The Human Race Part 16

The twelve provinces of which the kingdom is composed are administered by a governor (beglebeig), who delegates his authority to a lieutenant (kakim). The towns are ruled over by a special governor, by a police inspector, and by a first magistrate. Every village elects a ruler (ketlkhoda). The legislation of Persia, differing in little from that of Turkey, is based on the Koran.

The kingdom of Persia can send into the field 150,000 soldiers; but its permanent army does not exceed 10,000 men, among whom exist as a special corps, the shah's guards (gholaums). Persia has a small merchant navy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 83.--HADY-MERZA-AGHAZZI.]

Manufactures do not seem to succeed in Persia. This country, formerly the centre of a large commerce, now imports almost everything, and only manufactures articles of primary necessity.

India, Russia, and Afghanistan supply the Persians with most of their manufactured goods.

Persia, having been often invaded and occupied by foreigners, has necessarily a very mixed population. This consists of four cla.s.ses:

1. The n.o.bility, who fill all public posts.

2. The citizens of the towns, comprising the clergy, and the scholastic profession, who are a mixture of Persians, Turks, Tartars, Georgians, Armenians, and Arabs.

3. The peasants, belonging to the old Persian stock.

4. The nomadic or pastoral tribes, composed of Persians, to whom must be added the remnant of the ancient conquering cla.s.ses of this country. It is from this last cla.s.s that spring the soldiers and all the military clique who const.i.tute in Persia a real hereditary autocracy.

The religion of the ancient Persians was that of Zoroath, that is to say, necromancy. In the third and fourth centuries of the Christian era, Christianity made many converts in this land, although at that time it was occupied by the Arabs. But from the commencement of the fifth century the kings of Persia devoted their energies to crushing it out of their country, and Mahometanism is now the predominant religion. A new sect, the _sosists_, taking rise in a province in Persia (Kerman), has made many converts throughout the kingdom. The votaries of this new creed are deists, who only accept the Koran as a book of moral precepts, and who repudiate the religious dogma that Mahomet drew from it.

Fig. 84 represents several Persian types; fig. 85 gives an idea of the costly dress of the Persian n.o.bility.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 84.--PERSIAN TYPES.]

The author of a "Journey in Persia," Count de Gobineau, has well described the internal life of the Persians. We will make a few extracts from his interesting book. Let us read, for instance, the chapter in which is described _A dinner in Ispahan_. "The table," M. de Gobineau tells us, "laid for twenty guests, was almost lost in the immense size of the place. The front of the theatre was open, supported by ten lofty columns painted in light colours; the large curtain in use, white, with black designs embroidered on it, was stretched like an awning over the nearest part of the gardens. The guests overlooked a large fountain of running water and vast beds of plane trees. Numerous servants in motley dresses, and armed each according to his own fancy (some of them carried a complete a.r.s.enal), stood in groups at the end of the terrace, or handed round the dishes, helping the guests. The table had been laid out with the help of the European servants, a little in the European manner, and a good deal according to Persian customs.

Its centre was occupied by a perfect forest of vases and cups, made of wood, or of blue, white, or yellow and red gla.s.s, and filled with flowers. The novelty of the thing to our hosts, lay in the spoons and forks: when by good fortune, they managed to impale a piece upon their fork and carry it to their mouths without p.r.i.c.king themselves, it was the signal for a burst of compliments. Their appet.i.tes were a little eccentric. One of them filled his plate with mustard, and declared he had never tasted anything half so good. As their parade was greater than the results, we begged them to help themselves in their own way. After much hesitation, they consented to hold on to the fork with the left hand while they picked up their food with the right.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 85.--PERSIAN n.o.bLEMEN.]

"In the midst of the meal we heard a jingle of silvery bells, and saw four young boys, dressed as women, in pink and blue dresses spangled with tinsel, enter. They were dancers. They wore little gilt caps, from beneath which their long hair fell over their shoulders. The musicians were seated on the ground: one played on a kind of mandolin, another on a hand drum, and a third performed on an instrument with a quant.i.ty of strings stretched across a table, from which he drew, with some little sticks, sounds similar to those of the harp."

M. de Gobineau tells us that Ispahan contains many men learned in various branches, rich and prosperous merchants, and men of property who live on their incomes. The town may be compared in size and tranquillity to Versailles.

Another chapter of M. de Gobineau's book is worth reading, that headed "Betrothal, Divorce, and a Persian Lady's Day."

The betrothed are usually very young. The youth is from fifteen to sixteen years of age, and the girl from ten to eleven. It is unusual to find a woman of three-and-twenty who has not had at least a couple of husbands, and often many more, so easily are divorces obtained. The women are kept strictly secluded in one of the inner apartments or _enderoun_, that is to say, no outsider, no stranger to the family, is allowed to enter it. But they are quite at liberty to go out from morning till night, and often indeed from night to morning. In the first place they go to bathe. They go to the bath with an attendant who carries a box full of toilet necessaries and the requisite articles of dress, and it is at least four or five hours before they return from it.

After that they pay visits which they make to one another, and which occupy a similar interval. Their last method of killing time is the pilgrimage they make to the graves of their kindred, which are at no great distance in the midst of pretty scenery.

All Persian women are so carefully veiled, and dressed so similarly, as to their out-door garments, that it is impossible for the most practised eye to distinguish one from the other. Besides paying visits, the excursion to the bath, the shopping in the bazaar, and their pilgrimages, the women go out of doors when it pleases them, and the streets are full of them. Unfortunately Persian women are rather in the habit of looking upon themselves as inferior irresponsible beings.

Absolute mistresses at home, they are extremely pa.s.sionate and violent, and their tiny slipper, furnished with a sharp iron point half an inch long, often leaves very disagreeable marks on their husbands' faces.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 86.--PERSIAN WOMEN.]

The Persian in his turn spends half his time in the bazaar, and the remainder in paying and receiving visits. This is how they take place.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 87.--LOUTY AND BAKTYAN.]

The intending visitor sets out on horseback accompanied by as many of his servants as he can collect, the _djelodar_, with the embroidered saddle-cloth across his shoulders, at his horse's head; and behind him the _kalyaudjy_ (musician) with his instrument. When he reaches the door he wishes to stop at, he dismounts. He then, with his servants in front of him, traverses one or two pa.s.sages, invariably low and dark, and sometimes one or two courts, before reaching the apartments of the master of the house. If his visitor is of higher rank than himself, the host comes to the door to receive him. If they are equals, he sends his son or one of his young relations to do so. The opening courtesies are extremely flowery, such as "How came your lordship to conceive the compa.s.sionate idea of visiting this lowly roof?" &c.

When they reach the drawing-room, they find all the men of the family standing in a row against the wall bowing to the new-comer. As soon as every one is seated, the visitor inquires of the master of the house, "If, by the will of G.o.d, his nose is fat." The latter replies: "Glory be to G.o.d! it is so, by means of your goodness." This same question is sometimes repeated three or four times running. After a few moments of conversation, tea, coffee, and sherbet are handed round. The great charm of this rather frivolous gossip is its exaggeration, and the witty and amusing turn given to it.

The Persians have a peculiar taste for calligraphy. Painting is an almost unknown art amongst them. They possess, however, a certain amount of artistic instinct, as is shown by the richness and elegance of some of their monuments.

Fig. 87 shows the reader other types of Persian costume worn by different cla.s.ses. The Louty and the Baktyan represented in this sketch are members of a nomadic tribe, enjoying rather a bad reputation.

The _Afghans_ inhabit the mountainous region lying to the north of the lowlands of the Punjaub, that is to say, the basin of the Indus. Their climate is a charming one. The Afghans are fine muscular men with a long face, high cheek-bones and a prominent nose. Their hair is generally black. Their skin, according to the part of the country they inhabit, is dark, tawny, or white. They are an unpolished, warlike race, differing in customs and in language both from the Persians and the natives of India. They are subdivided into many tribes or clans.

The _Beloochees_, addicted to pastoral life, and primitive in their habits, move about from place to place, dwelling in tents which are constructed of felt on a slight framework of willow. They wander, with their flocks, about the table lands surrounding Kelat. They are to be found in nearly the whole of that part of eastern Persia, which, lying between Afghanistan to the north and the Indian Ocean to the south, stretches westwards from the Indus to the great Salt Desert. They speak a dialect derived from the Persian.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 88.--AN ARMENIAN DRAWING-ROOM.]

The _Brahnis_ are nomadic tribes found in the colder and more elevated parts of the high grounds comprised within the above geographical limits. They are short and thickset, with round faces and flat features, and brown hair and beards. The Beloochees, who live in lower and warmer regions, are, on the contrary, fine tall men, with regular features and an expressive physiognomy. But those who dwell in the lowlands, close to the Indus, have a darker and almost black skin. The Brahnis bear the same relation to the Hindoos of the Punjaub that the Beloochees do to the Persians.

The _Kurds_, who occupy the lofty mountainous region, intersected by deep valleys, which is situated between the immense table land of Persia and the plains of Mesopotamia, are a semi-barbarous people, very different from the descendants of the Medo-Persians, though also sprung from an Aryan root. They are tall, with coa.r.s.e features. Their complexion is brown, their hair is black, their eyes small, their mouth large, and their countenances wild looking.

The _Armenians_ of both s.e.xes are remarkable for their physical beauty.

Their language is nearly allied to the oldest dialects of the Aryan race, and their history is connected with that of the Medes and Persians by very ancient traditions. They have a white skin, black eyes and hair, and their features are rounder than those of the Persians. The luxuriant growth of the hair on their faces distinguishes them from the Hindoos.

Fig. 88 represents a drawing-room in an Armenian's house at Soucha.

The climate of Armenia is generally a cold one; but in the valleys and in the plains the atmosphere is less keen and the soil very fertile.

Crops of wheat, wine, fruit, tobacco, and cotton are very plentiful there. Mines of gold, silver, copper, iron, and lead are found there, but these are but little worked. Armenian horses have the reputation of being the best bred in western Asia. Cochineal, an important production of this country, is very plentiful at the foot of Ararat. Excellent manna is found in the same districts. Armenian floreals are very abundant.

Armenia nowadays const.i.tutes the pachaliks of Erzeroum, Kars, and Dijar-Bekr in Asiatic Turkey. Besides its indigenous population, it is inhabited by Turks, Kurds, Turcomans, and the remnants of other nations who formerly made raids into their country. The Armenian is distinguished by his serious, laborious, intelligent, and hospitable disposition. He is very successful in business. Fond of the traditions of his forefathers, and attached to his government, he has a good deal of sympathy with Europeans. He becomes easily accustomed to European customs, and learns our languages with little difficulty.

The Christian religion has always been followed in Armenia, and Armenians are much attached to their church. But this is divided into several sects. The Gregorian (the creed founded by Saint Gregory), the Roman Catholic, and the Protestant religions are all to be found in Armenia. The head of the first, which is the most numerous (it musters about four million worshippers), resides at Etchmiadzia, in Russian Armenia. There is another patriarch, who is nearly independent, at Cis, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Cilicia. The patriarch of the Catholics, who are fifty thousand in number, resides at Constantinople; but a second patriarch (_in partibus_), whose jurisdiction extends over Syria, Cilicia, and a part of Asia Minor, dwells on Mount Liba.n.u.s. The Roman Catholics of Russian Armenia belong to the see of the Metropolitan residing in St. Petersburg. The head of the Protestant church, which contains from four to five thousand souls, dwells at Constantinople.

The _Ossetines_, who are the last branch of the Aryan race in Asia, inhabit a small portion of the chain of the Caucasian mountains, populated for the most part by races distinct from the Indo-Europeans.

They resemble the peasants of the north of Russia; but their customs are barbarous, and they are given to pillage.

M. Vereschaguine met with the Ossetines in his travels in the Caucasian provinces. A Cossack, with whom he had some trouble, belonged to this race. The villages of the Ossetines lie on the slopes of the mountains.

On each side of the Darial Pa.s.s lofty walls, flanked by towers, are to be seen, reminding the spectator of the days of brigandage.

The Ossetine, contrary to the customs of all the other tribes of the Caucasus and of the Trans-Caucasus, uses beds, tables, and chairs. He seats himself, like most Europeans, without crossing his legs.