name="xd20e1660">5</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i> p. 173.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1667" href="#xd20e1667src" name="xd20e1667">6</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i> p. 141.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1672" href="#xd20e1672src" name="xd20e1672">7</a></span> Ubicini, +<i>Letters on Turkey</i>.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1680" href="#xd20e1680src" name="xd20e1680">8</a></span> Ormanian +p. 170.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1683" href="#xd20e1683src" name="xd20e1683">9</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p class="footnote">Ubicini, <i>Letters on Turkey.</i></p> +<p class="footnote">Tavernier 1:498, 499.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1700" href="#xd20e1700src" name="xd20e1700">10</a></span> +Ormanian p. 152.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1703" href="#xd20e1703src" name="xd20e1703">11</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1709" href="#xd20e1709src" name="xd20e1709">12</a></span> Lynch, +chapter on Etchmiadzin.</p> +<p class="footnote">Dubois 3:362, 363.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1717" href="#xd20e1717src" name="xd20e1717">13</a></span> See p. +30 of this thesis, note 32.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1723" href="#xd20e1723src" name="xd20e1723">14</a></span> +Ormanian p. 74.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1726" href="#xd20e1726src" name="xd20e1726">15</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p class="footnote">For the relation of the church to the Turkish and +Russian Governments see Lynch 1:269, also Ubicini, <i>Letters on +Turkey</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch2.2" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="label">Chapter II</h2> +<h2 class="main">Pagan Folk Festivals</h2> +<div id="ch2.2.1" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 1. Vartavar and the Festival of Mihr</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">Vartavar, meaning “flaming of the rose,” +was celebrated in pagan times in honor of Anahit, goddess of chastity, +at midsummer. The central act of the festival was the offering of a +dove and a rose to her golden image. With the introduction of +Christianity the temple and the image were destroyed, and it may be +noted that upon the site of the Temple of Anahit in Vagharshapat was +built the Cathedral of Etchmiadzin. This would lead to the strange +conclusion that in the vision of St. Gregory, Jesus Christ descended +upon a pagan temple. The fact seems to be that this marvelous vision +was seen by a pious monk who published a life of St. Gregory some two +or three centuries after the Illuminator’s death.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1750src" href="#xd20e1750" name="xd20e1750src">1</a> +But the festival became the “Festival of the Transfiguration of +Christ,” although the name Vartavar still remains, and doves are +still set flying.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1753src" href="#xd20e1753" +name="xd20e1753src">2</a></p> +<p>The festival is celebrated differently in various places. Upon the +mountains of Armenia every family brings a sheep for sacrifice, adorned +with colored papers and pigments, and as the sheep approach the shrine, +lighted candles are fixed upon their horns.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1758src" href="#xd20e1758" name="xd20e1758src">3</a> Sheaves of +grain, fruit, flowers, and doves are also brought as sacrifices, while +dust from beside the altar is carried home to children as a talisman to +help them to learn their A B C’s. In the absence of a church on +the mountainside, which is usually the case, a large white tent with +crosses is put up beside some sacred spring, with which the country +abounds. The spring is necessary, for on this day the people amuse +themselves by throwing water upon each other. For this reason the day +is often called Armenian Water Day. After the doves are set flying, the +priest sprinkles the people, and they in turn sprinkle water over each +other. This practice probably dates to the legend of the deluge, the +Universal Baptism with which God cleansed His sinful earth. The dove +and the baptism are also suggestive of the baptism of Jesus by John in +the waters of Jordan. This part of the festival is probably an addition +to the pagan rite, for the sprinkling of the water is symbolic of love +and forgiveness; it is carried on with much laughing and merry-making. +The festival includes also a kind of fair, for the people have to show +what progress they have made during the year in art and the various +handicrafts. Races, competitions, and games are held, and the victors +are crowned with wreaths of roses, so that even the rose continues to +have <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb57" href="#pb57" name= +"pb57">57</a>]</span>an important place in the festivities as it had in +pagan days. The sprinkling of water, the games, the races, show how +happy a time the people must have on this day; the exhibition of the +year’s accomplishment in handicraft and art points out the more +serious side; while the essential religious symbolism is very clearly +emphasized. What may also be noted is that there is entertainment for +all, old and young, serious and frivolous. The pious-minded may sit on +the mountainside contemplating the religious aspect of it all; the gay +and light-hearted may sprinkle water over each other; the young and +strong may run races and play games; men and women of a practical turn +of mind may visit the fair and note the progress made during the year; +and children may roll about on the mountainsides or gather roses, for +these are in full bloom at this time.</p> +<p>The pagan spring festival in honor of Mihr, the god of fire, was +taken over by the church to commemorate the bringing of the Babe Jesus +to the temple, where Mary sacrificed two doves according to the custom +of purification.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1766src" href="#xd20e1766" +name="xd20e1766src">4</a> The ancient rite consisted of kindling fires +in the open market places in honor of the god Mihr, and of lighting a +lantern from one of the newly kindled fires, which was kept burning in +the temple throughout the year. As now celebrated, on February 26, +every young man who has been married within the year brings a load of +aromatic shrubs, making a huge pile of them in the yard of the church. +A religious service is held in the open air at evening-time, after +which the priest sets fire to the pile. All the villagers, men, women, +and children, dance about the fire, while boys and young men show their +agility and courage by leaping over it. When the flames die down, each +person carries home a glowing brand and places it on the hearthstone +for good luck.</p> +<p>The description of the festival by Abeghian shows how a general +celebration of this kind varies in particulars from place to +place.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1774src" href="#xd20e1774" name= +"xd20e1774src">5</a> On the afternoon of the 13th of February,<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1777src" href="#xd20e1777" name="xd20e1777src">6</a> +which is the day before the church festival of the purification, a pile +of wood consisting usually of thorn-wood, cane, and straw is gathered +together in the churchyard. The entire community comes together in the +church on the night of the same day, each person provided with a +candle. After the vespers all stand about the pile of shrub and wood, +the newly married during the year making the first row. The candles are +lighted from the church light, and after the priest has blessed the +pile, it is set ablaze from all sides, after which the candles are put +out. As soon as the fire has died down, the candles are relighted from +the glowing embers which are regarded as sacred, and carried home +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb58" href="#pb58" name= +"pb58">58</a>]</span>where they are used to light a pile of shrub and +wood that has been gathered on the roof of the house. The young people +jump over the fire while the young women and married women march around +it saying, “May it not itch me, and may I not receive any +scabs,” taking care just to singe the border of their dresses. +The ashes, as well as the half-burned wood-stuffs are preserved, or +scattered in the four corners of the barn, over the fields or in the +garden, for the ashes and flames of the firebrands are believed to +protect people and cattle from sickness and the fruit trees from worms +and caterpillars. In the homes of the newly married the festival is +celebrated with music and dance, the young couples especially making it +a point to dance about the sacred flames, while in some places special +food is prepared in honor of the occasion.</p> +<p>Various prophesies are made during the festival, for example, if the +flame and smoke blows to the east, it is a sign of a good harvest for +the coming year, if toward the west, a bad growth is expected.</p> +<p>In recent years the religious authorities at Etchmiadzin printed the +following prohibition in the church calendar: “It is forbidden to +run about the fire.” But the festival is celebrated +nevertheless.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1786src" href="#xd20e1786" +name="xd20e1786src">7</a> That it originates in the pagan festival held +in honor of Mihr there is little doubt, for the month of February +corresponds to the ancient Armenian month Mehakan, which, translated +into modern Armenian, Mihragan, means belonging to Mihr, or more +loosely, the Festival of Mihr.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch2.2.2" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 2. The Day of the Dead and Vartan’s +Day</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The festival in commemoration of the dead is +celebrated on the first day after Easter, and may be regarded as a +reaction against the lenten fasts. Families of Armenians, loaded with +picnic baskets, packages of food, and bottles of wine, flock to their +cemeteries in great numbers. Priests are paid small fees for standing +over the graves of the dead to chant prayers for the salvation of the +departed souls. Over the graves of the recently dead stand the bereaved +relatives of the deceased, lamenting loudly and bewailing a fate which +they know must some day be their own. A more maudlin spectacle could +not be imagined. Here and there are seated groups of families eating +and drinking and laughing all the more heartily for the enforced +abstinence of the preceding weeks; while standing beside this grave or +that is a priest in black robe and high hat, chanting a prayer for the +dead, and incidentally earning his daily bread. Eating seems to be the +chief amusement; even the mourners eat after they have faithfully +mourned, and the priests too come in for their shares after all +possible fees have been earned. Altogether it is a post-lenten festival +in the full meaning of the term, and much in contrast to the wholesome +enjoyment and the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb59" href="#pb59" +name="pb59">59</a>]</span>light-hearted gaiety so characteristic of +Vartavar. It has been witnessed in Constantinople by Armenians I know, +who have given accounts to me. Whether or not it is carried out in this +manner in the villages and rural districts I am not aware, but I should +be very much surprised to learn that it was, for I should certainly +regard the festival in this form as a product of the artificiality of +city life. In the absence of wholesome amusements and of the community +solidarity characteristic of the Armenian village, contact with +city-bred folk would inevitably result in a shift of standards of +judgment and valuation, together with a break-up in old habits of +thought and life; and as the people have no common play-ground, so to +speak, except the poor denuded cemetery allotted them by the Turkish +government, one can well excuse the ugliness of the spectacle. The +Armenian has Vartavar, a real festival, and need not look with shame +upon this festival in commemoration of the dead.</p> +<p>This same offering of sacrifice for the dead is carried on in a +variety of ways. In Armenian villages the family of the deceased +prepares a lamb or a kid with rice, and on the day of the funeral +pieces of it are given to the attendants; given, as they say, and +taken, in sacrifice for the dead. The practice in Constantinople is +somewhat different, although the idea is exactly the same. Forty days +after the death of an individual, or perhaps on the anniversary of the +death, the bereaved family prepares a lamb or a kid with rice, which is +distributed to the people in small pots, and given, as they say, in +sacrifice for the dead. The Greek custom in this respect is most +absurd. At the head of the casket, which is left open, two men march in +the funeral procession carrying a wide tray filled with boiled wheat +and sugar, and trailing a piece of black crape. After the burial this +is distributed to the mourners in handfuls, again in sacrifice for the +dead. Libations set aside and poured out in Roman days are illustrative +of the same thing. That these practices are not Christian but distinct +survivals of pagan festivals and customs is very clear.</p> +<p>The above conclusions, namely, first that the festival as I +described it is an aberration of city life, and second, that although +identified with the church it is distinctly pagan in character, are +borne out by Abeghian, whose material, as an Armenian who for many +years lived in the little Armenian village of Astapat, is distinctly +first-hand.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1800src" href="#xd20e1800" name= +"xd20e1800src">8</a> Worship of the deceased, he says, begins +immediately after death. Each departed soul, and especially those of +elderly people, requires particular honor on the first day after death, +and during the ensuing year. It is for this reason a great misfortune +for an Armenian peasant not to have a child. A still greater +misfortune, however, it is to die in a strange land where there are +none to care for the departed soul. That a curious evolution has taken +place <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb60" href="#pb60" name= +"pb60">60</a>]</span>in these requirements is very clear. In the +beginning, satisfactions of a material kind were required, something to +eat and to drink, and accordingly the custom arose of placing bread +upon the heart of the dead, or sanctified bread in the cavity of the +mouth and incense in the nostrils. Then there arose the idea of +facilitating the journey of the departed into the beyond, and of making +the future life of the soul a happier one. For example, Armenians +generally bathe the bodies of their dead in blessed water, and wash the +clothes of the deceased on the day following burial for the +purification of the soul so that it may arrive spotless at its +destination. Since the soul has been cleansed of all sin through the +symbolic washing of the body and clothes, no more covering is required +for the body than a large white cloth. No other color is permissible. +Should the deceased be more than ten years of age, candles or oil lamps +are burned during eight days over the spot where the body was bathed in +order to lighten the way of the soul into the beyond. According to old +beliefs, the destination of the departed soul is a place of darkness, +and hence two candles are placed in the hands of the dead immediately +after the bath in order that he may recognize his friends and relatives +in the world beyond. At frequent intervals during the first year, food +and drink are brought to the cemetery, and placed upon the grave. There +is weeping, eating, and drinking at these times, and what food is left +over is always placed over the grave.</p> +<p>The souls of the righteous are thought of as luminous, the wicked as +black. Accordingly the blessed are called “spirits of +light.”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1812src" href="#xd20e1812" +name="xd20e1812src">9</a> In order to possess a bright soul one must +have performed good works, of which giving alms to the poor is +considered the most important. Such spirits are also called +“generous,” “charitable.” It is a current +belief that the blackened souls become brighter through the good works +of descendants, as well as through their prayers. Offspring are thus +especially desirable, and the old Armenian liturgy, the +<i>Maschtotz</i> prepared by St. Mesrob, the inventor of the Armenian +alphabet in the fifth century, contains innumerable prayers for the +dead.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1818src" href="#xd20e1818" name= +"xd20e1818src">10</a> The prayers are short and their power is relative +to the frequency of repetition rather than to the length. Some sort of +short prayer is repeated with every thought of the dead, as for +example, “May God have mercy upon his soul”; “May his +soul become lightened”; or only “The illuminated +soul.”</p> +<p>Several days of the year are set apart for particular remembrance of +the dead.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1825src" href="#xd20e1825" name= +"xd20e1825src">11</a> At these times the departed spirits are supposed +to come down from heaven and to roam about the vicinity of their graves +or in the homes of their relatives. On the eve of these days it is +necessary to do honor to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb61" href= +"#pb61" name="pb61">61</a>]</span>their memory with incense and +candles, which are regarded as offerings. The odor of the incense is +especially pleasant to spirits, for the incense-tree also blooms in +paradise.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1830src" href="#xd20e1830" name= +"xd20e1830src">12</a> Saturday night is very commonly devoted to such +intercession and worship. Incense is burned upon the hearth while +prayers are repeated, or a flame is ignited upon a plate which is +carried into all the corners of the house, or barn, or wherever it is +believed the departed spirit may be wandering. In some places it is +customary to maintain the “light of the dead” throughout +the night in order that the spirits may enter the house. If they find +the house dark in looking through the roof window, they make away, +cursing. Water is not drunk in the dark during these nights, for it is +believed that to do so would be to take it away from the thirsty +spirits of the dead.</p> +<p>On the Day of the Dead the spirits are especially honored, for they +love most to wander in the neighborhood of their graves. People +actually feel themselves to be among the souls of the dead on this +celebration day. The latter are very happy to be thought of, and are +especially glad to have their graves blessed by the priests. But to +please them most one must bring wood and incense and leave it to be +burned over their graves. Three days the spirits remain upon the earth, +after which they return to heaven, their visit having been duly +honored. If they come to find themselves forgotten, they curse their +relatives and fly away in despair. Occasionally they come down to be of +service; especially is this true of the dead father and his living son, +for the former is especially remembered, and his grave is regarded as +holy. Armenians swear by the graves, or by the spirits of their +fathers, and call upon them for help in time of especial need.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1835src" href="#xd20e1835" name= +"xd20e1835src">13</a></p> +<p>Tavernier described the same festival in his <i>Voyages</i> and +noticed that it was considered the greatest infamy to eat with a +“Mordischou,” the person who washed the dead.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1845src" href="#xd20e1845" name= +"xd20e1845src">14</a> No single festival and group of relevant beliefs +is more instructive in showing how much of Armenian folk-belief and +custom is the survival of paganism.</p> +<p>There is yet another festival of this group, which, however, is not +to be traced to paganism, and it would be a mistake to suppose that the +church is connected with it in the same way and to the same extent as +it is with the first three festivals considered. The festival is called +Vartan’s Day, and although the church sanctions the festival and +sets apart a day for the celebration, it comes about as near being +apart from the church as any single festival. Vartan was the general of +the Armenian army defeated at the battle of Avarair, spoken of in Part +One, by the Persian fire-worshippers who endeavored to impose their +religion upon the Armenians at a time when part of Armenia was under +the domination of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb62" href="#pb62" +name="pb62">62</a>]</span>Persia, and the remainder tributary to Rome. +But though defeated in battle, the moral victory, as people now use the +term, was Armenian, for the battle proved the utter failure of the +Persians to convert the Armenian people to their religion.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1852src" href="#xd20e1852" name= +"xd20e1852src">15</a> Vartan saved the nation for Gregorian +Christianity, and it is significant that the people look upon Vartan as +saviour of the nation rather than as saviour of their religion, showing +how the religion was and still is identified with the nation.</p> +<p>It is in his honor that the people hold a festival on the +anniversary day of the battle of Avarair. School children sing songs +and wreath Vartan’s picture with red flowers. The belief is that +this peculiar kind of red flower sprang up from the blood of the +Christian army. Recitations and national patriotic plays are given, and +as the children participate in singing songs, reciting pieces, and +rendering plays, the older people participate in attending +them.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1857src" href="#xd20e1857" name= +"xd20e1857src">16</a></p> +<p>Besides the belief of the red flower there are numerous other +beliefs hallowed by the day. Nightingales that fly over the battlefield +are supposed to sing “Vartan, Vartan,” and there is a +species of antelope with a pouch of fragrant musk under its throat +which is said to have acquired its fragrance by browsing on herbage wet +with the blood of Armenian heroes.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1865src" +href="#xd20e1865" name="xd20e1865src">17</a></p> +<p>Altogether it is the kind of festival to give expression to the +sentiment I have spoken of as love for the country, for its mountains, +rivers, and valleys, and for its ideals of freedom, independence, and +strength. In the presence of the state the festival probably would be +utilized to foster and give expression to the sentiment of loyalty to +the state. There would be specially chosen speakers to talk of +patriotism, waving of banners, and carefully designed methods of +instilling hatred for a real or supposed enemy, much as French school +children have been taught to hate Englishmen. But in the absence of the +state, the sentiment expressed must be a purer sentiment, loftier and +freer, and one can not but regret that Vartan’s Day and similar +festivals have been suppressed by the Turkish government. And yet, one +could not reasonably expect otherwise.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch2.2.3" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 3. Fortune-Telling Day</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">Most charming and most picturesque of festivals is +that participated in by the romantic Armenian maidens on the early dawn +of Ascension Day.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1877src" href="#xd20e1877" +name="xd20e1877src">18</a> On the eve of the same day the young girls +who wish their fortunes told, decorate a large bowl with specially +selected flowers, after which each girl casts a token, a ring, a +brooch, a thimble, into the bowl. Flowers of several kinds are then put +in, and the bowl is filled with water <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb63" href="#pb63" name="pb63">63</a>]</span>drawn from seven springs. +Then they cover it with an embroidered cloth and take it by night to +the priest who says a prayer over it. The most carefully and daintily +prepared bowl is then placed out in the moonlight, open to the stars +where it is left until dawn. At early daybreak of the next morning, the +maidens, furnished with provisions for the entire day, go out of the +village carrying their bowl to the side of a spring, the foot of a +mountain, or into an open field, gathering on the way various kinds of +flowers with which they deck themselves. Having arrived at their place +of festival, they play games, dance, and sing, after which they take a +beautiful little girl, too young to tell where the sun rises, who has +been previously chosen and gaily dressed for the occasion, to draw the +various articles out of the bowl. The face of the child is covered with +a richly wrought veil that she may not see what is in the bowl, and she +then proceeds to withdraw the articles which she holds in her hand one +at a time. While this is done some one of the party recites a charm +song, and the owner of each token takes the song which accompanies it +as her fortune. There are thousands of these charm songs, most of which +have been written especially for the festival, of which I shall give +but a few.</p> +<div class="lgouter"> +<div class="lg"> +<h4>1.</h4> +<p class="line">Snowless hang the clouds to-night,</p> +<p class="line">Through the darkness comes a light;</p> +<p class="line xd20e1890">On this lonely pillow now,</p> +<p class="line">Never more shall sleep alight.</p> +</div> +<div class="lg"> +<h4>2.</h4> +<p class="line">Like a star whose brightness grows</p> +<p class="line">On the earth my beauty shows;</p> +<p class="line xd20e1890">Thou shalt long for yet, and seek</p> +<p class="line">My dark eyes and arching brows.</p> +</div> +<div class="lg"> +<h4>3.</h4> +<p class="line">Long and lone this night to me</p> +<p class="line">Passing slow and wearily;</p> +<p class="line xd20e1890">Passing full of sighs and tears—</p> +<p class="line">Love, what doth it bring to thee?</p> +</div> +<div class="lg"> +<h4>4.</h4> +<p class="line">Eden’s smile my vineyard wore,</p> +<p class="line">Flowers bloomed, a goodly store;</p> +<p class="line xd20e1890">Handsome youth and ugly maid—</p> +<p class="line">This was never seen before!<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1927src" href="#xd20e1927" name="xd20e1927src">19</a></p> +</div> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb64" href="#pb64" name= +"pb64">64</a>]</span></p> +<p>Thus each one carries its bit of prophesy, daintily and prettily +expressed, which when sung at the foot of some mountain, in the bright +eastern sunlight of the morning, while a little child is holding tokens +beside a bowl surrounded by the group of beflowered maidens, makes as +complete and charming a picture as one could well imagine.</p> +<p>Many curious beliefs, superstitions, customs, and legends are +directly related to Ascension Day. It is believed, for example, that on +the eve of this day the water of the springs, brooks, and rivers lies +peacefully motionless for a single moment during the night. At the same +moment heaven and earth, mountain and stone, trees and flowers beckon +and congratulate one another. First heaven congratulates and kisses the +earth, then one star beckons to another, one flower to another, and so +forth until all of nature’s objects have expressed their mutual +good feeling. Even plants and “soulless” objects receive +the gift of speech and share their secrets one with the other at this +time. He who hides himself in a stone crevice of the mountainside may +listen to the conversation of stones and flowers, and understand what +they tell each other. They tell on this night what sort of sicknesses +they and the springs will heal, and many people endeavor to attend at +this moment, but only a few succeed.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1962src" href="#xd20e1962" name="xd20e1962src">20</a></p> +<p>At midnight the waters are believed to have the power of healing, +and people bathe themselves in the streams. As the children are not to +be troubled during the night, water is warmed for them the next +morning, bits of grass are thrown in and the children are bathed. +During the magic moment the door of the cavern of “Maher,” +the revered hero god who dwells upon earth, is opened: and one may +enter to see him, his steed, and the “wheel of the starred +heavens” or the wheel of fate. In one of the national epics +(David of Sassun) Maher is represented as the strongest of the heroes, +and is supposed to dwell in a rocky cave in the vicinity of +Van<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1967src" href="#xd20e1967" name= +"xd20e1967src">21</a> (probably the rock of Van). In this cave all of +the world’s riches are heaped up, and the “wheel of the +world,” the wheel of fate which constantly turns assigning to +people their destinies, stands there. Maher looks continually at the +wheel and if it should stand still, he comes out of his cavern to +ravage the world. The door of the cave is made of stone and covered +with cuneiform inscriptions. It is locked during the entire year except +for the night of the ascension of Christ, when it is opened during the +single magic moment. Whosoever perceives this moment may step into the +cave and take as much gold as he pleases. The idea of the “wheel +of fortune” is considerably extant, although it is not always +understood as separated from heaven and connected with Maher.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e1972src" href="#xd20e1972" name= +"xd20e1972src">22</a> That <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb65" href= +"#pb65" name="pb65">65</a>]</span>the idea of fate or of fortune is +generally associated with the day, not only by romantic maidens, but by +the people, is very evident.</p> +<p>The flowing waters are believed to change into gold during the +silent minute, and if one places an object in the water and wishes at +the same time that it become gold, the object turns to gold. +Accordingly the young men and women go to the springs and rivers in +order to draw water, trusting their fates that they may select the +happy moment. Superstitions and magic are not lacking, for while one +member of a party seats himself upon a pair of fire-tongs in the +fashion of a rider, another performs likewise upon a long-handled spit. +The iron tools are also regarded as a necessary protection against the +calls that one hears behind after the water has been drawn, for if one +should look back perchance, he would surely fall under the influence of +the evil spirits. The oldest of the party carries a gourd flask full of +wheat and barley, which is poured into the stream towards midnight with +the words “I give you wheat and barley; you give me everything +that is good.” Thereupon he fills the gourd flask with water, and +the party hurries homeward to discover the gold.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1985src" href="#xd20e1985" name="xd20e1985src">23</a></p> +<p>The fortune-telling festival is given by Abeghian as he observed it +in his home village, and I shall give a free translation of his account +at this point because of a few interesting variations. In Astapet, the +festival is called the “Festival of the Mother of Flowers.” +On the day before Ascension Day the girls and young women of the +village divide themselves into two groups, one to gather special sorts +of flowers from the mountainside, while the other goes to +“steal” water from seven springs, or seven rivers. The +“thieves” must not see each other, nor must the people of +the village know aught of what is happening. Having filled their +vessels with water, each throws a stone into the spring and then they +turn back, taking care neither to look about, to set down their +vessels, nor to talk. They imagine that the mountains, the valleys, +trees, and meadows call out behind them and if they should turn about +they would be turned to stone.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1990src" +href="#xd20e1990" name="xd20e1990src">24</a></p> +<p>At night of the same day the “water thieves” and flower +gatherers meet together in a garden to prepare the “Havgir” +or magic bowl in which is poured the water from the seven springs, and +in which seven stones from the seven sources, together with leaves of +the gathered flowers are dropped. Each one who wishes her fortune told +now throws in a charm token, such as mentioned before. Those who are +not present send their tokens in order to have them thrown into the +“Havgir” by others. The bowl is then adorned with flowers, +after which the “Vicak” meaning <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb66" href="#pb66" name="pb66">66</a>]</span>destiny +or fate, is prepared. This consists of two pieces of wood tied together +in the form of a cross, which is dressed and adorned with jewels and +pearls to make it appear as a newly-married doll-bride. The +“Vicak” is fastened to the “Havgir,” and both +are placed under the stars, in order that these who are the real +destinies, may work the proper magic upon the charm tokens.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e2000src" href="#xd20e2000" name= +"xd20e2000src">25</a> A few girls guard it during the whole night +against the young men who try to steal it.</p> +<p>Early the next morning the maidens gather together in the garden +laden with food baskets and prepared to make a day of it. The +“Havgir” and strangely fashioned “Vicak” are +carried to a nearby spring, the young girls decking themselves with +flowers as they go. The spring is decorated about with flowers, green +leaves, and branches, and the “Havgir” is placed in the +middle, and then after they have prepared everything and eaten, the +oldest among them takes the “Vicak,” kisses it, gives it to +another, who does likewise, and so it passes from hand to hand. Finally +a seven-year-old girl receives it. She sets herself in the middle of +the group and holds the “Vicak” while the +“Havgir” stands before her. The little girl is called +“bride,” is the interpreter of the “Vicak” and +is specially selected and dressed for the occasion. When she has +received the “Vicak” a red veil is passed over both, and +all is ready for the central event of the festival. A charm song is +sung by the group, and after each stanza the “bride” draws +a token from the vessel. The preceding verse reveals the fate of the +one to whom the token belongs.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2025src" +href="#xd20e2025" name="xd20e2025src">26</a></p> +<p>The fortune-telling festival of Ascension morning stands quite +alone. Bodeful of the future and suggestive of the past, it can not but +have a serious tenor, for there are maidens whose lovers have not been +born, as there are also sadder ones. Perhaps they do not take their +verses very seriously. Whether they do or not there is always the charm +of sunrise colors, and the out-of-doors that makes it as beautiful as +it is romantic. The best of the future, their brightest hope, the best +of the present, warmth of sunshine and color, and the best of the past, +their golden dreams of youth, are brought together on this day and +given a common expression in a way that must charm them as it charms +the observer. Festivals to be perfect festivals must be out-of-doors +and the day must be bright. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb67" href= +"#pb67" name="pb67">67</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1750" href="#xd20e1750src" name="xd20e1750">1</a></span> That is, +Pseudo Agathangelus.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1753" href="#xd20e1753src" name="xd20e1753">2</a></span> Raffi p. +128.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1758" href="#xd20e1758src" name="xd20e1758">3</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1766" href="#xd20e1766src" name="xd20e1766">4</a></span> +Seklemian’s <i>Tales</i>. Preface by Blackwell.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1774" href="#xd20e1774src" name="xd20e1774">5</a></span> Abeghian +pp. 72–74.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1777" href="#xd20e1777src" name="xd20e1777">6</a></span> The 13th +of February according to the old style calendar corresponds to the 26th +of February of the Latin calender.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1786" href="#xd20e1786src" name="xd20e1786">7</a></span> Abeghian +p. 72.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1800" href="#xd20e1800src" name="xd20e1800">8</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i> p 20.</p> +<p class="footnote">The remainder of the paragraph is a free +translation of selected parts of pp. 20–22.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1812" href="#xd20e1812src" name="xd20e1812">9</a></span> Abeghian +p. 22.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1818" href="#xd20e1818src" name="xd20e1818">10</a></span> +<i>Maschtotz</i>, St. Mesrob. One third of the book is devoted to this +purpose.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1825" href="#xd20e1825src" name="xd20e1825">11</a></span> +Ormanian p. 189.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1830" href="#xd20e1830src" name="xd20e1830">12</a></span> +Abeghian p. 23.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1835" href="#xd20e1835src" name="xd20e1835">13</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i> This and preceding paragraph are a free translation from +selected sentences of pp. 23 and 24.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1845" href="#xd20e1845src" name="xd20e1845">14</a></span> +Tavernier 1:507–9.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1852" href="#xd20e1852src" name="xd20e1852">15</a></span> +Elisée.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1857" href="#xd20e1857src" name="xd20e1857">16</a></span> +Lidgett, <i>Ancient People</i>.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1865" href="#xd20e1865src" name="xd20e1865">17</a></span> +<i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1877" href="#xd20e1877src" name="xd20e1877">18</a></span> Raffi +p. 158.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1927" href="#xd20e1927src" name="xd20e1927">19</a></span> +Translated by Miss Boyadjian, <i>Armenian Legends and Poetry</i>.</p> +<p class="footnote">After the first and third lines of the charm song, +the following line is sung, which I give in the German of Abeghian:</p> +<div class="q"> +<div class="body"> +<div lang="de" class="lgouter footnote"> +<p class="line">“Liebe Rose meine, liebe, liebe.”</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<p class="footnote">and after the second and fourth lines:</p> +<div class="q"> +<div class="body"> +<div lang="de" class="lgouter footnote"> +<p class="line">“Liebe Blume meine, liebe, liebe.” +(Abeghian p. 65.)</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<p class="footnote">There are thousands of similarly constructed +folk-songs treating a variety of subjects current among the people, +many of which have been collected by an Armenian by the name of +Tcheras, whose book, unfortunately, I have not been able to obtain. +Miss Boyadjian has collected a few of them in her <i>Armenian Legends +and Poetry</i>. However, I shall mention only such as are relevant to +the festivals to be described.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1962" href="#xd20e1962src" name="xd20e1962">20</a></span> +Abeghian pp. 61–62.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1967" href="#xd20e1967src" name="xd20e1967">21</a></span> +<i>World’s Great Classic Series.</i> Section on Armenian +literature, with introduction by Robert Arnot. See David of Sassun pp. +57–79.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1972" href="#xd20e1972src" name="xd20e1972">22</a></span> +Abeghian p. 51, 52.</p> +<p class="footnote">Emin, <i>Ancient Armenian Legends</i>.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1985" href="#xd20e1985src" name="xd20e1985">23</a></span> +Abeghian p. 62.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1990" href="#xd20e1990src" name="xd20e1990">24</a></span> These +beliefs are analogous to those in connection with the bringing of +healing water, or the water of perpetual life, the source of which is +guarded by monsters, snakes, and scorpions. The hero steals cautiously +to the source in order not to be observed by the watchmen, fills his +vessel with water and hurries away, for the mountains and trees call +out to warn the guardians of the source who awake and follow the hero. +(<i>Ibid.</i> p. 63.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2000" href="#xd20e2000src" name="xd20e2000">25</a></span> This +part of the festivities is also accompanied with song. In Astapet the +following song is sung by way of introduction:</p> +<div class="q"> +<div class="body"> +<div lang="de" class="lgouter footnote"> +<p class="line hangqq">“Holt einen grossen Meister,</p> +<p class="line">Lasset ihn den Hochzeitsrock meines geliebten +zuschneiden</p> +<p class="line">Die Sonne sei der Stoff</p> +<p class="line">Der Mond diene als Futter.</p> +<p class="line">Stellt aus Wolken die Einfassung her,</p> +<p class="line">Wickelt aus dem Meer Seidengarn,</p> +<p class="line">Befestigt die Sterne in einer Reihe als Knopfe,</p> +<p class="line">Näht die ganze Liebe hinein.” (Abeghian p. +64.)</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2025" href="#xd20e2025src" name="xd20e2025">26</a></span> +Abeghian pp. 63–66.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch2.3" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="label">Chapter III</h2> +<h2 class="main">Christian Folk Festivals</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The second group of festivals comprises those newly +created by the church, such as the Blessing of the Grapes, New Year, +Easter, and Christmas. I wish also to include in this group a few of +the peculiarly characteristic church ceremonies which also have a +distinct festival value for the people, i.e., the ceremony of the +“Washing of Feet” on Maundy Thursday, +“Khatchanguist” or the “Blessing of Water,” the +consecration of the Katholikos, and the manufacture of the “holy +oil.”</p> +<div id="ch2.3.1" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 1. Christmas, Easter, and New Year</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The service of the church on any one of the festival +days is exclusively connected with the divine mystery, so called. These +include the Assumption, or Immaculate Conception, celebrated by the +people in the festival “the Blessing of the Grapes”; the +miraculous birth, which corresponds to the Christmas festival; the +Transfiguration, or the folk-festival Vartavar; the Redemption, to +which the Easter festival corresponds; and the Resurrection, including +Ascension or Fortune-Telling Day. There are other festivals celebrated +by the church, such as the festival of the Holy Cross, and of the Holy +Church, which I omit because there is not a corresponding social +expression. Grand mass is said at the church, and the particular +passages of scripture that have a direct bearing on the occasion are +read. The Armenian calendar is curious in that many of the festivals +occupy a succession of days; there are, for example, 39 days for the +Resurrection, 3 days for the Transfiguration, 10 days for the +Ascension, etc., which make up a grand total of 136 days in the year to +which festivals are assigned. As there are 160 days devoted to +abstinence, 117 of which are liturgical abstinence, that is, days of +penitence mentioned in the liturgy, there are left only 112 days for +the commemoration of saints, which have necessarily to be grouped +together, since there are more than 112 saints.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2044src" href="#xd20e2044" name="xd20e2044src">1</a> Because, +therefore, of the continuity of festival days, one could not expect any +one of the festivals to have any social value from the standpoint of +the church service. But there is never any conflict between the +services of the church and the festivities without, which are thus +sanctioned by the church and in many cases directed and carried out by +church officials. It has been noticed that the blessing of the priest +was secured for the magic bowl, before it was placed underneath the +stars on the eve of Ascension Day.</p> +<p>The festival of the Virgin Mary, or the “Blessing of the +Grapes,” is more actively participated in by the church. It may +be designed to keep the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb68" href= +"#pb68" name="pb68">68</a>]</span>people from eating green grapes, but +more probably was intended to give a social expression to an otherwise +dull and very monotonous church ceremony. The people are all expected +to maintain a strict abstinence from eating grapes until the middle of +August, the day set apart for the festival. The grapes are then +gathered in great quantities, some of which are carried to the church +and placed on a large tray, which is set at the foot of the altar. +After the ceremony of the church, the priest turns to the tray of +grapes before him, which he blesses with his cross. The tray is then +taken to the door of the church, where each member of the congregation +is given a bunch as he passes out. The fast is thus broken with the +taste of “blessed grapes,” and there is no end of grape +eating on that day. During the remainder of the day every woman named +Mary, or named with a possible attribute of the Virgin Mary, as +“Kudsa,” meaning “saintly,” or +“Dirouhi,” meaning “Mother of the Lord,” keeps +open house for the friends who drop in to eat grapes and to +congratulate her. In rural places or villages where vineyards are +abundant, social groups may be seen eating grapes from the vines while +talking or playing as they are inclined. Grapes ripen earlier in some +parts of Armenia than in others, and where this is true the festival is +merged with the festival of Vartavar.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2051src" href="#xd20e2051" name="xd20e2051src">2</a></p> +<p>For the festival of New Year’s Eve no religious +coöperation whatever is necessary; it comes as near to being +distinct from the church as any of the Armenian festivals. The +preparation consists largely in making or purchasing gifts for the +various members of the family, in cracking bowls of nuts and getting +all kinds of dried fruits ready. Armenian and Greek New Year’s +Eve fall on the same night, and in Constantinople there is much +agitation and animation in the streets. Singing and music fill the air, +and as soon as dusk falls, groups of boys, some carrying small +lanterns, others provided with tom-toms or hand-organs, begin the +circuit of the streets. Thus they go from house to house singing the +New Year’s song and playing their hand-organs, receiving pennies +as they go. After the boys have passed along, the porters, watchmen, +and firemen make a noisy procession down the streets, they too playing +hand-organs and stopping at one house after another where they receive +a drink, some sweets and nuts, and most important of all, a tip. As +midnight approaches, the excitement increases; the pounding of the +tom-toms becomes unbearable, all the organs of the neighborhood are +making music, and there is such a noise of singing, shouting, and +laughing as can be compared only to a night of political election. +Inside the homes of the better-to-do, the children are put to bed for a +time while the enormous New Year’s table <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb69" href="#pb69" name="pb69">69</a>]</span>is set. +Besides several specially prepared New Year’s dishes, every home +must be provided with a dish of every kind of fruit, dried or fresh. +Small candles are stuck around the plates, and the presents are heaped +up on a side table. At midnight the candles are all lit, and the family +ranges itself around the table while the eldest, usually the +grandmother, blesses all and prays. After the prayer she wishes to all +the best things for the coming year, for the young ladies good +husbands, for the young men prosperity and good wives, happiness for +the little children, and comfort and health for the older ones. These +wishes having been given, all kiss the hands of the older members of +the family, after which the children kiss each others’ hands. The +presents are exchanged; fruits, candies, and nuts are partaken of, and +the fun goes on until dawn.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2064src" href= +"#xd20e2064" name="xd20e2064src">3</a> In the interior of Armenia, two +elders of the church go from door to door of the more fortunate ones on +the day before New Year, carrying bags which they fill with the +offerings received at every house. These are carefully parceled out and +at dusk are left at the doors of poor families who would otherwise have +no New Year’s cheer.</p> +<p>The church makes up amply in the Easter festival for any lack of +participation at New Year. Forty-eight days of rigid lenten abstinence, +during which time no meat is eaten, precede the festivities of Easter +Day. The first two or three days of the Holy Week are given over to +housecleaning, which however must be finished by Thursday in order that +the people may attend the ceremonies at church which continue until +Easter Day. On Thursday afternoon “the Washing of the +Feet,” to be described later, commences, and the service +continues until past midnight. On Saturday all go to the bath, which is +made an essential part of the week’s celebrations, and on the +afternoon of the same day the real Easter service, called the Lighting +of the Lights, begins. The church is first illuminated on Easter Eve, +for on the three preceding days of mourning and sorrow the altar shrine +is kept closed and no candles are lit. Even the congregation holds +lighted wax candles while the triumphal songs are chanted by the robed +choir of little boys.</p> +<p>At the evening meal of the day before Easter the lenten fast is +partly broken by eating fish and boiled eggs, but no meat.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e2071src" href="#xd20e2071" name="xd20e2071src">4</a> +The denial of the flesh recommences, however, at bedtime, for not a +morsel is eaten until Easter midday. Early dawn sees the people putting +on their new clothes, especially new shoes which are considered a +necessity on this day, and all, newly attired, go to church where +communion is celebrated. The church is usually filled with flowers and +its most brilliant ornaments are displayed, <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb70" href="#pb70" name="pb70">70</a>]</span>the +service ending at midday in time for the usual feast of stuffed roast +lamb, the customary red eggs, and the egg bread made only at Easter +time. In the afternoon the men visit from house to house and something +dainty is always served, a cocktail or a cup of coffee with sweets like +Turkish delight or bonbons. The formula repeated by the guest upon +entering a house is always the same; “Christ is risen from the +dead,” he exclaims, and is answered by the host with the usual +formula, “Blessed is the resurrection of Christ.”</p> +<p>Perhaps the boys enjoy Easter most of all. Provided with red Easter +eggs, they collect in groups, whereupon there follows a most vivacious +competition to win each other’s eggs by clashing them together. +The champion egg is used until it is broken, when a new champion is +quickly brought forth. This process continues as long as there are two +or more unbroken eggs, the game being won when all of the broken eggs +are in the possession of the boy who holds the champion egg. Picnic +day, or the “Day of the Dead,” follows Easter Day, as I +have described it, and it is singularly strange that a “day of +resurrection” should be followed by a “day of the +dead,” when prayers are said and offerings given in sacrifice for +the departed. But people are not mindful of such little incongruities; +they are simple and carry out the festival celebrated by their fathers, +much as their fathers celebrated it.</p> +<p>The week before Christmas is likewise devoted to a thorough +housecleaning by the Armenian housewife, and on the day before, special +dishes are prepared for the next day’s feast. Again there is the +customary bath which is observed by all the members of the household. +On Christmas Eve the abstinence of the preceding days is partly broken, +usually with fried fish, lettuce, and boiled spinach. Boiled spinach is +the rule because it is believed that this dish made up the supper of +the Virgin Mary on the eve of Christ’s birth. At church special +vespers are sung and there is much emphasis laid upon special +selections from the prophets which are also sung. An hour before dawn +the sexton alone, or with a group of choir boys, goes from door to door +singing what is called “the good tidings.” It is the signal +for the faithful to awake, don their best clothes and go to church +again without eating breakfast. The holy bread and wine are not to be +profaned by the people having eaten a breakfast of ordinary food, with +the consequence that not a few faint during the service, even as at +Easter time. But the ceremony is finished by half past ten, after which +the women go home to prepare the midday feast while the men visit the +homes of their friends. The never-failing formula of the guest upon +entering the house of a friend is, “Christ is born and manifested +to-day,” which is responded to by the host with “Blessed is +the manifestation of Christ.” Each visit lasts about fifteen +minutes and sweets and coffee are served. At midday the Christmas +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb71" href="#pb71" name= +"pb71">71</a>]</span>feast is partaken of, all make merry around the +table, and in the afternoon more calls are paid and received. The +festivities are observed for three days, the third being ladies’ +day, which is devoted by the ladies to giving and receiving visits. +They offer their salutations and good wishes to each other, eating +dainties even as the men. Shops and business places of Armenians are +usually kept closed for three days.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2085src" +href="#xd20e2085" name="xd20e2085src">5</a></p> +<p>There is thus considerable similarity between Easter and the +Christmas festivities, which is probably due to more or less sameness +in the church ceremonies. These ceremonies, always well attended, are +made attractive to the people by beautiful displays of flowers, vested +choir boys, the charm of whose singing can only be understood by those +who have heard them; also by special singing, not by the congregation, +but by those who can sing, and with such enticing little additions as +the Lighting of Lights. The services are thus as much and as real a +part of the day’s rejoicings as the feasts and social visits, and +if they are designed consciously or unconsciously to give active +expression to the sentiment of loyalty to the church one must admit +that the expression is a perfectly free and natural one. Abstinences do +not make the festivities attractive, to be sure, and there are more +unfortunate communities who can not afford so lavish a display as +others; but flowers need only to be picked from the fields, and boys +there are always, even in the poorest churches. The holiday rejoicing +has somewhat more of the serious blend which is to be contrasted with +the more perfect gaiety of New Year’s Day, and is probably due to +the weightiness of its religious significance of which one is +constantly reminded, not only by the services at the church but also by +the salutations of visitors and the necessary replies, always the same. +But even the gaiety of New Year is not to be compared with the perfect +lightness and freedom of merriment that characterize some aspects of +Vartavar, nor do any of the Christian folk festivals have the +completeness of Vartavar.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch2.3.2" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 2. Special Church Ceremonies</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">Together with this second group of festivals including +as they do Christmas, Easter, New Year, and the Blessing of the Grapes, +I wish to include a short series of church ceremonies all of which have +a very distinct festival value, beside their value in being singularly +characteristic of the Armenian church. They are distinctly different +from the festivals of the preceding section, in that the festivities +are incidental to a ceremony peculiar to the Armenian church. The +“Washing of Feet,” the “Blessing of the Water,” +the consecration of the Katholikos, and the manufacture of the holy +oil, are those I desire to describe. <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb72" href="#pb72" name="pb72">72</a>]</span></p> +<p>The “Washing of Feet” occurs on Maundy Thursday, three +days before Easter.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2098src" href= +"#xd20e2098" name="xd20e2098src">6</a> This day is the first of three +successive days of mourning spoken of, during which the altar is +closed, and no lights are lit. After the mass the bishop puts away his +brocaded robes, and kneeling in imitation of Christ washing the feet of +His disciples on the night of the betrayal, he washes the feet of the +priests and choristers, of whom there are usually eleven. Christ washed +the feet of twelve, but one of them was unworthy. The service then +continues until midnight, and while the ceremony is in progress, the +lights are put out one by one, to remain out until the “Lighting +of the Lights” on Easter eve. If the church is a parish church in +which a priest officiates, a number of little boys are ranged in order +for the “Washing of Feet,” which in this case is performed +by the priest, who anoints the soles of their feet with oil after he +has washed them. Each boy is given a walnut shell and before he moves +from his place he carefully scrapes some of the oil into his shell, and +carries it home to place in the butter. If he does this it is believed +that the supply of butter will not fail throughout the year.</p> +<p>This same service was observed by a writer in the <i>Survey</i>, in +a church on East 27th Street, New York, rented by a company of Armenian +folk residing in that city.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2109src" href= +"#xd20e2109" name="xd20e2109src">7</a> The same symbolic “Washing +of Feet” was carried out on the evening of Maundy Thursday in +much the same fashion as it is carried out in the home-land. The +symbolism, the pageantry, the color of oriental Armenian worship, the +silver-mounted Bible on the altar in the center, the rising steps, the +crosses, the lighted candles, and the incense were all there. A +white-robed choir with green velvet copes filed in, singing long +chants. The choir was followed by two priests, and the priests by the +bishop with his mitre, robe of crimson and gold, and his ivory cross +held in the right hand with a kerchief of crimson silk. A shining +crozier held in his left hand marked his office as shepherd of the +flock; a large jewel locket and cross hung from his breast and was +probably the gift of the Czar. The choir chant that continues all the +while was described as an intricate, rhythmless tune, now passionate, +now wailing and altogether “oriental,” accompanied by a few +older folk here and there who were humming in unison with the choir and +the leader, who was beating time. Beside the humming the congregation +took no part in the service except that it stood up for the psalm and +prayer. Suddenly a sound to the right brought the observer’s +attention to an old woman lying prostrate in the aisle. No one helped +her, no one even seemed to notice her, but presently she rose to a +kneeling posture and lifted her eyes in prayer to the altar. Again she +prostrated herself, and again rose to lift her eyes to the altar, which +performance was repeated a third time before the old woman <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb73" href="#pb73" name="pb73">73</a>]</span>took her +seat. “Der Voghormia” meaning “Lord have mercy upon +us,” was repeated ten times by the interceding bishop in a voice +loud and intense, and a second ten times, and a third ten times. The +chant quickened, and as the aged priest took the Bible from its place +and held it toward the audience the bishop gave his benediction of +peace to the “four corners of the earth.” There was another +chant after which the washing of the feet commenced. With deep +seriousness the bishop placed his staff by the altar, laid aside his +mitre and brocaded robes, and beginning with the aged priest, he knelt +beside a bowl of water to wash his feet. Ten more of those who came +forward shared in the ceremony. “I can not so serve you +all,” he said at the close of his address, “I am sorry. +Take as symbolic what is done.” There was a short intermission, +but before ten o’clock the penitential service recommenced and +continued until midnight. The story of Christ’s betrayal in the +garden was read, and the chants continued, wilder, sadder, and more +wailing, accompanied by murmurs and occasionally by low cries from the +people. As midnight approached the lights were dimmed one by one, and +the emotion became more intense. As the hour struck, the congregation +rose, and with clasped hands joined in a closing song and prayer. There +were only a few score people present.</p> +<p>The prostration of the old woman reminds one of the spiritually +wounded who lay prostrate over the floor during the times of the +Kentucky revivals, but the fact is there is nothing hysterical in this +particular phase of Armenian worship. The attitude is commonly +practiced by Armenians, especially among the peasant classes. They lie +flat touching their heads to the ground.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2118src" href="#xd20e2118" name="xd20e2118src">8</a> But the +posture is more peculiarly oriental than it is peculiarly Armenian. No +sight is more common in the countries of Islam than the faithful Moslem +who spreads his bit of carpet upon which he kneels with gaze fixed +toward Mecca, prostrating himself repeatedly as he murmurs his +prayers.</p> +<p>Although the picture given by Dubois of a simple church service he +attended in Koulpe, Armenia, is not the ceremony of Maundy Thursday, it +has one or two strokes of native color that make it impossible to +omit.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2126src" href="#xd20e2126" name= +"xd20e2126src">9</a> The church was poor and simple, the walls were +built of stone cemented by clay or bad lime. Two rows of large beams +neither squared nor trimmed supported the earthen roof in the manner of +columns. At the farther end was a kind of niche, partitioned off by +means of soiled curtains, thus forming a sanctuary where stood the +priest, clothed in torn robe, to read the prayers. All of the little +boys of the village encircled him, kneeling and chanting or reciting +prayers, turn by turn. The eldest placed themselves outside of the +choir and knelt on straw mats or on sheep’s skins which +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb74" href="#pb74" name= +"pb74">74</a>]</span>marked their customary places, and kissed the +earth, or murmured very low the words of the priest, or responded to +the chanting at high pitch. The women held themselves apart, their +faces half veiled, filling the back of the church behind the men, and, +with lowered heads, were the first to leave.</p> +<p>The kneeling posture and the prostration is again clearly in +evidence, which together with what has been said is sufficient to show +that this attitude, especially among the common people, is a very +ordinary one and is therefore to be regarded merely as a very generally +recognized posture of worship, and not at all significant necessarily +of “conviction of sin” or a “feeling of +penitence,” which is nevertheless suggested. The church at Koulpe +must have been a very poor one not to have benches, but it had its +little chorus of boys, and the people participated in much the same way +as in the little church in New York, although nearly a hundred years +have passed since Dubois attended the simple service.</p> +<p>“Khatchahankist,” meaning literally, “repose of +the cross,” is the second of the four church ceremonies I shall +describe. The ceremony might better be named “the Blessing of the +Water,” for that is what it really consists of. In the towns of +Turkey the churches devote one day each week to the performance of this +rite, but in other churches it occurs at the end of a special mass, as +for example on Ascension Day, or on the commemoration day of St. +Gregory.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2135src" href="#xd20e2135" name= +"xd20e2135src">10</a> There is always a very great gathering on this +occasion largely because of the various superstitions connected with +it. A large silver bowl of water is brought and placed on a stand at +the foot of the altar, after which the officiating priest comes forward +with relics of the Holy Cross, of the saints, or a simple silver cross +in his hand. The more frequently used relics are those of St. Gregory +the Illuminator, St. John the Baptist, St. James of Nisibis, or St. +George the Martyr. The priest reads prayers over the water, which are +answered by the chants from the choir, after which he dips the relic or +the cross into the water three times, finally making the sign of the +cross over the bowl. The Lord’s prayer is repeated, after which a +ladle is placed on one side of the vessel, while the priest kneels on +the other, cross or relic in hand. Now the people crowd about, cross +their faces and kiss the cross, and then take up the ladle to drink of +the water thus blessed especially for drinking purposes. It is used +also for ablutions, for popular belief endows the sacred liquid with +curative power.</p> +<p>Some of the prayers that are repeated and the texts that are read +during this ceremony are well worth noting, for they illustrate the +candid interest of all participating. After the reading of the texts, +the deacon repeats the following proclamation: “Let us pray unto +God who loveth <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb75" href="#pb75" name= +"pb75">75</a>]</span>mankind and hath given for hope and refuge his +victorious holy cross, which is armor invincible against the inworkings +of Satan, to the end that whatsoever it touches, this water and all +creatures. He shall through the same vouchsafe both healing and +mercy.” The priest then prays: “Bless, O Lord, this water, +and hallow it with thy holy cross, in order that the flocks and sheep +which may approach and drink of the same, may derive therefrom freedom +from disease and sterility; for from them we select sacrifices of +fragrant sweetness and offer them as victims to thyself.” And +again the priest prays: “Bless, O Lord, this water with the +life-giving powers of the cross that everyone who shall drink thereof +may derive therefrom a medicine of soul and body, and a health from the +diseases which afflict him.” Again: “Bless, O Lord, this +water with thy holy cross, that it may impart to the fields where it is +sprinkled profitable harvests, and that all plants and herbs may be +more than ever increased in fruitfulness.”<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2142src" href="#xd20e2142" name="xd20e2142src">11</a> The cross +is then passed three times over the water with the words, “Let +this water be blessed and hallowed in the name of the Father, and of +the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.” This is followed by a +short proclamation by the deacon and a closing prayer by the priest, +after which the assembled people receive of the magic water as above +described.</p> +<p>This frank personal interest is characteristic of many of the church +ceremonies. For example in the sacrament of holy communion, incense is +offered with the prayer, “Do thou in its stead send upon us the +graces and gifts of thine Holy Spirit.”<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2150src" href="#xd20e2150" name="xd20e2150src">12</a></p> +<p>Of central importance to the nation as to the religion is the +ceremony of the consecration of the Katholikos, the supreme authority +of the church, which is held in front of the Cathedral at +Etchmiadzin.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2164src" href="#xd20e2164" +name="xd20e2164src">13</a> People from near and far gather together to +witness this event, and lest they should fail to see the central act of +the ceremony, the roofs near-by are all used for the greater advantage +they give to the observer. The banner of the Katholikos is set flying +from the belfry tower; in front of the entrance to the Cathedral is set +a wooden dais covered with carpets and costly embroideries whereon the +ceremony is performed; the procession is formed and all is then in +readiness. A service is held in the Cathedral, after which the +procession issues from the church, and the various state and church +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb76" href="#pb76" name= +"pb76">76</a>]</span>officials including representatives from the +Russian government, the choir and deacons, all take their places about +the platform. The twelve bishops who reside at Etchmiadzin, and whose +business it is to wait upon the Katholikos, now appear gorgeously +attired, escorting the central figure of the day, over whose head two +attendants carry a richly embroidered canopy. The patriarch falls on +his knees, his feet beneath his body in full accordance with the +ordinary posture. One bishop now reads, after which another advances +bearing in his hands the image of a dove wrought in gold. It is the +receptacle of the holy oil, which is a mixture of the sacred oil +blessed by St. Gregory, sparingly used and carefully preserved in the +treasury of the Cathedral, and of the specially prepared oil +consecrated in Sis in Cilicia. While one bishop is pouring the holy oil +from the neck of the golden dove over the head of the <span class= +"corr" id="xd20e2169" title="Source: partiarch">patriarch</span>, the +other bishops gather around to spread the oil about with their thumbs, +making at the same time the sign of the cross. A piece of cloth is now +placed over his head, his face being covered at the same time by a veil +which is attached to the cloth. After a brief interval the newly +consecrated Katholikos, followed by the bishops, officials, and +procession, reenters the church in order to complete the ceremony. When +the procession again files out escorting the pontiff to his residence, +the choir sings, and the Russian band plays. Festivities continue +throughout the day and into the night, including mainly the banquet +with its toasts and songs by the choir, and the concert furnished by +the band in the evening. The band is a foreign innovation, although the +particular band observed by Lynch consisted mostly of Armenians.</p> +<p>The holy oil used in the consecration consists for the most part of +the preparation manufactured in Sis, as stated, and with which there is +a special ceremony connected, which is of general importance, for the +oil is also used for the various necessary consecrations of all the +churches. In the church at Sis is treasured a gorgeous silver bowl, +decorated with turrets and pinnacles, in which “Muron” as +it is called, or holy oil is made every four years. Pilgrims come from +far to witness the event. The bowl, which holds about a gallon of oil +is placed outside the church, and in it are placed a hundred and one +kinds of flowers amid prayers and chants.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2175src" href="#xd20e2175" name="xd20e2175src">14</a> These +flowers are stirred with the arm of St. Gregory, after which the lid is +put on and the mixture made to boil.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2183src" href="#xd20e2183" name="xd20e2183src">15</a> The +privilege of lifting off the lid is auctioned, and it is said that +£100 was once paid for the distinction. The oil is then sold to +the pilgrims, all of whom take a phial of it along to their homes where +it is used in baptism, marriage, and burial ceremonies. It is also +believed to have wonderful medicinal properties. <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb77" href="#pb77" name="pb77">77</a>]</span></p> +<p>The chief social value of these ceremonies lies in the fact that +they bring large groups of people together under unusual circumstances, +all of which adds importance to the various rites and festivities of +the occasion. Especially is this true of the consecration of the +Katholikos, which may occur twice or at the most three times in a +generation. For this reason and also because of the authority and +position of the Katholikos, not only as head of the church, but also in +a very real sense, as head of the nation, this ceremony is attended by +many pilgrims from the various sections of the country. Having +assembled, the occasion is thus made a great deal more of than if it +were an ordinary event. The day is a festival day in the full meaning +of the term. Besides the services there is the banquet, the special +choir, and the band. The relics kept in the treasury, which it is +probable that most people who come have not seen before; also the holy +churches of St. Gaiane and St. Rhipsime, which are visited by small +groups throughout the day; and most of all the sacred altar of the +Cathedral, where Christ descended in the vision of St. Gregory, are +special attractions. And then there is the library where many ancient +and precious manuscripts are exhibited, the institution of the +monastery, the garden of the Katholikos, the printing press, and the +seminary, all of which are of interest to the spectator. In fact there +is sufficient to induce the pilgrims to remain for a number of days, +which many of them do. The grounds are provided with a pilgrim’s +court surrounded by guest chambers utilized at this time. Naturally +enough the various monuments suggest the traditions and legends with +which they are connected, such as the traditions of St. Gregory, +Tiridates, the legends of St. Rhipsime and St. Gaiane, and the other +legends associated with the introduction of Christianity. Although +centered about a religious ceremony which probably lasts no longer than +fifteen minutes, the occasion is thus made a festival, and is about as +important in fostering a real sentiment of patriotism and of church +loyalty as any other single festival.</p> +<p>The ceremony of the manufacture of the holy oil is not of such +central importance. It also, however, has the advantage of not +occurring very frequently, coming as it does only once in every four +years. This together with the general utility of the oil in all of the +various church ceremonies, plus the superstitions connected with it, is +sufficient to induce pilgrims to make the journey to Sis in Cilicia, +where the ceremony is held. It is again this assembly of pilgrims that +gives the ceremony a social importance. In a nation like the United +States where all parts are connected by railroads, telegraphs, and +telephones, such a pilgrimage would have comparatively little social +value. Except for government centers, there are no telegraphs in +Armenia, the telephone is known only in a few cities, and railroads +there are none. This lack of communication gives such ceremonies to +which pilgrimages are made a very special social value which +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb78" href="#pb78" name= +"pb78">78</a>]</span>they otherwise would not at all have. The +electoral assemblies spoken of have the same value, and for the same +reason. The Armenian is not a person to be silent, and talks even when +prudence is the better part of valour. He criticizes, condemns, and +praises openly, fearlessly, and carelessly, and such a gathering of +pilgrims, or electors, if it means anything, would mean a wholesale +exchange of facts relating to current events, opinions, and rumors with +reference to politics, religion, and every phase of social and +industrial life.</p> +<p>The Blessing of the Water can not be said to have so great a social +value, occurring as it does in some parts of the country once every +week. And yet this service is unusually well attended, largely because +of the superstitions connected with the blessed water. Religion here +appears to offer its biggest attraction to the less fortunate, such as +the rheumatic, the tubercular, the dyspeptic, the epileptic, and the +feeble-minded. But enough facts have been mentioned to show that the +Armenian church is something more than an institution of cure and +relief. It has identified itself too completely with the common life by +keeping alive the streams and cross currents of social activity to +admit of such a supposition.</p> +<p>The ceremony of Maundy Thursday, or Washing of the Feet, is, of the +four I have mentioned, of the least social importance. But it is +generally attended, especially by the women who are compelled by the +ban of custom to complete their house-cleaning before this service +begins. And then too, it is the commencement of the Easter celebration, +and as such has a distinct festival value. I have reviewed them +therefore in the order of their social importance. The consecration of +the Katholikos first; second the making of holy oil; third, the +Blessing of the Water, and finally, the Washing of the Feet, which +complete the second group of festivals. <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb79" href="#pb79" name="pb79">79</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2044" href="#xd20e2044src" name="xd20e2044">1</a></span> Ormanian +pp. 189–90.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2051" href="#xd20e2051src" name="xd20e2051">2</a></span> For the +ritual side of this festival, the church ceremony known as the Blessing +of the Crops, or the Blessing of Harvest, and the prayers in connection +therewith, F. C. Conybeare’s <i>Ritual Armenorum</i>, and St. +Mesrob’s <i>Maschtotz</i> may be consulted. The social side I +have gotten from my wife who has taken part in the festival several +times.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2064" href="#xd20e2064src" name="xd20e2064">3</a></span> A very +common custom, especially in the interior villages of Armenia, is to +give a lighted candle and an apple or orange in which small silver +coins have been stuck, as gifts to the children. This is done by the +eldest member of the family, usually the grandmother, at the time the +younger ones come up to kiss her hand and receive her blessing.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2071" href="#xd20e2071src" name="xd20e2071">4</a></span> For a +description of the Easter and Christmas fasts, see Tavernier, +<i>Voyages</i> 1:497–98.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2085" href="#xd20e2085src" name="xd20e2085">5</a></span> The +festivals of New Year’s Day, Easter, and Christmas, I have +described as related to me by my wife who has celebrated them in +company with others in Constantinople. Such variations practiced in the +interior of Armenia as I am aware of, I have indicated.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2098" href="#xd20e2098src" name="xd20e2098">6</a></span> F. C. +Conybeare, <i>Ritual Armenorum</i> pp. 213, 294.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2109" href="#xd20e2109src" name="xd20e2109">7</a></span> +<i>Survey</i> 36:167. Anonymous.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2118" href="#xd20e2118src" name="xd20e2118">8</a></span> +Tavernier, <i>Voyages</i> 1:496.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2126" href="#xd20e2126src" name="xd20e2126">9</a></span> Dubois +3:441.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2135" href="#xd20e2135src" name="xd20e2135">10</a></span> +Ormanian p. 177.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2142" href="#xd20e2142src" name="xd20e2142">11</a></span> F. C. +Conybeare, <i>Ritual Armenorum</i> p. 224.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2150" href="#xd20e2150src" name="xd20e2150">12</a></span> +Brightman, <i>Eastern Liturgies</i>, chapter on Armenian Liturgy. For +an interesting variation of this ceremony see Tavernier 1:502.</p> +<p class="footnote">Closely related to this ceremony is that of the +blessing or purifying of a well. A well is not used until a priest has +first blessed it, or if the water of a well becomes impure, it is +necessary to purify it by the blessing of a priest. The latter takes a +cross and a Bible and having requested the people to draw a pail of +water which is thrown away, a second pail is drawn, over which the +priest reads a psalm. The water is then blessed with the cross, incense +is burned over the well, and the pail of water is emptied back. +(<i>Maschtotz.</i>)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2164" href="#xd20e2164src" name="xd20e2164">13</a></span> Lynch +1:203, 204.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2175" href="#xd20e2175src" name="xd20e2175">14</a></span> +<i>Contemporary Review</i> 70:695. J. T. Bent.</p> +<p class="footnote">Tavernier, 1:500, 501.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2183" href="#xd20e2183src" name="xd20e2183">15</a></span> The +people believe that the holy relic causes the mixture to boil.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch2.4" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="label">Chapter IV</h2> +<h2 class="main">Private Festival Occasions</h2> +<div id="ch2.4.1" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 1. Baptism</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The third group of festivals comprises those connected +with the common life of the people, including the ceremonies of +baptism, betrothal, marriage, and funeral. The church is vitally +related to each of them, and they are of importance here because of +their social value, which I shall again endeavor to point out.</p> +<p>First after birth, the most important event in the life of every +Armenian child is that of baptism, for the belief is that the +unbaptized child has no soul. The infant is therefore generally +baptized on the day after birth, and when this is impossible always +within eight days of birth. If the child is sick there is all the more +reason to hurry; in this case the essential parts of the ceremony are +performed in the home, the remainder being celebrated at the church at +some later time. The very first thing to be done therefore after the +birth of a child is to make the necessary preparations for baptism, +which are very elaborate in the case of the first-born, especially if +the child is a boy.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2210src" href= +"#xd20e2210" name="xd20e2210src">1</a> A girl is always better than no +child at all, but not much better. A godfather and godmother are +selected, presents are exchanged between them and the parents of the +child, invitations are sent to friends and relations, and at a fixed +time the assembled people form a procession to the church, led by the +midwife holding the child. The godfather pays all expenses, and +therefore such splendor as the ceremony may have in the way of special +ornaments for the altar, numbers of priests, and a large choir, is +determined by him. After the group has properly assembled at the +church, the priest takes the child from the midwife and gives it to the +godfather. The profession of faith follows immediately and then the +priest turns to the west to abjure the devil and to the east to invoke +the Trinity.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2215src" href="#xd20e2215" +name="xd20e2215src">2</a> Having placed the hem of his chasuble upon +the babe, the priest proceeds to the sacristy reciting a psalm, and +followed by the people. The central event now takes place. The baptism +consists of three immersions in the name of the Holy Trinity. First +water is poured over the head of the child, after which the whole body +is plunged into the water. Confirmation is administered right after the +ceremony of immersion, and takes place upon the altar of the church +proper, before the image of the Blessed Virgin. The forehead, eyes, +ears, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb80" href="#pb80" name= +"pb80">80</a>]</span>nose, mouth, hands, back, breast and upper part of +the feet of the infant are anointed with holy oil, and two wax tapers +are placed in the hands of the godfather while carrying the child. The +priest then takes the tapers and the babe, consecrates and confirms him +by three profound inclinations before the altar, gives candles and +child back to the godfather and blesses both. Now the child may be +called by its Christian name, which is usually that of a +saint.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2228src" href="#xd20e2228" name= +"xd20e2228src">3</a> Led by the priest and the singing choir, the +procession now starts back to the home of the little one, still carried +by the godfather who continues to hold the candles. When he reaches the +door of the mother, she kneels and prostrates herself before him. He in +turn delivers the child to the mother’s arms who may now kiss it +for the first time, the child not having been kissed by any one from +the moment of birth to the delivering over to the mother by the +godfather after baptism. Others may now also kiss the babe, and each +endeavors to be the first, for there is a superstitious value attached +to the first kiss following the mother’s after baptism. The +priests and the family of the godfather spend the evening in the +child’s home. They are served constantly by the father who does +not himself sit down. For forty days the mother must keep her room, and +walk only in such parts of the house as are exposed to the +sun.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2231src" href="#xd20e2231" name= +"xd20e2231src">4</a> Having completed the fortieth day she and her babe +are taken to church by the grandmother.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2235src" href="#xd20e2235" name="xd20e2235src">5</a> On this +occasion the young mother must bring an offering, which in times past +was a rich Persian rug, but is now merely a package of tapers. She +waits at the door of the sacristy until the priest comes and leads her +in before the high altar where both mother and child receive a +blessing. After this ceremony she must visit the godfather and kiss his +hand in token of gratitude.</p> +<p>If a funeral passes during the first forty days of the child’s +life, the little one must be snatched up from the cradle and be carried +upright. People now come to offer their felicitations. The greeting of +the guest is always, “May God raise the child in the shadow of +its parents,” to which answer is given, “May God bless you +according to your desire,” or “May your tongue be always in +good health.”</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch2.4.2" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 2. Betrothal</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">It is the popular belief among Armenians that the +practice of early marriages dates from the proclamation of a Persian +shah of the sixteenth century, to whom part of Armenia was +tributary.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2245src" href="#xd20e2245" name= +"xd20e2245src">6</a> This edict was intended <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb81" href="#pb81" name="pb81">81</a>]</span>to wipe +out Christianity, and provided for the marriage of Armenian boys and +girls with Persian children. In order to evade the edict, the Armenian +parents ran secretly from house to house for several nights marrying +off their children to each other. The custom on the part of the parents +of arranging for the marriage of their children without the knowledge +of the latter is supposed also to be rooted in this event. Whether the +explanation be true or not, it certainly is not uncommon for children +to marry at sixteen in the interior of Armenia, and it is still +generally true that arrangements for the marriages of children are made +without the knowledge of those most concerned.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2253src" href="#xd20e2253" name="xd20e2253src">7</a> The girl +does occasionally exercise choice, but when the unfortunate suitor is +not desired by the parents the feeling of obligation on the +girl’s part, simply because she has lived at her father’s +table, is sufficient to induce her to submit.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2256src" href="#xd20e2256" name="xd20e2256src">8</a> And the same +may be said of the young man, although the greater independence of a +son gives him a little more ground for acting contrary to his +father’s wishes, than in the case of the daughter. But even when +the choice of the children is accepted, the arrangements and ceremony +of betrothal are always carried out by the parents.</p> +<p>These arrangements are something as follows. The parents of a young +man consult his grandparents, and choose a young girl who to them seems +eligible. They then inform a woman match-maker of their decision, and +it is her business to sound the ground, so to speak, before a proposal +is made, since a refusal would ruin the boy’s reputation. The +matchmaker is often a professional woman, and can therefore be relied +upon not to make a bungle of the job. Among other things, she finds out +what gifts the bridegroom-to-be must make to his future bride, which +can of course be done only after the proposal has met with a favorable +response on the part of the parents of the girl. “What can he +offer his bride,” is the all important question from the +standpoint of the girl’s family. Among the rich, but in times +past, gold bracelets bejeweled with diamonds or strings of gold pieces +for adorning the head or neck were common varieties of gifts. To-day +silver plate, or expensive heirlooms are given. After these matters +have been decided upon, preparations are made for the ceremony of +betrothal, usually held in the evening. The friends of the young man +are notified to meet together in his house at an appointed hour with +the priest who is given a ring which he blesses. The procession of the +bridegroom’s friends headed by the priest now starts for the +house of the bride. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb82" href="#pb82" +name="pb82">82</a>]</span>All are provided with lighted wax candles +which they hold in their hands as they proceed down the streets +accompanied by the sound of violin, clarinets, drum, and joyful +singing. Sometimes a detour is made in order to lengthen the +procession.</p> +<p>Having arrived at their destination, the father and mother of the +girl pretend to know nothing whatever of the reason for the coming of +the guests, and conversation proceeds for a considerable time without +the slightest allusion to the matter of chief moment. The priest +finally makes the following statement amid profound silence: +“According to the law of the supreme Creator, and following the +usages of human society, we have the happiness of demanding the hand of +Miss X, for Mr. Y.” The father of the girl pretends not to wish +to accept, stating that she is too young, or that her mother is very +desirous to keep her at home. But upon further pressing on the part of +the parents of the boy, the acceptance is given. It is now the turn of +the girl to be consulted; she, however, is nowhere to be found. The +priest searches, and when finally discovered she does not speak a word. +The former, however, knows, and offering his hand he says, “If +you consent, kiss the hand,” which is straightway done, for the +girl has been informed beforehand that the kiss is to be forthcoming. +This part of the procedure takes place apart from the crowd, and is +followed by the presentation of the ring and the benediction which must +take place before the public. But since custom forbids the girl to +appear during the entire evening, a brother or a sister comes forward +and kneels before the priest to receive the ring. The rest all kneel at +the same time, and the priest gives the benediction. The ring is +carried by the child to the fiancée, the health of the couple is +drunk in rose-syrup, and congratulations and compliments are exchanged. +Whatever else is eaten or drunk, rose-syrup must be at hand, for this +is essential and peculiar to the ceremony.</p> +<p>All this while the young man is within the walls of his own home. +Custom forbids him to appear at the house of his bride-to-be until the +wedding day, and if perchance the two should meet, he must turn his +head away while she hides herself. Towards ten o’clock the party +breaks up, and each guest is given a wax candle. All try to steal +something from the house before leaving, such as a bottle, a glass, or +a spoon, and if the thieves are not caught before they leave the house, +the articles are returned only at the price of a supper from the head +of the family. The party now returns to the home of the future +bridegroom, accompanied by the friends and relatives of the girl. The +procession formed, there is the same lighting of wax candles received +from the host, brightening the otherwise darkened streets, and the same +music and singing to triumph over the silence of the night. The young +man must stand upright before his future father-in-law all through the +visit. For him the great moment comes when the <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb83" href="#pb83" name="pb83">83</a>]</span>brother +of his fiancée takes him aside and offers him a glass of syrup +prepared by her own hands. The whole night is passed in song and +amusement. During the following fortnight both families receive visits +of congratulation, and at every visit the host or hostess must offer +the syrup drunk at the betrothal ceremony.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch2.4.3" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 3. Marriage</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">Elaborate and gay as are the festivities of betrothal, +the celebrations of marriage are so much more so that one is inclined +to look upon the essential religious ceremony as a pretext for the +merry-making.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2285src" href="#xd20e2285" +name="xd20e2285src">9</a> The interval of a month which ordinarily +intervenes between engagement and marriage is devoted to making the +necessary preparations for the wedding. The bridegroom must get ready +the promised ornaments, a white wedding-dress for his bride, a fine +veil to cover her face, and a pair of shoes, a rather strange +combination of gifts. One wonders also why the necessary gloves and +silk stockings are not included. The young lady on her part prepares +her trousseau including garments of various sorts, bits of jewelry, a +wooden chest filled with her clothing, a mirror, a nuptial bed with the +necessary accessories, and a few cooking utensils; altogether an outfit +quite as varied and singular as the gifts of the bridegroom, but +certainly practical and sensible enough. Two days before the wedding, +which usually occurs on a Sunday afternoon, invitations are sent out to +friends and relatives, and musicians are secured. On the eve of the +ceremony, the godfather invites the bridegroom with his friends to a +Turkish bath, where they go to the accompaniment of music and singing. +This part of the celebration is full of laughter and song, and is +continued on the forenoon of the next day in the home of the +bridegroom, when the barber comes to shave him in the presence of the +guests and musicians, who sing and play as on the preceding evening at +the bath. The occasion is one of importance for the barber, who brings +all sorts of perfumes which are purchased by the guests and poured over +the bridegroom; he receives not only a large fee for his service but +also a double price for the scented extracts. The young man is then +dressed up while the priest and choir children who have arrived sing +canticles.</p> +<p>In the meantime very similar festivities occur in the home of the +bride, participated in by her young girl friends and relatives, except +that they are not characterized by the same spirit of loud laughter and +rejoicing. On the eve of the wedding the girls gather around her to +sing melancholy songs, in considerable contrast with the gay, spirited +music and singing taking place in the Turkish bath at the same time. +Having shared the sadness, they place a rose leaf on the palm of each +hand of the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb84" href="#pb84" name= +"pb84">84</a>]</span>bride, which is covered with henneh, a green +Persian powder made into paste, after which each hand is carefully +bandaged up. So the poor sad girl must go to bed, to sleep if she can. +On the next morning her friends again arrive to take the bandages off +her hands, to dress her, and to sing and dance about her. Except for +the print of the rose leaf, the henneh leaves the hands orange red, +which is supposed to be beautiful. The songs and dancing are again of a +decidedly melancholy tone. Her white dress, together with the coat of +the bridegroom, must be blessed by the priest, a ceremony which the +church functionary performs alone, both articles being sent to him +early in the morning. Preliminary to the day’s events, and before +breakfast, both bride and bridegroom, being previously confessed, go +separately to church, where they take communion. This done, the +festivities described follow, bride and bridegroom are dressed, and all +is in readiness for the ceremony which occurs in the late afternoon or +evening.</p> +<p>The bride must ride to church on horseback, and having arrived she +is dismounted, and later remounted without touching her feet to the +ground, which rather cumbersome performance is accomplished through the +help of a brother or relative, who also rides the bride’s steed +while the ceremony takes place within, for the horse is not to be left +riderless. The procession to the church is accompanied by musicians. +Before the rail which separates the choir from the body of the church, +two wooden chairs are placed, upon which the couple sit down while the +people present kneel on the mats covering the floor. When the time +comes for the blessing of the priest, the couple arise, step inside the +choir space, and stand facing each other between the high altar and two +witnesses, their foreheads touching. In this position they receive the +sacrament of matrimony, answering in the affirmative the questions of +the priest regarding their duties to each other and to their children. +Of the bride is demanded perfect faithfulness to conjugal duties, +entire obedience to the husband of whom care, patience, wisdom, and +love are required. The priest, taking the right hand of the bride and +placing it in the hand of the bridegroom, says, “According to the +divine order God gave to our ancestors, I give thee now this wife in +subjection. Wilt thou be her master?” “Through the help of +God I will,” answers the bridegroom. The priest then asks the +woman, “Wilt thou be obedient to him?” to which is +answered, “I am obedient according to the order of God.” +These questions are repeated and replied to thrice, in evident implicit +belief that once would not be sufficient. Finally, the priest ties to +each of their heads a cord and cross, which is again removed by him +late at night in the home with special ceremony, and it is only after +this performance that the couple may enter the nuptial chamber.</p> +<p>After the ceremony at the church the procession starts back for the +home of the bridegroom’s father, the bride riding upon her horse, +musician <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb85" href="#pb85" name= +"pb85">85</a>]</span>playing, and choir boys singing. The +water-carriers, who have supplied drinking water, break their jars +noisily before the bridegroom, drenching his marriage costume and +giving rather an abrupt signal to the godfather whose business it is to +tip them. Noisily the procession moves along the streets until it +arrives at the gate of the house. In days past it was the custom at +this point in the ceremony to place a sheep ready to be sacrificed at +the feet of the young couple, the poorer people contenting themselves +with chickens. The butcher put his knife to the neck of the sheep +saying, “May God thus put all your enemies under your feet, Amen, +Amen.” Then pieces of coin mixed with raisins, pistachios, and +other bits of nuts or dried fruits are showered over the people from +the windows above, while the godfather leads the bridegroom within to +the crowd of men, and the godmother leads the bride to the women, +everybody trying to kiss the cross on their heads. The bride is then +placed in the seat of honor and in her arms is laid first a little boy, +and then a little girl, so that the first child may be a boy and if +perchance the will of God be otherwise at least a girl. Each guest now +comes to the bride to place at her feet a fruit in season. The +bridegroom is called “the prince of the feast” and must +never quit his seat of honor. If he does leave his chair he must place +an object belonging to him upon his seat, and if he should at any time +omit to do so, the assembly makes the godfather pay the necessary +forfeit, which is usually a dinner. Towards nine, the guests take their +leave, having eaten and sung to their uttermost desire.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e2301src" href="#xd20e2301" name= +"xd20e2301src">10</a></p> +<p>Living in the home of her patriarchal father-in-law, the young wife +is subject to the severest restraints. She must wear a lightly fitting +veil enclosing her face below the eyes, without which she can not +appear even in the house.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2306src" href= +"#xd20e2306" name="xd20e2306src">11</a> She wears a close fitting +bodice fastened at the neck with silver clasps, full trousers of rose +colored silk gathered in at the ankles by a filet of silver; her feet +are bare, a silver girdle of curious workmanship loosely encircles her +waist, and a long padded garment, open down the front, hangs from her +shoulders. Not a single word must she utter to any member of the +household, except when alone with her husband, and then only such as +may be absolutely necessary, until she has given birth to her first +child. Then she may speak to her nursling, after a while to her +mother-in-law, later to her own mother, and by and by to the young +girls of the household, but never in all her life may she have word +with a young man not a relative. During her first year of married life, +she may not go out of the house except for two visits to the church. +Every morning and at <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb86" href="#pb86" +name="pb86">86</a>]</span>the end of each meal she must pour water over +the hands of her father- and mother-in-law, and for a certain time +after marriage, when visitors come, she must kiss their hands, except +of course, for men, before whom she may not even appear.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e2311src" href="#xd20e2311" name= +"xd20e2311src">12</a> Apart from these troublesome restraints the young +wife is treated with the utmost solicitude, and in some parts, even the +peasant wife is not allowed to do outdoor work. In the mountain +villages of Persian Armenia, however, the women do all the tilling in +the fields, wearing their veils over their mouths as they +work.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2317src" href="#xd20e2317" name= +"xd20e2317src">13</a> The author here quoted states that husbands never +see the mouths of their wives, who not only must not speak during the +first year of married life, or until a child is born, but also may not +converse freely with their husbands until six years of married life +have elapsed.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2323src" href="#xd20e2323" +name="xd20e2323src">14</a></p> +<p>In such fashion the sanctity of the marriage relation is strictly +guarded, and as one would suppose, illegitimate births are unknown in +Armenia. Intermarriage among relations is forbidden, and until recent +years, divorce has been unknown.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2328src" +href="#xd20e2328" name="xd20e2328src">15</a> As for the taboo on +speech, it is calculated not so much as an inducement to the production +of offspring as to preserve harmonious relations between the various +members of the patriarchal household. Even the patriarch with all his +authority would find difficulty in preserving proper decorum of speech +and manners in so heterogeneous a household, if every newly acquired +daughter-in-law were given a free rein in the use of her tongue. As the +neophyte is made to understand his position by a brutal initiation, so +the young wife is kept from assuming command over the female household +by the placing of a moral valuation upon the silence which alone is +compatible with the essential modesty regarded as the first and chief +of virtues among wives. In the household of the patriarch there is a +great deal to be done in common, and unfortunately the occasion for +mutual aid is not sufficient to bring about the desired +coöperation. Hence singleness of command and authority is a +necessary condition, not only of efficiency, but also of peace, for it +can not be supposed that so many daughters-in-law would work together +in harmony. It would be a mistake, therefore, to regard the customary +silence as an inducement to child-bearing.</p> +<p>Identifying itself with the common events of life, such as birth, +marriage, and death, the church has not only given a religious meaning +to these occasions but has also sanctioned and even encouraged the +festivities that accompany them. These festivities have up to this +point been <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb87" href="#pb87" name= +"pb87">87</a>]</span>occasions for rejoicing, with the single and +significant exception of the melancholy singing of the bride’s +friends on the eve and day of her wedding. There is a perfect +naturalness about all the merry-making and festivals so far considered, +and this is no less characteristic of the funeral celebrations now to +be taken up. The description of these will conclude my treatment of the +last group of festivals, which are more properly festival-ceremonies, +or ceremonies that have been made the occasion of festivity.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch2.4.4" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Section 4. Funeral</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The funerals, as one would naturally suppose, are more +ceremonious, more ritualistic, and although there is now generally a +minimum of festivity connected with them, this has not always been +so.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2343src" href="#xd20e2343" name= +"xd20e2343src">16</a> When the condition of a sick person is beyond +hope, the priest is notified and the person is given confession, +communion, and extreme unction. After death the eyes and mouth are +closed, the body washed and dressed up in the newest and cleanest +clothes to be had, and the arms crossed on the breast.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e2349src" href="#xd20e2349" name= +"xd20e2349src">17</a> Two candles are kept burning until the day of the +funeral, one at the foot and one at the head of the coffin. Sad, wooden +bells are sounded, and guests are invited to pay their last respects. +Coffee is served to them, but without sugar, as a sign of grief. +Mourning women are secured, who eulogize the departed and weep and +lament until the priests begin their chanting. The corpse is now taken +to the church in a special coffin which is covered with a black velvet +cloth adorned with small white crosses, among the wealthy, but among +the poor the body is wrapped in linen and laid in a simple bier, +carried by relatives and friends. At the head of the procession, which +marches very slowly and chants on the way, there are carried a great +cross and two lighted torches, followed by the priests and then by the +coffin. The passer-by must stop and cross himself many times. At the +church the coffin is laid down, and if the relatives are wealthy each +person in the church is provided with a small wax candle which is kept +lighted during the service. While the ceremony proceeds the body is +blessed with holy water and perfumed with incense, after which the +procession re-forms to accompany the body to the cemetery. The chanting +is kept up all the way. At the cemetery the body is lowered into its +last resting-place, and the priest, after making the sign of the cross +on the four corners of the grave, throws three shovelfuls of earth into +it and three more on the coffin. The people imitate by throwing three +handfuls of dust, and the ceremony completed, all return to the home of +the deceased where they <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb88" href= +"#pb88" name="pb88">88</a>]</span>partake of steaming broth prepared by +the neighbors and friends, and recite prayers for the soul of the dead. +This latter practice, as said before, is a pagan survival, as is also +the chanting of mass for the departed, which occurs three days later, +at which time broth is again distributed, but this time to the poor as +a sacrifice to the dead. The grave is blessed on the third day, again +on the ninth, at the close of the third month, and for the last time, +at the close of the year.</p> +<p>The funeral of a priest is performed with much splendor.<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e2356src" href="#xd20e2356" name= +"xd20e2356src">18</a> The procession makes a circuit of all the +churches, and stopping at different places, portions of the gospel are +read. If the priest be of high rank, as an archbishop, or a bishop, he +is carried in an open coffin and in a sitting posture, dressed up in +official vestments, in which position he is interred in the courtyard +of the church. Farmers send sheep to be killed and given to the poor as +a sacrifice. The Greeks in Constantinople also carry their dead in an +open coffin, but this is because a Greek official who was a refugee +prisoner in Constantinople at the time of the war of the Turks with the +Greeks, endeavored to get himself carried out of the country by +feigning death and boxing himself up in a coffin. But the Turks +discovered the ruse and it was enacted by the sultan that thereafter +all Greeks must be carried to their graves in open coffins. The custom +in respect to the Armenian bishops, however, has no connection with +this.</p> +<p>In some parts of Armenia, as for example in Erzerum, the snow lies +so deep in winter-time that burial is well-nigh impossible. During +spring-time, with the melting of the snow, coffins have been found +perched up on tree tops. This was related by an Armenian boy I know of, +who lived in the vicinity of Erzerum. Curious customs of the past have +left their marks. In Tarsus, for example, there are Armenian graves +ranged about a tree which is asserted to have been planted by St. Paul, +each provided with a stone upon which has been carved a symbol of the +deceased, for the merchant, a representation of weights and measures, +for the blacksmith, an anvil and hammer, for the scribe, an inkstand +and pen, and for the industrious housewife, a distaff and spindle. In +the cemetery of Nakhitchevan is a large building in which the mourners +have a great repast after the funeral, and in certain other graveyards, +Dubois found innumerable pieces of broken pitchers and crockery, which +were probably broken, as the custom is, to ward off the evil spirit of +the dead.</p> +<p>These four ceremonies complete the third and last group of festivals +described. I have called them ceremonies because fundamentally that is +what they are, but they are to be distinguished sharply from the many +church ceremonies I have not so much as mentioned, by reason +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb89" href="#pb89" name= +"pb89">89</a>]</span>of their festival or social value which alone +makes them proper subject-matter for this thesis. The relation between +these ceremonies as revealed in the common procession, as well as in +the religious ceremony necessary to each is due largely to the fact +that they have to do with the most ordinary, and yet most extraordinary +of life’s events, birth, betrothal, marriage, and death.</p> +<p>Reviewing them from the standpoint of their social or festival +value, it is obvious that the marriage celebration easily takes first +place, the betrothal festivities second, baptism and funeral third. +There is the rather uncouth, perhaps, but none the less spontaneous +gaiety of the friends of the bridegroom, not only on the eve of the +wedding-day when they go to the bath, but also on the morning of the +wedding-day when the unfortunate youth is assuredly cured of any +addiction he might have to the use of perfumes. I should imagine that +the music would begin to bore the young men by the time the barber +arrives, since the musicians also accompany the rejoicing of the night +before, and yet it may be said that there could be nothing more +convenient or ingenious devised to carry over a lull in the +merry-making, for after all, the young men could not well be singing, +joking, laughing, and teasing all the time. In striking contrast is the +melancholy rejoicing of the party of young women at the home of the +bride. But where there is dancing and singing there can not well be +weeping, although no doubt it is more natural for the bride to be +thoughtful on her wedding-day, than for the bridegroom, for it is the +former who leaves her home to spend the rest of her days in a very new, +very strange, perhaps even unkindly world. There is still another +reason for the melancholy, in that the girl must know she is bidding +farewell forever to the delights and joys and freedom of childhood, for +although to-day she may speak and sing and make merry, to-morrow +morning she must be silent and prepared to pour water over the hands of +her father- and mother-in-law. Henceforth it is for her to be +submissive, obedient, docile, uncomplaining even at heart, for what use +will it be to complain, and though her most cherished dreams may be of +motherhood, does she not also have spirit, and why must it be broken? +Is she then only a chattel to be sold into everlasting bondage? It is +all too evident, even to the dullest of brides, that the happiness of +childhood is forever past, and the brighter one can hardly fail to feel +that she has been bartered for the bit of gold about her waist or +neck.</p> +<p>There is then the very highest of social value to be attributed to +both of these festivities, and largely because in each group of people, +the young men on one side, the young women on the other, there is +perfect community of feeling, mutual understanding, and freedom of +thought and expression. In comparison with these gatherings, the mixed +assembly at the house of the bridegroom after the marriage ceremony is +of little importance. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb90" href="#pb90" +name="pb90">90</a>]</span>The succession of events covering a period of +nearly thirty-six hours, of which only a few, and perhaps none at all, +are spent in sleep by the members of the bridal party, must certainly +begin to have its effect by the time the little baby doll is placed in +the lap of the bride.</p> +<p>The betrothal party is always out for a good time, for they realize +that the merry-making is to be an all-night affair. There is the +procession with its candles lighting up the darkened streets, the music +and singing filling all space, the humorous little artificialities in +the house of the bride,—real enough, at least ceremoniously, from +the standpoint of the family,—the syrup, the attempted stealing +of utensils, the return procession, the singing, music, and dancing at +the home of the young bridegroom-to-be, without stop until dawn. All of +this makes a rather complete occasion, even for young people.</p> +<p>Baptism and funeral rites come nearest being pure ceremonies. But +even the baptismal rite has its procession to and from the church +participated in by all the friends and relatives of the family, and +though the event is an occasion neither for rejoicing nor for sorrow, +it is important enough, occurring as it does but once in the lifetime +of each individual. There are, to be sure, the social calls that follow +the ceremony. But the event can not be said to have any attraction for +the young; and if this is true of baptism, it is still more true of +funerals. Nevertheless there is the distinct psychological value of +each, calling up as they do various associations, as the baptism of +this one, or the death of another one, and thus keeping alive the +deepest experiences of life. If they are crude and offensive to more +delicate tastes, it must be remembered that a belief is represented in +the concrete fashion essential to the simple mind, a mode of +representation necessary to the best of intellects even though on +another plane. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb91" href="#pb91" name= +"pb91">91</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2210" href="#xd20e2210src" name="xd20e2210">1</a></span> +<i>Catholic World</i> 11:301. Paul Terzian.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2215" href="#xd20e2215src" name="xd20e2215">2</a></span> +According to <i>Maschtotz</i> the devil is abjured and the Trinity +invoked at the gate of the church. In the course of the ceremony the +priest unclothes the babe and asks the godfather, “What seeks the +child?” The godfather answers, “Faith, Hope, Love, and +Baptism, to be cleansed from his sins and to be freed from the +devils.” The three immersions are symbolical of the three days of +burial of Christ. (<i><span class="corr" id="xd20e2221" title= +"Source: Maschottz">Maschtotz</span>.</i>)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2228" href="#xd20e2228src" name="xd20e2228">3</a></span> In the +description of baptism as witnessed by Tavernier, red and white threads +were laid about the neck of the child at this point in the ceremony. +They represent the blood and body of Christ and are probably believed +to keep away the evil eye. Beads and various other charm tokens are +commonly used for this purpose. (Tavernier 1:500.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2231" href="#xd20e2231src" name="xd20e2231">4</a></span> This is +probably because evil spirits dwell in darkness, while the beneficent +are light.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2235" href="#xd20e2235src" name="xd20e2235">5</a></span> The +similarity to the old Hebrew custom may be noted.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2245" href="#xd20e2245src" name="xd20e2245">6</a></span> Paul +Terzian, <i>Catholic World</i> 71:305.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2253" href="#xd20e2253src" name="xd20e2253">7</a></span> +Tavernier says that frequently two pregnant women who are on very +friendly terms, will engage their future offspring, trusting to fortune +that one will be a boy and the other a girl. (Tavernier 1:505.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2256" href="#xd20e2256src" name="xd20e2256">8</a></span> In fact +when there is a variance of choice between parents and daughter it is +common for the girl to regard the decision of her parents as being her +fate. “<span lang="de">Wenn eine junge Frau mit ihrer Heirat, die +sie, nach dem Willen der Eltern geschlossen hat, unzufrieden ist, so +singt sie:</span></p> +<div class="q"> +<div class="body"> +<div lang="de" class="lgouter footnote"> +<p class="line hangq">‘Was soll ich meinem Vater und meiner +Mutter sagen?</p> +<p class="line">Das war auf meine Stirn geschrieben.’” +(Abeghian p. 54.)</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2285" href="#xd20e2285src" name="xd20e2285">9</a></span> Paul +Terzian, <i>Catholic World</i> 71:305.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2301" href="#xd20e2301src" name="xd20e2301">10</a></span> It is +very evident that the expense of these festivities is a considerable +item in the budget of the bridegroom’s father. But it is a matter +of social pride and respectability to live up to a certain standard of +established usage. Accordingly many families involve themselves in +life-long incumbrances, not only in the betrothal and marriage +festivities but also in the ceremony of baptism, simply to come up to a +recognized norm of expenditure. (Tavernier 1:504, 505.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2306" href="#xd20e2306src" name="xd20e2306">11</a></span> +Cesaresco, chapter on Armenian folk-songs.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2311" href="#xd20e2311src" name="xd20e2311">12</a></span> Paul +Terzian, <i>Catholic World</i> 71:508.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2317" href="#xd20e2317src" name="xd20e2317">13</a></span> Bent, +<i>Contemporary Review</i> 70:701.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2323" href="#xd20e2323src" name="xd20e2323">14</a></span> +Tavernier states that in Persian Armenia a man frequently lives with +his wife ten years without ever hearing her voice or seeing her face. +Of course she does not sleep with her veil over her face, but she is +always careful to blow out the candle before she removes the veil, as +she is to rise before daybreak in order to put it on again. (Tavernier +1:507.)</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2328" href="#xd20e2328src" name="xd20e2328">15</a></span> +Trowbridge, <i>New Englander</i> 33:1 ff.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2343" href="#xd20e2343src" name="xd20e2343">16</a></span> Paul +Terzian, <i>Catholic World</i> 71:509.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2349" href="#xd20e2349src" name="xd20e2349">17</a></span> This +statement is in contradiction to a previous statement that the body of +the dead is merely wrapped in white cloth after it has been washed; +(see page 60) the use of the white cloth is common among Gregorian +Armenians.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2356" href="#xd20e2356src" name="xd20e2356">18</a></span> Paul +Terzian, <i>Catholic World</i> 71:509 ff.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch2.5" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="label">Chapter V</h2> +<h2 class="main">Summary</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">Such are the festivals treated in the second and last +part of this thesis. Is it true that they form a vehicle of expression +for the national sentiment created by the large mass of social material +of which the legends of Part One are a considerable and important +portion? Again it will be necessary to remind ourselves of the chief +sentiments included within Armenian national sentiment, i.e., the +sentiment of loyalty to the church, the sentiment of reverence +amounting almost to worship for the ancient glory of the nation, and +the sentiment of love for the country. It would be ridiculous to +suppose that every festival was designed to give expression to some one +of these sentiments. But that these sentiments are given very clear, +very real outward expression in the great majority of the celebrations +described, should be so evident at this point as to make further +exposition unnecessary. In the summer Festival of Vartavar, the spring +Festival of Mihr, Vartan’s Day, and in the consecration of the +Katholikos there is the proud and reverent looking back to the times +when Armenia was an independent nation; the festival ceremonies of the +third group, baptism, betrothal, marriage, and funeral, though they are +not positive expressions of the sentiments of loyalty to the church, +are yet so completely interwoven with the church and dependent upon it +that one is compelled to regard the feeling as something to be taken +for granted, while in most of the festivals of the second group, +Christmas, Easter, Maundy Thursday, and the Blessing of the Grapes +especially, the sentiment is given a more positive expression. As for +the sentiment of love for the country, that is identified especially +with Vartavar and Vartan’s Day. It is evident, therefore, that +each of these festivals and festival-ceremonies forms a medium more or +less evident as the case may be, for the expression of one or more or +all of the sentiments that make up Armenian national sentiment. Some of +them are not to be classified as readily as this, as for example, the +festival of Ascension morning, or Fortune-Telling Day, in which the +dominant sentiment is one of romantic love, or in the Blessing of the +Water, where the desire for a gain in health or wealth is the main +psychological fact.</p> +<p>Each one of these festivals, however, is a great deal more than the +putting into activity of some of the above sentiments. In many of them +the play-instinct is clearly evident, while in a few such as Vartavar, +the whole self, with all its sentiments, instincts, tendencies, and +emotions, is given the fullest and most unrestrained freedom. A +festival, if it is anything, is a letting loose of the reins; there is +nothing to hinder, nothing <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb92" href= +"#pb92" name="pb92">92</a>]</span>to keep back, nothing to hide, +nothing to fear, and the self reaches out in a higher consciousness of +fullness and completeness of living. As such it would be the greatest +of fallacies to suppose any one of the festivals to be restricted to a +particular sentiment. Nevertheless, it is clear, that the festivals do +constitute vehicles of expression for the sentiments that make up +Armenian national sentiment.</p> +<div id="ch2.5.1" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Conclusions</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The general conclusions to which this study +unmistakably gives rise are in respect to the national traits of the +Armenian people. These traits have been brought out both explicitly and +implicitly in connection with the various legends and festivals +considered, and it is my purpose, therefore, to summarize and +substantiate them at this point. They include, first, the +superstitiousness, second, the conservatism, third, the +self-sufficiency, and lastly the familism of the people.</p> +<p>First of these qualities, superstitiousness, may be ascribed in +large measure to geographical isolation. The country to be sure, is so +situated as to form a highway from Europe to the Mesopotamian valley, +and from Asiatic Russia to the Mediterranean, and although it has been +overrun by Assyrians, Greeks, Parthians, Romans, Persians, Turks, +Egyptians, and still others, yet we must speak of it as isolated, for +the science that has brought remote countries into contact has not +affected Armenia to any considerable degree. Subject to a backward +nation, lacking all modern means of communication, the country is shut +off and the plows of civilization have not yet furrowed the social soil +of superstition. How general these superstitions are is brought out +especially by the festivals described, many of which have given rise to +a superstition or a group of superstitions. From Vartavar, there came +the belief that the dust from the sacred altar served as a talisman for +children learning their A B C’s; the spring fire festival gave +rise to the practice of taking home a glowing brand for good luck; +there is the belief that the blessed water will cure various diseases, +and that the oil scraped from the anointed foot with a walnut given by +the priest after washing the feet at the ceremony of Maundy Thursday, +will keep a supply of butter throughout the year. And then there are +the beliefs in the miraculous power of the holy oil, manufactured with +due ceremony every four years at Sis; in the healing power of the +various sacred relics kept at Etchmiadzin and other places, and ten +thousand others. There are also beliefs not of a religious character as +the above, such as the one in regard to the tetagush, the little +locust-eating bird, which is supposed to be attracted by Ararat spring +water. The same superstition obtains in other parts of the country with +the difference that the inconvenience of obtaining Ararat spring water +makes it necessary for the people to believe in the peculiar efficacy +of other springs. These <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb93" href= +"#pb93" name="pb93">93</a>]</span>illustrations are sufficient, and +although it could hardly be proved that Armenians are more innately +superstitious than the Anglo-Saxon ancestors who believed only a few +generations ago in the power of the malignant eye, and that an innocent +person might pass through fire unharmed, yet their superstitious nature +and beliefs are present-day facts explained most completely on the +ground of comparative isolation from the rest of the world.</p> +<p>Second of the national characteristics of the people clearly brought +out by this study is their conservatism. This may also be traced in +large measure to their secluded condition, but in larger proportion is +it due to the solidarity and national consciousness, which naturally +consider innovations as foreign, and intrusions of foreign cultures, +ideals, customs, and manners as hostile. That this is true is indicated +conclusively by the fact that in Constantinople, where Armenian culture +has naturally come in conflict with that of the Greek, the Turk, and +the European, the Armenians have not at all given up their ways to +imitate any of the three peoples mentioned. To be sure they have not +adhered rigidly to the old beliefs and practices of the interior. +Comparison has resulted in substitution, and conflict between the +rational and irrational, the utile and the inutile, has meant +displacement, but invariably by something distinctly different from the +usages and practices current among Turk or European. That is, Armenians +are themselves centers of imitation by fellow Armenians who, though +they follow the lines suggested by their fellow countrymen, scorn to +imitate even the European, whose superiority is generally recognized in +Constantinople. The Armenian, recognizing no superior, has merely +modified his own practices, usages, manners, and customs to suit his +changed environment. And therefore I say that the characteristic +Armenian conservatism is due rather to a strong feeling of nationality +than to isolation.</p> +<p>The conservatism of the church has been an important element. +Refusing to have anything to do with the decisions of the Council of +Chalcedon, the church became independent and has maintained a policy of +the most rigid ultra-conservatism ever since. Says Ormanian:</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p class="first">The Armenian church would have nothing to do with this +transaction (Chalcedon) which was prompted by a design that had no +bearing on theology. She remained firm in her original resolve, and +ever maintained an attitude of ultra-conservatism. She set herself to +resist every new dogmatic utterance said to emanate from revelation, as +well as every innovation which could in any way pervert the primitive +faith.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2406src" href="#xd20e2406" name= +"xd20e2406src">1</a></p> +</div> +<p>That this same spirit is reflected in the social life of the people +is something one would naturally expect, in view of the important +influence of the church over the entire life of the people. As the +father of the Alan princess <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb94" href= +"#pb94" name="pb94">94</a>]</span>replied when requested to give the +hand of his daughter to Artasches, “From whence shall brave +Artasches give thousands upon thousands and ten thousands upon tens of +thousands unto the Alans in return for the maiden?” so to-day the +first question that is asked when the hand of a young Armenian girl is +requested in marriage is “What can he give for his bride?” +The practice of wife purchase has only changed in that the required +riches are given to the bride instead of to the father of the bride. +Occasionally a young man is pressed to the point of mortgaging property +in order to obtain the necessary funds, and it has been known that in +many such cases the young bride found her treasure gone shortly after +her marriage, her master having taken it to pay off his mortgage. So +parents arrange for the marriage of their children, the young wife is +delivered up to her husband as the obedient and submissive servant, +children are baptized after they have scarcely opened their eyes, and +church ceremonies are conducted much as they have been for +generations.</p> +<p>The self-sufficiency of the Armenian people has been indicated in +the repeated failures of missionary religions and foreign cultures to +alter appreciably the native folkways and mores. In spite of political +subordination to Islam, the Gregorian church has held tenaciously to +its ideals and has successfully maintained its independence. The +distinctive social tradition,—which includes the political and +the religious traditions,—has remained intact in the face of +recurrent invasion, vassalage, and persecution. The Armenian will not +be assimilated. Death is preferable to the loss of those intangible +realities that make the people a distinctive group. When Haic, the +patriarchal progenitor of the race, was invited to “soften his +hard pride,” and to return to the kingdom of the god Bel, the +alternative, war, was chosen. In the year 450, when the Persian +fire-worshippers invited the Armenians to change their faith, the +answer again was war. The reply to the decision of Chalcedon +illustrates the same spirit. Likewise through the centuries of the +immediate past the ever recurring answer to the Turk has been war. +Powerless to assimilate the Armenian people, the Turk has had to +annihilate or be annihilated. The self-sufficiency of the people thus +reveals itself in the will to maintain the distinctive social +tradition, regardless of cost or sacrifice.</p> +<p>The characteristic familism reveals itself not only in the customs +of family life, but also in the very nature of the Armenian. In Russian +Armenia there is a very active propaganda carried on by Russian girls +to secure Armenian husbands because of the domesticity of the latter, +which is in striking contrast to the adventurous unfaithfulness of the +Russian husband, whose house becomes his prison, from which he +therefore flees, leaving his wife and children to shift for themselves. +The discontented Russian may be a more attractive lover for his +“Wanderlust” and restlessness, <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb95" href="#pb95" name="pb95">95</a>]</span>but he +is a less attractive husband for the same reason. An Armenian husband +belongs in his home, where he lives in the hope that some day he may be +the father of a huge household of married sons and grandsons. A young +Armenian I know spoke to me of his wish that some day his father might +collect the scattered sons and unite them and their families in a +single household. This desire is so general among Armenians as to make +it evident that the family is the all-important social unit. No +reputation is so great as that carried by a good family name, nor is +there any so damning as that which goes with a bad family name. And why +is the young bride kept silent for years if not to ensure the +all-essential family-unity, family-solidarity, and +family-continuity,—that is, continuity of family tradition, +manners, and customs? And why is the “patria-potestas” +well-nigh unlimited if not for precisely the same reason? Nor is the +taboo upon the young bride, according to which she may not speak to any +young man not a relative during her entire life of marriage, of no +significance in this connection. It too precludes family disruption, or +blemish on the family name. Divorce and infidelity are very rare, all +family differences having no tribunal outside the patriarch, who +considers his greatest misfortune to be a lack of family integrity or +oneness. Thus a son who has been swayed by Protestantism dares not +clash with his father, and has no choice but to run away, while a +daughter whose wishes are contrary can be disobedient only at the cost +of breaking the family connection, to prevent which she is usually +ready to make any sacrifice. All of this is no accident. Forced to +dwell within the circle of the family group for seven, eight, or nine +months during the year without so much as opening his door, because of +the severity of winter, the life of the patriarch is inevitably +centered in his household, and therefore also the self of each member +is merged into the larger unit. This familism throws additional light +on some of the conclusions I have insisted upon, for nothing so fosters +conservatism as a substantial family solidarity; what could be more +instrumental in passing on the national sentiment, and finally, what +could be more favorable to the development of the self-sufficiency, the +independence of Armenian character? In speaking of “familism and +the well-knit family” Ross says; “Worshippers of the spirit +of the hearth, they are more aloof from their fellows, slower therefore +to merge with them or be swept from their moorings by them. It seems to +be communion by the fire-side rather than communion in the public +resort that gives individuality long bracing roots. The withdrawn +social self, although it lacks breadth, gains in depth, +etc.”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2419src" href="#xd20e2419" name= +"xd20e2419src">2</a></p> +<p>Any socially well-knit people possessing a distinctive social +tradition, and characterized by a highly developed national +consciousness, may make its contribution to the world’s work, if +it is given the necessary freedom. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb96" +href="#pb96" name="pb96">96</a>]</span>As the period of the Arsacidae +kings brought forth the golden age of Armenian literature, so greater +achievements may follow the political independence that is hoped for, +and for which Armenians have valiantly struggled. Lord Bryce writes of +the Armenian race, “It is the only one of the native races of +Western Asia that is capable of restoring productive industry and +assured prosperity to the now desolate region that was the earliest +home of civilization.” In the past, the energy of the people has +been wasted in ceaseless conflict. Given a guarantee of territorial +integrity, and participation in the affairs of government with the hope +of future autonomy, the energies of strife will be diverted to the work +of peace. Not until then can the high calling expressed in the words of +Lord Bryce be realized. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb97" href= +"#pb97" name="pb97">97</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2406" href="#xd20e2406src" name="xd20e2406">1</a></span> Ormanian +p. 36.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2419" href="#xd20e2419src" name="xd20e2419">2</a></span> Ross, +<i>Social Psychology</i> pp. 88–89.</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="back"> +<div id="bibl" class="div1 bibliography"><span class= +"pagenum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb99" href="#pb99" name= +"pb99">99</a>]</span></p> +<h2 class="main">Bibliography</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p lang="de" class="first"><span class="sc">Abeghian, A.</span> Der +armenische Volksglaube. Leipzig. 1899.</p> +<p lang="fr"><span class="sc">Agathange.</span> Histoire du +règne de Tiridate. In Langlois, Collection des historiens de +l’Arménie.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Anonymous.</span> Easter service. <i>Survey</i> +36:167.</p> +<p>—— Armenian folk-lore. <i>Fraser’s Magazine</i> +(n.s.) 13:283–97.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Arnot, Robert.</span> World’s great classic +series. Section on Armenian literature and folk-lore. New York. +1901.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Bent, J. T.</span> Travels amongst the Armenians. +<i>Contemporary Review</i> 70:695.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Blackwell, Alice, S.</span> Preface to +Seklemian’s tales. New York. 1898.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Boyadjian, Z. C.</span> Armenian legends and poems. +London. 1916.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Brightman, F. E.</span> Liturgies eastern and +western. Oxford. 1896.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Bryce, J.</span> Transcaucasia and Ararat. London. +1896.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Cesaresco, E. M.</span> <a class="pglink xd20e41" +title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= +"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36222">Folk-songs</a>. London. +1886.</p> +<p lang="de"><span class="sc">Chikhachev, P. A.</span> Reisen in +Kleinasien und Armenien. Gotha. 1867.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Clark, W.</span> Armenian history. <i>New +Englander</i> 22:507, 672.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Conybeare, F. C.</span> Armenian church. +<i>Encyclopaedia Britannica</i> 11th ed.</p> +<p>—— Armenian language and literature. <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p>—— Key of truth. Oxford. 1898.</p> +<p lang="la">—— Rituale Armenorum. Oxford. 1905.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Curzon, Robert.</span> Armenia. London. 1854.</p> +<p lang="fr"><span class="sc">Dubois de Montpèreux.</span> +Voyages. Vols. 2, 3. Paris. 1839–43.</p> +<p lang="fr"><span class="sc">Elisée Vartabed.</span> Histoire +de Vartan et de la guerre des Arméniens. In Langlois, +Collection.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Emin, M.</span> Movses—Khorenatzi yev Hayotz +Hin Veber. Tiflis. 1886.</p> +<p lang="fr"><span class="sc">Faustus of Byzance.</span> +Bibliothèque historique. In Langlois, Collection.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Fortescue, E. F. K.</span> The Armenian church. +London. 1872.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Gelzer, H.</span> Armenia. <i>New Schaff Herzog +Encyclopaedia.</i></p> +<p><span class="sc">Gibbon</span>, Ed. <a class="pglink xd20e41" title= +"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= +"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/733">Decline and fall of the Roman +Empire</a>. Vol. 3. New York. 1910.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Hodgetts, E. A. B.</span> Round about Armenia. +London. 1896.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Langlois, Victor.</span> <span lang="fr">Collection +des historiens de l’Arménie.</span> Vols. 1, 2. Paris. +1867–1869. Contains translations of various historians dating +from 2nd century before Christ to 5th century after Christ.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Lidgett, Elizabeth S.</span> An ancient people. +London. 1897.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Lynch, H. F. B.</span> Armenia. Vols. 1, 2. London. +1901.</p> +<p><span class="sc">MacDougall, W.</span> Social psychology. Boston. +1916.</p> +<p lang="fr"><span class="sc">Mar Apas Catina.</span> Histoire ancienne +de l’Arménie. In Langlois, Collection.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Mesrob, St.</span> Maschtotz. Constantinople. No +date given.</p> +<p lang="fr"><span class="sc">Moise de Khorene.</span> Histoire de +l’Arménie. In Langlois, Collection.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Ormanian, M.</span> The Armenian church. London. +1912.</p> +<p lang="de"><span class="sc">Radloff, W.</span> Volksliteratur +türkischen Stämme. St. Petersburg. 1866.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Raffi, A.</span> Article on Armenia. In Boyadjian, +Armenian legends and poems.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Rockwell, W.</span> Publications of Hakluyt +Society. Series 2, IV, and other references under +“Armenia.”</p> +<p><span class="sc">Ross, E. A.</span> Social psychology. New York. +1917.</p> +<p lang="fr"><span class="sc">St. Martin, J.</span> Mémoire sur +l’Arménie. Paris. 1818–1819.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Seklemian, S.</span> Golden maiden and other tales. +New York. 1898.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Stubbs, W.</span> Lectures on mediæval +kingdoms. Oxford. 1887.</p> +<p lang="fr"><span class="sc">Tarde, G.</span> Les lois sociales. +Paris. 1898. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb100" href="#pb100" name= +"pb100">100</a>]</span></p> +<p lang="fr"><span class="sc">Tavernier, J. B.</span> Voyages en +Turquie en Perse et aux Indes. Vol. 3. Utrecht. 1712.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Terzian, P.</span> Religious customs among +Armenians. <i>Catholic World</i> 71:305, 509.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Trowbridge, T. C.</span> Armenia and Armenians. +<i>New Englander</i> 33:1.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Ubicini, J. H. A.</span> Letters on Turkey. London. +1856.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Villari, Luigi.</span> Fire and sword in the +Caucasus. London. 1906.</p> +<p><span class="sc">Wilson, C. W.</span> Armenia. <i>Encyclopaedia +Britannica</i> 11th ed.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div1 ads"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Research Publications of the University of +Minnesota</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">These publications contain the results of research +work from various departments of the University and are offered for +exchange with universities, scientific societies, and other +institutions. Papers will be published as separate monographs numbered +in several series. There is no stated interval of publication. +Application for any of these publications should be made to the +University Librarian.</p> +<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Studies in the Social Sciences</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">1. <span class="sc">Thompson and Warber</span>, Social +and Economic Survey of a Rural Township in Southern Minnesota. 1913. +$0.50.</p> +<p>2. <span class="sc">Matthias Nordberg Orfield</span>, Federal Land +Grants to the States, with Special Reference to Minnesota. 1915. +$1.00.</p> +<p>3. <span class="sc">Edward Van Dyke Robinson</span>, Early Economic +Conditions and the Development of Agriculture in Minnesota. 1915. +$1.50.</p> +<p>4. <span class="sc">L. D. H. Weld and Others</span>, Studies in the +Marketing of Farm Products. 1915. $0.50.</p> +<p>5. <span class="sc">Ben Palmer</span>, Swamp Land Drainage, with +Special Reference to Minnesota. 1915. $0.50.</p> +<p>6. <span class="sc">Albert Ernest Jenks</span>, Indian-White +Amalgamation: An Anthropometric Study. 1916. $0.50.</p> +<p>7. <span class="sc">C. D. Allin</span>, A History of the Tariff +Relations of the Australian Colonies. 1918. $0.75.</p> +<p>8. <span class="sc">Frances H. Relf</span>, The Petition of Right. +1917. $0.75.</p> +<p>9. <span class="sc">Gilbert L. Wilson</span>, Agriculture of the +Hidatsa Indians: An Indian Interpretation. 1917. $0.75.</p> +<p>10. <span class="sc">Notestein and Relf</span>, <i>Editors</i>, +Commons Debates for 1629. In press.</p> +<p>11. <span class="sc">Raymond A. Kent</span>, A Study of State Aid to +Public Schools in Minnesota. 1918. $1.00.</p> +<p>12. <span class="sc">Rupert C. Lodge</span>, The Meaning and +Function of Simple Modes in the Philosophy of John Locke. 1918. +$0.75.</p> +<p>13. <span class="sc">Florence R. Curtis</span>, The Libraries of the +American State and National Institutions for Defectives, Dependents, +and Delinquents. 1918. $0.50.</p> +<p>14. <span class="sc">Louis A. Boettiger</span>, Armenian Legends and +Festivals. 1920. $0.75.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Studies in the Physical Sciences and Mathematics</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">1. <span class="sc">Frankforter and Frary</span>, +Equilibria in Systems Containing Alcohols, Salts, and Water. 1912. +$0.50.</p> +<p>2. <span class="sc">Frankforter and Kritchevsky</span>, A New Phase +of Catalysis. 1914. $0.50.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Studies in Engineering</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">1. <span class="sc">George Alfred Maney</span>, +Secondary Stresses and Other Problems in Rigid Frames: A New Method of +Solution. 1915. $0.25.</p> +<p>2. <span class="sc">Charles Franklin Shoop</span>, An Investigation +of the Concrete Road-Making Properties of Minnesota Stone and Gravel. +1915. $0.25.</p> +<p>3. <span class="sc">Franklin R. 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Swenson</span>, An +Inquiry into the Composition and Structure of <i>Ludus Coventriae</i>: +<span class="sc">Hardin Craig</span>, Note on the Home of <i>Ludus +Coventriae</i>. 1914. $0.50.</p> +<p>2. <span class="sc">Elmer Edgar Stoll</span>, <i>Othello</i>: An +Historical and Comparative Study. 1915. $0.50.</p> +<p>3. <span class="sc">Colbert Searles</span>, <i lang="fr">Les +Sentiments de l’Académie Française sur le Cid</i>: +Edition of the Text, with an Introduction. 1916. $1.00.</p> +<p>4. <span class="sc">Paul Edward Kretzmann</span>, The Liturgical +Element in the Earliest Forms of the Medieval Drama. 1916. $1.00.</p> +<p>5. <span class="sc">Arthur Jerrold Tieje</span>, The Theory of +Characterization in Prose Fiction prior to 1740. 1916. $0.75.</p> +<p>6. <span class="sc">Marie C. 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These +links may not work for you.</p> +<h3 class="main">Corrections</h3> +<p>The following corrections have been applied to the text:</p> +<table class="correctiontable" summary= +"Overview of corrections applied to the text."> +<tr> +<th>Page</th> +<th>Source</th> +<th>Correction</th> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd20e710">10</a></td> +<td class="width40 bottom">fulfil</td> +<td class="width40 bottom">fulfill</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd20e750">12</a>, +<a class="pageref" href="#xd20e1533">42</a></td> +<td class="width40 bottom">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td> +<td class="width40 bottom">,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd20e1152">25</a></td> +<td class="width40 bottom">analagous</td> +<td class="width40 bottom">analogous</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd20e1370">35</a>, +<a class="pageref" href="#xd20e1433">37</a></td> +<td class="width40 bottom">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td> +<td class="width40 bottom">.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd20e1407">37</a>, +<a class="pageref" href="#xd20e1422">37</a>, <a class="pageref" href= +"#xd20e1502">40</a></td> +<td class="width40 bottom">.</td> +<td class="width40 bottom">,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd20e1485">40</a></td> +<td class="width40 bottom">;</td> +<td class="width40 bottom">:</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd20e2169">76</a></td> +<td class="width40 bottom">partiarch</td> +<td class="width40 bottom">patriarch</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd20e2221">79</a></td> +<td class="width40 bottom">Maschottz</td> +<td class="width40 bottom">Maschtotz</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Armenian Legends and Festivals, by +Louis A. 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