ORIENTAL LIFE
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MANY WRITERS
THE UNIVERSITY
MISSISSIPPI
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THE LIBRARY
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Oriental Life
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AN ACCOUNT OF PAST AND CONTEMPORARY
CONDITIONS AND PROGRESS IN ASIA, EX-
CEPTING CHINA. INDIA AND JAPAN
Edited and Arranged by
ETHLYN T. CLOUGH
Published by the
BAY VIEW READING CLUB
CENTRAL OFFICE, BOSTON BOULEVARD
DETROIT. MICH.
1910
Copyrighted 1910
BV
JOHN M. HALL
MAR 1 1955
PREFACE
WHILE China, Japan, and India are occupying
more of the attention of the world than any
other of the Asiatic countries, a study of that vast
continent would be incomplete without some knowledge
of those borderlands we have come to designate as the
Near East. Besides, this knowledge is necessary to
those who desire to keep abreast of the forward march
of the nations.
It is no longer sufficient that we become acquainted
with Our Own Country and its advancement, for uni-
versal brotherhood is making its demands upon us, and
America is playing no small part in the modernization
of the East. The old familiar cry that has rung down
the centuries, Come over into Macedonia and help us,
is wafted across the seas to-day. It behooves every
Christian nation to foster and aid this universal desire
for the "federation of the world." Once the patriotic
ideal was all-sufficient ; now the farther we remove
ourselves from the ideal of patriotism to merge our-
selves into that higher ideal of universal peace and
freedom, the better it will be for us as individuals, the
better will it be for us as a nation.
To help, we must understand ; to understand, we
must know something of the life and customs of these
peoples who are struggling to free themselves from the
bondage of centuries of slavery and misrule — slavery
to destructive customs and institutions; misrule under
2986
8724 9G
4 PREFACE
the grasping - and oppressive monarchs of conquering
nations.
The regeneration of Turkey and Persia; the won-
derful resources of Burma and Ceylon being devel-
oped under beneficent British rule, are themes to-day
of world-wide interest. In studying the civilizations
of Asia, it is our desire that Bay View students famil-
iarize themselves with some of the salient features in
the life of these lesser countries of the Orient ; and,
since no condensed volume of information is to be
had, we have, as heretofore, prepared one from the
best and latest authorities. This work by no means
exhausts the subjects handled, but it gives an insight
into the manners and customs of hitherto practically
unknown peoples, and sets forth their needs and their
future possibilities. As in previous volumes, the chap-
ters have been gathered from reliable sources, and a
key-letter at the end of each chapter refers the reader
to a page at the close of the book where due credit is
given. These chapters are not all of them presented
just as the writers themselves prepared them. Many
of them have been corrected from recent statistics and
brought down to date ; some have been amplified, and
all of them have been edited and connected with origi-
nal paragraphs to bring about a running narrative.
If the volume proves interesting and informing, and
inspires the desire to know more about and do some-
thing for these nations knocking at the door of West-
ern Civilization, its mission will have been fulfilled.
Ethlyn T. Clough.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I page
The Iranians and Their Country 14
CHAPTER II
The Royal Family and Persian Government 26
CHAPTER III
Persia under a Constitution 38
CHAPTER IV
Manners and Customs of the Persians 50
CHAPTER V
Early History of the Ottomans 61
CHAPTER VI
The Regeneration of Turkey 74
CHAPTER VII
What American Education Is Doing for
Turkey 87
CHAPTER VIII
The Future of the Ottoman Empire 98
CHAPTER IX
Arabia, the Center of the Muslem World. . 109
5
6 CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER X
The Arabs, Their Manners and Customs 120
CHAPTER XI
The Golden Land of Burma 136
CHAPTER XII
The Development of Burma 146
CHAPTER XIII
The Land of Poetry and Romance 155
CHAPTER XIV
The Development and Resources of Ceylon. . 169
CHAPTER XV
The Hermit Nation and Her People 183
CHAPTER XVI
A Vanishing Empire 195
Oriental Life
INTRODUCTORY
THE OUTSKIRTS OF EMTIRE
h \ S far as the East is from the West," is the
.r\. simile that the Psalmist used in likening how
far from the repentant transgressor his sins might be
removed from him, and the simile, in a way, would
hold good to-day. The real East, its people, its reli-
gions, its customs, and we might almost say its geo-
graphical position and physical conditions, are known
to but few. A mighty gulf separates the East from
the West ; the busy throbbing centers of the West take
little note of the things that do not lie near at hand,
and the call of the East comes for the most part un-
heeded across the waste. One of the chief charms to
the student of these comparatively unknown lands is
that subtle something that forever separates the Orien-
tal from the Occidental. It is not so much that they
differ from us in the manners and customs of life, in
religion, education, government, in the clothes we wear,
the food we eat, the houses we live in, and our meth-
ods of work and play, although the difference in these
things is great, but there is something deeper even than
these differences. There is a separation in life and
7
8 ORIENTAL LIFE— INTRODUCTORY
spirit that does not permit the Oriental or the Occi-
dental to understand one another or to interpret aright
the life of each other. One who has lived long in the
East has said that none of us know these people ; that
we do not understand their purposes nor their feelings,
and perhaps Kipling had true insight into the problem
when he sang —
Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall
meet
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment
Seat.
We used to think of the East as those classic lands
lying just across the border of Europe ; the lands from
which we had our religion and the home of the Moham-
medan power. India was the far background for these
countries, and we had but little interest in her ; while
China and Japan were heathen lands for missionaries
to Christianize. To-day we have the Near East and
the. Far East. To the latter belong those heretofore
heathen lands, China, Japan, and India ; while Persia,
Turkey, and Arabia are but the outskirts of empire
and constitute a portion of the Near East. It is to
these latter countries in conjunction with Burma, Cey-
lon, and Korea that we shall devote these few brief
chapters on Oriental Life.
A great deal of time and energy has been given
during the last seventy-five years to the discovery of
the East, and with what vast results is well-known.
Christian missionaries were pioneers in the movement.
Theirs was the entering wedge that made an opening
THE OUTSKIRTS OF EMPIRE 9
later for trade and diplomatic relations, until the high
civilization of the powerful nations of the West came
like an overwhelming flood, bringing new life to the
East. Bringing better methods of education, better
methods of business, more enlightened forms of gov-
ernment, and purer social ethics. We are quite conver-
sant with the transformation these things have worked
in China and Japan, but how have they penetrated and
influenced the countries we are considering?
The changes have not been so perceptible, or, pos-
sibly, we have been so engrossed with the affairs of the
Far East that we have been oblivious to the important
events that have been shaping themselves in these bor-
derlands of empire. Very few understand at all ade-
quately what a change has taken place in Turkey.
In 1907, within the course of a few weeks and with
but a minimum of bloodshed, Turkey passed from the
most absolute despotism to being one of the freest
countries in the world, and the people have given them-
selves up to enjoying their newly acquired freedom to
the utmost. This revolution was brought about by the
organization known as the Young Turks, and wisely
are they dealing with the various problems that have
naturally arisen. Turkish women have taken a large
part in the work of the Young Turks by preparing the
people and the army for the change, and now they arc
demanding their share in the progress that is abroad
in the land. They claim for themselves all that they
see of good in European and American homes. They
ask to be educated so that they can train their children
10 ORIENTAL LIFE— INTRODUCTORY
aright and make the homes of their husbands well-
ordered and happy, and they demand admission into
useful employment for women as in other lands.
Persia has not been a stranger to political evolution
for some time past, and the Constitution granted and
the Parliament formed in 1907 were only the cumula^
tive expression of the evolution that had been long
under way in the ancient monarchy of the Arcfae-
menians and of the Sassanides. England and Russia
had long been competing for political and commercial
supremacy in Persia, and Russia had seemingly won
in the struggle. By the Bagdad Railway, a concession
secured from the Turkish Government in 1902, and
through various institutions established by her sub^
jects in Teheran, Germany gained a foothold in Persia.
These facts, however, did not modify our impression
of Persia as a country of corrupt and brutal satraps,
where offices were sold to the highest bidder, where
men and women were sold for unpaid taxes, and where
the bastinado still held sway. We caught a glimpse
now and then in the columns of our mission papers of
the religious fermentation going on in Persia. The
American missionaries have called our attention to the
rapid spread of Babbism and have interpreted the latter
as a drifting of the Persian masses from Mohammed-
ism toward Christianity. Intelligent Persians, how-
ever, would scarcely accept this as the true interpreta- 1
tion, since the doctrines of that sect would indicate that
Babbism is a pantheism permeated by gnostic and com-
munistic elements. But whatever Babbism may be,
THE OUTSKIRTS OF EMPIRE 11
we should accord due credit to the American and Eng-
lish mission schools for their valuable contribution to
the modernization of Persia. The new elementary
schools are modeled after the American schools.
The modernization of Arabia is not so apparent as
that of other countries in the Near East, perhaps be-
cause she has not been so willing to partake of and
assimilate the culture of the West that has flowed to
her very doors. That Arabia is the stronghold of
Islamism is, too, one of the causes of her failure to
keep pace with the forward march of civilization. We
read of frequent uprisings of the Arabians against the
Turks, their rulers, and occasionally fortune seems to
favor their arms, but it is doubtfui if ever they prevail
against the stronger nation, for the unequipped and
ill-drilled Arab fanatics can hardly make a stand be-
fore the Turkish army with its well-drilled soldiers and
its Mauser muskets and Krupp guns. Nevertheless,
the Arabs will never submit complacently to the Turks,
for the former are intensely proud of their nationality
from which sprang the Prophet, and they look upon
their language as the most refined of tongues, used
by even the angels in Heaven. They regard the Turk
as inferior and indebted to Arabian civilization for
everything, and they hate and despise their foreign
ruler. On account of these conditions there will not be
much of modern progress to study in Arabia, but many
things of historical interest and many things of charm
will be found to make pleasant and profitable the study
of this land of ancient culture.
12 ORIENTAL LIFE— INTRODUCTORY
In Burma, the Cinderella of the Indian Provinces,
we will find many changes in the past fifteen years.
Rapid progress has been made along industrial lines,
and her commerce has become of great importance
and is constantly increasing. The mingling of the old
with the new order of things is seen here as perhaps
nowhere else. We invariably associate Burma with
India, and by some it is called Far India ; but it was
not until 1886 that she was annexed as a whole to the
Indian Empire. Since then she has developed rapidly,
and how she has done this is a most interesting story
and one that will be followed with eager attention.
Burma has her own local government, being elevated
to a Lieutenant Governorship in 1897. The story of
her people, her rice-fields, her forests, her railways,
her ruby mines, her religions, reads like a romance,
and it is little wonder that she came long ago to
be called the marvelous "Land of Gold."
More marvelous still than Burma is the Island of
Ceylon. At a period not very remote Ceylon was
little more than a vague image of poetry or romance.
Now it has become an important reality to the mer-
chant, the traveler, and the student of ancient civili-
zation and religion. Those who have had the most,
extensive experience of East and West regard Ceylon
as the very gem of the earth. The economic results
due to its situation in the eastern seas, a spot on which
converge the steamships of all nations for coal and for
the exchange of freight and passengers ; its wealth and
diversity of agricultural and mineral products ; the in-
THE OUTSKIRTS OF EMPIRE 13
dustry of its inhabitants, both colonists and natives —
these, together with its scenery and the glamour of its
unrivaled remains of antiquity, entitle Ceylon to a
place of high distinction among the dependencies of
the empire.
Last of all in this brief volume, our attention will
be given to Korea, so full of interest for the Christian
world as the center of the great missionary efforts in
Asia. Her inhabitants resemble those of China and
Japan, and though for a number of centuries she was
a dependency of China, she enjoyed an individual
existence under rulers of her own. By a recent treaty
Korea has ceased to be a nation and has become a part
of the Japanese empire. Her willingness to accept the
Christian religion and her great aid in helping to
spread this religion makes her, as stated, of particular
interest to the Western world, and it is some of these
phases of her life that we shall dwell upon more par-
ticularly.
In this outline of what we shall endeavor to develop
in the following chapters, it will be seen how much of
interest there is to be found in the life of these prac-
tically unknown people who inhabit the borderland of
the vast eastern empires. The main object of this
volume is not so much to deal with the mysterious past
of these countries as to give an idea of the present
conditions, and show how western civilization and cul-
ture is influencing and changing the manners and cus-
toms that have their foundation in remote ages.
PERSIA
CHAPTER I
THE IRANIANS AND THEIR COUNTRY
OF all the mighty empires that have flourished in
the East, that of Persia is undoubtedly one of
the most remarkable and the most celebrated. Endur-
ing through a succession of vicissitudes almost unpar-
alleled for more than two thousand five hundred years
— by turns the prey of foreign enemies and the sport
of internal revolution, yet ever subjected to despotic
rule — alternately elevated to the summit of glory and
prosperity, and plunged into misery and degradation,
— she has, from the earliest period of her existence,
either been the throne of the lords of Western Asia
or the arena on which monarchs have disputed for the
scepter of the East. Poor and comparatively limited
in extent, the more warlike of her sovereigns enriched
themselves and enlarged their dominions by the most
brilliant conquests ; while under timid and peaceful
princes not only did her acquisitions crumble away,
but her own provinces were frequently subdued by
bolder and more rapacious neighbors. Thus her boun-
daries were continually fluctuating with the characters
of her monarchs. It is not our purpose to write the
history of the great Persian empire, but to place before
14
THE IRANIANS AND THEIR COUNTRY 15
our readers a description of some of its most remark-
able features. To-day this kingdom occupies the coun-
try within the boundaries of Russia and the Caspian
Sea on the north ; Afghanistan and Beloochistan on
the east ; the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf on
the South, and the Turkish Empire and Mount Ararat
on the west. Its territory extends nine hundred miles
east and west and seven hundred miles from north to
south, and embraces an area of about six hundred and
thirty-eight thousand square miles. It is divided into
thirteen provinces, viz., Ghilan, Mazanderan, Astrabad,
Ardelan, Kauzistan, Pars, Laristan, Kerman, Irak,
Azirbijan, Mekran, Seistan, Kharasan.
In physical contour, Persia consists of an extensive
central plateau, occupying at least three-fourths of the
whole surface ; a series of mountain chains encircling
the plateau on all sides except the east, and an outer
border consisting of gentle slopes, low valleys, and
level plains. The eastern part of the plateau forms
the great deserts of Khorasan and Kerman, and is one
of the most desolate regions of the globe. Although
the plateau is for the most part barren and incapable
of cultivation, along the bases of the mountains and
extending into the plains below are tracts of great
fertility where a rich, varied, and magnificent vegeta-
tion is found.
The fertile and well-watered plains of Persia that
form the outer border of the kingdom produce in great
abundance different kinds of grain, such as wheat,
rice, barley, millet, and maize. In Southern Persia
16 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
sugar corn is grown, also cotton, silk, tobacco, and
opium. Ten million pounds of cotton, eight million'
pounds of wool, and over a million dollars' worth of
opium are annually exported. Of the fruits there are
such as grapes, apricots, pears, peaches, almonds, ap-
ples, pomegranates, oranges, lemons, melons, dates,
figs, cherries, plums, nuts of all kinds, garden vegeta-
bles and herbs of every known variety. Flowers, both
cultivated and wild, flourish in beauty and great vari-
ety, and the great forests that fringe the Caspian Sea
are vocal with a variety of those singing birds common
to Europe, including the nightingale, which delights
the ear with its evening song from the thickets of
roses that embellish every Persian garden.
The mineral resources of Persia consist of iron,
lead, copper, mercury, arsenic, sulphur, asbestos, mica,
coal, and manganese. Gold dust is also found in the
Jungari River, and near Rushire in the Naptha
Springs. The pearl fisheries in the Persian Gulf and
the turquois mines in Korassan are the richest in the
world.
The climate of Persia is made up of various varie-
ties. In the north, around the Caspian Sea, it is quite
cold, and in the south, around the Persian Gulf, it is
very hot. "My father's kingdom,'' says the younger
Cyrus to Xenophon, "is so large that people perish
with cold at one extremity while they are suffocated
with heat at the other," — a description the truth of
which can be attested by tourists who have floundered
in the snows of the northern provinces and in a month's
THE IRANIANS AND THEIR COUNTRY 17
time have gasped for breath on the sands of Dushtis-
tan. On the south side of the northern mountain
ranges the snow commences to fall early in November,
and up to the middle of March ice is seen at Teheran.
Cold winds prevail in April, and even during summer
great and sudden changes of temperature are not un-
common. On the north side of the mountains, in the
plains of Ghilan and Mazanderan, the climate is like
that of a tropical region, in which a dry and a rainy
season regularly alternate, and vegetation has a lux-
uriance not often met with even in lower latitudes.
At the center plateau it is very good, and is pronounced
to be remarkably above that of all other countries for
its purity and dryness.
Persia is rich in the remembrances of Bible history.
Tradition tells us that it was first settled by Elm, son
of Shem, who was the son of Noah. It is supposed
that Cherdorloomor, who lived at the time of Abra-
ham, was one of the early kings. Here we have the
tomb of Daniel the Prophet, and other prominent men
of ancient times. Here also are the sepulchers of
Mordecai and Queen Esther.
Five hundred years before Christ the fire-worship-
ers established their religion, which resulted finally in
Zoroastrianism, and the ashes of their sacred fires,
burning for centuries, have left many hills. Six hun-
dred and fifty years after Christ the Mohammedan and
Arab tribe came and abolished Zoroastrianism. They
taught then, as they still teach, that there is but one
God, creator of heaven and earth, and Mohammed is
18 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
His prophet. At the point of the sword the people of
Persia gave up their own religion and embraced that
of the Arabs ; a remnant of them who were faithful
going over into India to continue their chosen worship,
and a few in Persia keeping it up in secret, so that it
has never entirely died out. In the reign of Cyrus
the Great the inhabitants of Persia numbered about
eighty millions. At present they are estimated at about
ten millions, made up of the following nationalities
and sects: Zoroastrians, 15,000; Jews, 15,000; Nes-
torians, 25,000; Armenians, 50,000. The remainder
are all Mohammedans, consisting of Kurds, Arabs, and
Persians.
The chief cities of Persia are Teheran, the capital ;
Tabreez, Mishid, Ispahan, Yezd, Kermansha, Hama-
don, Urmia, Burfrush, and Kashan. Also in Persia
there are many interesting ruins of ancient populous
and celebrated cities — for example, Persepolis, Shapur,
Istakhar, Shushan, Homadan, etc. The monuments
and inscriptions found at some of these places form a
highly interesting study.
Up to 1907, the government of Persia consisted of
r pure despotism, the King possessing absolute author-
ity over the lives and property of the people. In 1907,
the King, or Shah as he is called, granted the people
a constitution, but already they are tired of it and are
begging him to take it back. This has not been done
as yet, but with the help of his ministers the young
King has somewhat modified the constitution recently.
It is the duty of the King to appoint governors to each
THE IRANIANS AND THEIR COUNTRY 19
of the States we have previously mentioned. The
standing army consists of two hundred thousand men,,
of which only fifty thousand are well-disciplined in-
fantry, ten thousand artillery, ten thousand irregular
cavalry, and a few thousand irregular infantry and
guards. The officers in the army are, for the most
part, ignorant and inefficient, while the soldiers are
intelligent, sober, obedient, and capable of enduring
great fatigue.
The trade of Persia is nearly all with Europe.
There are no railroads nor wagon roads. The means
of travel is by foot or horseback, on narrow footpaths.
Instead of express, they have burdens carried on the
backs of camels, horses, mules, donkeys, or oxen. Cara-
vans of camels perform the greater part of their jour-
neys bv night. Each caravan is composed of from
one hundred to two hundred camels. These are under
only a few leaders, for camels are very gentle. During
nights while at rest the camels are let loose. Thieves
do not steal them and wild beasts can hardly eat them ;
occasionally, however, thieves cut the straps that bind
the burdens to the camels, roll them down chasms, and
afterwards secure the plunder. The marching caravan
is like the marching of an army, so much tinkling of
bells. When thieves attack a camel, the bells cease
tinkling and the owner knows that something is hap-
pening. The caravans exchange the products of Persia
for muslin, leather, skins, nankeen, china, glass, hard-
ware, dye stuffs, and spices. The great part of the
commerce of Persia centers at Tabreez, to which place
20 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
are conveyed all the products of East Persia, Turkis-
tan, Cabul, Beloochistan, and India. European goods
are brought to Tabreez by way of Constantinople and
Trebizond.
The foregoing gives some idea of present condi-
tions in Persia, and it may not be uninteresting to give
briefly some of the facts relating to the history of the
ancient kingdom. According to the description of
Persian geographers, when their country was in its
greatest glory, its territory comprehended four seas —
the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, the Red Sea, and the
Persian Gulf— and six great rivers— the Euphrates,
Tigris, Araxes, Phasis, Oxus, and Indus. Passing
over a series of fabulous dynasties, we arrive at that
of the Achemenides, or Kaianians, which commenced
about 720 b. c, and furnishes the first records which
can be considered authentic. Shortly after this period,
Persia appears to have been merely a province of the
Assyrian empire, on the disruption of which it fell un-
der the power of the Medes, 709 B.C. Dejoce, the
founder of the Median monarchy, was followed at
some distance by Cyaxares, whose successor was As-
tvages. With his dethronement, 560 b. c, the Median
dynasty terminated, and the true founder of the Per-
sian monarchy, one of the most distinguished charac-
ters of ancient times, appears upon the stage. Cyrus
the Great having established his ascendancy over the
Medes, carried his victorious arms into the West, over-
threw Croesus, King of Lydia, and fulfilling a series
of remarkable Scripture prophesies by the conquest of
THE IRANIANS AND THEIR COUNTRY 21
Babvlon and its dependencies, extended his empire to
the shores of the Mediterranean. An expedition
against the Scythians proved fatal to him, 529 b. c,
and he was succeeded by his son Cambyses, the most
important event of whose reign was his conquest of
Egypt. On his death, an impostor, pretending to be
his brother Smerdis, claimed the throne ; but shortly
after, on discovery of the fraud, was slain by the no-
bles, who then gave the crown to one of their own
number called Darius Hystaspes ; who pushed his con-
quests into the East as far as the Indus. In the West
the lands of Asia proved too narrow for his ambitions,
and he passed over into Europe. Here, after making
-various conquests, he encountered the Greeks, by whom
he was defeated on the field of Marathon. His suc-
cessor, Xerxes, having marched toward Greece at the
head of the most gigantic armament which the world
has yet beheld, first at Salamis and then at Platsea, met
with even greater disasters than those which had be-
fallen his predecessors, and with difficulty saved his
life by almost solitary flight across the Hellespont.
Greece now assumed the offensive, and after many
years of struggle, almost always disastrous to Persia,
a new conqueror appeared in Alexander the Great, and
completed her downfall. The Macedonian empire was
soon broken up by the death of its founder, and Persia,
become only one of its many fragments, was long
passed from hand to hand among contending competi-
tors. About 174 is. c, it fell into the hands of the
Parthians, and was ruled by Mithridates I., under
22 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
whom the Parthian power extended from the Indus to
the Euphrates. Rome was now in her full career of
conquest, and Parthia was well fitted both to tempt her
ambition and try her prowess. The first direct inter-
course between them took place 93 b. c, when Mithri-
dates II. sent an embassy to Sylla. In less than forty
years after, war between them had commenced, and
though by no means always to the advantage of the
mistress of the world, the greater part of Persia was
ultimately held as a fief of the Roman empire. Strug-
gles for independence, however, continued to be almost
incessantly made in the times both of the Greek and
Roman emperors, and Persia produced several native
princes whose fame as warriors or improvers of their
country is still held in lively remembrance. They be-
long to what is called the Sassanian dynasty, which
commenced as early as 226 a. d., and continued, though
under circumstances of more or less depression, till
531, when it succeeded in surmounting all obstacles,
and attained its highest prosperity under the celebrated
Khosru-Nusherwan, who swayed the scepter over
realms scarcely less extensive than those which Persia
possessed in the time of Xerxes. At a later period
(590-628), another Khosru, distinguished by the name
of Khosru-Perwiz, after commencing his reign by a
series of brilliant and extensive conquests, sustained a
number of most disastrous reverses, and at last per-
ished by the hand of his own son. The patricide was
not long permitted to benefit by his crime ; death over-
took him six months after ; and during the confusion
THE IRANIANS AND THEIR COUNTRY 23
which ensued a new party, destined to change the face
of Persia and greater part of the East, appeared. Tlv.
Arabs had now commenced their career of Moham-
medan conquest, and by the decisive battles of Cadesia
(636 a. d.) and Nehavend (641 a. d.) extinguished
the Sassanian dynasty, and substituted that of the
Califs; during whose ascendancy, for the two subse-
quent centuries, the history of Persia becoming
blended with that of Arabia and the other realms sub-
ject to these potentates, ceases to be national. This
long period, however, did not pass away without va^i.
changes, among which the most astonishing was the
extirpation of the ancient religion and the adoption of
Mohammedanism. About the middle of the ninth cen-
tury the spirit of independence revived and a new dy-
nasty arose in the person of Yakub Ibu Lais, who
threw off allegiance to the Caliph, and reigned sov-
ereign at Shiraz over territories nearly identical with
modern Persia. It is impossible here to follow in detail
the numerous changes which have subsequently taken
place. In the beginning of the eleventh century the
Seljookian Turks made their descent from Central
Asia, and succeeded in placing their Sultan, Togral-
Beg, on the Persian throne. His successors retained
possession till the last of the line was slain in 1194 by
the Shah of Kharism, who had scarcely established a
Kharismian dynasty, when the famous Genghis Khan
made his appearance at the head of seven hundred
thousand Moguls, and crushing all opposition, ruled
Persia with a rod of iron. The Mogul ascendancy
24 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
was maintained after his death in 1258, first by his
immediate descendants, and afterwards by the heredi-
tary nobles, who, throwing off allegiance to a com-
mon head, divided the country into a number of sepa-
rate and hostile independencies. This state of affairs
was suddenly terminated in 1381, by the invasion of
Tamerlane and his Tartars, who spread devastation
wherever they appeared. All Persia was completely
at his feet, when he was carried off by death in 1404.
The anarchy of petty independencies again returned,
but was finally suppressed in 1502 by Ismail Shah,
who partly by valor and partly by the reputed sanctity
o r his race as descended from Mohammed, worked
his way to the Persian throne, and founded the Sefi, or
Soofee dynasty, which reached its greatest prosperity
during the reign of Abbas the Great (a. d. 1586-1627).
This prosperity faded away during the feeble reigns
which succeeded, and in 1723 a successful revolt of the
Afghans, followed by a series of victories, enabled
them to place the Persian crown on the head of their
chief, Meer-Mohamad. The Afghan ascendancy soon
yielded to the prowess of the celebrated general, Nadir-
Kooli, who, after fighting professedly in defense of
the Soofeean dynasty, declared it at an end, and form-
ally assuming the sovereignty which he had long vir-
tually possessed, began to reign in 1736, under the
title of Nadir-Shah. His extraordinary talents raised
Persia to a remarkable degree of power and influence-
One of his most memorable exploits was the invasion
of India in 1739, when he took Delhi and obtained
THE IRANIANS AND THEIR COUNTRY 25
booty which has been valued at above $150,000,000.
His greater qualities were counterbalanced by cruelty
and avarice, and he was assassinated in 1747. A period
of confusion succeeded, and was not terminated until
1795, when Aga-Mahomad-Khan-Kajar, of Turcoman
origin, ascended the throne and became the founder of
the Kajar dynasty. The very common fate of Persian
sovereigns awaited him, and in 1797, before he had
reigned two years, he was murdered by his attendants.
His nephew, Rabak-Khan, succeeded him under the
name of Feth-Ali-Shah. The most remarkable events
of his reign were two disastrous wars with Russia,
the one ending in 1813, with the loss of extensive ter-
ritories along the Caspian ; and the other in 1828, with
the loss of Erivan and all the country north of Araxes.
In 1833 he was succeeded by his grandson, Mahom-
med Mirza. a
CHAPTER II
THE ROYAL FAMILY AND PERSIAN GOVERNMENT
FN order to better understand the present royal fam-
-■- ily of Persia, it will be necessary to give a few facts
from the life of the Shah Nasredden, the grandfather
of the lately deposed Shah or Emperor of Persia. The
Shah Nasredden was the fourth king of the Kajar
dynasty. He was the son of Shah Mohammad and the
great-grandson of Fattaly Shah, the founder of the
present dynasty. In appearance Fattaly Shah was a
man of fine physique and very proud of his broad
shoulders and long black beard reaching to his waist.
To him Teheran is indebted for many of her fine build-
ings, and bas-reliefs of him may be seen sculptured on
rocks all around the city. Fattaly Shah is one of the
most noted kings of Persia, and was the first one to be
called King of Kings. Fattaly had several sons, one
of whom, Abbas Mirza, was chosen as Crown Prince.
This prince died in early manhood. He left a son,
Mohammad by name, who afterward became king.
After Mohammad, the Nasredden Shah ascended the
throne, in the year 1848, at the age of eighteen.
Nasredden was a good king. He did more for Persia
than any ruler during the past eight hundred years.
He visited the European courts at three different times
and he holds an honorable place among the rulers of
26
THE ROYAL FAMILY AND GOVERNMENT 27
the world. The two most important improvements
introduced by him into his country were the construc-
tion of the telegraph lines in the year 1869 and the
establishment of a postal service in 1877. The last
important service he rendered his country was the
founding of a university called Darinal-f union, or
place of science, at the capital city, Teheran. On
the first of May, 1896, the Shah Nasredden, having
just gone through with the forms of religious worship
in a Mohammedan shrine, was shot as he was coming
out of the door and died from the wounds of the
assassin's bullet within five hours. His murderer
was one of his subjects, Mirza Riza of Kerman,
who belonged to the new peculiar sect of Babbists that
is found in Persia, and that differs from the Moham-
medan religion.
The Shah Nasredden was succeeded by his second
son, Muzaffer-ed-din, which, translated, means the
Victorious of the Faith. When, in 1896, after the
assassination of his father he ascended the celebrated
"Peacock Throne" and put on his head the richest
diadem in the world, he was forty-three years of age.
Prior to his ascension he was titular Governor of Azer-
baijan. The Persian vali-ahd, or heir apparent, always
becomes governor of this province, which is the most
important in Persia, as Tabreez, its capital, is, next to
Teheran, the most important town.
Although a good Mohammedan, he at once made
it apparent that the mullahs or priests would no more
be allowed to influence his administration than they
28 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
had that of his father, who fell a victim to the fanati-
cism of one of them. His mind was set upon develop-
ing his native country along the lines of Western
progress. He was keenly alive to the advantages of
the telegraph wire as a means of keeping himself fully
informed at all times of the state of affairs in the
remotest parts of his dominions, for the telegraph had
brought about a consolidation of the provinces un-
known at any previous time in Persian history.
He was a profound student of philosophy, and, be-
sides being versed in the rich lore and wisdom of Per-
sia, was familiar with the teachings of Aristotle and
Plato, and with the works of Bacon and Kant. He was
also a liberal patron of the arts. He spoke Arabic,
Turkish, and French with great fluency, and could
also converse in English. He had his daughters as
well as his sons taught French by a French lieutenant
of artillery. This caused, a great scandal at the time in
Tabreez, but he disregarded the general indignation,
and when his daughters grew older engaged a French-
woman, Mme. Limosin, as their governess. In addi-
tion to his other accomplishments, Muzaffer-ed-din was
a crack shot and a splendid horseman. As a mighty
hunter he was famed far beyond the borders of his
dominions.
Not a little of his father's enlightenment was ac-
quired from three visits to Europe, he having been the
first Persian ruler to visit the Occident. Muzaffer-ed-
din in turn also visited the chief capitals of Europe,
and in August, 1900, while a guest of the French na-
THE ROYAL FAMILY AND GOVERNMENT 29
tion in Paris, an attempt was made to assassinate him.
He was driving in the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne
with Amin Sultan, his Grand Vizier, Dr. Adcock, his
physician, and General Parent, when a man sprang on
the steps of the carriage and tried to shoot him, but
was prevented by the Grand Vizier, who grasped the
man's wrist with such a powerful grip that the would-
be murderer dropped the revolver.
The Shah's reign was clouded by a malady which
would not yield to medical treatment, and during his
visit to England he was suffering such pain that, in
spite of the extravagant plans which had been made
for his entertainment, he was seen to smile but once
during his stay.
The Shah's household made him a unique figure
in the twentieth century. He was said to have eight
hundred wives. Every year one hundred of the most
beautiful maidens in the country were brought before
the Shah. He selected the twenty-five who were the
most beautiful to him.
Muzaffer-ed-din's wealth was reputed to be $200,-
000,000. His jewels are said to be worth $20,000,000.
The crown itself, surmounted by a great flawless ruby
as large as a hen's eg^, is valued at several millions.
Two gem-studded swords with their scabbards were
said to have cost $1,000,000 each.
On January 19, 1907. Muzaffer-ed-din died, and
was succeeded by his second son, Mohammad-Ali-
Mirza, born on June 21, 1872, and who in accordance
with custom was acting as Governor of Azerbaijan.
30 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
He is said to be a broad-minded man, in entire sym-
pathy with his father's ideas. He was educated in
England, and has the courteous manners of his father.
Among the grand titles that as ruler of Persia he as-
sumes are Shah-in-Shah, meaning King of Kings,
which is an inheritance from an antiquity older than
the Old Testament ; Zil Allah, Shadow of God ; the
Kiblch Alum, center of the world; the Exalted One
Exalted as the Planet Saturn ; the Well of Knowledge,
the King Whose Standard Is the Sun, and Whose
Splendor Is That of the Firmament.
In July, 1909, Mohammed Ali abdicated his throne
and took refuge in the Russian Legation, that the an-
cient realm of Persia might become a truly Constitu-
tional country. On July 16, the monarch was formally
dethroned and the Crown Prince, Ahmed Mirza, was
proclaimed Shah by the National Assembly at Teheran.
The young Shah was only in his twelfth year at the
time, and it is said that he wept bitterly when the
moment came for him to leave his predecessor on the
throne and his mother, and it required a stern message
to the effect that crying was not allowed in the Russian
Legation before he dried his eyes.
The royal palace is surrounded by high stone walls.
The grounds are entered by four beautiful gates. The
walls at the sides and above the gates are adorned
with the pictures of former kings and grave generals ;
also decorative carvings of lions, the standard of
Persia, and of birds. The grounds are beautifully
arranged, all the roads leading to the King's palace
THE ROYAL FAMILY AXD GOVERNMENT 31
in the center, and beautified with ornamental trees and
hedges of roses of various hues. Guarding the en-
trances to the gates and the roadways that lead to the
palace doors are numerous officers of superior rank,
those nearest the palace ever standing with drawn
swords. In this palace are stored the treasures of
Persia, millions of dollars' worth of jewels. The
famous peacock throne is stored here. In the old days
it was the pride of the rulers of Delhi, and experts say
the massive solid gold structure which blazes with
diamonds is worth a million. There are fifty gold
chairs in the palace.
There are cases filled to the brim with diamonds.
There are also vases of pearls so deep that one can
plunge his arm to the elbow in the jewels. Here, too,
is the wonderful globe of solid gold set with fifty
thousand diamonds, emeralds, and amethysts. Up to
the present time it has always been customary for the
Shah to show himself in public only once a year, and
the Shah and his cabinet, composed of six officers,
made all the laws and executed all judgment, the peo-
ple having no voice in the government. This is all
changed now ; the Shah appears in public as often as
he wishes, since the people have been granted a con-
stitution. The people of Persia now have the same
liberty as the people of other constitutional monarchies.
AYhen the Shah tires of the routine of government,
his secretary reads to him from Shah-nameh, a poetical
history of Persian kings. It is one of the king's duties
to become very familiar with the history of Persia and
s
32 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
her former rulers. When the king retires to his private
room at night, the entrance to the room is guarded by
two of the most trusted officials with drawn swords.
One of the four gates in the walls around the palace
is called the King's Gate, as he always enters through
it. No other person, be he lord, count, or high offi-
cial, is permitted to pass through this gate on horse-
back or in a carriage. He must dismount and walk
through.
When the King goes from the palace for a hunt or
a vacation, he is escorted out of the city by a large
guard. First, coming down the street will be seen
about thirty soldiers of the infantry, bearing each a
golden club and shouting : " Get out ! Get out ! "
Whereupon the street is cleared of all traffic that the
royal procession may pass. The infantry is followed
by about fifty cavalrymen with drawn swords. Next
come ten or a dozen riderless Arabian horses. These
horses are beauties and are adorned with bridles of
gold and many precious stones.
The King's table is set with the luxuries of the land.
From the time of the purchase until it appears on the
table the food is inspected by two trusted officials,
whose duty it is to see that the King is not poisoned.
Before the King eats of the food it is further examined
by his physician.
The late Shah left $200,000,000 to his son, nearly
half of which was in the form of precious stones and
jewelry. He probably has a larger amount invested
in precious stones than any other king in the world.
THE ROYAL FAMILY AND GOVERNMENT 33
His peacock throne which was brought from Delhi,
India, by King Nadirshah, who captured that city
two hundred years ago, was valued some years ago
at $12,500,000, but is worth more than that now.
It is of solid gold embedded with diamonds, pearls.
and other precious stones. At the beginning of
each year, seated on this peacock throne, the Shah
wears his crown, and all his officers bow before him
and wish him a prosperous reign during the coming
year. On such occasions his person is covered with
many dazzling jewels.
In no court is there more rigid attention paid to
ceremony. The looks, words, and even movements of
the body are all regulated by the strictest forms. When
the King is seated in public, his sons, ministers, and
courtiers stand erect with their hands crossed, and in
the exact place belonging to their rank. They watch
his looks and a glance is a command. If he speaks to
them, you hear a voice reply and see the lips move,
but not a motion or a gesture betrays that there is
animation in the person thus addressed. He often
speaks of himself in the third person, as "The King
is pleased, The King commands." His ministers ad-
dress him with high-sounding titles, giving expression
to the popular sentiments in regard to him. For
instance, he is called "The object of the world's re-
gard," Kibla i alum, or " Point of the Universe,"
"King of Kings," and the "Lord of the Universe."
The civil and criminal law of all Mohammedan
nations is well known to be founded on the precepts
34 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
of the Koran and the traditions, or Sonna; that is, the
oral commentaries and sayings of the immediate suc-
cessors of the Prophet. This, called the Sherrah or
Avritten law, is the rule in all regular courts, where
persons of the ecclesiastical order preside. But in
Persia there is also the Urf or customary law, which
is administered by secular magistrates having the
King as their head. The respective powers and privi-
leges of these two branches of the judicature have al-
ways been matters of dispute ; and the point of pre-
cedence, or rather of preponderance, has varied with
the character and disposition of the sovereign ; those
of a strongly religious bias being inclined to refer all
cases to the Sherrah, while others would vest the chief
authority in the secular tribunals.
The Sheik al Islam is the supreme judge in the
Sherrah courts, although the reat influence possessed
by the Mooshteheds or chief pontiffs, to whose supe-
rior knowledge deference is always paid, might war-
rant their being considered as higher still. In every
town there is such a sheik nominated by the King, with
a salary ; and in the larger cities there is also a cauzee,
who has the further aid of a council of mollahs.
The Urf is administered by his majesty in person,
by his lieutenants, the rulers of provinces, governors
of cities, magistrates of towns, collectors of districts,
and all the officers who act under them. All these are
competent to hear causes and complaints, summon evi-
dence, give decisions, and inflict punishment, accord-
ing to their respective rank. And as the customary
THE ROYAL FAMILY AND GOVERNMENT 35
law is more arbitrary than the written, these judgments
are more summary, and generally enforced with cor-
responding vigor. There is, however, an appeal to the
superior functionaries ; and it is this alone which con-
trols the venality of the lower judges. Still the power
of life and death rests with the King, who seldom dele-
gates it, except to princes of the blood-royal or to
governors of remote provinces. The courts are held
in public, and the monarch sits a certain time each day,
in his hall of audience, to receive petitions and decide
such cases as come before him.
Capital punishment is conducted in different ways.
A prince from the royal family has authority to behead
men. Sometimes when a good friend of the King is
appointed governor, the King presents him with a
knife. This is a sign and carries with it authority to
behead men. Every prince-mayor or other governor
who has been given this authority keeps two execution-
ers. The uniform of their office is a suit of red clothes.
These two men walk before the mayor when he goes
through the streets. When a condemned man is to be
executed, he is brought from the cell, hands chained
behind and with a chain about his neck. He is sur-
rounded by a group of soldiers with fixed bayonets.
The guilty man has been in a dungeon for several
months perhaps. His clothes are in rags, and, having
had no bath since first imprisoned, he is very dirty and
his hair and beard are long and shaggy. A few steps
before him walks the executioner, with blood-red gar-
ments and knife in his hand. Thus they proceed to the
36 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
public square, and before the assembled crowd the
executioner steps behind the kneeling victim and with
a single stroke of the keen knife cuts his throat, and
another soul takes its flight, having completed its part
in the drama of life.
A common mayor, who has not the authority to be-
head, may kill criminals by fastening them to the
mouth of a cannon and sending a ball through the
body. Another method is to bury the condemned
alive in a cask filled with cement, leaving only the
head exposed. The cement soon hardens and the vic-
tim dies. Sometimes when their crime is not very bad
the punishment is the severing of one hand from the
body. If the man thus punished should commit an-
other crime, the remaining hand would be severed.
If a Mohammedan becomes drunk with wine and gets
loud and abusive, he is arrested and the executioner
punctures the partition skin between the nostrils of the
drunken man and a cord of twine several feet long is
passed through the opening. Then the executioner
starts down the street leading his victim. The man
soon gets sober and is very much ashamed. Shop-
keepers along the way give the executioner pennies.
Princes, lords, and counts are never beheaded. The
most severe punishment for a prince is to pluck out
his eyes. The method of execution for counts and
lords is of two kinds. The King will send a bottle of
sharbat to the condemned man, which is given him in
the form of a sweet drink, but it contains a deadly
poison. He is compelled to drink this and soon dies.
THE ROYAL FAMILY AND GOVERNMENT 37
Another form is for the condemned man to be met by
a servant from the governor after having taken a bath,
and the servant cuts blood-vessels in the arm of the
condemned until death results from loss of blood.
Thus it will be seen that the contrast in modes of
punishment in a Christian nation and a Mohammedan
nation is very great. The kind of punishment inflicted
upon criminals in any country grows out of the pre-
vailing religious belief of that country. A religion that
has much cruelty in it will lead a people to torture its
criminals. But a nation whose religion is based upon
love will deal with its criminals effectively, but as
kindly as possible. The writer has visited prisons in
both Persia and America, and finds that the contrast
between the prisons of the two countries is like the
contrast of a palace and a cellar. Prisoners in Amer
ica ought to be very thankfr 1 for the humane treatment
thev receive under a Christian government.^
CHAPTER III
PERSIA UNDER A CONSTITUTION
THE world was never so greatly surprised as when
Persia demanded and was given a constitution.
It was supposed that she was hardly emerged from
the conditions of the Middle Ages. It was during the
last days of the life of Muzaffer-ed-din, father of the
lately deposed Shah, that the demand was made by
the people. The King was sick unto death when the
imperfectly framed Constitution was brought to him,
but he approved it. Then he and Mohammed, his son
and heir, signed a separate paper, swearing on the
Koran that they would not dissolve the Parliament for
two years. The document was unsatisfactory to the
new Senate, and it had to be revised. The work was
speedily done, and the Shah and his heir again pledged
their fealty to it. Very soon after this Muzaffer died
and Mohammed became Shah of Persia. If any mon-
arch ever had his hands full of trouble at the moment
of his ascending the throne, that ruler was Mohammed
AH. For the third time he pledged to adhere to the
new Constitution and gave out a program of reforms
that he hoped to aocomplish with the aid of the Par-
liament. His reign, however, was troublous from the
outset. One of his brothers instantly asserted his
claims to the throne from the province of Luristan on
38
PERSIA UNDER A CONSTITUTION 39
the Turkish border. His revolt lasted only for a little
time and then the Turks renewed the trouble that has
lasted for more than a hundred years over the boun-
dary between their Asiatic territory and the Persian
Empire. This, too, came to nothing. The issue was
staved off after some trifling bloodshed, but there was
no putting off the troubles with Parliament, which ac-
tually started with the reign itself.
The leaders of the National party, in control of the
Parliament, demanded ministerial responsibility, con-
trol of the finances, and an immediate radical reform of
administration throughout the country, with cessation
of despotic cruelty, grafting, and oppressive taxation.
The Shah replied that they might as well demand a
republic at once, yet when it came to the breaking
point he gave in, surrendered every point. All this
took place within a month after his accession. His
surrender, the first of many, was on February 12, 1907.
On this same day broke out the first of a series of riots
in Tabreez, the capital of Azerbaijan, the northern
province of Persia on the Russian border.
The details of Shah Mohammed Ali's conflict with
his Parliament are tedious and unimportant. They
consisted of alternate resistances and surrenders on
his part as the legislators pressed demand after de-
mand upon him. Troubles increased. The Grand
Vizier, Amines-Sultan, was murdered in the Mcjhss,
the Parliament building, on September 2, 1907. The
struggle seemed to be at an end on December 7, when
the Shah once more signed a declaration, swearing by
40 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
the Koran to uphold Lhs Constitution and co-operate
in the reforms demanded by the people. This event
had an important result in July, 1909, when the muj-
tchids, or holy men of the Shiite sect of Mohammedan-
ism, excommunicated Mohammed Ali for perjury in
breaking his oath, thus rendering him ineligible to
reign and paving the way for his deposition.
The end of the struggle with Parliament, or, rather,
the end of the first battle, came in June, 1908, when,
in response to a proposal to cut his personal income to
$500,000 a year the Shah's artillery opened fire on the
Parliament building and the streets of Teheran flowed
with blood for two days, as the despot's soldiery butch-
ered members of the Assembly and Nationalist leaders
and sympathizers wherever they could find them.
Curiously enough, the Shah and his following managed
to create the impression that the suppression of the
liberal movement was excusable if not actually praise-
worthy. Its leaders were blackened with accusations
of cruelty and oppression toward their opponents, and
perhaps the charges were not wholly untrue. This
massacre was the end of Persia's first Parliament, but
it was far from the end of the Shah's troubles and
vacillation in respect to the parliamentary question.
Two or three times in 1909 he issued proclamations of
the renewal of constitutional government, and each
time except the last it was withdrawn. So far as Mo-
hammed Ali is concerned, at least for the present, the
end ~ame July 16, 1909, when, following a proclama-
tion of the mujtehids that the Shah was no longer a
PERSIA UNDER A CONSTITUTION 41
true Moslem, and, therefore it was permissible to wage
against him a Holy War, the monarch was formally
dethroned and the Crown Prince Ahmed Mirza was
proclaimed Shah by the National Assembly at Teheran.
Ahmed Mirza is the second son of his father. His
elder brother is not eligible to reign because his mother
is not a princess of the reigning Kajar house, which
has ruled Persia since 1794. Ahmed Mirza is now
(1910) in his thirteenth year, and during his minority
the government will be administered by a regent, Azud
es-Sultan, known as Ul Mulk, one of the uncles of the
young ruler. Both the British and the Russian gov-
ernment, it is said, will aid the Persian Nationalists to
establish a strong government at Teheran. It is main-
tained that the council of intelligent men that is ac-
tually now administering the government can restore
the prestige of the country and maintain order. With
a substantial loan from some other nation or nations
the regeneration, industrial and economic, can be un-
dertaken and Persia can look forward to a future.
Under the important royal rescript, the Majlis i Shora
i Milli, the National Council, shall consist of and be
elected by members of the reigning dynasty, and by
the clergy, chiefs, nobles, land-owners, and merchants.
A later decree fixed the number of members at one
hundred and fifty-six, elected for a term of two years.
The Assembly meets annually in October. There is
also provided a Senate of sixty members. If it seems
strange that a constitution, parliamentary institutions,
and a reformed administration should be so insistently
42 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
demanded by a people apparently backward as the
Persians are, there are really good reasons for the
Persian state of mind. Dr. Mirza Abdullah and Rahim
Zadeh, delegates sent by the Nationalists to Paris to
present their side of the situation, have been at some
pains to explain the movement. In condensed form
this is their explanation :
"First of all, Persia, like India, has ' caught the
rebound ' from the Russo-Japanese War. The stag-
nant nations are awakening, and Persia is one of them.
But above all it is the reform movement in Russia
that has stimulated the Persians, to throw off the yoke
of despotism. Under this deadly regime Persia has not
been able to support its people. They have swarmed
by thousands across the Russian frontier in search of
work. There are fifty thousand of them in Baku ;
there are thousands in Astrakhan. Every port on the
Caspian and Black Sea has its contingent. The pe-
troleum region of the Caucasus is full of them. They
have ascended the Volga. They are stevedores at
Odessa and Constantinople and Batum. Everywhere
they are in contact with the men of advanced ideas,
Young Russians and Young Turks. In this the whole
story is told. They absorb the ideas of liberalism.
They send them home in letters ; they take them home
when they return with their savings. These exiles
are the leaven that has started the Persian ferment."
It is very evident that the future of Persia will be
in the hands of foreigners, the Russian, the English-
man, the German ; and it is necessary that this should
be so. There are great resources of all kinds in Persia,
but they have never been developed for the good of
the nation. In the whole realm there are but ten miles
of railroad, and this is not for industrial purposes, but
PERSIA UNDER A CONSTITUTION 43
is a single track extending from Teheran to the shrine
of a former Shah.
How government under a constitution is going to
affect the every-day life of the people can not yet be
determined. Certain it is that, with the exception of
Africa, in no other land can such a lack of progress-
iveness be found. The cities and villages of Persia
appear particularly monotonous and uninteresting.
The houses, built of mud, or a sort of preparation of
mud and other ingredients, do not differ in color from
the earth on which they stand, and from their lowness
and irregular construction resemble protuberances on
the surface, rather than human dwellings. Even those
of the great seldom exceed one story, and the lofty
walls which hide them from view produce a blank and
cheerless effect. There are no public buildings except
the mosques, medressas or colleges, and caravansaries ;
and these are seldom imposing, nearly all of them be-
ing built of mud like the dwellings. A hasty survey
of the whole scene embraces an assemblage of flat
roofs, little rounded cupolas, and long walls of mud,
thickly interspersed with ruins. Minarets and domes
of any magnitude arc rare, and few possess claim to
elegance or grandeur. Of course, there are exceptions
to these conditions in the more important cities like
Teheran and Tabreez, but the general atmosphere that
pervades touring in Persia is intolerably monotonous.
Even the smoke which pours from the tall chimneys of
cities in industrial countries and hovers over the roofs
of the houses, suggesting the existence of life and com-
-J 4 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
fort, is wanting here. Beyond the walls, of course, are
to be found the wonderful Persian gardens with their
chinar, cypress, and fruit trees, their rose hedges and
gay parterres.
On approaching these Persian cities and villages,
even such of them as have been capitals of the empire,
the traveler casts his eyes around for those marks of
human intercourse, and listens for that hum of men,
which never fail to cheer the heart and raise the spirits
of the wayfarer ; but he looks and listens in vain. In-
stead of the well-ordered road, bordered with hedge-
rows, enclosures, and gay habitations, and leading in
due course to the imposing street of lofty and substan-
tial edifices ; he who approaches an Eastern town must
thread the narrow and dusty lane, rugged as the tor-
rent's bed, confined by decayed mud walls, or high
enclosures of sun-dried bricks, which shut up what-
ever of verdure the place can boast ; he must pick his
uncertain way among heights and hollows — the frag-
ments of old buildings, and the pits which have sup-
plied the material for new ones. At length, reaching
the wall, generally in a state of dilapidation, which
girds the city, and entering the gateway, where lounge
a few squalid guards, he finds himself in a bazaar. This
custom among Asiatic people of building walls and
gates to their cities is as old as their civilization. The
walls of a city stand as prominently in the Bible as
Mount Zion. They were the protection of ancient
cities even as they are to this day. They are looked
upon with much veneration and their strong walls give
PERSIA UNDER A CONSTITUTION 45
much comfort to the inhabitants. Hence Isaiah uses
the expression, 'Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation
and thy gates Praise." And in Revelation we find the
walls of the New Jerusalem adorned with all manner
of precious stones and the twelve gates of entrance.
David addresses the gates personally, saying: "Lift up
your heads, O ye gates : and be ye lifted up, ye ever-
lasting doors: and the King of Glory shall come in."
It is in the Eastern cities that we can come most into
a svmpathetic understanding of these majestic utter-
ances.
As has been stated, most of the buildings of the
cities are earthen. The market is usually built of brick,
however, and arched over everywhere so one can not
see the sky, with skylights here and there. The shop-
keepers are usually Mohammedans. You see them at
their prayers. They will stop their prayers and come
and wait on you if you wish to buy anything and then
go back to their prayers. When a Persian lady goes
out to buy anything, she veils herself completely. Com-
mon people leave a little space for the eyes so as to see,
but the noble ladies leave only small holes to look
through. The cities are divided into wards, each ward
with a name, but there are no names for the streets, and
no numbers on the houses. If you want to find a friend,
you must give the name of the ward, to which you
will be directed, and then you will have to visit each
house in the ward until you find the right one. After
ten o'clock at night, policemen walk the streets and
arrest any one they find abroad. If any one attempts
46 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
to run away, the policeman sets a dog on him. Each
night of the three hundred and sixty-five in the year
has an individual name. When any person is arrested
the policeman asks what he is out for, and he will in-
variably say, "I went to see a friend and it got late."
The policeman will then ask him what night it is, and
if he can tell, he is allowed to go ; if not, he is detained
and maltreated until morning, when he must pay a for-
feit or give a present to the policeman before he is
released.
When one looks at a village it seems like one house,
for the houses are built so close together. All the build-
ings are of earth, around them are orchards or vine-
yards, and around these are earth-walls fifteen feet
high, so no one can enter. In the summer season it is
very hot in Persia, and people sleep on the tops of
the houses, which are flat. The houses are so close
together that neighbors can pass from each other's
housetops without going down, and you can walk on
the tops of the houses over a great part of the village
as well as on the ground.
Most of the Persians are very poor, and this pov-
erty is attributed to two causes. First, business is poor
and employment hard to get ; second, taxation is great.
As to business ; there are no railroads in the country,
and the traveling is on horseback, thirty miles a day.
There are no large factories and companies to give
employment to people, which accounts for so many
living in constant idleness, or seeking in foreign coun-
tries for employment. Most of the business is farming,
PERSIA UNDER A CONSTITUTION 47
but the land is owned by a rich class of Mohammedans
who are called lords. Business in the cities is the open
bazaar, where all methods of manufacture are exposed
to the view of the passers-by.
The farmers and day-laborers are in a most de-
plorable condition, because all the land in the kingdom
of Persia is owned by khans. Each khan owns from
five ro twenty-five villages. The peasants who live in
these villages first have to buy a lot from their khan
and build a house on it. Then every year they have
to pay a tax on the house. If they keep cattle, they
must pay a tax on every cow, buffalo, horse, or sheep.
Every house has to furnish to the khan annually two
chickens, a certain number of eggs, and about two
hundred and fifty pounds of fuel, which must be of
timber. This is, of course, very scarce in most parts
of that dry, barren, and mountainous country. Many
of the peasants have no timber at all and have to buy it
to pay their khan. The khan furnishes the land, while
the peasants have to furnish everything else that is
necessary to produce and take off their crops of wheat,
barley, or millet, and make the grain ready for use;
then they are allowed to keep one-third of it, while the
other two-thirds they must give to the khan for the use
of the land. Besides all these things they have to pay
the government taxes, which are not only double, but
sometimes more than double the amount they have to
pay to the khan. A common laborer receives about
twenty-five cents a day for his work, which makes it
exceedingly hard for him to support a family and to
48 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
pay the exorbitant taxes. When the collectors come to
the village, many of the men will run away because
they have no money at hand to pay their taxes. When
a khan or lord returns from a journey and comes in to
visit his village, the peasants all prepare to meet him at
a certain distance from the village. They take with
them an animal and at their meeting with their khan
they cut its head off in the road, then place its head
on one side of the road and its body on the other,
which means, "O master, may the lines of thine ene-
mies be thus broken or cut asunder before thee."
Upon his arrival his peasant subjects bring him chick-
ens, eggs, and fruit, and he and his servants feast at
the expense of his poor, down-trodden subjects. Those
that are at all in good circumstances he will try to find
fault with.
This picture of conditions in Persia may seem over-
drawn, for it hardly seems possible that in this enlight-
ened and civilized age there is a spot anywhere on our
beautiful earth that could be so down-trodden. Nev-
ertheless, these are the conditions as they actually exist
in Persia in 1910. Persia is the richest and yet the
poorest kingdom in the world. Her people are living
in abject misery and unenlightened poverty, while her
royalty and nobility count their treasures by millions.
and can bury their arms elbow deep in vases of pearls
and other precious gems. That a change is necessary
is quickly to be seen, but whether the remedy is to be
a constitutional monarchy is not yet proved. What-
ever the remedy, it is to be hoped that this ancient
PERSIA UNDER A CONSTITUTION 49
realm will not eventually fall a prey to some of the
great world powers, but that the land of poetry and
roses may have as happy a future before her as she
once had a glorious and mighty past. c
CHAPTER IV
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PERSIANS
PERHAPS in no other country in the world are
there so many queer customs in every-day life as
are to be found in Persia. Chief among these are the
customs that attend matrimony. The population of
Persia is made up of many different tribes, nationali-
ties, and religions, each of which retains its own lan-
guage, manners, customs, and peculiarities, and refuses
to enter into any marriage compact with others. At
present there are living in Persia Jews, Christians, Mo-
hammedans, and many other tribes of different faiths,
but none of them are allowed to intermarry without
exacting concessions from the others that they are
unwilling to make. Occasionally a Mohammedan will
capture and carry off a pretty girl among the Nes-
torian and Armenian Christians, compel her to become
a Mohammedan, and then marry her.
The Mohammedans of Persia marry very young,
that is, from the age of twelve and upward. The
early age at which maturity is reached and the desire
of parents for an early marriage for their children is
the cause of this. Sometimes parents in two families,
in order to cement a perfect friendship between them-
selves, will betroth their children while they are quite
youti" - ' n nd sometimes a man may notice that the
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PERSIANS 51
daughters in a certain family are naturally good, capa-
ble, and obedient, at the same time beautiful and
healthy, and he wishes to secure the hand of one of
these girls for his son. To make sure of this and to
make it impossible for any other man to ever set eyes
on her he gets her parents to consent to having them
betrothed while they are yet children, and when they
are grown the marriage is consummated. These mo-
tives are quite common among all the nationalities that
live in Persia.
After the engagement has taken place it is custom-
ary among the Mohammedans for the affianced girl and
boy or their parents to choose each a representative
who meet, or else parents themselves meet, and decide
how much money the boy shall pay to his intended wife
if at any time after they are married he may wish to
put her away by divorce. This money is called kaben,
and the amount varies from ten to one thousand dol-
lars, that depending largely upen the standing finan-
cially of the contracting parties. The sum being fixed,
the two representatives or the parents of the engaged
couple, as the case may be, go to their priest and have
him write two letters of documental testimony, or-e
each for the betrothed couple, in which the fixed
amount of kaben is stated. These letters, called "kaben
letters," are kept by each party to the compact, and
whenever the husband grows tired of his wife or dis-
satisfied with her, he simply pays her the stipulated
amount of kaben for her maintenance and is thereby
divorced from her.
52
ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
This makes it exceedingly easy to be divorced, and
many evils result from it, so that the Mohammedans
themselves, experiencing the evil consequences of this
lax law, try to make divorces impossible by fixing as
kaben something that can not be obtained. For ex-
ample, they sometimes fix upon eight or more pounds
of mosquitoes or house-fly wings as the kaben a hus-
band must pay his wife if he would divorce her. This,
of course, he can not pay.
Sometimes, instead of what has just been men-
tioned, or a sum of money, or a vineyard, or a field,
they will write in the "kaben letters" that if a husband
would put away his wife after they are married he
must give her an arm or a foot. This also being im-
possible to furnish, if the husband really wants his
wife divorced, he will so abuse her that she will be
obliged to say Kaben em halal. Janim asad, which
means, "I make my kaben legitimate to you. Now let
my soul be free." She will then be divorced and glad
of her escape.
A Mohammedan is allowed to marry four wives.
All four marriages are legal and all four of the wives
are considered to be on an equality with each other.
He is expected to love them all equally well, and can
divorce any one of them or all of them at his pleasure.
Mohammed, to check the frequency of this practice,
decreed that a wife divorced for three successive times
should not be taken back a third time by her husband
until she had been married to another man and di-
vorced by him. After that her first husband could
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PERSIANS 53
marry her again. While a Mohammedan is limited to
four legal wives, there is another kind of wife or con-
cubine called seka. The number of these that a man
may have is unlimited ; he is allowed to have as many
of them as he wishes and can get. There are several
reasons why the Mohammedan believes in plural mar-
riages. First, they believe it is a sin for any woman
not to be under the law of marriage, and according to
their religion man is regarded so vastly superior to
woman that it is perfectly proper for him to rule over
many of them ; and dominant over these reasons,
whether they recognize it or not, is, no doubt, the nat-
ural depravity of human nature, making laws both
in religion and morals to suit its inclinations and fitting
its beliefs to its desires.
After these "kaben letters" have been written and
sealed by the priest, a few days are allowed to pass
before the parents of the two contracting parties meet
to decide upon the amount of money to be furnished
by the bridegroom's father for the purchase of clothes,
or parcha, and to appoint a day for the wedding, or
rather for its beginning. All this arranged, both par-
ties go to the city, where the bride's mother, at the
expense of the bridegroom's father, buys as much
clothing as she can for the bride. The reason the
bride's parents have for buying as much as possible
for their daughter is that they, or particularly the
mother, feels that her daughter is now going to a
strange place to live, and that if she should need more
clothing in a short time after her marriage she would
54 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
be too bashful to ask for it. So her mother, now that
she has the opportunity, provides her with enough to
make her feel happy at the thought of her marriage
and to last until she becomes sufficiently acquainted in
her new home to ask for what she needs. After this
the bride is busy making her trousseau, or parcha, as
the Persians call it. Sometimes she calls in her friends
to assist her, and at the end of two weeks everything
is ready. About two or three days before the ap-
pointed day of the wedding the bridegroom's father
sends out his heralds to the surrounding villages and
towns to invite her relatives and friends to come to the
wedding.
It is customary among the Mohammedans to pro-
vide the heralds with apples, roses, cloves, and other
aromatic things. When they are going to invite a per-
son, they present him with an apple or a clove and then
extend him greetings from the bridegroom's father with
much flattery and many embellishments, ending with
the statement that "he sends his love and asks you to
come to the wedding.'" To this he may reply, Allah
mubaraklasen, which means, "God bless it, we will try
to come." Should the bridegroom's father invite any
one who is of higher rank than himself, such as an
official dignitary, he would not send heralds to such
an one, but would go himself, carrying with him a
present suited to his rank. This he would present to
him and in a delighted and appropriate manner invite
him to the wedding. This person of higher rank may
in turn send a valuable present.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PERSIANS 55
Among the higher classes of Mohammedans who
live in the cities and are very wealthy, sometimes the
weddings continue over an entire week. They have
long weddings because the}' are rich and wish to add
to their reputation of wealth and superiority. Several
male cooks are employed and every one who is invited
attends the wedding every day during the whole time,
and all are provided with good substantial meals, con-
sisting mainly of rice and meats. Several couples of
musicians are employed for the entertainment of the
guests. Also some gypsies to dance and a number of
jugglers of superior skill who make sport and amuse-
ment for the crowd by their tricks of extraordinary
dexterity. Some storytellers, singers, and players on
different kinds of musical instruments also add to the
merriment. Sometimes prominent wrestlers are also
secured and crowds of guests witness their feats of
strength, the victorious one receiving a prize provided
by the bridegroom's father. These performances are
arranged in a sort of program for each day, and in the
evenings there is a display of fireworks. None of the
women guests are present at these sports, but may
watch them from the housetop. Even when the wed-
ding continues for more than a week, the bride is
brought to the house of her father-in-law on the fourth
day. No matter how close the bride's house is to that
of the bridegroom, she must ride there on horseback,
for that is the custom. In the afternoon of this fourth
day all the musicians and a crowd of people, some
mounted on horseback, others walking, form a large
56 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
procession and proceed to the house of the bride, where
they are welcomed with a volley from guns and pistols.
A little feast is now had at the bride's home while she
is being dressed in other apartments for the short wed-
ding journey. Her lady friends perform the duties of
maid, and she is arrayed in her new bridal costume and
covered with two veils called CJiarkat and Turma.
The former is a scarlet veil which covers her entire
body except a small space in front, which is covered by
a beautiful thin white silken veil, the Turma. No one
can see any part of her except her feet, and when she
appears on horseback, it is simply as a graceful red fig-
ure. At this time the streets and housetops are crowded
with joyful spectators. When the bride is ready, the
musicians play a sorrowful tune while she bids farewell
to her parents, who kiss her and pronounce their bene-
diction upon her and fall to weeping when she is put
upon horseback. As soon as she is mounted the musi-
cians change their tune from a doleful to a happy one,
while another volley from the guns and pistols pierces
the air. Her father-in-law throws a handful of copper
money upon her head to show that he intends to be
liberal with her.
A bride is not allowed to speak with her mother-in-
law or father-in-law or any member of the family who
is older than herself, and very little with their neigh-
bors. Neither she nor her husband ever address each
other, except when quite alone, by their names. Nor
do they ever speak of each other by name, but as "he"
and "she."
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PERSIANS 57
At home the bride must have her head covered with
a veil of about two square yards, one end of which
covers her mouth close up to the nose and is called
yashmak. When she goes out, the entire person must
be covered. If asked anything by her father-in-law
or mother-in-law, she either replies by signs or through
some child or friend present. She is not allowed to
eat with her father-in-law or mother-in-law, but must
wait upon them. After they have finished their meal,
she may eat with the children of the family or with
her husband. She must live in this way for a long
time. After several years she may speak with her
mother-in-law, but never with her father-in-law.
When a child is born to the newly married pair,
which is generally within a year or two, if it happens
to be a boy, there is joy beyond measure, and the
young mother is greatly praised and considered a very
fortunate woman. Should the child be a girl, the re-
joicing is not so great, but they say : "That is all right.
The next one will be a boy, and it is good to have a
daughter first, to grow up to help mother take care of
her younger brothers and sisters." When a child is
seven days old, a number of ladies come to visit the
mother, some taking with them either a dish of food
or a piece of cloth about two yards long. The food is
eaten by the family. If the child be a girl, they con-
gratulate the parents, saying, "May the foot of your
maid be blessed (that is, may her coming into the
world be a blessing), and may God preserve her to
you. We hope the next one may be a boy." Should
58 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
the child be a boy, they may say, "May the foot of
our young man be blessed. May God spare him to
you and make him like hair that is never exhausted,
but grows again when cut or pulled out. May God not
think one son enough for you.''
It is considered a shame for a man to speak of any
of his wives when in company with other men. They
may speak of everything else, but never allow their
conversation to turn to their own domestic affairs.
At their gatherings they like best to discuss their
religion, and next to that is politics, which they
discuss with great enthusiasm. They know very little
of history, and their knowledge of art and philosophy
is also quite limited. What little they do know of these
latter subjects they have learned from the Europeans
who are teachers and instructors in their principal
cities, and especially in their capital city Teheran. They
have one weekly newspaper published in Teheran,
which they of course read. If any one among them
can quote or recite poetry in the course of their con-
versation, he is much admired, for they are great lov-
ers of poetry. In this respect they think the Persian
language excels every other tongue ; so musical is it
and rich in idioms, rhymes, and vowel sounds that
Mohammed once said that he would ask that their lan-
guage might be the language of paradise.
When a prominent man comes to visit certain
persons that are gathered together, if he is of higher
rank than they, as he enters they will all arise and con-
tinue standing until he is seated. Then they resume
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PERSIANS 59
their seats and the visitor exchanges greetings by bow-
ing to each one present according to his rank. Imme-
diately after this a water-pipe for smoking is presented
to him. Their pipes are so arranged that the smoke
goes through water first, which purifies it before it is
taken into the mouth. One pipe is used for several
persons. When one has finished smoking, the pipe is
passed to the one who sits next to him, and so on until
all have smoked. When all have finished smoking, tea,
coffee, or fruit may be served. But suppose a dinner
consisting of rice is to be served, then it is brought in
on small copper trays. They begin eating at once,
using all five fingers in doing so. Of course, it is not
uncommon among the people of Persia to eat with
their fingers, but to see Mohammedans grasping whole
handfuls and eating it is quite a sight. They use all
five fingers because they say God has made them all
and it is a sin to use some and not all of them. When
they have eaten, a servant comes with warm water,
and going to the person of highest rank, will hold an
empty vessel before him in one hand, while with the
other hand he will pour water upon the hands of the
guest. When the guest of honor has thus washed his
hands, the servant goes in the same way to another,
and so on until all have washed their hands. Rice
cooked as the Persians cook it is said to be very deli-
cious and much liked by the Turks and Arabs as well,
but the two latter peoples abhor the way in which the
Persians eat it. This distinction in table manners
60 ORIENTAL LIFE— PERSIA
shows that civilization is a trifle advanced with the
Arabs and Turks.
Mohammedans who can read and write always have
a pair of scissors in the ink-case that they carry in
their pockets. When they write a letter, they always
trim the margins of it, for tradition is current among
them that if they did not cut the margins of their let-
ters their wives would be untrue to them. Having put
their letters into envelopes with their edges properly
trimmed, they always seal them with a seal that most
of them carry in their purses. d
TURKEY
CHAPTER V
EARLY HISTORY OF THE OTTOMANS
MIDWAY between Europe and Asia, having the
Black Sea upon the north and the Mediterranean
Sea upon the south lies Turkey. In one sense the cen-
ter of the Eastern Hemisphere, this country, by its geo-
graphical position as well as its political importance, is
the "hinge" of the continents. Comprising in Europe
63,850 square miles, with a population of more than
four millions, and in Asia 729,170 square miles and a
population of sixteen millions, there are to be added
to the area 798,860 square miles in Africa, having a
population of 7,817,265, making a grand total of about
1,652,533 square miles and 33,000,000 people. This
entire country, including its dependencies, is known
as the Ottoman Empire.
The significance borne by its geographical position
has been, almost since its first existence as an empire,
sustained by its political importance in the affairs of
Europe and Asia. For this reason — and equally
whether we consider it in its palmy days under its
monarchs whose achievements have become matters
of high consideration in the history of the world, when
it was the "Sick Man," or at the present time when it
61
62 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
is coming out into the light of civilization and taking
its place in the great march of progress, it challenges
the attention of humanity everywhere — Turkey may
not improperly receive the title which we have ventured
to give it, the "hinge of the eastern continents." Shorn
by the exigencies of war and the devastation of foreign
hosts of much of its ancient dominion, the Ottoman
Empire at present comprises Albania, Macedonia, and
the southeastern portion of the Balkan Peninsula in
Europe, Asia Minor, Eastern Turkey or Kurdistan,
Mesopotamia, Syria, and Southern Arabia in Asia,
including the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, Egypt
and Bulgaria as tributary states, and in nominal sub-
jection the large African province of Tripoli.
The religion of the Turk is Mohammedan. He
believes in one God, Allah, and Mohamet, his prophet.
The simplicity of his faith and the spirituality of its
practice, involving devout prayer to one Supreme Be-
ing several times in the course of the day, does pro-
duce certain ennobling effects. The Turk faithfully
follows out his religious obligations in a way which
might put many Christians to shame ; and he is sober
in regard to wine, as strictly enjoined by his scrip-
tures, the Koran. But the exceedingly coarse nature
of the heaven which Mahomet promised to his faith-
ful disciples is such as to undo all the good effects of
their abstinence here. Eating and drinking and all
sensual delights, are what the Turk looks forward to
when he shall be clothed with his new body, as the re-
ward of the virtues he is commanded to practice on
EARLY HISTORY OF THE OTTOMANS 63
earth ; and it is not at all sure, indeed it is more than
doubtful, whether his wives and daughters will share
this bliss. Thus the domestic affections are unsup-
ported by the spiritual hopes which nourish the beau-
tiful blossoms of love in a Christian home. His para-
dise is at best a very questionable one in point of good-
ness, and such as it is, he looks forward to it selfishly.
Some of the leading articles of belief are : 1. There
is but one God. 2. There are angels of various ranks ;
among them a fallen spirit, Eblis, driven from Para-
dise for refusing to worship Adam; also inferior spir-
its, liable to death, called Genii and Peris. 3. There
are six great prophets — Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses,
Jesus, Mohamet. 4. There is a hell called Jehennam,
and a Paradise of wondrous beauty, full of sensual
delights. 5. Men have no free-will ; but all things are
ruled by an unchanging fate — a doctrine tending at
first to kindle reckless fury in battle, but in the hour
of peace a source of corroding indolence.
Devout Moslems practice four great religious du-
ties : 1. Washing of curious nicety, followed by
prayers five times a day, with the face toward Mecca.
2. The giving of one-tenth toward charity. 3. Fasting
from rise to set of sun during the thirty days of the
month Rhamadan. Pork and wine are specially for-
bidden at all times. 4. A pilgrimage to Mecca at least
once in a lifetime, which, however, may be performed
by proxy.
As the time for the resurrection approaches, the
sun will rise in the west ; beasts and inanimate things
64 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
will speak ; and, finally, a wind will sweep away the
souls of those who have faith, even if equal only to a
grain of mustard seed, so that the world shall be left
in ignorance. After this shall come the last day. Then
forty years of oblivion followed by the resurrection.
Next the day of judgment, when the righteous
shall enter Paradise, and the wicked hell ; both, how-
ever, having first to go over the bridge Al Sirat, laid
over the midst of hell, finer than a hair, sharper than
the edge of a sword, and beset with thorns on every
side. Upon this uncomfortable thoroughfare the
righteous will proceed with ease and swiftness ; but
the wicked, probably overweighted by their sins, will
be precipitated headlong into hell — a place divided by
the Koran into seven stories or apartments, respect-
ively assigned to Mahometans, Jews, Christians, Sab-
ians, Magians, idolaters ; and the lowest of all to the
hypocrites, who, outwardly professing religion, in re-
ality had none.
To Arabia is given the rare distinction of having
produced this prophet Mahomet, and it is for this
religion that the Turks have proceeded on their course
of massacre and cruelty on the Eastern Hemisphere.
How it came to be adopted by the Turks as a national
religion is quickly told. The Arabians who followed
Mahomet were called Saracens. The kings or rulers
of the Saracen Empire were called Caliphs, and re-
sided at Bagdad, a splendid city which they built on
the river Tigris, in Mesopotamia. These Caliphs ex-
tended their empire over a considerable part of Asia
EARLY HISTORY OF THE OTTOMANS 65
and Africa and some portions of Europe. To the north
of Mesopotamia there were several tribes of Tartars,
among which were some called Turks. These were
daring warriors, and such was their fame that the
Caliphs induced many of them to come to Bagdad and
serve as soldiers.
In process of time the Turks acquired great influ-
ence at Bagdad and finally overturned the Saracen
Empire, made themselves masters of nearly all the Sar-
acen possessions, and adopted the Mohammedan reli-
gion. Thus the Turkish Empire became the successor
of the Saracen Empire, and included in its dominions
Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, and other Asiatic coun-
tries which the Saracens had wrested from the Greek
Empire. In the year 1356, the Emir (a Turkish
name for commander) Solyman crossed the Helles-
pont and seized a castle on the European shore. This
event marks the first firm footing gained by the Turks
on European soil ; and they have never since lost their
hold. The Turks, however, are a distinctively Asiatic
race, both in their origin and in their manner of life.
It will not be necessary here to trace the line of
conquest by the sword that has made up the history of
Turkey, nor to go into detail regarding their Euro-
pean possessions and their great capital Constantinople.
( If greater importance are some of the problems that
Turkey has offered from time to time for civilization
to solve. Perhaps the first and greatest of these has
been the Armenian question. It was this question that
brought about the Russo-Turkish War, at the end of
66 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
which the Treaty of Berlin imposed upon Abdul Hamid
II. the task of re-establishing- the empire and inaugu-
rating reforms in government.
The financial condition of the country was in a
demoralized state. The regular expenditures exceeded
the income, and the currency had depreciated. In fact,
the whole business interests of the empire were disor-
ganized. The Sultan entered upon his task with un-
questionable sincerity, and appointed men of ability to
assist him in establishing needed reforms. It was
about this time that trouble commenced in Egypt.
Ismail Pasha was deposed by the Powers interested in
the construction of the Suez Canal, and his feeble son,
Tewfik Pasha, was made his successor. The pressure
brought to bear on the country by the Powers, demand-
ing interest on the bonds placed there, caused the crea-
tion of the National party, who desired the absolute
independence of Egypt. This party under the leader-
ship of Arabi Pasha, caused an uprising of the soldiers
and compelled the Khedive to change his ministers, to
establish a new constitution, and to create a parlia-
ment. Arabi Pasha himself became Minister of War.
The rebellion spread to Alexandria, where the Eng-
lish consul was severely wounded and many European
citizens murdered, whereupon the English navy bom-
barded the city. Arabi Pasha was forced to resign,
but, being supported by the army, he continued to rule
the land. England sent an expedition against him un-
der General Wolseley, defeating him, making him a
prisoner, and sending him to Ceylon.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE OTTOMANS 67
The occupation by the British of Egypt caused ill
feeling on the part of the Turks, as the Sultan desired
to reclaim this lost dominion. The feeling against
English encroachments on what was considered Turk-
ish territory did not diminish and it furnished an ex-
cuse for a more stringent government in some of the
other provinces. Immediately consequent to the trouble
hi Egypt, followed the rise of the Matidi in Soudan.
This revolt on the part of the Arabs was directed
against the Sultan, as the Arabs had become jealous
of the position held by the Sultans as Caliphs of the
Moslem world.
El Mahdi was successful in defeating four Egyptian
expeditions sent against him and captured Khartoum,
killing General Gordon, the famous English leader.
This added considerable force to the determination of
Mohammed II. to identify himself still more closely
with the distinctively Moslem element in his empire
His principle, therefore, was to satisfy the Moham-
medans and to hold strict rule over the other sects in
his domain, accordingly, he commenced a systematic
course of developing the Moslem power and prestige at
the expense of the Christians.
The feeling of hatred, and the continued oppression
directed toward the Christians, naturally caused a de-
sire for freedom on the part of the oppressed. The
Armenians were making every effort to secure an in-
dependent government for Armenia, such as Bulgaria,
Roumania, and other provinces had secured. The young
Armenians who had been educated in the schools of
68 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
Germany and France had become acquainted with the
stories that marked the revolutionary period of the
eighteenth century. Lacking, however, the substantial
basis for careful investigation, they sought to kindle
a flame in the hearts of their fellow-countrymen against
the Turkish oppression and to gain the sympathy of
the great Powers of Europe. This for a long time they
failed to do. Finally, being unable to endure longer the
heaped-up insults and atrocities of the Kurds, who had
harassed them for years, the prosperous Armenians
concluded that some decided act must be done by them-
selves to gain the attention they desired. Consequently,
hundreds of placards were posted in all parts of the
country denouncing the Turkish government. Ar-
rests soon followed, and at trials, tortures of the most
atrocious kind were used to extort confession of guilt
against others. Then there came the terrible massacre
of Sassun, situated only one hundred and fifty miles
from the Asiatic border. It is claimed that before
hostilities could be coped with, thirty-five thousand
Armenians were killed. Turkish Armenia is about the
size of the state of Iowa, having an area of 60,000
square miles and a population of about six hundred
thousand Armenians, which number is greatly sur-
passed by the Turks within the state. The remainder
of Armenians are scattered all over the empire, which
makes any united action for self-government almost
impossible.
Ancient Armenia has varied in extent at different
times, even bordering on the Mediterranean Sea dur-
EARLY HISTORY OF THE OTTOMANS 69
ing the Crusades. It included the southern Caucasus,
which now contains a large, growing, prosperous, and
happy Armenian population under the Czar.
We can not here attempt a discussion of the Ar-
menian question, beyond a bare reference to its possi-
ble solution, which is threefold. First, Russian an-
nexation, for which the Armenians themselves are
praying, and which Russia is prepared to execute at a
moment's notice ; second, Armenian independence like
that of Bulgaria, which, as has been shown, is an im-
possibility. The other method is radical and vigorous
administrative reforms, which the Powers of Europe
can, if they will, initiate.
Asiatic Turkey comprises a heterogeneous popula-
tion of different races. Of the Turks there are the
Osmanlis and Turkomans. Then there are Sclavs,
Romans, Arnauts, Syrians, Greeks, Armenians, Jews,
Arabs, Druses, Gypsies, Tartars, Circassians, Kopts,
Nubians, Berbers, etc. Of these, the Greeks and Ar-
menians are traders. The Turkomans and Kurds are
herdsmen and nomads. The Sclavs,,Romans, and Al-
banians are the chief agriculturists in Europe as are
the Osmanlis, Armenians, Syrians, and Druses in
Asia.
Scutari, which is across the Bosphorus and in Asia,
was the location of the hospitals during the Crimean
War. It is from Scutari that the caravans depart for
the desert. Here there is a picturesque object called
Leander's Tower, or the Maiden's Tower, which has
a legend attached to it. According to this legend, one
70 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
of the Sultans had a lovely little daughter, of whom he
was so fond that he was anxious to know what the
Fates had in store for her in the future. By means of
astrology, the child's nativity was cast ; and the reply
was, that, if she survived her sixteenth birthday, her
life would be long and happy. But she must beware
of all serpents. The Sultan accordingly caused a tower
to be erected, in which was centered everything that
could be procured for her pleasure and comfort, and
she was placed within it, not to leave until the time was
fully passed.
The eventful day arrived, the fair princess was
dressed handsomely, awaiting her father's coming, who
was to release his child from the prison in which pa-
ternal love had placed her. She was looking for the
Sultan when she saw a small basket covered with fresh
leaves, standing on a ledge which surrounded a pretty
garden that had been contrived for her, such offerings
being common among people who felt an interest in
her fate. With girlish pleasure she ran to fetch the
gift, and, reaching it, sat down to examine its con-
tents. When the Sultan came, he rushed up, surprised
at not being met by the princess — and found her ar-
rayed for the occasion, but seemingly asleep. He
called to her, "My child ! " No answer. An asp that
dropped from the basket revealed that hers was the
sleep of death. The serpent had been concealed among
the flowers.
In Scutari, too, one sees at their best the dancing
and howling dervishes. To see thirty-four of these
EARLY HISTORY OF THE OTTOMANS 71
strange fanatics of different sizes, ages, and degrees of
corpulence whirling about in a sort of waltzing step,
which their bare feet perform skilfully to the sound of
the music of a reed flute, is certainly a strange exhibi-
tion, particularly when one reflects that it is all done
in the interests of religion. With the howling dervishes
the process consists of fierce invocations, heard in the
midst of thick, stifling incense, with quaint, wild ejacu-
lations of "Oh, Mediator!" "Oh, Beloved!" "Oh,
Advocate!" "In the day of judgment," etc. This
program sounds strange enough, and much unlike the
performance of human beings ; and at length the der-
vishes howl out their "La Mali — illah la!" as if they
were turning into wolves ; while the motion of bending
and gesticulating, which is performed to music at the
same time, becomes mechanical and sometimes almost
epileptic.
Life among these Turks is very much the same that
it is in other oriental lands, or rather the lands of the
Near East. In Turkey, as in Persia and all lands of
the Mohammedan religion, the men are allowed several
wives, and a great part of their time is devoted to their
harems. It is said that the Turkish women in general
are very fond of harem life, on account of the care
they receive, and the beautiful clothes lavished upon
them. We can readily see how this is true, for they
have always been accustomed to this sort of life and
been taught to believe that they have no souls and that
there is no future life for them. This theory is said
to have an effect both ways. The men, believing this,
72 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
try to give the women of their harems as happy lives
as possible, and the women, having been taught this,
think it encumbent upon them "to gather the roses
while they may," and they enter into complete enjoy-
ment of sensual and luxurious pleasures. There are
exceptions, however, and there are noble women in
the harems as well as elsewhere ; and what the women
have done to bring about recent political reforms, we
shall show before we have finished with Turkey.
The Turkish merchants are a picturesque feature
in Turkish life. The shop-keepers all sit upon their
platform counters robed and turbaned, looking as if
they had been acting stories from " The Arabian
Nights" in private theatricals the night before, and had
not yet had time to change their clothes. They are
always sitting cross-legged, generally smoking and
half-dozing. Donkeys pass and bump up against the
door-post, thieves run by pursued by angry soldiers
with drawn and flashing sabres, the "Sick Man" him-
self rides past, sad and hopeless, with the ambassador
at 'his elbow ; but nothing moves the calm self-possessed
shop-keeper, in his white and green turban.
Up to a very recent time, one of the great hin-
drances to improvement in the condition of women has
been the importation of Circassian slaves. Instead of
Turkish gentlemen intermarrying with the daughters
of families of their own class, an influx of strange
wives perpetually took place, who had no fathers and
brothers on the spot to take an interest in their wel-
fare. In Christian civilizations, the intermarriage of
EARLY HISTORY OF THE OTTOMANS 73
families is the great cement which binds society to-
gether, causes men to help one another, and to love
and protect not only sons, but nephews, cousins, and
daughters" children. When a man brings a strange
slave-wife, none of this takes place. This practice,
however, has been abolished throughout the empire,
and Turkish men now marry out of families of their
own rank and nationality. Although this custom has
been in practice hardly more than three decades, its
influence for better things is already observable.
Not to Turkey can any one look for aught that is
great in literature, science, or art. In rqjlitary cour-
age and capacity she has shown herself never to have
been deficient ; but when we have said this, we have
said all. While other countries near her, especially in
Europe, have been pressing onward in civilization, she
has remained stationary, indeed rather retrogressive
than otherwise. The barbaric character of the Oriental
has been manifest throughout all her history. But
there is hope. Already the organization known as the
Young Turks has done wonders, and, if Japan accom-
plished great things in thirty years, we may look for
some progress for Turkey. It is safe to prognosticate
that a quarter of a century hence, Turkey will have
forged far to the front in her march out into the light
of civilization and will have taken a respectable place
among the other nations of the world/
CHAPTER VI
THE REGENERATION OF TURKEY
HOW could a country like Turkey change in a day
from absolutism to a constitutional monarchy
without shedding a drop of blood ? Who are the lead-
ers who have effected this change, and what is the
change? What really is the constitution of which we
hear so much?
Even Turkey has had its heroes of freedom, and
the greatest and noblest of these was the author of the
constitution, framed in 1876, which the Sultan was
forced to pledge himself to execute in the last week
of July, 1908. This constitution was the Midhat con-
stitution. It was for this constitution that Midhat
Pasha, Abdul Hamid's first Grand Vizier, was ban-
ished from Turkey. And finally Midhat was a martyr
to his constitution, having been put to death in the
fortress of Taif by the Sultan's order on May 12,
1883.
The old, musty document of more than thirty years
of age was, with its author, the embodiment of the
spirit of the "Young Turks" and the Committee of
"Union and Progress." Midhat, in his struggle for
the promulgation of his constitution and the welfare
of Turkey, made and unmade Sultans. First he de-
posed the Sultan Abdul Aziz, whose degradation of
74
REGENERATION OF TURKEY 75
Turkey has been surpassed only by that of Abdul
Hamid. He placed on the throne Murad V., Abdul
Hamid's elder brother. Murad, it is claimed, was in-
sane, and Midhat put Abdul Hamid in his place,
pledged to promulgate the constitution and with the
understanding that if Murad recovered his mind he
should recover his throne. But Abdul Hamid kept
Murad off the throne, buried Midhat's constitution,
and destroyed its author.
Around Murad V. as long as he lived, and ever
since around Abdul Hamid's younger brother Reschad
for Sultan, have rallied the heirs and party of Mid-
hat, which are the Young Turks. The recent triumph
was therefore that of the followers of Midhat, though
in Turkey any one who acknowledged that he was a
partisan or friend of Midhat was either banished or
imprisoned or assassinated, for no man did the Sultan
hate and fear so much as he did Midhat Pasha. But
the founder of the Turkish constitution, we are told
in the Ottoman journals, was revered and honored by
every honest, patriotic Turk.
Thirty-two years ago, when Abdul Hamid came to
the throne, Midhat was the idol of the Young Turks,
and especially the softas, or university students. Al-
most every Turk who was banished for any cause to
the great cities of Europe at once became an adherent
of the cause of Midhat, and within the last ten years
there has grown up a chain of committees reaching
from London to Salonika. In some places it was the
Committee of Union and Progress, and in other places
76 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
it was the Young Turks, but the two parties always
affiliated. One of the most important of these com-
mittees of Young Turks is that of Union and Prog-
ress in Paris, at the head of which is the young
Prince Sabaheddin, a near relative of the Sultan. The
work of the committee has been in two directions, — ■
to publish literature advocating the cause of freedom
in Turkey and to harmonize Christian and Moham-
medan in the empire.
The journals of Turkey are naturally jubilant.
El Lewa, of Cairo, Egypt, one of the most important
and influential of the Pan-Islamic journals, says, in
its leading editorial, Aug. 7, 1909:
When the constitution was proclaimed in the Ot-
toman Empire, the birthplace of the warriors and
heroes, there flashed out of the darkness a light, a
new divine assistance, which guarantees the peace
and safety of the race and which restores to the
Ottoman Empire its power and glory. We congratu-
late those who at the risk of their homes and lives
struggled in silence and secrecy for freedom and in-
dependence because of their faith in eternal justice.
At last they have dispelled the thick mist that has
so long surrounded them, overcome all opposition and
removed every obstacle from their path, but even
more do we congratulate those heroes who were ex-
iled and lived away from their fatherland in a con-
dition of misery at times so pathetic that it would have
melted a stone, they who have tasted the bitterness of
hunger and fear and were encompassed by spies and
dogged by the hounds of a ruthless government, and
they who were herded together in prisons and subjected
to nameless tortures, yet their hearts were not filled
with terror, nor their cries for freedom silenced. We
REGENERATION OF TURKEY 77
congratulate individually and collectively all the heroes
and patriots of Ottoman freedom, for they have given
the civilized world a lesson in prowess and progress
and taught it how to place the principles of human
equality above all quarrels of race, creed, and color.
The press at Constantinople is agitating the matter
of erecting before the Parliament building, that the
Sultan now proposes to build, a statue of the late
Midhat Pasha. This agitation is being taken up by
the friends of the Pasha and his followers, the Young
Turks.
Although the revolution in Turkey was initiated
in peace and has been called the "Bloodless Revolu-
tion,'' the events of the weeks that followed brought
their baptism of blood. It was hardly to be expected
that Sultan Abdul Hamid should accept quietly the
deprivation of absolute authority. There were others
also who were strongly opposed to the domination of
the Committee of Union and Progress. The Liberal
Union Committee, representing the Greeks, some non-
Turkish Moslems and certain of the old Turks not in
sympathy with the new government, abused and op-
posed the other committee in every way possible.
Kiamil Pasha was a leader in this opposition. These
elements with the secret aid of the Sultan sowed the
seed of revolt among the soldiers. It was easy to
appeal to their Moslem fanaticism and persuade them
their religion was in danger. Hence the mutiny of
April 12, 1909, and the demand for a change in the
offices of grand vizier, minister of war and president
78 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
of the chamber. Animosity against the members of
the Committee of Union and Progress was specially
manifested, Refik Pasha, Minister of Justice, being
killed and Arif Bey, commander of the cruiser "Assari
Tewfik," lynched for ordering the guns of his ship
trained on the Yildiz Kiosk in order to subdue the
mutineers. The Chamber of Deputies was unable
to muster a quorum, the members being apparently
too terrified to fulfill their duties. For two days the
First Army Corps, to the number of twenty thousand,
held control of Constantinople. Tewfik Pasha was
appointed grand vizier by the Sultan. Salonika, the
location of the Third Army Corps, was the starting
point of the revolution, and the soldiers there promptly
prepared to advance on the capital, under the leader-
ship of Enver Bey. As they approached Constanti-
nople the strength of their party was evident by the
effect produced on the reactionaries who made en-
deavors to conciliate them. The Parliament, which
had adjourned to San Stefano and was holding its
sittings there, issued a proclamation declaring that the
advance of the army was in accordance with the as-
pirations of the nation, and a$y opposition would be
severely punished. The movements of the investing
army were well organized and on April 24 it entered
Constantinople. Tewfik Pasha and his cabinet at once
offered their resignations, and Nazim Pasha, in
charge of the troops within the city, cooperated with
the leaders to avoid a conflict. For several days there-
after the soldiers deserted the garrison and joined
REGENERATION OF TURKEY 79
the armv, which consisted of Turks, Greeks, Alban-
ian.-, Bulgarians, Moslems, and Christians, all fight-
ing for a common cause. The only serious resistance
was from Salonikan chasseurs, who formed the Sul-
tan's body-guard and had presumably been bribed.
They had been appointed by the Young Turks party
and were regarded as traitors. Their barracks were
finally captured and those who refused to surrender
were shot. The garrison in Scutari, numbering four
thousand men, also refused to capitulate, and threaten-
ed to bombard the city, but sixty big guns placed in
position had a subduing effect and the garrison was
disarmed. The Sultan gave ^express orders that no
defense of his palace, Yildiz Kiosk, should be made.
On April 27, Abdul Hamid, II, was deposed and
his brother, Mohammed Effendi, made Sultan under
the title Mehmed V. Since his appointment by Par-
liament he has continued to live at the Dolmabagtche
Palace on the Bosphorus — where he was so long vir-
tually kept a prisoner by Abdul Hamid, without whose
permission he was not permitted to leave the grounds.
According to the Mussulman law he is legally the
successor to the throne of Turkey, and his election
was therefore approved by the Sheik-ul-Islam, the
head of the Mohammedan faith. The decree of depo-
sition read before the National Assembly by this dig-
nitary declared that Abdul 1 lamid's acts were con-
trary to the Sacred Law. The new ruler took the
oath at the \Yar Office and then went to the Parlia-
ment House. Chefket Pasha, who commanded the
80 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
troops in their advance on the capital, won general
approval by his conduct of affairs after arrival there.
Two hundred and fifty mutineers were court-martialed
and executed, and Nadir Pasha, intimate adviser
of the ex-Sultan, was hung' on the Galata Bridge.
Abdul Ilamid, on being informed of the decree of
deposition, begged for his life and asked that he and
his family be permitted to retire to the Cheraghan
Palace, where he was born. The Young Turk leaders,
however, considered it wise to convey him to Salon-
ika, where, with eleven of his wives, a son, and two
daughters, he is housed in a large dwelling with high-
walled grounds.
On May 10 occurred the coronation of Mehmed
V. In a small mosque, attached to the Ayoub Mosque,
the sword of Osman was girded upon the Sultan amid
the chants of priests and with solemn ceremony. For
the first time Christians were admitted to the mosque
and allowed to witness the event. An American and
an Englishman, both in the Turkish service, were
present. After this immemorial rite was performed,
the Sultan, attended by the Sheik-ul-Islam, the grand
vizier, the members of the cabinet, the chiefs of the
army, and the two higher grades of Ulemas, drove
to the Top Kapou Palace, to kiss the robes of the
Prophet. The day's ceremonies were completed by the
plowing of a furrow by Mehmed V. on the lawn of
his palace. It is an ancient test of soundness of body
and taken to indicate his fitness to bear the burdens
of empire. As the act consisted of holding the plow
REGENERATION OF TURKEY 81
handles for a moment while two horses dragged the
plow a few yards, the test was simply symbolical.
The combination of Eastern and Western customs
in the coronation proceedings was notable. After the
sword of Osman had been girded on the sovereign,
there was an outburst of applause from the people
and a salute from die troops, while a chorus of boys
chanted Midhat Pasha's "Hymn of Liberty." The
Sultan stood upright in an open carriage of modern
style, made in Paris, and the procession back to the
palace was led by an armored automobile carrying a
machine gun. Mehmed V. is said to be the first
beardless ruler of his line, wearing only a pointed
mustache. He is also the first Sultan in four cen-
turies who has had blue eyes and fair hair. He was
dressed in Western uniform of olive green khaki. He
was born November 3, 1844, and is two years younger
than Abdul Hamid.
The new Sultan, who ascends the throne after an
imprisonment in a palace for thirty years, is in his
sixty-sixth year, and the third son of Sultan Abdul
Medjid. His eldest brother reigned as Murad V..
but was deposed in August, 1876, on the ground of
insanity, being succeeded by Abdul Hamid II. Re-
shad reigns as Mehmed V. Mehmed is short for
Mohammed, it being considered inappropriate to adopt
the Prophet's precise name. The new Padishah,
according to a description of his person, which is no
doubt authentic, is tall and well-proportioiud, but
inclined to stoop. His features are regular, but he
82 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
has a hooked nose like that of Abdul Hamid. His
manners are very gracious and easy, and he is ex-
ceedingly generous and kind. He is not at all fanat-
ical, but is sincerely religious. He has two wives who
are well educated and they dress in the French fashion.
Reshad is a man of excellent intentions, but rather
weak will, who has passed the greater part of his
life under duress, surrounded, however, by the enervat-
ing influences of idleness, luxury, and the harem.
Reshad has, notwithstanding his long imprison-
ment, kept himself in touch with the progressive move-
ments of the time and sees nothing, he declares, in-
compatible between political freedom and the sacred
law of the Mohammedans. Shortly after his being
proclaimed Sultan he expressed himself as follows to
a newspaper correspondent :
"I am pleased to become the first constitutional
sovereign of Turkey. Doubtless my successor will
improve upon me, but you may rely upon my doing
my best. I also have suffered oppression, and can,
therefore, enter into the feelings of my fellow sufferers.
I have ever been a convinced and ardent supporter of
the cause of enlightenment, liberty, and progress.
From my earliest years, while faithful to the precepts
and teachings of the Koran, I have been an advocate
of a constitutional charter and parliamentary insti-
tutions. I am a firm supporter of the policy of Young
Turkey, and in the full enjoyment of political free-
dom I see nothing incompatible with Mohammedan
sacred law."
The part that the Turkish women took in the
revolution was a surprise to the civilized world.
REGENERATION OF TURKEY 83
Turkish women have been looked upon as oppressed
and wretched individuals, secluded in harems, devoid
of education and subjected to the lust and cruelty of
their husbands. It is Mrs. Kenneth Brown, before her
marriage to an American author a Greek girl born
and raised in Constantinople, who tells us that they
are happier than American women and that the better
class of Turkish women are of higher culture and
intellectual development than their American sisters
of the same class. And it is gratifying to know that
this condition is due largely to the education they have
received of noble American women who have been
working among them for the last half century. Their
higher culture, Mrs. Brown says, is due to the fact
that they have had more leisure than American women
on account of their simpler lives, and that they have
taken advantage of this leisure for reading and study.
They are deep thinkers, too, and very practical. More
than all else they are highly esteemed by the men of
the nation and have great influence over them.
It was on account of this latter fact that the Young
Turks realized very early in their organization that
if they were going to make a success of their plans,
they must enlist the cooperation of the Turkish women.
One of the foremost of these women is Refeka
llanoum, daughter of Kiamal Pasha, now about fifty
years old. She was born wealthy and the daughter
of a powerful pasha, and "life might have held for
her the fortunate lot of wifehood and motherhood,
had she so desired. But at the age of eighteen the
84 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
young hanoum announced to her father that she would
not marry, but would study and devote herself to
helping uplift the women of her race." And how
well she has done this only those who have lived with
her and seen the results of her efforts can tell. She
was the first woman to be enlisted in the cause of
the Young Turks. In her interview with Mrs. Brown
she said that the women were taught, before they
were given important work to do, political economy,
the natural resources of their country, the history of
other nations, and what it would mean to have a con-
stitution and a free press. One of the women early
interested in the cause was a sister of the Sultan, who
had been a pupil of Refeka Hanoum. Once having
gained her there were many more adherents in the
Padishah's very harem. It was necessary to win
over the army, and in this task the women were the
most active. Letters and important documents were
passed from hand to hand and from harem to harem
until they finally reached the one for whom they were
intended. For this and some other tasks the beauties
of the harems were indispensable. Refeka Hanoum
says that "there was in the palace a Circassian of
extraordinary beauty whose charm was so great that
everyone felt it. She had to sacrifice her reputation
to the cause, and if there were saints in the Moham-
medan religion she would be canonized. All the
difficult tasks inside the palace were entrusted to her,
and thus she was supposed to change lovers as the
year changes months. If we had chosen a less beauti-
REGENERATION OF TURKEY 85
ful woman/' said Refeka Hanoum, "the usurper might
have become suspicious ; but a woman with her beauty
can easily be supposed to entrap men ; and thus he
only smiles when he hears that another has fallen a
victim to her charms. Perhaps some day he will find
out the truth, and she will die suddenly.''
Shortly after Refeka Hanoum spoke these prophetic
words, the newspapers recorded the murder in the
Sultan's harem of a beautiful Circassian odalesque.
The story is as follows :
There was a Circassian of great beauty who had,
as an inmate of the royal harem, gained such favor
with the Sultan that she was allowed to enter the
Sultan's apartments unannounced.
One evening she entered as usual, and finding
His Majesty asleep, she examined the various bric-a-
brac scattered here and there, her attention being par-
ticularly called to a jewelled pistol lying on a table.
At this point the Sultan suddenly opened his eyes
and asked with apparent calm, "What are you doing?"
"Nothing, your Majesty," replied the girl.
"But you are looking at something."
"Yes, sire — it is so pretty — this."
"And what do you call that object?"
"A pistol," answered the favorite.
"And what is a pistol used for?"
"To kill, sire," replied the Circassian in a trembling
voice.
"To kill? Let me see," and picking up another
pistol he fired three times fatally injuring the inno-
cent girl.
The officer who told this story was on duty in
the corridor when the girl's body covered with a
rug was silently carried through the doors.
86 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
On being asked how it was possible to send women
into the various harems to carry on the work, the
reply was that they were sold as slaves, and when their
work was done they were bought back again. Some-
times these slaves are the wives and daughters of
rich and powerful men. "This is the work that women
have done for the Young Turks," said Refeka
Hanoum. "When they shall be strong enough to
act, Turkey will astonish the world." In view of
recent events, it must be admitted that Refeka Hanoum
spoke truly/
CHAPTER VII
WHAT AMERICAN EDUCATION IS DOING FOR TURKEY
ALTHOUGH there is no public school system in
Turkey, there are nearly forty thousand schools
in the Empire and probably a million and a half boys
and girls are attending those schools. The curriculum
is not very advanced, yet these schools are all over
Asia Minor and in European Turkey as well ; in little
villages hundreds of miles from a railway they may
be found. Although the system is not advanced, these
schorls have been advancing, and the boy who goes
to school has pushed against the door that opens into
the twentieth century.
And now 1 venture to speak of the college with
which I happen to be connected as a type of the higher
schools and institutions that are scattered in various
place- in the Turkish Empire. I wish I might speak
at length of other institutions. I wish I might speak
of the Roman Catholic institutions and of the work
that is being done by them, but space does not permit.
I speak of the Syrian Protestant College because it
is a type of the American College in the Turkish
Empire. These colleges are the best influences, I
believe in the important work of the enlightenment
of the people. There is such a college at Aintab, one
at Anatolia, one at Harput, one at Smyrna, one at
Marsovan, another at Tarsus, and Robert College at
87
88 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
Constantinople. There is also the Woman's College
at Constantinople. These colleges were established by
Americans in order that the people of Turkey might
have the blessings and advantages that we have
received.
And now I am going to take you a moment right
to Beirut — that city which to me is the most beauti-
ful city in the world — and into that chapel where all
the students are gathered together. On the platform
are assembled seventy of our professors and instruct-
ors. There are many races represented by the pro-
fessors, although a plurality of the force is American.
Here in front of us are eight or nine hundred students.
On the right are the students from the School of
Medicine. Here in the center are the students who
are studying for the degree of B. A. ; on the left are
to be seen the students of the School of Commerce
and the School of Pharmacy ; then toward the back
of the building are those pupils who are in the pre-
paratory department. You would be rather disap-
pointed when you first saw these students. You
would expect to see something more picturesque, for,
unfortunately, instead of retaining their native cos-
tumes, these men will persist in adopting our tin-
picturesque clothing; but when you come to ask
where these men come from and who they are, you
realize immediately how it is that these institutions
and schools are such important factors in overcoming
all those antagonisms of which we hear so much. You
might think they are all Protestants, whereas the
WHAT AMERICAN* EDUCATION IS DOING 89
Protestants contribute but a mere handful of them.
There arc over a hundred Moslems, nearly a hundred
Jews, a hundred are Greek, fifteen or twenty come
from Persia, several from India, a group comes from
Bulgaria, and one comes from the Desert of Gobi.
Two hundred and fourteen cities, towns, and villages
are represented in this Protestant College in Syria.
Now when the forces that are at work in these cities,
towns, and villages are touched by the forces that are
represented by men who have had but a year's study,
or four years, or perhaps ten years of study in the
college, we begin to appreciate the power that lies
in such an institution.
Then the religious problem is still more interest-
ing. You see this is a Christian college. It is a
Christian college in the same sense as our Ameri-
can colleges are Christian. We are here to share
with the youth of all races and all religions in
the Christian ideal. We are not here to proselyte
but to share the best influences that have come to
us. the best things in the laboratory, the best things
in the class-rooms, the best things in the religious
forces that we ourselves have enjoyed. Those young
Moslems are proud men. and they stand for their
religion as a great religion and you must not sneer at
this religion. The way in which to overcome Islam
is to fulfill the great principle of the founder of
Christianity, when He said, "I come not to destroy,
but to fulfill." Besides, we do not understand their
religion, and, as Moncure Conway has said, in writing
90 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
of the religions of the East, "We have no right to
attempt to destroy what we do not understand."
A natural question is, what becomes of our gradu-
ates. It is easy enough to gather men together with
the cry education and the twentieth century, but the
question you are asking may well be this: "How do
you hold them and how do you send them forth?"
Eighteen hundred have gone forth in the history of
this college bearing diplomas or certificates of various
kinds, that of Doctor and Surgeon, that of Master of
Pharmacy, that of Bachelor of Sciences and Bachelor
of Arts. They become the doctors of Asia Minor;
they become the doctors of Sudan as far as the
equator; they become the doctors of Egypt; they be-
come lawyers and teachers and preachers. These
eighteen hundred are but a small proportion of the
students who attend the college; very many of them
leave before the end of the course or a degree has
been received. But remember that eight or nine
colleges in Turkey are doing the same kind of work
as ours. You can imagine that wherever a graduate
is found there is a new light illuminating the region
round about him ; that there is emanating from that
lawyer's office, or doctor's office, or preacher's house
a force that is making for civilization — those centripe-
tal forces that overcome the forces of ignorance.
The Young Turks are heartily in favor of educa-
tion of the very broadest kind, and especially are they
in favor of the education of the Turkish women. It
is therefore with great interest that we turn to this
WHAT AMERICAN EDUCATION IS DOING 91
branch of the subject of Turkey's education, especially
since it was inaugurated and has been carried on by
American women.
When the bloodless revolution occurred in 1908
in Turkey and changed the order of things in the
land of the Sultan, the average American was amazed
at the part taken in it by the Turkish women, and
few knew just how much the education of these
women through American methods contributed to
the success of the movement. This was not the work
of a few weeks, but the result of years of study
among the women of the Ottoman Empire, who are
quick to learn, although they weigh matters thorough-
ly in their minds before acting.
It was about thirty years ago that a few benevo-
lent women of New England decided to establish a
college for girls in Turkey, a school where the young
woman of the Levant might have the high academic
and Christian education of her American sister. In
those days the spies of the Sultan ruled with an iron
hand, and higher education — in fact any education —
for women did not meet with their approval. How-
ever, pressure was brought to bear on the Sultan and
he permitted the college to open in Scutari, across
the Bosphorus, in Asia. It was a struggle to get
along at first, and many Turks were threatened with
banishment by the spies if they patronized the school,
but gradually the institution became known and. de-
spite the threats, the better class of Turkish families
began to send their daughters to be educated there.
92 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
Greek, Bulgarian, and Armenian children and the
women of the Balkans are today under the tutelage of
brainy American women who are graduates of our
best American colleges for women.
When the recent change came over Turkey the
only woman who was appointed on the Committee of
Public Safety was a graduate of this school at Scu-
tari, and the members of the Young Turks party will
speak with pjide of the excellent work of Madam
Sallih Bey. Another graduate who married Assum
Bey in Salonika, was received in the public meetings
and made a most excellent address on political ques-
tions under consideration. At present she is assisting
her husband in publishing a newspaper in the interest
of the new regime. Perhaps after all, Mrs. Rachel
Foster Avery, the noted suffragette, was correct in
her recent prediction that the Turkish woman would
have the franchise before her American sister. That
would be the irony of fate, as the Turkish women
who are leaders in the suffragette movement there,
received their training at the hands of the Americans.
Any American must feel proud of these edu-
cated refined young women of their own land who,
from the pure love of doing good, teach in this school.
Away from friends and home in this strange land,
they are intensely interested in their work. Several
of them have mastered such languages as Bulgarian,
Russian, Roumanian, and Albanian.
The buildings of the college are old, and during
the year 1905 one was burned and has never been
WHAT AMERICAN EDUCATION IS DOING 93
rebuilt. This was because the trustees were working
on a plan to secure a better site across the Bosphorus,
where more commodious buildings could be erected.
This site consisting of fifty acres has been secured
and the buildings are being erected, some of them
now in use, and the institution is now known as the
Woman's College of Constantinople. The Sultan has
exempted the school from taxation and everyone is
happy over the thought of getting the school over
into Europe. The president of this college is Dr.
Mary Patterson Mills and the professor of literature
and art is Miss Isabel Frances Dodd. The latter
speaks Bulgarian and Arabic fluently.
At present the nationalities of the college students
are Armenian, Greek, Bulgarian, English, Turkish,
American, Swiss, French, Austrian, German, Moslem,
Albanian, Spanish, Russian and Servian Hebrew.
They manage to get along together with little diffi-
culty and in nearly every instance learn English rapid-
ly. The rich Bulgarians are especially anxious to
have their daughters receive an American education.
The Greeks, too, are making applications, and as
this nationality excels in athletic sports, the present
tenuis champion is a pretty Greek girl. Turks who
had been political prisoners for years and who have
been allowed to return under the new regime, at once
placed their daughters in the American college. One
of the recent graduates of the school was the daughter
of the officer who had charge of the Sultan's private
fortune. Many of the Turkish girls have taken up
94 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
professions after graduation, and not a few have
become physicians, among them Dr. Zarouhi Kaval-
djian, who came to America to study medicine on
the completion of her course at Scutari. She is
now practicing medicine in Alabazan, Turkey, and
doing wonderful work in the uplifting of women.
Another Greek became a nurse, and is now in charge
of the Princess Hospital in Athens. One young
Armenian girl has voluntarily established a social
settlement in a town in the interior of Turkey, where
there are about thirty thousand people ignorant
beyond belief and filthy beyond endurance. Only
two women who could read and write were found in
this place, which is without postoffice or telegraph
communication. Two others who are Albanians, have
opened a girl's school in Albania. The language of
this school is Albanian, and as there are no text books
in that language, these young women have trans-
lated and copied all the books they use. These are
but a few of the graduates who are doing things.
Apart from the regular course of study the girls
have what is known as the Students' Government
Association, which, in a great measure, tends to make
each one rely on herself. Each year a president is
elected. She appoints a cabinet of seven girls, each of
whom takes her turn in keeping order in the class-
rooms, and gives the girls permission to do certain
things. When questions are too difficult for her to
solve, the older members of the cabinet are called to-
gether and the president is consulted. In this way the
WHAT AMERICAN EDUCATION IS DOING 95
girls gain a general knowledge of the practical prob-
lems of life. There is rarely a clash or disobedience to
the final decision. Outdoor exercise is compulsory, ten-
nis being the favorite game. Several of the girls own
horses and are excellent horsewomen. The institution
is run on much the same plan as colleges of the order
of Bryn Mawr, and the girls of the Levant are using
the same text books.
The college is not a mission. Sunday worship is
conducted, and the regular morning and evening
chapel services form a part of the religious life of
the college. A Christian Association has been estab-
lished and committees are appointed for different
work; one looks after the new students, another will
see that flowers are sent to the hospitals, another con-
ducts a sewing class and the clothing made is sent
to the Home of the Aged kept for all nationalities in
Constantinople by the Little Sisters of the Poor. A
Christmas tree for the poor children was arranged
by the association, all nationalities joining in the
preparation. The girls are especially interested in
the social settlement work of the young Armenian
graduate and recently sent her financial aid in her
work. The association conducts its regular religious
meetings.
The college depends on the tuition of the students
for its support, although numerous benevolent women
have from time to time made gifts and several give
a certain amount each year. One of the recent dona-
tions came from Miss Helen Gould, who visited the
96 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
institution during the winter of 1906 and manifested
great interest in its workings. The alumnae of the
college, too, are as active as those of an American
university, and as many of them have married men
of note -and wealth, they are likely to aid materially in
the construction of the new buildings. The president
of the Alumnae Association is Miss Ourania Logiou,
a Greek. The American ambassador, John G. A.
Leichman, who has recently been transferred to Rome,
was greatly interested in the college and usually pre-
sided at the commencement exercises and gave out
the diplomas.
Education is endorsed by the Young Turks' party,
and especially education for women. It is a mistake
to believe that the Turk underestimates his wife or
treats her like a slave, for such is not the case. Among
the lower classes wife beating and ill treatment of
women is less frequent than in our own country. Even
the women of the harem have certain rights which
are always respected. For instance, if a pair of shoes
is placed outside the door of the harem, it is under-
stood by the master that visitors are present and he
is not expected to enter, nor does he, until the shoes
are removed. The women have the sole care of the
children, especially as to their education. They also
have full charge of the household, and few Turkish
women are to be found working outside their own
homes. Indeed, it is very difficult to procure Turkish
female servants. The Turk is usually an affectionate
father and provides well for his family. So with the
WHAT AMERICAN EDUCATION IS DOING 97
increasing number of educated women in that country,
still better results in family life will follow.
Who can foretell what American methods of
education will yet do in the land of the Turk by giving
the women that training of mind which brings strength
of character? When Turkey finally stands abreast
with the civilized nations of the world, America will
have the satisfaction of knowing that a great part
of this transition had its birth and nurture in the
American college for girls on the hills of Scutari, in
Asia*
CHAPTER VIII
THE FUTURE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
THE unchanging East has begun to move. Japan
set the pace, and the other great nations of
Asia are lamely trying to keep step. During the
struggle of Japan with Russia, the Turks were pro-
foundly affected. Russia is the hereditary enemy of
Turkey, and for several generations the latter has
been losing ground. From the war of 1877, at the
beginning of Abdul Hamid's reign, the Turks emerged
with inglorious defeat, in spite of glorious courage
( in the field of battle ; they were obliged to surrender
territory to the victor at each end of the Black Sea,
and the revenues of some of the fairest Ottoman
provinces have been drained off ever since, according
to the terms of indemnity to swell the resources of
Russia. When the Japanese beat the Russians, the
Turks said one to another:
"If they did that, we can do it too. How did
they accomplish it?"
"By adopting the methods of modern civilization."
"Then we will adopt these methods, and the first
step is the establishment of constitutional and parlia-
mentary government." So the leaders of progressive
thought, chiefly the military men. risked everything
to secure at last the public introduction of those
98
THE FUTURE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 99
reforms for which preparations had long been making'
below the surface.
It was fairly pathetic to witness the efforts made
by the population of the country to adapt themselves
to the idea of representative institutions, so foreign
to their notions hitherto. Some persons proceeded to
turn liberty into license, supposing that liberty meant
the opportunity for each man to do exactly as pleased
himself. A crop of loud-voiced orators started up
to discuss issues irrelevant to the circumstances, such
as decentralization of the highly centralized adminis-
trative system. Certain villagers, to whom an apostle
of the new regime was expounding their high status
as voters for members of Parliament, dully responded
that they had heard all about it before, but they did
not want to go to Constantinople as members of
Parliament; they preferred to remain quietly at
home in their own village!
Perhaps the gravest feature in the situation is
the racial rivalry and animosity existing between
Turk and Greek, Greek and Armenian, Armenian
and Kurd, Kurd and Arab, Arab and Albanian, and
the other heterogeneous elements that make up the
empire. As some army officers were one day dis-
cussing these problems with me, one of them rose,
and, advancing with eager gesture, exclaimed, "When
small children begin to go to school they must first
study the ABC and that is just what we are now.
We are just beginning with the A B C of free gov-
100 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
crnment. But give us time. Give us only two years,
and we'll learn the lesson.''
So far the Young Turks have met the high hopes
of their friends without faltering. Readers at a
distance can hardly realize the wonder and delight
with which Americans on the ground observed the
forming of the " Ottoman Freedom and Progress
Clubs," in the different cities and towns, to enlighten
and direct public opinion in regard to the new move-
ment.
While all agree that things can not go back to
where they were before, many are skeptical as to
the permanence of the new order of things. Some
of the Turks themselves believe that they will at last
be the prey of foreign powers, while one old Turk
in a burst of confidence to me said, "We'll never get
a real solution for our problems till we bring in the
English and set them up in Constantinople, to do for
Turkey just what they are doing for India and Egypt.
I've been to Egypt," he continued, "on my pilgrim-
ages to Mecca, and I've seen what the English are
doing there. We were thirty-six thousand pilgrims,
and our baggage was put in one great pile, because
of quarantine regulations. It was guarded by just
a one-armed man and he looked half asleep, and not
a thing was stolen. But if it had been guarded by
a whole regiment of our soldiers, not a thing would
have been left."
Tell this incident, however, to a British adminis-
trator, and he will nod his head complacently at the
THE FUTURE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 101
great compliment it means to his government ; then
he will shake his head and say that the hands of
the English are full already ; they can not add further
to their responsibilities. Indeed, the European situa-
tion with regard to Turkey is so delicate that some
periodicals hardly dare publish the facts, lest their
utterances be misquoted and misapplied under the
suspicious espionage of rival powers. Most Ameri-
cans would agree in preferring an independent career
for the Ottoman commonwealth to the alleged bless-
ings of development under the tutelage of any foreign
government. Therefore, every ounce of influence
available ought to be thrown into the scale in favor
of the Young Turkey movement, and in favor of this
we understand that President Taft regards Pekin and
Constantinople as the two most important posts in
our diplomatic service, because they represent countries
where there is something doing.
Turks and Chinese, at the extremities of the con-
tinent of Asia, are distant cousins of each other, and
the purer the Turkish blood flowing in the veins, the
more striking are the Mongol characteristics appearing
in the person, such as squat figure, slant eyes, high
cheek bones, yellowish or brownish countenance, and
sparse beard. But it must be remembered that the
Young Turk is a distinctly modern product, and
represents the same general conditions that have pro-
duced the American. Onto the fundamental Tartar
stock, brave, self-reliant, simple in life, rather narrow
in vision, peaceful, if let alone, but intolerant of oppo-
102 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
sition, have been grafted many of the characteristics
of the Aryan races. The harem with its representation
of other peoples of varying intellectual, moral, and
religious types, has been a more important element
than many realize. Partly as a result of this infusion
of new blood, partly as the natural consequence of
modern inter-communication, the child of the hetero-
geneous harem became a cosmopolitan. For a time
this was scarcely to his advantage. He appeared to
be more or less of a hybrid, neither Turk nor Euro-
pean, neither Moslem nor Christian, and was accord-
ingly scouted by all. Little by little he has emerged
until he appears to-day as an upholder of constitutional
law, a believer in religious freedom, an up-to-date
man of the world.
In estimating his value in the present emergency,
certain facts must be kept in mind. He has a genius
for government. Hitherto it has principally been
manifest in bad government, but bad or good his
nation and race have managed to keep the upper hand
wherever they have been. They have succeeded in
suppressing disturbances, whenever they wanted to,
and have preserved not merely the semblance but the
reality of rule, both in Turkey and Persia, for the
Kajar of Teheran is first cousin to the Ottoman of
Constantinople. This has been attributed to the weak-
ness of the other elements, but that is only partly
correct. Whatever allowance be made for such con-
ditions, the fact remains that the Turk has succeeded
THE FUTURE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 103
in compelling obedience, the first and most funda-
mental quality of rule.
He is the dominant element in a country which
is practically a geographical unit. Macedonia is not
an integral part or essential part of the Turkish Em-
pire. That extends from the Bosphorus to the Persian
border, from the Black Sea to the Arabic. The talk
about partition of the Turkish Empire too often
ignores the geography of that empire. To divide
Asiatic Turkey would perhaps not be an impossibility ;
few things are impossible, but it would entail an
expense in life and cash which no European nation
or combination of nations would or could incur.
People talk sneeringly about the Turk. The Turk
is not a man to be sneered at, and the fact that for
six hundred years that dynasty has held control of
the Turkish Empire is a fact that shows that the
Turkish rulers are men of ability. Sultan Abdul
Hamid, recently deposed, in spite of his cruelty and
misrule and deception of his people, was not a man
to be sneered at. If the readers of these pages could
see him they would realize that the caricatures in the
papers are caricatures. You can see by his very pres-
ence that this man, now in his sixty-seventh year,
is a man of force, is a man of industry, is a man who
had a definite policy in the ruling of his kingdom ;
and during those thirty-three years after the first
Parliament, which he deliberately killed, he was busy
establishing schools, building mosques, and erecting
hospitals, busy establishing sanitary measures for the
104 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
health of his people ; busy constructing railways ; busy
the past years in establishing that great railway from
Damascus to Mecca. These good qualities that we
can see in the deposed monarch, we can see reflected
in the Turks as a people.
And now this people is casting about in the effort
to develop their natural resources and improve the
agricultural, commercial, and social, as well as the
political conditions of the country. If we omit from
present consideration the outlying parts of the empire,
Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Syria together, having
no natural affiliations with any other government,
cover an area of about four hundred thousand square
miles. This territory is twice as large as Germany, more
than twice as large as France, and sixty per cent
greater than Austria-Hungary. It contains but about
sixteen million inhabitants, as contrasted with the
forty million to sixty million jostling each other ■ in
each of these European states. Statistics do not exist
but the most competent observers believe that the
natural resources of these Turkish areas in Asia equal
or exceed those of corresponding territories in Europe,
or would if they were scientifically developed. In
salt-water frontage and proximity to the world's mar-
ket, also, the Turkish position is unsurpassed.
Under the new regime, the Young Turks are
making great plans for the development of Turkey.
There is great need for transportation facilities in the
way of railroads and highways, civic improvement is
a crying need and there are great agricultural and
THE FUTURE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 105
mineral resources in the country. Last December an
American syndicate obtained concessions sanctioned
by the Turkish Parliament for the building of a rail-
road from Sivas to Mosul and beyond, via Harput,
Arghana, Diarbekir. A branch line is also proposed,
with an outlet to the Mediterranean, at Jumurtalik, on
the Gulf of Alexandretta, where a modern port is
also to be constructed. It is considered that this rail-
road would be exceedingly valuable, as affording an
outlet for the products of the Anatolian highlands,
and connecting the interior of Asia Minor with tiie
sea. It would also have a strategic value because it
would reach the Persian frontier.
English capitalists are reported to have proposed to
the Turkish government the construction of a railroad
from Adrianople to Rumeli Hissar, passing through
the most fertile and populous districts of Asia Minor
and extending to Suleimanieh, whence it will go
through Persia to India. The extent of its route
through Turkey would be three thousand miles. Its
promoters request the right of working all the mines
within six miles on each side of the line, engaging to
give thirty per cent of their produce to the govern-
ment.
The Public Works Ministry is planning extensions
to the present railroad mileage, of over one thousand
miles in European Turkey and five thousand miles in
Asiatic Turkey. Foreign capital will be enlisted to
carry out these projects.
The German Anatolian Railroad, usually called the
106 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
Bagdad Railway, is being continued eastward across
the Taurus Mountains into Mesopotamia, traversing
the vilayets of Broussa, Konieh, Adana, Aleppo,
Mosul, Bagdad, and Bosra.
Constantinople, although it has nearly a million
inhabitants, has no electric light or telephone system.
For the latter a contract has recently been granted, and
arrangements will soon be made for an electric "light
plant. Plans, with charts, for the opening of ports,
construction of roads, building of bridges and embank-
ments, dredging of rivers for navigation, hydraulic
agriculture and irrigation in Mesopotamia were imme-
diately prepared on the granting of a constitution, and
the work on road construction has already been
started.
The aid of foreign capital is being sought for the
development of mineral wealth in Turkey. A conces-
sion for the further exploitation of the Arghana copper
mines in the vilayet of Diarbekir is to be granted for
a term of sixty years.
The National Bank of Turkey has been organized
with Sir Henry Babington Smith, of London, at its
head. The board of directors of this bank are six in
number, three of whom are Ottoman subjects, one of
whom must be a Greek or Armenian. It is expected
they will undertake the financing of various industrial
and commercial projects connected with land develop-
ment in Turkey. The bank will have a decided influ-
ence in encouraging the investment of foreign capital in
THE FUTURE OF THE OTTOMAN' EMPIRE 107
the numerous enterprises incident to Turkey's awak-
ening.
Hitherto Turkish officers have looked askance at
mining- enterprises. Some shepherds found a salt
mine by observing that the sheep licked the soil and
rocks at a certain spot. But their joy was short-
lived, for, as soon as the officials heard of it, they not
only prohibited the peasants from using the salt they
had found, but placed a watchman there to prevent
trespassing. Then the community, in place of an
additional profit and industry, was burdened with the
additional cost of a watchman's salary. The bureau-
cratic reason for this action was the law reserving salt
under a government monopoly. If only the govern-
ment had developed its monopolized resources for the
benefit of its poverty-stricken people!
There is progress in some lines if not in all
equally. American agricultural implements and other
up-to-date machines have put in an appearance, but
their progress is slow in a land where plowing is still
done as it was in the days of Elijah and Elisha, and
harvesting as it was in the days of Ruth and Boaz.
Living men remember when there was scarcely any
coast trade along the north shore of Asia Minor; now
these Black Sea waters are traversed by the steamers
of fifteen or more companies, carrying away the sur-
plus products of Asia Minor, and bringing in the
manufactured goods of civilization.
An editorial in a recent Independent compasses the
hope for the future when it says :
108 ORIENTAL LIFE— TURKEY
The test of the Young Turk will come with the
question as to whether he is willing to recognize hib
limitations as well as his possibilities. If he is shrewd
enough to perceive that his remaining European pro-
vinces are still, as they always have been, a source of
weakness rather than strength, and will devote him-
self to the development of the section which is dis-
tinctively his own, he will succeed. That section with
its fertile plains and mountains, rich in mineral re-
sources, is ample to satisfy his highest ambition.
But what about his religion? He is Moslem, and
Islam, in the long run, must yield to Christianity. Can
the young Turk effect the transition? There are
many indications that this is in his mind. He may
not, probably will not, adopt the Westminster Con-
fession, the Thirty-nine Articles, or the decrees of
the Council of Trent, but we are learning that these
are historical developments of Christianity rather than
essential elements. As he comes to know Jesus, whom
he already honors, Mohammed will yield and the
Gospels take the place of the Koran. It is for the
Christian nations'to show him by their relations with
him that the essential elements of their faith are "to
do justly, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with
his God." Then shall the Turk come into his own.
"The Turkish flag," says President Bliss of the
Syrian Protestant College, at Beirut, " has become
a new flag. We see its beauty as never before.
Heretofore we have looked upon its star and crescent
upon a red field and been accustomed to think of
them as a setting star and waning crescent; to-day
we look upon the star as a rising star — the star of
the morning — and the crescent is a waxing and not
a waning crescent. " ,I
ARABIA
CHAPTER IX
ARABIA THE CENTER OF THE MOSLEM WORLD
THE great peninsula known in these days as
Arabia is one of the oldest known parts of the
world. Long before the sons of Jacob went down into
Egypt, the sons of Ishmael had settled in the land
Providence had assigned them. The boundaries of
Arabia are outlined as early in the Bible as Genesis
25 : 18. Probably many centuries ago Palestine, Syria,
and the Sinaitic Peninsula were important parts of
Arabia. Arabia is between Egypt and Persia to put
it widely, also between India and Europe. It has a
seacoast of about four thousand miles.
To be more explicit as to its boundaries, it has
eastward the waters of the Persian Gulf, the Strait of
Ormuz, and the Gulf of Oman. The entire routhern
coast is washed by the Indian Ocean, which reaches
to Babel-Mandeb, "The Gate of Tears," from which
point the Red Sea and the Gulf of Akaba form the
western boundaries. The undefined northern desert,
in some places a sea of sand, completes the isolation
which has led the Arabs themselves to call the penin-
sula their "Island" (Jccirat-cl-Arab). In fact, the
northern boundary will probably never be accurately
109
110 ORIENTAL LIFE— ARABIA
defined. The so-called Syrian Desert, reaching to
about the thirty-fifth parallel might better be regarded
as the Arabian desert, for in physical and ethnical
features it bears much greater resemblance to the
southern peninsula than to the surrounding regions of
Syria and Mesopotamia. Bagdad is properly an
Arabian city, and to the Arabs of the north is as much
a part of the peninsula as is Aden to those of the
southwest. The true, though shifting boundary of
Arabia on the north would be the limit of Nomad
encampments, but for convenience a line may be drawn
from the Mediterranean along the thirty-third parallel
to Busrah. As a whole the country is about as large
as the United States east of the Mississippi River, and
has an area of some million square miles. No land
so little attracts the attention of the speculator, hunter,
adventurer, or traveler as Arabia, and yet no country
presents so large or new a field as the subject of these
brief chapters.
What Jerusalem and Palestine are to Christendom,
this, and vastly more, Mecca and Arabia are to the
Mohammedan world. Not only is this land the cradle
of their religion and the birthplace of their prophet,
the shrine toward which, for centuries, prayers and
pilgrimages have gravitated; but Arabia is also, ac-
cording to universal Moslem tradition, the original
home of Adam after the fall and the home of all the
old patriarchs. The story runs that when the primal
pair fell from their estate of bliss in the heavenly
paradise, Adam landed on a mountain in Ceylon and
ARABIA, CENTER OF. THE MOSLEM WORLD 111
Eve fell at Jiddah, on the western coast of Arabia.
After a hundred years of wandering' they met near
Mecca, and here Allah constructed for them a taber-
nacle, on the site of the present Kaaba. He put in its
foundation the famous stone once whiter than snow,
but since turned black by the sins of pilgrims who
have bestowed upon it countless kisses ! In proof of
these statements travelers are shown the Black Stone
at Mecca and the tomb of Eve near Jiddah. Another
accepted tradition says that Mecca stands on a spot
exactly beneath God's throne in heaven.
Without reference to these wild traditions, which
are soberly set down as facts by Moslem historians,
Arabia is a land of perpetual interest to the geogra-
pher and the historian. The general type of Arabia
is that of a central tableland surrounded by a desert
ring, sandy to the south, west, and east, stony to the
north. This outlying circle is in its turn girt by moun-
tains, low and sterile for the most, but attaining ia
Yemen and Oman considerable height, breadth, and
fertility ; while beyond these a narrow rim of coast is
bordered by the sea. The surface of the midmost table-
land equals somewhat less than one-half the entire
peninsula, and its special dcmarkations are much af-
fected, nay often fixed, by the windings and inrunnings
of the Xefud (sandy desert). If to these central
highlands or Nejd, taking that word in its wider sense,
we add whatever spots of fertility belong to the outer
circles we shall find that Arabia contains about two-
thirds of cultivated or at least of cultivatible land,
112 ORIENTAL LIFE— ARABIA
with a remaining third of irreclaimable desert, chiefly
on the south.
The above is the description given by Palgrave,
and as few have penetrated the interior of Arabia since
his day, it is presumable that the description still pre-
vails. From this description it is evident that the least
attractive part of the country is the coast. This may
be the reason that Arabia has been so harshly judged.
ac to climate and soil, and so much neglected by those
who only knew of it from the captains who had
touched its coast in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
Nothing is more surprising than to pass through the
barren cinder gateway of Aden, up the mountain
passes, into the marvelous fertility and delightful cli-
mate of Yemen. Arabia, like the Arab, has a rough,
frowning exterior, but a warm, hospitable heart.
The great wadys of Arabia are its character ist.c
feature, celebrated since the days of Job, the Arab.
These wadys, often full to the brim in winter and
black by reason of the frost, but, entirely dried up
during the heat of summer, would never be suspected
of giving nourishment to even a blade of grass. They
are generally dry for nine or ten months of the year,
during which time water is obtained from wells sunk
in the wady-bed. None of these wadys reach the
coast, at least by the overland route, but beneath the
surface there is an abundance of water. This may
account for the ease and frequency and the necessity
for digging the wells that play so important a part
in Bible historv. Wadv Sirhan runs in a southeast-
ARABIA, CENTER OE THE MOSLEM WORLD 113
erly direction from the Hauran highlands to the Jaut
district on the edge of the great Nefud; it is fed by
the smaller Wady er-Rajel. Wady Dauasir, which
receives the Nejran streams, drains all of the Asir and
southern Hejaz highlands northward to Bahr Salu-
meh, a small lake, the only one known in the whole
peninsula. The Aftan, of which the song is written.
" Flow gently, sweet Aftan," is another important
wady running from the borders of Xejd into the Per-
sian Gulf. The most important water-bed in Arabia
is the celebrated Wady er-Ruma, only partly explored
as yet, which is the case with much of the interior of
Arabia. The caravan routes of Arabia follow these
wadys that they may have easy access to water if they
run short in the supply they carry with them in great
water-skins.
If we would find the paradise of Arabia, we must
go to the river-country, or Mesopotamia. Formerly
this country was limited to the land lying between the
two rivers and south of the old wall by which they were_
connected above Bagdad. From this point to the Per-
sian Gulf the district was and is still known as Irak-
Arabi, to distinguish it from Irak of Persia. Com-
monly, however, the name of Mesopotamia (Mid-
River-Country) is given to the whole northeastern
part of Arabia. It has a total area of one hundred
and eighty thousand square miles and presents great
uniformity in its physical and ethnical characteristics.
Arabs live and Arabic is spoken for three hundred
miles beyond Bagdad as far as Diarbekr and Mardin.
114 ORIENTAL LIFE— ARABIA
Near Bagdad, the two great rivers, Euphrates and
Iliddekel, after draining Eastern Asia Minor, Arme-
nia, and Kurdistan, approach quite near together ;
from thence the main streams are connected by several
channels and watercourses, the chief of which is Shatt-
el-Hai. At Kurna the two rivers unite to form the
Shatt-el-Arab, which traverses a flat fertile plain dot-
ted with villages and covered with artificially irrigated
meadow lands and extensive date groves. As far up
as Bagdad the river is navigable throughout the year
for steamers of considerable size. It is entirely owing
to the enterprise of English commerce and the Bagdad-
Busrah steamship line that the country has been de-
veloped into new life and prosperity. Even Turkish
misrule has not done away entirely with natural pro-
ductiveness and fertility ; and now, in Arabia, the
Turks have a chance to show under their new regime
what good government can do. If they put the best
of their energies into developing the country, North-
eastern Arabia would regain its ancient importance
and double its population.
Two features are prominent in the physical geog-
raphy of this region. First, the flat almost level
stretches of meadow without any rise or fall except
the artificial ancient mounds. The second is the date-
palm. The whole length of the country from Fao and
Mohammerah to the country of the Montefik Arabs
above Kurna is one great date plantation on both sides
of the wide river. Everywhere the tall, shapely trees
stand out against the horizon and near the lower es-
ARABIA, CENTER OF THE MOSLEM WORLD 115
tuary of the Shatt-el-Arab they are especially luxu-
riant and plentiful. Formerly every palm tree on the
Nile was registered and taxed, but to count every such
tree on the Shatt-el-Arab would be an unending task.
The proper coat of arms for all lower Mesopotamia
would be a date-palm. It is the "banner of the cli-
mate" and the wealth of the country. A date garden
is a scene of beauty, varying greatly according to the
time of the day and the state of the weather. At sun-
rise or sunset the gorgeous colors fall on the grace-
fully pendant fronds or steal gently through the
lighter foliage and reflect a vivid green so beautiful
that once seen, it can never be forgotten. At high-
noon the dark shadows and deep colors of the date-
forests refresh and rest the eye aching from the brazen
glare of sand and sky. But the forest is at its best
when on a dewy night the full moon rises and makes
a pearl glisten on every spiked leaf and the shadows
show black as night in contrast with the sheen of the
upper foliage.
It was an Arab poet who first sang the song of the
date-palm, so beautifully interpreted by Bayard Tay-
lor:
"Next to thee. O fair Gazelle!
O Bedowee girl, beloved so well, —
Next to the fearless Nejidee
Whose fleetness shall bear me again to thee —
Next to ye both I love the palm
With his leaves of beauty and fruit of balm.
Next to ye both, I love the tree
Whose fluttering shadows wrap us three
In love and silence and mystery."
116 ORIENTAL LIFE— ARABIA
The date-palm tree is found in Syria, Asia Minor,
and nearly all parts of Arabia, and the southern islands
of the Mediterranean, but it attains to its greatest per-
fection in upper Egypt and Mesopotamia. Some idea
of the immense importance of this one crop may be
gained from the statement of an old English merchant
at Busrah, that ''the entire annual date harvest of the
River-country might be conservatively put at one hun-
dred and fifty thousand tons."
Every part of this wonderful tree is useful to the
Arabs in unexpected ways. To begin at the top:
The pistils of the date-blossom contain a fine curly
fiber which is beaten out and used in all Eastern baths
as a sponge for soaping the body. At the extremity
of the trunk is a terminal bud containing a whitish
substance resembling an almond in consistency and
taste, but a hundred times larger. This is a great
table delicacy. There are said to be over one hundred
varieties of date-palm, all distinguished by their fruit,
and the Arabs say that "a good housewife may fur-
nish her husband every day for a month with a dish
of dates differently prepared." Syrup and vinegar are
made from old dates ; and by those who disregard the
Koran, even a kind of brandy. The date-pit is ground
up and fed to cows and sheep, so that nothing of the
precious fruit may be lost. Whole pits are used as
beads and counters for the Arab children in their
games on the desert-sand. . The branches, or palms,
are stripped of their leaves and used like rattan, to
make beds, tables, chairs, cradles, bird-cages, reading-
ARABIA, CENTER OF THE MOSLEM WORLD 117
stands, boats, crates, etc. ; the leaves are made into
baskets, fans, and string, and the bast, or bark, of the
outer trunk forms excellent fiber for rope of many
sizes and qualities. The wood of the trunk, though
light and porous, is much used in bridge-building and
architecture as it is quite durable. In short, when a
date-palm is cut down, there is not a particle of it
that is wasted. This tree is the "poorhouse" and asy-
lum for all Arabia; without it millions would have
neither food nor shelter. For one-half of the popula-
tion of Mesopotamia live in date-mat dwellings.
Mesopotamia is rich not only in date-groves, but
in cereals, wool, gums, licorice root, and other prod-
ucts. The export of wool alone in a recent year was
valued at $1,443,500. And the total exports the same
year, for the two provinces of Bagdad and Busrah,
were put at $2,614,800. Busrah is the shipping place
for all the region about, and ocean steamers of consid-
erable size are always in the city's harbor. Notwith-
standing this showing of Arabia's industry, not a
tenth, it is estimated, is produced that might be with
better cultivation and under government protection
and supervision. There is a saying that the French
are starving off the Arabs. The truth is, most of the
natives have more land than the colonists. An Arab
will starve to death on a piece of land which will sup-
port two French families, simply because the Arabs
don't know — and will not learn — how to intensify then-
culture. Some Arabs, however, are progressive and
have purchased and put into use improved American
118 ORIENTAL LIFE— ARABIA
machinery. The Arabs, as a rule, are good workmen,
also, driving the oxen behind the American plow
steadily and faithfully; fertilizing, seeding, and har-
vesting the crops.
The resources of Arabia are, however, a secondary
matter, with the Arabs, when compared with her reli-
gion. And most people know the land merely from
Moslem pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina. We have
not space here to give a history of the great prophet,
Mahomet, nor to go into details regarding the religion
he founded. It is sufficient unto the Arabs that he was
born in their land, and that his tomb may be visited in
Medina. A certificate setting forth that a Moslem
has made this pilgrimage is sufficient to gain him a
passport to heaven. Before one sets foot in Mecca,
he arrives at the port Jiddah, about sixty-five miles
distant from Mecca. Here is a quarantine of ten days
on the island of Kamaran, and with only a short stop
in Jiddah — long enough to be fleeced — the pilgrim
proceeds on his way to Mecca — again to be fleeced.
It is said that the people of Jiddah and Mecca live by
fleecing pilgrims, and that the region abounds in hotel-
keepers, drummers, guides, money-changers, money-
lenders, slave-dealers, and even worse characters who
come into prominence with the annual transfer of the
caravans of hajees (pilgrims) from the coast inland.
In a recent year an estimation considered accurate
places the number of pilgrims who entered the port
of Jiddah to have been 92,625, but there is now a
ARABIA, CENTER OF THE MOSLEM WORLD 119
noticeable falling off in numbers of faithful Moslems.
No infidels are ever allowed in the sacred precincts
of the territory enclosing the birth-place and tomb
cf the Prophet ; it is a rule laid down in the Koran
that "the polluted" should be excluded. Occasionally
an infidel more daring than the rest has gained en-
trance, but usually to meet the dire death by persecu-
tion. Now that a railroad is being built to the sacred
place, and customs are becoming modified by Western
civilization, it is likely that some way will be found to
set aside the Prophet's edict and the tourist welcomed.
The rites and ceremonies connected with this pilgrim-
age are superstitious beyond almost any other super-
stition. But the Prophet wisely calculated when he
enjoined these pilgrimages. He well knew the con-
solidating effect of forming a center to which his fol-
lowers should gather, and hence he reasserted the
sanctity of the Black Stone that came down from
heaven ; he ordained that everywhere throughout the
world the Moslem should pray looking toward the
Kaaba. and encouraged them to make a pilgrimage
thither. Mecca is to the Moslem what Jerusalem is
to the Jew. It bears with it all the influence of cen-
turies of associations. It carries the Moslem back to
the cradle of his faith and the childhood of his Prophet.
And, most of all, it bids him remember that all his
brother Moslems are worshiping toward the same sa-
cred spot ; that he is one of a great company of believ-
er- unite] by one faith, filled with the same hopes,
reverencing the same thing, worshiping the same God.*
CHAPTER X
THE ARABS, THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
CONCERNING the origin of the tribes and peo-
ple that now inhabit the Arabian Peninsula there
is a disagreement among the learned. It is generally
held that the original tribes of Northern Arabia are,
descendants of Ishmael. This is also the tradition of
all Arab historians. As to the South Arabians, who
occupied their highlands with the Hadramaut coast
for centuries before the Ishmaelites appeared on the
scene, there are two opinions. Some believe them to
be descendants of Joktan (Arabic Kahtan) the son of
Heber, and therefore, like the Northern Arabs, true
Semites. Others think that the earliest inhabitants of
South Arabia were Cushites or Hamatic ; while some
German scholars hold that in the earlier Arabs the
children of Joktan and of Cush were blended into one
race.
Among the Ishmaelites are included not only Ish-
mael's direct descendants through the twelve princes,
but the Edomites, Moabites, Amorites, Midianites, and
probably other cognate tribes. The names of the sons
of Ishmael in relation to their settlements and the
traces of these names in modern Arabic is a subject
which has been taken up by Bible dictionaries, but
which still offers an interesting field for further study.
120
THE ARABS— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 121
The Arabs themselves have always claimed Abrahamic
descent for the tribes of the north. The age-long
racial animosity between the Yemenites and Maadites
seems to confirm the theory of two distinct races in-
habiting the peninsula from very early times ; and they
remain distinct until to-day in spite of common lan-
guage and a common religion. The animosity of these
two races toward each other is unaccountable but invin-
cible. Like two chemical products which instantly
explode when placed in contact, so has it always been
found impossible for Yemenite and Maadite to live
quietly together. At the present day the Yemenite in
the vicinity of Jerusalem detests the Maadite of
Hebron, and when questioned as to the reason of their
eternal enmity, has no other reply but that it has been
so from time immemorial. In the time of the Caliphs
the territory of Damascus was desolated by a mur-
derous war for two years, because a Maadite had taken
a lemon from a garden of a Yemenite. The province
of Murcia in Spain was deluged with blood for seven
years because a Maadite inadvertently plucked a
Yemenite vine-leaf. It was a passion which sur-
mounted every tie of affection or interest. 'You have
prayed for your father: why not pray for your
mother?" a Yemenite was asked near the Kaabo.
"For my mother ! " said the Yemenite, "How could I ?
She was of the race of Maad."
The Yemenites at a very early period founded the
strong and opulent llimyarite Kingdom. The Himy-
arites were the navigators of the East, and they were
122 ORIENTAL LIFE— ARABIA
celebrated for their skill in manufacture as well as
for enterprise in commerce. They had a written lan-
guage, inscriptions in which were found during the
nineteenth century all over Southern Arabia. The
Maadite or Ishmaelite Arabs, on the contrary, were
more nomad in their habits, and were masters of the
caravans which carried the enormous overland trade
by the two great trunk-lines of antiquity from the
East to the West. One of these lines extended from
Aden along the western part of the peninsula and
through Yemen to Egypt; the other extended from
Babylon to Tadmor and Damascus. A third route,
nearly as important, # was also in the hands of the
Ishmaelite Arabs, by Wady Ruma and Nejd to the old
capital of the Himyarites, Mareb. These caravans uni-
fied the Arabian peninsula and fused into one its two
peoples ; the northern Arabs receiving somewhat of the
southern civilization, and the southern Arabs adopting
the language of the north. But the decline in the cara-
van trade brought disaster to Arabia; the ship of the
desert found a competitor in the ships of the sea. Old
settlements were broken up, great cities, which flour-
ished because of overland trade, were abandoned, and
whole tribes were reduced from opulence to poverty.
In this time of transition, long before the birth of Mo-
hammed, the Arabic nation as it is known to modern
history seems to have been formed.
The modern Arabs classify themselves into
Bedouins and town-dwellers ; or, in their own poetic
way, ahl cl bcit and ahl cl licit, " the people of the
THE ARABS— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 123
tent," and "the people of the wall." But this classi-
fication is hardly sufficient, although it has been gen-
erally adopted by writers on Arabia. Edson L. Clark,
in his book, The Arabs and the Turks, gives five
classes : "Beginning at the lowest round of the ladder
we have first the sedentary, or the settled Arabs, who,
although many of them still dwell in tents, have be-
come cultivators of the soil. By their nomadic breth-
ren these settled Arabs are thoroughly despised as de-
graded and denationalized by the change in their mode
of life. Secondly, the wandering tribes in the neigh-
borhood of the settled districts, and in constant inter-
course with their inhabitants. Both these classes, but
more especially the latter, are thoroughly demoralized.
The third class consists of the Arabs of the Turkish
towns and villages ; but they, too, are a degenerate
class both in language and character. The fourth
class consists of the inhabitants of the towns and
villages of Arabia proper, who, by their peculiar
situation, have remained more secluded from the rest
of the world than even the wandering tribes. Finally,
the great nomadic tribes of the interior, still preserv-
ing unchanged the primitive character, habits, and
customs of their race." This last class, and this alone,
are the real Bedouins.
Character is difficult to define. To depict the
moral physiognomy of a nation and their physical
traits in such a way that nothing important is omitted
and no single characteristic exaggerated at the cost
of others is difficult. This difficulty is increased in the
124 ORIENTAL LIFE— ARABIA
case of the Arabs, by their twofold origin and their
present twofold civilization. That which is true of the
town-dweller is not always true of the Bedouin, and
vice versa. Moreover, the influence of the neighboring
countries must be taken into consideration. Eastern
Arabia has taken color by long contact with Persia;
this is seen in speech, architecture, food, and dress.
South Arabia, especially Hadramaut, has absorbed
East Indian ideas. While western Arabia, especially
Hejaz, shows in many ways its proximity to Egypt.
Not losing sight of these distinctions, which will ac-
count for many exceptions to the general statements
made, what is the character of the Arabs?
Physically, they are undoubtedly one of the strong-
est and noblest races of the world. Baron de Larrey,
surgeon-general of the first Napoleon, in his expedi-
tions to Egypt and Syria, says : "Their physical struc-
ture is in all respects more perfect than that of Euro-
peans ; their organs of sense exquisitely acute, their
size above the average of men in general, their figure
robust and elegant, the color brown ; their intelligence
proportionate to their physical perfection, and without
doubt superior, other things being equal, to that of
other nations."
The typical Arab face is round-oval, but the gen-
eral leanness of the features detracts from its regular-
ity ; the bones are prominent ; the eyebrows long and
bushy ; the eye small, deep-set, fiery black or a dark,
deep brown ; the face expresses half dignity, half cun-
ning, and is not unkindly, although never smiling or
THE ARABS— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 125
benignant. The teeth are white, even, short, and
broad. The Arabs have very scanty beards as a rule,
but those of the towns often cultivate a patriarchal
beard like the traditional beard of the prophet. The
figure is well-knit, muscular, long-limbed, never fat.
The arms and legs are thin, almost shrunken, but
with muscles like whip-cords. As young men, the
Bedouins are often good-looking, with bright eyes and
dark hair, but the constant habit of frowning to pro-
tect the eyes from the glare of the sun soon gives the
face a fierce aspect ; at forty their beards turn gray,
and at fifty they appear old men.
It is a common mistake to consider the Arabs
democratic in their ideas of society. The genuine
Arab was and is always an aristocrat. Feuds originate
about the precedence of one family or tribe over an-
other ; marriage is only allowed between tribes or clans
of equal standing ; the whole system of sheikh-govern-
ment is an aristocratic idea ; and as final proof, there
still exists a species of casts in South Arabia, whib
in North Arabia, the Ma'sdan Arabs of Mesopotamia
and the Sulcyb of the desert are little better than
Pariahs as regards their neighbors. It is with a heavy
heart that any Arab sees set over him a man of less
noble extraction than himself; hence his discontent un-
der Turkish rule, and yet the facts just enumerated
show that Arabia could hardly govern herself, that is,
in a modern sense.
The Arabs are polite, good-natured, lively, manly,
patient, courageous, and hospitable to a fault. They
126 ORIENTAL LIFE— ARABIA
are also contentious, untruthful, sensuous, distrustful,
covetous, proud, and superstitious. One must always
keep in mind this paradox in dealing with an Arab.
As Clark says, "an Arab will lie, cheat, and swear any
number of false oaths which are intended to confirm
falsehoods and signify nothing. There are oaths,
such as the threefold oath, with wa, bi, and ti as par-
ticles of swearing, which not even the vilest robber
among them dare break.
Robbery is a fine art among the nomads; but the
high-minded Arab robs lawfully, honestly, and honor-
ably. He will not attack his victims in the ni ;ht; he
tries to avoid all bloodshed by coming with overwhelm-
ing force; and if his enterprise miscarries, he boldly
enters the first tent possible, proclaims his true char-
acter and asks protection. The Dakheil, or privilege
of sanctuary, the salt covenant, the blood covenant,
and the sacredness of the guest, all prove that the
Arabs are trustworthy. And yet, in the ordinary af-
fairs of life, lying and deception are the rule and sel-
dom the exception. The true Arab is niggardly when
he buys, and will haggle for hours to reduce a price;
and yet he is prodigal and lavish when giving away
his goods to prove his hospitality.
It is said that the Arab is the only true lover of the
Orient, and perhaps, if the Bedouin-Arab alone is
meant, this is true. In matters of love and marriage,
the Arab of the towns is what Mohammed, the Meccan
Merchant, was, after the death of old lady Khadi-
jah. But Arabic poetry of the times of ignorance does
THE ARABS— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 127
occasionally breathe the true tale of love and chivalry ;
and the desert Arabs, as a rule, are not polygamists
nor given to divorce. The marriage ceremony among
the Bedouins is as simple as it is long and complex
among the townsmen. After the negotiations which
precede the marriage contract, the bridegroom comes
with a lamb in his arms to the tent of the girl's father
and there cuts the lamb's throat before witnesses. As
soon as the blood falls on the ground the contract is
sealed ; feasting and dancing follow, and at night the
bride is conducted to the bridegroom's tent where he
has preceded her and awaits to welcome her. Con-
cerning the marriage-contract in the towns, the cere-
mony, the divorce proceedings, and the methods by
which that is made legal, which even the lax laws of
Islam condemn, the less said the better.
Family life among the Arabs is best studied by
looking at child-life in the desert and at the position
of women among the tent and town dwellers. In no
part of the world does the new-born child meet less
preparation for its reception than among the Bedouin.
\ land bare of many blessings, general poverty, and
the law of the survival of the fittest, has made the
Arab mother stern of heart. In the open desert under
the shade of an acacia bush or behind a camel's back,
the Arab baby first sees the daylight. As soon as it
is born the mother herself cleanses it by rubbing it
with sand, then she places it in a piece of cloth and
takes it home. She suckles the child for a short
period, but at the age of four months the- child drinks
128 ORIENTAL LIFE— ARABIA
profusely of camel's milk. A name is given to the in-
fant immediately ; generally from some trifling inci-
dent connected with its birth, or from some object
which attracts the mother's fancy. Moslem names,
such as Hassan, Ali or Fatimah, are extremely un-
common among the Bedouins ; although Mohammed
is sometimes given. Besides his own peculiar name,
every Bedouin boy is called by the name of his father
and tribe. And what is more remarkable, boys are
often called after their sisters ; for instance, Akhoo
Noorah, the brother of Noorah. Girls' names are
taken from the constellations, birds, or desert animals,
like Gazelle.
In education the Arab is a true child of nature.
His parents leave him to his own sweet will ; they sel-
dom chastise and seldom praise. Trained from birth
in the hard school of nomad life, fatigue and danger
contribute much to his education. Instead of teaching
the boy civil manners, the father teaches him to beat
and pelt the strangers who come to the tent ; to steal
or secrete some trifling article belonging to them.
The more saucy and impudent children are, the more
they are praised, since this is taken as an indication
of future enterprise and warlike disposition. Bedouin
children, male and female, go unclad and play together
until their sixth year. The first child's festival is that
of circumcision. At the age of seven years, the day is
fixed, sheep are killed, and a large dish of food is
cooked. Women accompany the operation with a
loud song, and afterwards there is dancing and horse-
THE ARABS— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 129
back riding and encounters with lances. The girls
adorn themselves with cheap jewelry, and tent-poles
are decorated with ostrich feathers. Altogether it is
a gala-day.
The Bedouin children have few toys, but they man-
age to amuse themselves with many games. I have
seen a group of happy children, each with a pet locust
on a bit of string, watching whose steed will win the
race. The boys make music out of desert-grass, wind-
ing it in curious fashion to resemble a horn, and call-
ing it Masoor. In Yemen and Nejd a sling like Da-
vid's, with pebbles from the brook is a lad's first
weapon. Afterward he acquires a lance and perhaps
an old discarded bowie-knife. The children of the
desert have no printed books, but they have the great
book of nature ; and this magnificent picture-book is
never more diligently studied than by those little dark
eyes that watch the sheep at pasture or count the
stars in the blue abyss from their perch on a lofty
camel's saddle in the midnight journeyings.
The Bedouin child early puts away childish things.
To western eyes the Arab children appear like little
old men and women ; and the grown-up people have
minds like children. This is another paradox of the
Arab character. At ten years the boy is sent to drive
camels and the girl to herd sheep ; at fifteen they arc
both on the way to matrimony. He wears the garb of
the man and boasts a matchlock ; she takes to spinning
camel hair and sings the songs of the past. Their
brief childhood is over. In the towns marriage takes
130 ORIENTAL LIFE— ARABIA
place even earlier ; and there are boys of eighteen who
have already divorced two wives.
Perhaps the position of women among the Arabs
is best set forth by the Dutch traveler, Snouck Hur-
gronje, who, near the close of the last century, spent
a year in Arab towns:
"What avail to the young maiden the songs of
eulogy which once in her life resound for her from
the mouth of the singing-woman, but which introduce
her into a companionship by which she, with her whole
sex, is despised? Moslem literature, it is true, ex-
hibits isolated glimpses of a worthier estimation of
woman, but the later view, which comes more and
more into prevalence, is the only one which finds its
expression in the sacred traditions, which represents
hell as full of women, and refuses to acknowledge in
the woman, apart from rare exceptions, either reason
or religion, in poems, which refer all the evil in the
world to the women as its root ; in proverbs which
represent a careful education of girls as mere waste-
fulness. Ultimately, therefore, there is only conceded
to the woman the fascinating charm with which Allah
has endowed her, in order to afford the man, now and
then in his earthly existence, the prelibation of the
pleasures of Paradise, and to bear him children."
The poems which revile womankind, and of which
the Dutch traveler speaks, are legion. Here are two
examples in the English translation from Burton:
"They said, marry ! — I replied, —
Far be it from me
To take to my bosom a sackful of snakes.
I am free, why then become a slave?
May Allah never bless womankind."
THE ARABS— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 131
"They declare woman to be heaven to man ;
I say, Allah, give me Jehannum, not this heaven."
Three kinds of dwellings are found in Arabia.
There is the tent, the date-palm hut, and the house
built with mortar, of stone or mud-brick. The tent is
distinctive, in a general sense, of the interior and of
Northern Arabia; the palm hut of the coast and of
South Arabia ; while houses of mortar and brick exist
in all towns and cities. The evolution of the house is
from goats'-hair to matting, and from matting to mud-
roof. Each of these dwellings is called belt, " the
place where one spends the night." This very char-
acterization of the home shows how little there is to
Arabian home and family life.
The Bedouin tent consists of nine poles, arranged
in sets of three, and a wide, black goat's-hair covering
so as to form two parts ; the men's apartment being
to the left of the entrance and the women's to the
right, separated by a white woolen carpet hanging
from the ridge-pole. The posts are about seven feet
in height ; the width of the tent is from twenty to
thirty feet, its depth not more than ten feet. The only
furniture consists of cooking utensils, pack-saddles,
water-skins, wheat-bags, and millstones.
The date-palm hut is of different shapes. In Hejaz
and Yemen it is built like a huge beehive, circular and
with a pointed roof. In Eastern Arabia, it consists of
a square enclosure with hip-roof, generally steep, cov-
ered with matting or thatch-work. At Bahrein the
Arabs are very skilful in so weaving the date-fronds
132 ORIENTAL LIFE— ARABIA
together and tightening every crevice that the huts
keep out wind and rain storms most successfully. The
average size date-hut can be built for from $7 to $10,
and will last for several years.
The stone-dwellings of Arabia are as different in
architecture and material as circumstances and tastes
can make them. In Yemen large castle-like dwellings
crown every mountain and frown on every valley;
stone is plentiful, and the plan of architecture inherits
grace and strength from the older civilization that
beautified Spain under the Moors. In Bagdad, Bus-
rah, and East Arabia Persian architecture prevails,
with arches, wind-towers, tracery, and the balcony-
windows. The architecture of Mecca and Medina
takes on its own peculiar type from the needs of the
pilgrimage. Generally speaking, the Arabs build their
houses without windows to the street, and with an
open court ; the harem system dictates to the builder
even putting a high parapet on the flat roof against
jealous eyes. Bleak walls without ornament or picture
are also demanded by their surly religion. All furni-
ture is simple and commonplace ; except where the
touch of western civilization has awakened a taste for
marble-top tables and music-boxes.
In dress there is also much variety in Arabia.
Turkish influence is seen in the Ottoman provinces and
Indian-Persian in Oman, Hassa, and Bahrein. The
Turkish fez and the turban (which are not Arabian),
arc examples. The common dress of the Bedouin is
the type that underlies all varieties. It consists of a
THE ARABS— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 133
coarse, cotton shirt over which is worn the abba or
wide square mantle. The headdress is made with a
square cloth, folded across and fastened on the crown
of the head by a circlet of woolen rope called an 'ukal.
The color of the garment and its ornamentation depend
on the locality, likewise the belt and the weapons of
the wearer. Sandals of all shapes are used ; shoes and
boots on the coast indicate foreign influence. The
dress of the Bedouin women is a wide cotton gown,
with open sides, generally of a dark blue color, and a
cloth for the head. The veil is of various shapes ; in
Oman it has the typical Egyptian nose-piece with only
the middle part of the face concealed ; in the Turkish
provinces of East Arabia, thin black cloth conceals the
features. Xose- and ear-rings are common. All Arab
women tattoo their hands and faces as well as
other parts of the body, dye with henna, and use anti-
mony on their eyelashes.
The staple foods of Arabia are bread, rice, ghee
(or clarified butter). This last the Arabs call semu,
the word ghee being the Indian name for the same
substance, which is used extensively in India. Milk,
mutton, and dates are also used extensively, and coffee
is the universal beverage. Tea is widely used, but was
scarcely known twenty years ago. Tobacco is smoked
in the villages and cities, and the Bedouins are also
passionately fond of the weed. And you will remem-
ber that John the Baptist flourished on locusts and wild
honey. These still abound in Arabia and form staple
articles of daily consumption. Locusts may be found
134 ORIENTAL LIFE— ARABIA
in all the grocers' shops in the interior towns of
Arabia. They are prepared for eating by boiling in
salt and water, after which they are dried in the sun.
They taste like stale shrimps or dried herring. The
coast dwellers live largely on fish, and in the days of
Ptolemy they were called Ichthiophagoi.
Although this chapter has unconsciously lengthened
out, we wish to speak of one more thing characteristic
of the Arabs — one that will add a little attractiveness
to the rough life here sketched. That is their great
love for water and the uses they make of it. Whether
half-urban or half-nomad, the Arab loves water — the
water which flows and the water which fertilizes.
He is a great poet and a great employer of irrigation,
which really brought about the wealth of Spain and
assures that of Morocco. Water plays a fundamental
role in the Arab civilization. It is the life-giving cur-
rent of his warm, voluptuous organism. It is his
religion, which, prescribing frequent ablutions, has
made of water a divine necessity in the Mussulman's
life.
The sound of water flowing in the mosque is to
the Arab the sound of the religious presence and an
invitation to spiritual rest. "Come ye to the waters
of life ! " This element is bound up closely with all
religious ceremonies, and its wells are one of the great-
est, if not the greatest, factors of the Arab life. It
was this love of water that made Arab public buildings,
such as mosques, baths, and halls of learning so beau-
tiful.
THE ARABS— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 135
But besides being poets of water, the Arabs were
also the most artistic makers of gardens. We recall
what we have heard and read about the hanging gar-
dens of Babylon ; and, while their skill has waned
some or not been used, the Arabs of North Africa still
delight in making gardens. Whenever one walks
through the streets of Tangier, looking in at the little
ointment booths or carpet shops, he sees in front of
every Arab, as he toils or dreams, with his head on
his knees, a flower, simply but tastefully placed in a
little vase — this is the Arab cult. The flower, like
the water, is for the Arab a being living and immortal.
The Arabs introduced the jasmine and the camelia into
Spain, and it was they who originated the yellow tea-
rose.
With the love of water, flowers, and gardens, with
the mysterious seclusion of his women, is it a wonder
that the Arab had a beautiful, romantic civilization?
Much of the intellectual and religious strength of
the Arab race still survives, and it is believed will be
wrought eventually into a new and modern civilization '
BURMA
CHAPTER XI
THE GOLDEN LAND OF BURMA
IN Ptolemy's map of the world, dating from the sec-
ond century of our era, Burma is marked Chryse
Cherson, "The Golden Peninsula." Then, as now, its
streams were worked for gold ; but so little is now
won from the alluvial deposits that its ancient name
would no longer be appropriate were it not for its
pagodas. These lift their gilded spires all over the
country, and justify not only its Greek but its Indian
title of Souvcrna Bhumi, "The Golden Land."
It is to-day, of all countries open to easy traveling,
the nearest approach to the ideal East ; the least spoilt,
in spite of its oil-mills, rice-mills, and timber-yards, by
contact with the West, and the most pleasing in regard
to the character of its people.
These conditions, however, are doomed to pass
away. The Burmese, originally Indo-Chinese, are be-
ing hard pressed by their ancestral races. By the
northern frontier and from over the seas the enter-
prising Chinamen pour into the country in a steady
stream, absorbing the retail trade of the rural dis-
tricts, and competing successfully in the towns ; while
the famished hordes of Tamils come over in their thou-
136
THE GOLDEN LAND OF BURMA 137
sands to cultivate the paddy-fields of the delta and
press the idle Burman from the land.
Up to the present no great harm has been done,
for in spite of the undesirable aliens the Burmese con-
tinue to increase. The coolies employed in the towns
are doing the work which the Burmese never at-
tempted to do, and the Chinese are rather forcing the
Burmese women out of business than competing with
the men. The Burman is by heredity and choice a
cultivator of the soil, and as a field laborer is unex-
celled. But now he is being attacked in his last strong-
hold by the Tamil, and the struggle may prove disas-
trous to the Burman, either on the material side, or
by causing a change in his most pleasing character-
istics.
By nature the Burman is an indolent, lazy fellow,
who is quite willing to let his wife do all the work
without any interference on his part as long as she
provides him with plenty of food to eat and tobacco
to smoke. But the idleness of the Burman, fostered
by the superstitious belief in lucky and unlucky days,
is not the shiftless indifference of the ne'er-do-well or
the sullen apathy of the weak and hopeless. It is
rather the careless optimism of the philosopher com-
bined with the sportsman's contempt for productive
labor inherited from a long line of freedom-loving
ancestors. For the Burmese were a conquering race,
their empire had been successfully defended by the
sword from the assaults nf the surrounding hostile
races and tribes ; and when the British took Burma
138 ORIENTAL LIFE— BURMA
they found a free race who had not, as in India, been
previously subdued by foreign invaders.
Watch the Burman play at his favorite games, or
put him in charge of a boat on a river in a flood, and
you will find that he has a fund of energy to expend
on those things in which he takes an interest. More-
over, he is a cheerful, merry fellow; and, when not
roused to sudden jealousy, a very pleasant companion.
But John Chinaman is taking to wife the pick of the
Burmese girls, and he has his privilege of selection,
because he gives them a better home, less work, and
finer clothes and jewels ; and, as long as his sons'
pigtails are left to his care, is quite content to con-
form to the observances of the Buddhist religion, and
let his wife bring up the daughters as she likes. The
mixed race springing up from these intermarriages is
a very good one indeed, inheriting the cheerful temper
and quick wit of the mother together with the father's
capacity for work. To the Chinamen Burma is China,
inasmuch as he is content to live, die, and be buried
there, and you may meet Chinamen whose fathers and
even grandfathers have been born in Burma. John
is not far wrong either, for Burma was, at any rate
nominally, tributary to China as recently as 1881, or
up to within five years of the time when England took
the third bite and gobbled up what had been left of
the Burmese cherry from the two previous bites taken
in 1826 and 1852.
By the treaty of February 24, 1826. the coasts of
Tenasserim borderinq- on Siam, and of Arakan. the
THE GOLDEN LAND OF BURMA 139
narrow strip between the mountains and the Bay of
Bengal, were ceded with the outlying bits of Assam
to the Honorable East India Company by His Majesty
the King of Ava. By proclamation of December 20,
1852, Lower Burma was annexed, and the Irawadi
Valley up to Prome, as well as the valley of the Sit-
tang up to a point about thirty-five miles north of
Toungoo, came under British rule. On January 1,
1886, Upper Burma was annexed, and the whole of
Burma became a province of British India.
Upper Burma was the real home of the Burmese
race, Lower Burma being occupied by the Talaing or
Mun race ; but the Burmese have settled in large num-
bers in the delta, and it is becoming more and more
difficult to distinguish the various races which inhabit
the country.
Practically all the Burmese are Buddhists ; but the
missionaries have had considerable success with some
of the minor races, and it is said that a round hundred
thousand of the Karens are Christians. In theory
Burmese Buddhism is the purest form of the religion,
unchanged since it was brought to Burma by Asoka's
missionaries, and it is possible that some of the more
learned monks follow the tvay indicated by Gawdama ;
but, as a rule, the Buddhism of the Burman is so lost
in a flood of superstition that it is rarely found on the
surface. The Burmese have, however, learnt from
their religion the virtues of tolerance, charitableness,
kindheartedness, and hospitality to a degree beyond
other races. Even the casual visitor to their country
140 ORIENTAL LIFE— BURMA
is impressed with their romantic character and envies
their happy disposition.
As in other Buddhist countries, marriage in Burma
is a purely secular affair. The parties agree to become
man and wife and that is quite sufficient. If there is
any ceremony at all, the most important observance
is the eating out of the same dish, just as the Japa-
nese drink out of the same sake cup. The wife retains
her maiden name and her separate property. Divorce
is equally simple and free. In the villages an appli-
cation to the elders by either party procures a divorce
attested in writing: the party claiming the divorce
leaving the common home. Each retains the prop-
erty he or she had before the marriage and half of
what has been accumulated during the time they have
been husband and wife. In some cases, where the
husband has paid "marriage money" to get his bride,
the wife must repay this if she secures the divorce-
In any event the wife takes the female children and
the husband the male children.
There seems to be no law against a plurality of
wives nor any stigma attached to having two or three
wives under the same roof. In these customs the
Burmans and the Japanese agree, and in Burma, as
in Japan, the family life of the peasants is open to the
observation of any traveler.
Burmese girls have had little of the educational
advantages of the boys, but their free life gives them
an early worldly knowledge, and the Burmese women
have many attractions. They are affectionate and
THE GOLDEX LAND OF BURMA 141
passionate, cheerful and bright, clever in their own
affairs and in business, sharp in making a bargain,
excellent housekeepers, and generally faithful wives.
The}' are seldom public prostitutes, but a girl may be
bought from her parents. The negotiations are usu-
ally conducted with the mother, who is keener at driv-
ing a good bargain ; and when the contract is made,
the girl is kept as a concubine, and does not lose cast
by assenting to such an arrangement. During these
relations she is treated as a wife, and she frequently
brings her mother and children of previous marriages
to live at the house of her new husband.
The Burman drapes himself in a paso, or putsoe,
which is a piece of cloth about fourteen feet long and
forty inches wide, and twists a gaily colored handker-
chief around his head.
The costume of a Burmese woman ordinarily con-
sists of two pieces ; the engyi and lungyi, or tamcin.
The former is a loose double-breasted jacket with
mandarin sleeves, and falls over the lungyi, which,
whenever the wearer can afford it, is of thin silk and
is simply a square of about five feet with the ends
usually sewn together so that it is put on like a petti-
coat and folded in over the right hip. Women usually
go barefooted, but sometimes wear clogs resembling
the Japanese geta, or ornamental slippers with a
pointed toe-cap which holds all but the little toe.
Decorated with a certain amount of jewelry, with a
scarf fta-bet) around her neck, a wreath of flowers
in her well-brushed hair, and a bunch of "Christmas
142 ORIENTAL LIFE— BURMA
orchids" falling over her right ear, the Burmese girl
makes rather an effective picture. The older women
usually wear one or two switches or tails of false hair,
and rub the face and neck over with white powder
when making their toilet.
The Burmese year 1272 began on the 15th of
April, 1910, and the fact that their era is so far be-
hind ours may account for their leisureliness. For
example, it took us the best part of two days to do
eighty-three miles by rail ; it took until Wednesday
afternoon for a letter posted the previous Friday in
Rangoon city to be- delivered around the corner; and
it took over a quarter of an hour and a personal
application at the office to get a clean towel at the
leading hotel in Burma. But there are compensations.
Desiring to leave Mandalay for Gokteik on a train
that leaves at six in the morning and makes connec-
tion at Myohaung, we had engaged a ticca-gharry to
call for us at the Club in time to catch this train.
But the gates of Fort Dufferin are not opened until
six o'clock, and, owing to this, our gharry arrived too
late for the train. However, we drove to the station,
caught a train at 6: 30 a. m. to Myohaung, and found
the train for Gokteik still waiting at the junction,
where it continued to wait for another quarter of an
hour.
Including the Shan States, which are "more or less
dependent," Burma has an area of 236,738 square
miles, or over four times that of England and Wales,
and its population is estimated at over 10,490.000,
THE GOLDEN LAXD OF BURMA 143
while the cities of Rangoon, Mandalay, and Moulmein
have respectively 234,801. 182,498, and 55,785 in-
habitants. Rice is the principal food of the people as
well as the principal article of export ; and of the
total cultivated area, which exceeds 11,000,000 acres,
three out of every four acres are planted with rice.
The extent of this resource may be somewhat com-
prehended from the fact that during a recent year
nearly 2,300,000 tons of cargo rice was available for
export, which amount was reduced but fifteen per cent
in converting it into cleaned rice. Xot only is the
delta extremely well adapted to rice-growing, but the
heavy rainfall, averaging from a hundred to two
hundred inches at various places near the coast, is
another favorable factor.
Burma has a resource, found in such abundance
nowhere else in the world, in her ruby mines. It is
in the valley of Mogok, which is the capital of what
is known as the Ruby Mines' district, that the finest
and most highly prized rubies of the so-called "pig-
eon's blood" color are found. The mines have been
worked for centuries in rude fashion and the rubies
found by sinking holes down to the ruby-bearing
stratum, and then sifting or washing the earth raised
therefrom. Worked in this primitive fashion they
yielded about a half million dollars' worth of rubies a
year. But of course this only represented about one
quarter of the find, the majority, and more especially
the larger stones, being secreted and smuggled away
to keep them from the greedy Kings of Ava.
144 ORIENTAL LIFE— BURMA
It was not long after the British occupation of the
country that a corporation was formed, under the
presidency of Lord Rothschild, to acquire the rights
to work the world-famous Ruby Alines of Burma, and
such was the rush to obtain shares that on the morn-
ing the subscription list was opened, the crush of peo-
ple eager to invest their money in the enterprise was
so great that Lord Rothschild had to get into the
office by a ladder through one of the windows. But
the mines did not prove so profitable as expected, and
only within the last two years has the company been
able to pay dividends. The hope of success has lain
in the introduction of machinery for washing the byon
more cheaply than it could be done by native methods,
by the introduction of an electrical power plant, and
it is believed that this has been accomplisbed. The
Burma Ruby Mines' Company now produces at least
one-half of the output of rubies in the world.
The value of rubies found in 1898 was $260,775.60.
and in that year the first dividend was paid. Now
washing mills and electrical power machinery are in
full swing, and the company employs about forty
Europeans besides a large number of natives.
Aside from the rice crop, the chief wealth of the
land lies in the enormous forests of teak, now ably
administered by the service which has made for itself
such an enviable reputation in India. At the lumber
vards near Rangoon all visitors are astonished at the
sagacity of the trained elephants which work piling
the heavy teak logs or pushing them into position
THE GOLDEN LAND OF BURMA 145
for the saws. Away in the upper section of the prov-
ince the elephants may be seen carrying supplies to
the camps, bringing the logs to the water, and con-
veying the Europeans about to supervise the cutting
of the teak.
Taking all its resources together, and the addi-
tional asset of climate, Burma has come to be called
"a land of plenty where a man lies on his back and
smokes, while prodigal nature works for him." Some-
thing besides nature works for the Burman, and that
is the women of Burma. All the business of the mar-
ket-place, which is conducted in bazaars as in most
oriental countries, is carried on by the Burmese
women. They are the tradespeople of the whole
country, and, as caste is non-existent, they are free to
live their own lives as with us. Neatly dressed in
pretty silks and linens, they come nearer to our West-
ern ideas of what a charming woman should be than
do most Orientals.
Burma is rapidly being transformed by Western
civilization, and lacks only development to make her
one of the most wide-awake countries in the East.
This development is being brought about by the Eng-
lish government, as we shall see in the ensuing chap-
ter.*
CHAPTER XII
THE DEVELOPMENT OF BURMA
NOTWITHSTANDING the steady progress of
railway and road construction in the last thirty
vears, the improvement of inland communication forms
one of the most urgent needs in Burma. The railways
of Burma are all of metre-gauge. The first line to be
opened, in May, 1877, was a line running from Ran-
goon northwards for one hundred and sixty-three miles
to the town of Prome, on the Irrawaddy, about forty-
five miles below the then western frontier military sta-
tion, Thayetmo. At that time along all the central
portion for about one hundred miles the track, follow-
ing the old military road made during the second Bur-
mese war in 1852, passed mostly through dense forest
with only small clearances for cultivation here and
there ; but now the whole valley has for more than
fifteen years been transformed into rice-fields, save
only where patches of the primeval jungle were here
and there retained as "fuel reserves" for the railway,
i .r where other patches, far too few in number, were
afterwards set apart as "grazing grounds" for the
village buffaloes and other plow cattle.
Ten years later, in 1884, a similar line, one hundred
and sixty-six miles long, was opened up the Sittang
Valley to give easy communication between Rangoon
and the eastern frontier military station, Toungoo, on
146
THE DEVELOPMENT OF BURMA 147
the Sittang. Like the Prome line, this ran along the
base of the Pegu hills, between them and the Sittang
River, and traversed tracts potentially rich, though
scantily populated. It was therefore chiefly as a mili-
tary strategic line that this railway was built, for
Toungoo was practically cut off from communication
with Rangoon during the whole of the rainy season
lasting from May till November. But it also lay on
the most direct and easy route to Mandalay ; and when
it was extended into Upper Burma after the annexa-
tion, and was finally opened to direct traffic from Ran-
goon to Mandalay early in 1889, it soon formed the
great highway thronged by immigrants from the poorer
districts of central Burma, who came down in thou-
sands to the richer uncultivated wastes of the Sittang
Valley, and have now transformed it into one vast rice-
field similar to the great plain on the Irrawaddy side.
All the great public works accomplished during the
last thirty years, and more especially during the last
twenty-four years following the annexation of Upper
Burma, in the shape of railways, roads, the improve-
ment of old irrigation channels, and the construction
of new canals, have had a very powerful influence on
the expansion of trade both within the province and
beyond its frontiers. The Burman is not of a saving
or hoarding disposition ; what he makes he spends.
Near the large towns and great centers of trade he is
already, however, beginning to feel the competition of
men of other races and religions, chiefly Hindus from
Bengal and Madras, and Sikhs and Mohammedans.
148 ORIENTAL LIFE— BURMA
from Upper India ; and as time goes on his old easy-
going life may have to change, and become more ear-
nest and provident. But as yet all the increase in the
cultivation of rice, the great staple product of the
country, means that the larger the production, the
greater the surplus available for export ; and the larger
the export business becomes, the more the import trade
increases, for the Burman freely spends his income in
ways which usually more or less directly stimulate the
purchase of imported goods, and benefit the merchants
at the seaports.
The increase of the rice export trade has been great
and continuous. And apart from their many other
advantages, there can be no doubt that the railways
have been one of the main factors in the astonishing
development that has taken place in trade. Thirty
years ago the total cultivated area in British Burma
-was 2,800,000 acres, of which 2,500,000 were rice, and
when the export of rough-milled rice reached a million
tons in 1880, it was thought remarkable. Since then
it has increased to two and a quarter million tons,
worth over $55,000,000, and bringing in a revenue of
over $4,000,000 as export duty. And in place of only
being roughly husked in the mills, polished white rice
is now mainly exported. And this output can be more
than doubled whenever there is a sufficient population
to clear and till the twenty-five million acres of waste
or jungle-covered land suitable for permanent cultiva-
tion. The area now under crop annually is about
twelve and a half million acres, of which over, three-
THE DEVELOPMENT OF BURMA 149
quarters are rice, the remaining areas being chiefly
those used for sessamum, millet, grain, wheat, maize,
various kinds of peas and beans, and cotton, through-
out the dry zone of Upper Burma.
In the increased rice-export trade Upper Burma,
forming the greater portion of the province, takes no
share. Its annexation actually decreased the volume
of the total rice-export temporarily, because Upper
Burma is not self-supporting as to rice, and what it
got from Lower Burma previous to 1886 was then
included in the land-borne trans-frontier traffic. When-
ever there is famine or scarcity in India, China, or
Japan, Burma is the near and never-failing granary
whence great stores of nutritive rice can be easily ac-
quired, whilst still permitting of a large export trade
to Great Britain and Germany. Thus, in 1900, over a
million tons were shipped to India to relieve the want
then being caused by famine.
But it is not alone through progressive public works
that the government of Burma has endeavored to stim-
ulate trade and commerce. An Agricultural Depart-
ment was constituted on a sound basis about three years
ago, and qualified experts are now engaged in studying
the special problems of economic agriculture in the
different parts of the province, so as to improve the
yield both in quantity and quality. And for the fur-
ther benefit of the peasantry, over two-thirds of the
entire population being agriculturists, a Land Aliena-
tion Bill has lately been adopted, which enables the
cultivators to stay on the land they have cleared and
150 ORIENTAL LIFE— BURMA
occupied, and which anticipates and prevents the evils
that have been caused in other provinces by unre-
strained alienation of holdings. And at the same time,
consideration is likewise being given to Tenancy Legis-
lation, which is also desirable, though not yet so ur-
gently necessary as the law to restrict alienation by
cultivators.
Next to rice, teak timber forms the second staple
of Burma, whose forest wealth may be roughly judged
of by the fact that nearly two-thirds of the total area
is still under woodland or jungle growth of one sort
or another. A large part of this, about twenty-five
million acres, is, of course, suitable for permanent cul-
tivation, and will in due time be brought under the
plow when population increases. But the area actually
set apart as "Reserved Forests," to be maintained for
timber production, and for the storage and regulation
of the water supply and the maintenance of the streams,
and for other economic advantages, already extends
to over 20,500 square miles, while much of the remain-
ing total estimated forest area of 123,500 square miles,
has still to be gone over for the selection of tracts suit-
able for reservation. In these forests, the teak is by
far the most valuable tree, for Burma and Siam are the
only two countries which can furnish large supplies of
this timber.
The other chief exports besides rice and teak are
petroleum, raw cotton, hides, and skins. Cotton is grown
chiefly in the north of Burma in the dry zone, though
at present the area annually under crop is only about
THE DEVELOPMENT OF BURMA 151
190,000 acres. Over forty years ago King Mindon
made cotton a royal monopoly, and started a spin-
ning-mill in Mandalay. But the European engineer
engaged by him stopped work whenever his pay fell
into arrears, and Mindon reverted to local hand-spin-
ning. Although the Upper Burma cotton is somewhat
short in the staple, yet a much larger field seems open
for enterprise in its cultivation than has yet been util-
ized. It is somewhat surprising that as late as 1896
no European firm had engaged in the cotton industry,
it being at that time entirely in the hands of China-
men. In the spring they advanced money to the culti-
vators, who hound themselves to deliver 170 rupees'
worth of cotton for every 100 rupees advanced. Even
considering the risk of precarious rainfall, this seemed
a rich return, even in a country where three per cent
per mensein is a usual rate of interest for loans on
deposit of gold jewelry to the capital amount ; so the
writer brought the matter to the attention of a mem-
ber of one of the large European rice firms in Ran-
goon, and was surprised to find that he did not think
the matter worth investigating. The Chinese brokers
were disliked as harsh creditors. The raw cotton had
to be slowly ginned by women and girls working hand-
gins, and then carted either to the railway or to the
Irrawaddy before it could be transported southwards
to Rangoon, or northwards to Bhamo en route for
Yunnan. Since then, however, Thazi and Myingyan
have been connected by railway, and the transportation
problem has been reduced somewhat. Spinning
152 ORIENTAL LIFE— BURMA
mills and one or two presses have been installed by
Chettees and Chinamen, who doubtless make large
profits, but there is still room for enterprising Euro-
peans or Americans to engage in profitable cotton ven-
tures. The very latest word to be had from the Ad-
ministration on this industry is as follows:
"Cotton mills there are in plenty, owned for the
most part by Chinamen, but they are nearly all small
concerns. Cotton spinning and weaving establishments
are non-existent, and all the cotton garments used in
Burma are made from cloth imported from Europe
and England, or woven in slowly decreasing quantities
in the village hand-looms by the women of the family."
A very healthy feature of Burma's trade is that
while foreign maritime commerce is constantly expand-
ing, the coastal trade to other ports in the Indian Em-
pire is also increasing in a very marked proportion,
although, of course, in special years there is always an
abnormal increase in this latter whenever large quan-
tities of rice have to be poured into famine districts.
In round numbers, the foreign maritime trade of a
recent year amounted to $75,000,000 (the exports be-
ing $47,000,000 and the imports $28,000,000), while
the Indian coastal trade, stimulated by a great demand
for rice, rose to about $65,000,000. Rice, of course,
formed 77 per cent of the total value of foreign ex-
ports, and teak timber bulked next in quantity and
value ; but nearly five thousand tons of raw cotton,
worth about $1,000,000, were shipped, more than two-
thirds of which went to China and Japan, and the bal-
ance to Great Britain. The trade in hides and skins
THE DEVELOPMENT OF BURMA 153
is also growing, and more than $500,000 worth were
exported. As might be expected, the foreign imports
consist mainly of silk, cotton, and woolen piece-goods,
twists and yarns, iron goods and hardware, salt and
sugar. One article of import has fallen off of late,
and that is kerosene. The development of the Burma
oil-fields makes it no longer necessary to import kero-
sene from America and Russia.
Simultaneously with this very rapid expansion of
the maritime trade with foreign countries and Indian
ports, there also has been, as was to be expected with
the improvement of transportation facilities, a large
increase in the land trans-frontier trade through Bhann >
and Myikyina into Western China, through Lashio into
the Northern Shan States, and across the Lower
Burma frontier into Karenni and Siam. In the year
already mentioned, this trans-frontier traffic amounted
to $15,000,000 in value. The imports are cattle, ele-
phants, silk piece-goods, and miscellaneous produce,
and form more than one-half of the total trade. The
exports are cotton, rice, bullion, and opium.
The above facts and figures speak lor themselves,
and easily refute any charge that may be brought
against the Government of Burma of having failed to
promote the development, trade, and prosperity of the
province. The building of railroads and the progress-
ive measures being taken in matters of education, san-
itation, law. and justice, and the several other things
that go toward the material welfare of a country, show
that Burma is being given more of the fruits of her
154 ORIENTAL LIFE— BURMA
labor, that not nearly so much of her funds is being
diverted to other provinces of the empire as formerly,
and that she is no longer entitled to the name of Cin-
derella, or, if she is, it is the transformed Cinderella,
made resplendent by the fairy godmother, Protest, and
the Prince ; the latter impersonatec by the British
Government.
There is still one thing necessary to Burma, and
that is population. There is a vast area of nearly
twenty-five million acres of splendid soil awaiting new-
comers for its clearance, and when this is taken into
consideration with the fact that there are vast con-
gested districts in India, there comes a possible and
ultimately probable solution of the double problem.
Xo matter how much the local government of Burma
may dislike the idea of swamping the country with
Hindus or Mohammedans from the overpopulated
parts of India, yet such an influx will come in time,
and the Government of Burma neither can nor will
encourage a policy of closing a province in which there
is ample room and abundance of virgin land, now lying
waste and uncleared, against immigration that would
relieve the necessities and distress of other overpopu-
lated provinces, and would add greatly to the prosper-
ity of its own province. The time seems at hand
when the prosperity of Burma, and the comfort and
happiness of both the lotus-eating and the more ener-
getic portions of its population are to be realized.'
CEYLON
CHAPTER XIII
THE LAND OF POETRY AND ROMANCE
CEYLON, which at a period not very remote was
little more than a vague image of poetry or
romance, has become an important reality to the mer-
chant, the traveler, and the student of ancient civiliza-
tion and religion. To those who have had the most
extensive experience in the East and the West, the
claim of Ceylon to be regarded as the very gem of the
earth does not seem extravagant. In these few pages
we shall endeavor to give some evidence in support of
this claim. But not on aesthetic grounds alone does
Ceylon deserve notice. The economic results due
to its situation in the eastern seas, a spot on which
converge the steamships of all nations for coal and the
exchange of freight and passengers ; its wealth and
diversity of agricultural and mineral products ; the in-
dustry of its inhabitants, both colonists and natives —
these, together with its scenery and the glamour of its
unrivaled remains of antiquity, entitle Ceylon to a place
of high distinction among the dependencies of the
Indian Empire.
In outline Ceylon resembl< a pear suspended from
the south of India by its stem. Its extreme length
155
156 ORIENTAL LIFE— CEYLON
from north to south is 271 miles; its greatest width
137 miles, and its area 25,000 square miles. A grand
upheaval, culminating in a height of 8,200 feet, occu-
pies the south central part of the island to the extent
of 5,000 square miles; the whole of this surface is
broken and rugged, exhibiting a vast* assemblage of
picturesque mountains of varied elevation. Let us in
imagination ascend to the highest point, the lofty moun-
tain of Pidurutallagalla, 8,300 feet above the sea, and
with the whole island at our feet survey its geograph-
ical features. Looking south, the immediate prospect
presents Nuwara Eliya, an extensive plateau encircled
by hills and possessing two lakes, a race-course, two
golf links, various clubs with their recreation grounds,
a well-stocked trout stream, a lovely public garden, sev-
eral good hotels, fine residences dotting the hillsides,
many of which are available to visitors, and for most
of the year a charming climate, bright and cool as an
ideal English spring ; and moreover possessing the im-
portant adjunct of a mountain railway which conveys
the enervated resident from the heated plains to this
elysium in a few hours.
Still looking south we notice a gap in the surround-
ing hills through which a good carriage road passes
and rapidly descends a beautiful wooded ravine em-
bellished by a cascaded stream sacred to the goddess
Sita, until at the fifth mile, a small ledge is reached
o'erhung by the precipitous rock Hakgalla. Here is
one of the botanical gardens for which Ceylon is fa-
mous throughout the world ; a favorite spot for picnics,
THE LAND OF POETRY AND ROMANCE 157
where beneath the shade of giant tree ferns and orna-
mental foliage that transcends description are the roll-
ing downs of Uva. Upon these patnas, as they are
locally called, five thousand Boer prisoners-of-war were
encamped during the late war, and we still see the
buildings erected for their accommodation ; the ground
now being used for local military purposes. These Uvu
patnas form a sort of amphitheater amongst the moun-
tains ; the acclivity to the right ascends to the Horton
plains (7,000 feet above the sea), beloved of the elk-
hunter and the fisher. Curving to the left, the heights
form a ridge beyond which stretches a magnificent
panorama of undulated lowland aglow in purple heat.
Here are large stretches of park and forest inhabited
chiefly by the elephant, bear, leopard, and buffalo.
Still looking south but inclining to the right the line of
vision is in the direction of Dondra Head, the southern-
most point of the island. Behind this lies a fair prov-
ince where tropical culture of every kind abounds and
flourishes : cinnamon, citronella, cocoanuts, tea, and
rubber are the chief agricultural products, while be-
neath the soil lies an abundance of plumbago. A gleam
of light upon the coast gives us the position of Ham-
bantota ; it has the appearance of surf glittering in the
rays of the sun ; but in reality it is pure white salt ;
there has been dry weather on that coast, and the
water of the shallow lagoons, which are separated from
the sea only by sandbanks, has in process of evapora-
tion deposited its salt around the banks and upon the
beds. In this simple way Nature provides enough salt
158 ORIENTAL LIFE— CEYLON
for all the half million inhabitants of the southern
province. The southern coast is remarkably interest-
ing in its scenery, products, and antiquities, while its
inhabitants are, perhaps, the most purely Sinhalese of
the whole population of the island.
Upon our pedestal on Pidurutallagalla we now turn
to the west, and face Colombo, distant from us but
sixty-five miles as the crow flies. For half the distance
mountain ranges, interlaced in intricate confusion, with
peaks and spurs all forest clad, lie outstretched. On
their ledges and spreading over their steep declivities
are the thousand tea estates for which the island is so
justly famous. Dimbula, Lindula, Maskeliya, Boga-
wantalawa, and Dolosbage lie here at varying eleva-
tions. They terminate where the Kelani Valley begins
its descent to the lowlands and extends its cultivation
to the western shore.
We now make a complete turn about and survey
the eastern part of the country. Here we notice the
mountain railway ascending from Nuwara Eliya to
Kandapola (6,323 feet), whence it descends into the
heart of the Udapussellawa tea district. The lovely
town of Badulla lies twenty miles away surrounded by
lofty and striking mountains. Farther distant at
Lunugala the scenery is still more remarkable. Here
the eastern borders of the great central highlands are
reached, and at their base a mass of forest-clad foot-
hills extends northward through what is known as the
Bintenne country, the home of the wild men who still
exist in Ceylon, a miserable remnant of an aboriginal
THE LAND OF POETRY AXD ROMANCE 159
race. On the eastern coast there is a long strip of
alluvial plain extending north and south for upwards
of one hundred and fifty miles and from ten to thirty
miles inland. For the most part this land is unculti-
vated park, forest, and jungle. It is the retreat of wild
animals and birds of gorgeous plumage. Innumerable
rivers flow through it to the sea ; these have apparently
varied their courses from time to time under the influ-
ence of tropical torrents and have thus formed count-
less still lakes and canals, the banks of which are cov-
ered with mangroves of enormous size. The east coast
is centered by the town of Batticaloa, famous for its
plantations of cocoanuts, extending north and south
for fifty miles.
Northwards the rugged and beautiful Maturatta is
nearest our view, and to the left of it the better-known
Ramboda pass leading through Pussellawa into the
Kandvan country, where lovely scenery, quaint cus-
toms, interesting temples, and strange ceremonials con-
spire to provide a veritable paradise for the tourist,
who here enjoys easy means of communication and a
pleasant temperature. Europe knows nothing of the
scenes or the life that greet us here. There is nothing
somber or monotonous in the Kandvan country. End-
less variety characterizes the landscape and vivid con-
trast* the foliage. Precipitous heights and narrow
passes for centuries denied the white man possession
of this ancient and beautiful kingdom, where railways,
marvels of engineering, now encircle the heights and
a network of excellent roads affords easy access to
160 ORIENTAL LIFE— CEYLON
every feature of interest. In the haze, as we look far-
ther north, the mountains fall away in long spurs that
radiate in various directions, the farthermost stretching
towards the lake of Minneriya (1,000 feet), an object
of great interest in the history of Buddhism ; and the
famous solitary rock of Sigiriya, the fortified retreat
of King Kasyapa in the fifth century. To the left lies
the northwestern province with its capital town of
Kurunegala, once the seat of kings. This is a lowland
province reaching from the northern Kandyan borders
to the western shore, chiefly devoted to the cultivation
of cocoanut palm, of which there are thirty thousand
acres. Interspersed with these plantations are vast
stretches of paddy-fields in the low lying swamps. A
characteristic feature of the coast is its great salt la-
goons, where this precious article of diet is obtained
in even larger quantities than at Hambantota. Still
farther north, and stretching across the island almost
from shore to shore is an almost uncultivated and com-
paratively uninhabited province, yet possessing anti-
quarian interest second to none in the world ; for here
lie the remains of ancient cities which at the zenith of
their greatness extended over greater areas than Lon-
don to-day, and contained buildings of greater size
than any of which Europe can boast. The cities are
surrounded by the ruins of an irrigation system still
more wonderful. Into the heart of this' district the
tourist can now journey in all the luxury of a broad-
gauge railway. The buildings still towering hundreds
of feet above the soil are open to his inspection, and
THE LAND OF POETRY AND ROMANCE 161
their history, carefully compiled from authentic rec-
ords, can be had for the reading. After this archaeo-
logical feast, a pleasant excursion may be made to
Trincomale, one of the most beautiful harbors in the
world; or the railway will convey the traveler to the
northernmost part of the country, the peninsula of
Jaffna, which abounds in interest as being quite dif-
ferent from the rest of Ceylon. It is a change in soil,
climate, products, and people. Here that born agri-
culturist the Tamil has brought every acre of ground
under cultivation ; the climate being dry, tobacco fields
take the place of paddy, and the beautiful palmyra
palm is a special characteristic of the landscape. The
absence of rivers in the peninsula is noticeable, the land
being fertilized by filtration from large shallow estu-
aries.
Now we know something about the physical fea-
tures of this marvelous land, and it will not be unin-
teresting to know something about its history. Three
thousand years ago when the Sanskrit-speaking peo-
ple, the Aryans of the north of India, had not as yet
emerged from obscurity, the whole of Ceylon was peo-
pled by barbarous tribes, a wretched remnant of whom
still exist in the wilds of the Bintenne country. But
before the dawn of civilization fell upon England,
history tells us of the marvelous colonization of Cey-
lon. People of the Aryan race had discovered the
wonderful resources of this beautiful island, had con-
quered and colonized it, and by a system of irrigation,
which is the admiration of the greatest engineers of our
162 ORIENTAL LIFE— CEYLON
own time, had brought the whole country into a high
state of culture ; moreover, they had built beautiful
cities, the remains of which at this day hold a pre-
eminent position amongst the wonders of the world
When we come fully into the domain of authentic his-
tory, some three centuries before the present era, we
rind these people of the Aryan race a great nation of
Sinhalese in a high state of civilization for the period,
and numbering probably ten millions. But as the cen-
turies rolled on, evil times fell upon them. The Dra-
vidian races of southern India were becoming power-
ful and made frequent incursions upon them, over-
throwing their kingdom, plundering their treasures,
and even occupying the Sinhalese throne for long
periods. In the ruined cities mentioned one can read
the history of the rise and fall of a great nation.
The first intrusion of the white man took place in
the year 1506, when the Portuguese, who had for
eight years maintained a fleet in Indian waters, acci-
dentally discovered Ceylon while on one of their
piratical expeditions for Moorish vessels trading be-
tween Cambray and Sumatra. On this occasion, after
some palaver with the owners of the Moorish ships off
Colombo, the Portuguese captain, Major Dorn Lou-
renco, sent an embassy to the King at Cotta, who en-
tered into a treaty of mutual friendship and trade,
and, moreover, permitted the erection of a stone monu-
ment at Colombo to commemorate the discovery of
Ceylon. Historians are not altogether in agreement
regarding this event ; but there still exists a rock near
THE LAND OF POETRY AND ROMANCE 163
the harbor of Colombo engraved with the Portuguese
Royal Arms and the date 1501. It is, however, diffi-
cult to reconcile the engraved date with the general
historical facts of the period, which go to prove the
year 1506 as the date of discovery. The Portuguese
remained but a short time upon their first visit, but
kept up intercourse, with Ceylon in the threefold char-
acter of merchants, missionaries, and pirates, a com-
bination which they had found effective in obtaining
settlements in the Persian Gulf, India, and Malacca,
and a few years later they obtained a stronghold at
Colombo. The period was favorable to their enter-
prise. Political authority throughout Ceylon had be-
come divided amongst numerous minor kings or chiefs
who held imitation courts in at least half a dozen petty
capitals. The north was in possession of the Tamils,
and the sea-ports were controlled by the Moors. The
monarch of the southwest was Dharma Parakrama IX.,
whose good-will was craftily gained by a promise on
the part of the Portuguese admiral to aid him with
military services in his difficulties due to the intrigues
and ambitions of other claimants to the throne. Thus
did the Portuguese first obtain their footing in Co-
lombo. They soon erected a fort, under the guns of
which they could trade in spite of the hostility of the
Moors; and although the latter besieged them for
many months, they succeeded in establishing them-
selves securely, eventually gaining possession of all the
maritime provinces, of which they remained the mas-
ters for one hundred and fifty years. But for them
164 ORIENTAL LIFE— CEYLON
Ceylon proved a hornets' nest rather than a bed of
roses. The Sinhalese of the interior did not at all
approve of the alliance between Parakrama and the
Europeans, and with remarkable courage they attacked
the allies persistently, and with such vigor that by the
year 1653 the Royal stronghold of Cotta fell, and the
humiliated king thenceforward resided within the
Avails of Colombo under the more immediate protection
of the Portuguese guns. So bitterly was the intrusion
of the Portuguese resented by the majority of the Sin-
halese that all their settlements on the coast were fre-
quently attacked and the inhabitants put to death.
The struggle lasted without intermission the full one
hundred and fifty years of Portuguese occupation. It
is impossible not to admire the spirit of patriotism
which sustained the Sinhalese in their continued war-
fare over so long a period. The arts of war introduced
by the foreigner were so rapidly learnt and improved
upon, especially in the manufacture of weapons, that
they excelled the Portuguese, and on more than one
occasion defeated them in the field owing to superior
acquaintance in the use of arms and the tactics that
had been first employed against them. Moreover,
these sturdy patriots had to contend not only with the
Portuguese, but with large bands of their own country-
men who had been won over to the enemy.
At length Ceylon was lost to the Portuguese, who
were succeeded by the Dutch under circumstances that
may be briefly related. The Portuguese had been in
possession of the carrying trade between Europe and
THE LAND OF POETRY AND ROMANCE 165
the East for nearly a century when Philip II. of Spain
acquired the kingdom of Portugal and at the same time
lost the allegiance of the United Provinces, who, in
their struggle for independence, organized a powerful
navy to protect their merchant vessels engaged in sea
carriage between European ports. Philip struck at
this commerce, and in doing so ultimately brought dis-
aster to the Portuguese. The Dutch carried on a con-
siderable trade upon the Tagus in purchasing the car-
goes brought from the East by the Portuguese and
transporting them to the northern capital. This traffic
being interrupted by the short-sighted policy of Philip,
the Dutch turned their attention to the East and sub-
verted the Portuguese monopoly there. In May, 1602,
the first Dutch ship seen in Ceylon anchored off Bat-
ticaloa. Its commander, Spilberg, with some diffi-
culty ingratiated himself with the local chief who fa-
cilitated his journey to Kandy, where he offered King
Wimla Dharma an offensive and defensive alliance
with the Prince of Orange. This alliance was ac-
cepted with alacrity, the Kandyan king being delighted
at the prospect of ousting his bitter enemies, the Por-
tuguese. The Portuguese were not entirely expelled
from Ceylon for many years, and we have not time to
go into detail here concerning the struggles. Their
last stronghold, Colombo, capitulated May 17, 1656,
and the Dutch became masters of every port in the
island. They had taken them in the name of Rajah
Sinha, acting under a treaty with that monarch so
worded that he had a right to expect them to regard
166 ORIENTAL LIFE— CEYLON
themselves as occupying the recovered territories in
his behalf. They preferred, however, to place on the
treaty an interpretation more favorable to themselves,
and occupied the fortresses as their own by right of
conquest. Thus the Kandyans were duped, and found
that, notwithstanding their brave efforts, they had
merely exchanged Portuguese for Hollander, and were
still confined to their fastnesses in the central mountain
zone. And it was not in the hearts of the Hollanders
to do anything for the benefit of the Kandyans. Un-
like the Portuguese, they dissipated none of their
strength in fanatical missionary zeal ; their whole
thought and energy were directed to securing trade
monopoly. By means of a string of greatly improved
forts at all the ports serving the cinnamon country
and other rich parts of the island they were able to
repel the incursions of the Kandyans, and to insure
that nothing was exported save through their factories.
The remains of their forts at this day abundantly prove
how thoroughly they carried out this policy. The
brave Kandyans, enduring all this with impatience,
frequently put them to the sword, heaped upon them
contumely and outrage, and even executed their am-
bassadors. To such treatment the Dutch replied only
with further blandishments and presents and new em-
bassies, by which means they sought to allay resent-
ment while they secured the wealth and produce of the
country and shipped it, not only to Europe, but to
India, Persia, and other countries of the East. Com-
merce was their one and only object, and, to preserve
THE LAND OF POETRY AND ROMANCE 167
this, a policy unworthy of conquerors was maintained
toward the Kandyans during the whole of the Dutch
period in Ceylon. It was, in fact, a policy of obtain-
ing wealth by any and every artifice, a method not un-
known to or unpracticed by even prouder nations at
this period.
YVe have seen how in turn the Portuguese and the
Dutch came into partial possession of Ceylon and what
use they made of their conquests. We now proceed
to the British period and the consideration of the so-
cial and economic changes that followed on the British
occupation. The attention of Great Britain was not
turned to Ceylon with ideas of conquest until late in
the eighteenth century, when it became absolutely nec-
essarv that it should be added to the Indian possessions
of the British Crown. The Dutch had never done
more than occupy the maritime provinces in military
fashion. It remained for the British to introduce civi-
lized colonization throughout the length and breadth
of the island, and to develop its resources. The rup-
ture between Great Britain and Holland in 1795 was
the occasion for sending a force against Ceylon. The
King of Kandy was as anxious now to ally himsef
with the English for the expulsion of the Dutch as his
predecessor had been to ally himself with the Dutch
for the expulsion of the Portuguese ; but before nego-
tiations had been completed the English had taken
possession of all the fortresses. Trincomale, after a
siege of three weeks, was the first to fall ; Jaffna next
surrendered ; Calpentyn and Xegombo were in turn
168 ORIENTAL LIFE— CEYLON
occupied; Colombo and the rest capitulated, and by
February 16, 1796, the occupation was complete. The
Dutch were not driven out by the English as the Por-
tuguese were by the Dutch. On the contrary, their
property was preserved to them, their institutions were
upheld, their code of laws adopted, and public offices
of trust were awarded to them which their descend-
ants hold to this day. A short period of mismanage-
ment followed the annexation. The administration of
the new colony was placed in the hands of the Gov-
ernor of Madras who gave great offense to the Sin-
halese by sending over incompetent civilians assisted
by Malabar subordinates to collect the revenues. The
unwisdom of this policy was, however, soon rectified
by the home government, who decided that Ceylon
should be governed by the Crown direct by means of
a responsible governor and civil officers appointed by
the King. The beneficent policy thus introduced grad-
ually wrought the change that has made Ceylon one
of the freest, happiest, most prosperous and attractive
countries in the world.™
CHAPTER XIV
THE DEVELOPMENT AND RESOURCES OF CEYLON
IT is a common error to suppose that Ceylon is con-
trolled by the administration of India. Ethnolog-
ically only is it a part of India. Geographically, po-
litically, and in every other way it is distinct from the
adjoining continent. Its system of government is that
of a Crown Colony, which literally means autocratic
rule by the minister who happens for the time being
to preside over the Colonial Office in London ; but the
actual administration is in the hands of a Governor,
assisted by an Executive Council of the five chief offi-
cials of the Colony. The local legislature consists of
the Governor, the above councillors, four other gov-
ernment officials of the civil service, and eight unoffi-
cial members appointed by the Governor. From this
preponderance of officials and the circumstance that
all ordinances are subject to the sanction or veto of
the Secretary of State in London, it will be seen that
the people have little voice in the government of the
colony. Nevertheless, public opinion through the press
has its influence upon the council, which usually acts
with wisdom and discretion. The fact that all sections
and classes of the population are prosperous and con-
tented is the best defense of the system, which, how-
ever objectionable it may seem in theory, works well
in practice. The power and responsibility for good or
170 ORIENTAL LIFE— CEYLON
ill placed in the hands of Governors of Ceylon have
never been misused. The Governors have been a
series of men remarkable for their industry and their
capacity for directing the destinies of the country
placed in their charge, and to them is mainly due its
present high place among British possessions.
The Governor receives his appointment from the
Crown, generally for a term of six years, and his pow-
ers are controlled only by the authority of the Crown.
The adoption or rejection of the advice and enactments
of his councils and legislature rests entirely with him-
self. He can overrule their deliberations or nullify
their labors ; but the necessity for such extreme meas-
ures has scarcely ever arisen. The functions of the
government are carried out by a civil service organized
on the model of that of India. Each of the nine prov-
inces into which the island is divided has its chief and
assistant government agents, who are responsible tc
the central Government.
One of the first things to be considered in the
development of a country is its railroads and high-
ways. Fortunately Ceylon is well equipped in both
respects. Her railways now afford an easy and even
luxurious means of reaching the most attractive parts
of the country. They render easily and quickly acces-
sible the most beautiful scenery, the most interesting
antiquities, and all those fields of agricultural industry
— the tea, the cocoanut, the rubber, which have brought
about the advanced state of prosperity which the
Colony enjoys. No other country in the world can
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CEYLON 171
take you in such spacious and comfortable coaches,
on a track of five feet six inches gauge, over moun-
tains at an altitude of more than six thousand feet.
Yet such facilities are provided in Ceylon.
The Ceylon Government Railways are state-owned,
as their name implies, and are under the control of the
Ceylon Government. The total mileage is five hundred
and twenty-six miles, of which four hundred and
ninety-five are on the broad gauge {S J / 2 feet) and
sixty-seven on the narrow gauge (2 l / 2 feet).
The rolling stock of the railway is now constructed
locally in the workshops in Colombo, where upwards
of three thousand workmen are employed under the
superintendence of skilled European foremen. These
shops are well equipped with pneumatic and other
labor-saving machinery, whilst new tools are being
added year by year. The older type of four-wheeled
carriages were imported from England and used in
the colony, and there are still a good many of these
on the line, but they are being steadily replaced by the
standard type of bogie carriage forty-two feet long.
These modern carriages, which are constructed of
teak, are not on the Indian type with longitudinal
seats, but on the English, and are furnished with ex-
cellent lavatory accommodation. The outside of the
carriages is of varnished teak, whilst the interiors are
of the same wood, picked out with satinwood and
adorned with photographs of interesting places on the
line. The lines are well provided with sleeping and
refreshment cars, the former running on the up and
172 ORIENTAL LIFE— CEYLON
down night mail trains between Colombo and'Nanu-
oyam, whilst the latter are run on the principal trains
between Colombo, Kandy, and up-country stations.
Some of the most valuable products of Ceylon are
rubber, cocoanuts, tobacco, rice, tea, and the various
spice products, such as cinnamon, cloves, pepper; all
kinds of nuts and fragrant and medicinal gums are to
be found also in Ceylon, to say nothing of her valuable
woods, including teak, ebony, sandalwood, satinwood,
and bamboo. Most all tourists go to Henaratgoda to
visit the Botanical Garden, where some of the most
important experiments have been, and are still being,
made. The garden is one of a number of such institu-
tions that are under the Government Department of
Botany and Agriculture, with headquarters at Pera-
deniya, where its director and his extensive scientific
staff of experts reside. The Henaratgoda gardens
were opened in 1876 for the purpose of making ex-
periments in ascertaining suitable products for culti-
vation in the heated lowlands. It was about this time
that the Para rubber seed was planted, and many of
the trees that we see there to-day are therefore more
than thirty years old.
Had we space in this brief chapter we should like
to go into details regarding rubber culture and the
preparation of the raw material that is shipped from
Ceylon all over the world. The raw material that is
shipped is the extracted milk of the plant secured by
tapping the trees. This milk is then condensed into
biscuits or blocks and shipped to the manufacturer.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CEYLON 173
By the manufacturer it must be torn to shreds, melted
and mixed with certain chemicals and ingredients nec-
essary to its use for manufactured articles. This is a
long and expensive process, and it is believed by cer-
tain parties in Ceylon that these chemicals can be
mixed with the latex as soon as it is taken from the
trees, and the manufactured products created on the
grounds. If this could be brought about, it would
mean a great future for Ceylon, as all kinds of rubber
trees and plants grow freely in the soil of the island,
and there are thousands of acres of waste land that
could be utilized for this purpose.
The cocoanut is the chief source of Sinhalese
wealth : but, unlike some other tropical products, de-
pends on man for its existence, and if left to nature,
it pines and dies. It is true, therefore, that wherever
you see the cocoanut palm there you will find popula-
tion. Although European colonists have considerably
extended its cultivation, it is pre-eminently the national
tree, the friend of the natives, all of whom share in
its benefits, from the wealthy owner of tens of thou-
sands of trees to the humble possessor of a tithe of one.
There are few gifts of the earth about which so much
may be said ; its uses are infinite, and to the Sinhalese
villager it is, as the date palm is to the Arab, all-suffi-
cient. With the trunk of the tree he builds his hut
and his bullock-stall, which he thatches with its leaves.
His bolts and bars are slips of the bark, by which he
nspends the small shelf which holds his stock of
household utensils and vessels. He fences his little
174 ORIENTAL LIFE— CEYLON
plot of chillies, tobacco, and fine grain with the leaf
stalks. The infant is swung to sleep in a rude net of
coir-string made from the husk of the fruit; its meal
of rice and scraped cocoanut is boiled over a fire of
cocoanut shells and husks, and is eaten from a dish
formed from the plaited green leaves of the tree with
a spoon cut out of the nut-shell. When he goes fish-
ing by torch-light his net is of cocoanut fiber, the
torch or chule is a bundle of dried cocoanut leaves and
flower-stalks ; the little canoe is the trunk of the cocoa-
palm tree ; hollowed by his own hands. He carries
home his net and string of fish on a yoke, or pingo,
formed of a cocoanut stalk. When he is thirsty, he
drinks of the fresh juice of the young nut; when he is
hungry, he eats its soft kernel. If he have a mind to
be merry, he sips a glass of arrack, distilled from the
fermented juice, and he flavors his curry with vinegar
made from this toddy. Should he be sick, his body
will be rubbed with cocoanut oil ; he sweetens his
coffee with jaggery or cocoanut sugar, and softens it
with cocoanut milk ; it is sipped by the light of a
lamp constructed from a cocoanut shell and fed by
cocoanut oil. His doors, his windows, his shelves, his
chairs, the water gutter under the eaves are all made
from cocoanut wood. His spoons, his forks, his ba-
sins, his mugs, his salt-cellars, his jars, his child's
money-box, are all constructed from the shell of the
nut. Over his couch when born, and over his grave
when buried, a bunch of cocoanut blossoms is hung
to charm away evil spirits. The marvelous bounty of
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CEYLON 175
the cocoanut-palm has been gracefully summarized by
the poet as —
"clothing, meat, trencher, drink and can,
Boat, cable, sail, mast, needle, all in one."
As an object of commerce, cocoanut oil, of which
upwards of five million gallons are annually exported,
holds the first place. Next in importance is the fiber
of the husk known as coir. This is exported to the
extent of about ten thousand tons annually. The ex-
port of coprah (the dried kernel of the nuts) amounts
annually to about 375,000 hundred weight, while that
of the dessicated nut for confectionery amounts to
upwards of sixteen million pounds. From this recital
of figures it will be rightly surmised that a very small
proportion of the annual yield of nuts leave the coun-
try in their natural state, nearly all the export trade
being in manufactured products. One thousand mil-
lions is a reasonable estimate of the year's supply of
cocoanuts in Ceylon, about two-fifths of which are ex-
ported in oil, coprah, confectionery, and husked fruit,
the remainder being consumed by the population chiefly
as food and drink.
The tourist often makes his first acquaintance with
the unhusked cocoanut at the railway stations of Cey-
lon, where little brown urchins with hatchet in one
hand and in the other several nuts su.spended by stalks,
perambulate the platform shouting, Kitrumba, Kur-
umba! The thirsty traveler is thus invited to drink
the water of the fresh cocoanut, which is at once
wholesome, cool, and refreshing. Many Iuiropeans
176 ORIENTAL LIFE— CEYLON
add an ounce of whisky to the pint of water which the
kurumba contains and declare that thus adulterated it
is a drink for the gods. It is also regarded by many
as an excellent preventive of gout. The convenience
of the beverage when traveling in this thirsty country
is great; for one has but to shout Kurumba! when for
a few cents some obliging native is willing to ascend
a tree and bring down the grateful nut.
Tea districts are numerous all through Ceylon, though
some attention must be paid to climate in locating them.
The finest estates are found along the Agra River near
Agrapatana. In this old town of Agrapatana one finds
many curious things, the most interesting being the
bazaars. In these bazaars laborers, men, women, and
children of a hundred tea estates are supplied with
their luxuries, which consist chiefly of trinkets, sweets,
curry stuffs, and cloths of many colors which, without
any tailoring, serve them as wearing apparel. Here,
too, the native rice contractors have their stores, which
are of no small importance in a country where the soil
is cultivated only for the production of luxury for
exportation, and the food of the laborer is an imported
article. We notice also in this busy native town long
rows of sheds and stations for the hundreds of Slumped
bulls that do the work of transport. Loads of tea, and,
in the tobacco districts, tobacco are always to be seen in
course of transit to the railway station, drawn by these
fine beasts.
The process of tea-planting, curing, and exporting
is a very arduous and complicated one that we can not
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CEYLON 177
take up in detail here, interesting as it would be to do
so. Notwithstanding the hard labor connected with it.
the planter finds time to play just as hard as he works,
if not a little harder. In the Agra district, and in many
other districts, life is by no means all work, nor does
it mean, as it used to do in the early coffee days,
banishment from the amenities of social life. Each
district has its sporting, social, and athletic clubs, and
cricket, football, and hockey grounds, while some have
also their race-courses.
One of the most interesting agricultural industries
is the paddy cultivation, or rice growing. This is to
be seen at its best in the neighborhood of Kandy. The
natural beauty of the Kandyan country is greatly en-
hanced by the artifice of the paddy cultivator. No
visitor can fail to observe how exquisite is the appear-
ance of the hillsides that are terraced into shallow
ledges upon which tiny lakelets are formed for the
purpose of growing rice, or paddy as it is locally
called, the latter term being applied to rice in the
husk. The ingenuity displayed by the natives in the
irrigation of steep mountain slopes is the most remark-
able feature of Sinhalese agriculture. The cultivation
of the paddy demands land that will retain water upon
its surface, not only during the period of germination,
but during a great portion of the time required for the
maturity of the plant; indeed, the half-ripe paddy,
which clothes the slopes of the hills with a mantle of
the most radiant green, stands deep in water. Only
178 ORIENTAL LIFE— CEYLON
as the time for harvest approaches are the dams broken
and the water allowed to escape.
A great deal of religious superstition goes into the
culture of the paddy terraces. The young plants are
said to be saved from the ravages of insects by charms
and the recital of various incantations. The charms
include the scattering of sand or ashes around the bor-
ders, accompanied by fasting and strict seclusion from
society on the part of the performer of the rites. In-
stances of the benign influence of the Lord Buddha in
freeing the corn from pests are solemnly recited and
the same influence invoked. Other gods and goddesses
are appealed to for securing the departure of various
grubs and flies, and in every case a strange ceremony
is performed. Many of the invocations are couched
in beautiful language, but the execution of the charms
involves proceedings that to us appear somewhat
strange ; as when "after dark a man steals three ekel
brooms from three different houses. These he ties
together with creeper and hangs them to his waist-
string behind. Proceeding to the field he walks three
times round it, buries the bundle in the main opening
through the dam and returns home unobserved. The
whole time, and, if possible, the next morning, he re-
mains mute." Again, "the Yakdcssd should spend the
previous night in a lonely spot, after having put on
clean clothes and eaten 'milk-rice.' The following morn-
ing, without communicating with any one, he should
go to the field. Having caught a fly, he must hold it
for awhile in rosin smoke, over which he has muttered
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CEYLON 179
the following charm one hundred and eight times, and
afterwards releases it in the field: ' O'nnamo! by the
power of the Lord Buddha who came to dispel the
pestilence of the great city Wisala, this very day all
ye flower-flies, black flies, probiscus armed flies, and
earth grubs of this field, away, away ; stay not.' "
It would almost seem that charms are introduced
chiefly to meet emergencies in which practical methods'
are of no avail ; but when the Kandyan has to deal
with the depredations of birds and the larger animals
we find that he is not above supplementing supernat-
ural agency by human means. A crop-watcher's hut
is built of bamboo and roofed with painted cocoanut
fronds ; and from this, lines of cord, made from cocoa-
nut fiber, extend in all directions, communicating with
ingeniously constructed rattles of an alarmingly dis-
cordant nature. Thus the inhabitants of the hut are
enabled effectively to scare both animals and birds
that would otherwise rob them of the fruits of their
labor. Just before the harvest the workers live in these
huts night and day, and are armed with a bow and
stones. The bow is the ordinary kind used to fly ar-
rows, but with a second string that enables them to
hurl stones.
Finally the harvest comes, and as they all worked
together through the seeding and the cultivating, so do
they join in the harvest, all falling together on one
man's terrace or field, and so on to the next man's
until the whole harvest is gathered. And the custom
is, during the reaping of one man's grain he finds the
180 ORIENTAL LIFE— CEYLON
meals for all. The women's work in the harvest is to
follow after the reapers and gather the sheaves to-
gether into one place. It is not wealth that induces the
Kandvan to grow rice, for there are other crops that
would be of more value and he could import what rice
he uses. The whole motive in paddy culture among
the Kandyans is that they may preserve ancient cus-
toms. It can be seen in the harvest operations how
true this is.
The priests, astrologers, doctors, and devil-dancers
are now agreed as to the auspicious moment for put-
ting in the sickle ; the band of tom-tom players as-
sembles ; spectators also arrive upon the scene ; every
one wears a look of gladness. The introductory sym-
phony is played by the drums of strange make and
tuned to intervals unfamiliar to Western ears, and
song bursts forth from the reapers as they spring for-
ward from the shallow embankments with their keen
sickles to fell the standing grain. The spectators are
in the foreground, the tom-tom players are on the
bund, or dam, stimulating the reapers with weird mu-
sic. The vivacity of the scene is striking; it is the
natural introduction of native sentiment into agricul-
ture, and in strange contrast with heaviness of such
labor in the Western world, where the operations of
the laborers are often as heavy as their boots.
The work .of carrying the sheaves to the thresh-
ing-floor is allotted to the women, who may be seen
in picturesque procession walking along the dam with
the sheaves on their heads. The threshing-floor is in
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CEYLOX 181
the open field upon high ground in the most convenient
place that can be found near the irrigated land. It is
usually circular in shape and from twenty-five to forty
feet in diameter. The ceremony that here takes place
is exceedingly picturesque. In the middle several con-
centric circles are traced with ashes, the outer one
being bordered by various ornamental signs. The cir-
cles are bisected by straight lines ; and in the divisions
or segments thus formed various representations are
drawn, such as agricultural implements, brooms, Bud-
dha's foot, a scraper, a flail and a measure. And in
the circle is placed a stone and a conch shell, the lat-
ter filled with various ingredients, which remind one of
the contents of the pot of the witches in Macbeth.
The preliminaries being now completed and the lucky
moment ascertained, that husbandman whom the gods
have most consistently favored with good fortune is
chosen to cast down the first sheaf. With this upon
his head he walks with grave and solemn step thrice
around the traced figure, bowing towards the conch
shell as he reaches each point from which the bisecting
lines are drawn ; then, being careful to face the direc-
tion fixed by the astrologer, he casts down the sheaf
upon the conch shell and. prostrating himself, with
joined hands he profoundly salutes it three times, rising
to his knees after each salutation. He then retires and
three women approach the conch shell, and after walk-
ing around it three times in solemn and silent proces-
sion they cast down their sheaves upon that already
placed there and retire. The rest of the grain is de-
182 ORIENTAL LIFE— CEYLON
posited on the floor without further ceremony. The
fee to the three women for casting their sheaves is as
much grain as lies on the flat stone which was depos-
ited near the conch shell.
At eventide, the auspicious moment being first as-
certained, teams of buffaloes, as innocent of the muzzle
as if they were subject to the Mosaic law, are brought
to the floor to tread out the grain. All the tinpe this is
being done, homage is paid to the charmed conch shell,
the men bowing reverently to it each time they go
forward to sweep the half-trodden grain from the
edge to the center of the floor.
At length' the paddy is found to be trodden out,
and the animals are allowed to return to the swamps,
in which they delight to wallow, until the time when
they shall be needed for some work. The winnowing
of the grain is attended by various ceremonies that we
can not stop to describe. But this love of ceremony is
carried by the Kandyans into every duty of the day,
and forms a part of the official duties in the govern-
ment of the rural districts. It accompanies every meal,
and there are ceremonies for their retiring to rest and
arising to the work of the day.
There are enough interesting things in the life of
the people of Ceylon to make a large volume, and no
more delightful study could be taken up than a careful
investigation of its resources, its ruined cities, its his-
tory, its religions, and its manners and customs. With
this description of agricultural ceremonials, however,
we must take leave of the enchanted island of Ceylon."
KOREA
CHAPTER XV
THE HERMIT NATION AND HER PEOPLE
THE Korean Peninsula extends from the central
part of the Asiatic continent in a southeasterly
direction, separating the Japan and China Seas. It
has been likened in shape to a rabbit, caught by the
ear and held by Russia at Vladivostock, but to Orien-
tal fancy it appears like a dagger pointing at the heart
of Japan. It extends through nine degrees of latitude
(34° to 43 X.) and is estimated to be six hundred
miles in length, one hundred and thirty-five miles in
width, and contains approximately eighty-five thousand
square miles, making it about the size of Utah. Fusan.
the southern port, is about in the same latitude as
Atlanta, Georgia, and Los Angeles, California. Seoul
and Pyeng, in Central Korea, correspond to Richmond,
Virginia, and San Francisco, California, and Kyeng-
heung, the, northernmost city, is in about the same lati-
tude as Portland, Maine.
The climate of Korea is pleasant and healthful dur-
ing the greater part of the year, and is like that of the
Ohio Valley. The extremes of temperature range from
nine degrees below zero to ninety-eight degrees above.
During the winter ice forms on the rivers and snow
183
184 ORIENTAL LIFE— KOREA
falls in limited quantities. There is a rainy season
accompanied by a heavy rainfall, the air being full of
mc isture and mold forms everywhere — on walls, un-
der carpets, matting, on the floor, on books, shoes,
gloves. The relation of this rainy season to the na-
tional prosperity may be seen in the fact that in 1901
only 4.1 inches of rain fell, leading to a drouth, fol-
lowed by a famine because of the failure of crops. The
people were driven in their distress to use the seeds of
weeds, roots of grasses, and even the bark of trees
for food. This unnatural diet brought about a pesti-
lence, and the whole series of calamities resulted in
great loss of life.
There are no great plains in Korea, the country
being mountainous and making of the people a race of
mountaineers. The tip of the main system in the south
is Halla-san, an extinct volcano, seven thousand feet
high, on the Isle of Ouelpart, in the Japan Sea. As
you go north the mountains increase in height, culmi-
nating at the Manchurian frontier in Paik-tii-san (Mt.
Whitehead), also an extinct volcano, nine thousand
feet high, the crater of which contains a beautiful lake.
This pretty lake feeds the superstitions of the Koreans.
They look upon it as a mysterious body of water and
believe that should they violate its sanctity by looking
upon its face, some terrible calamity would overtake
them. There are four principal rivers : the Amnok,
or Yalu, which forms the boundary between Korea
and China for one hundred and seventy-five miles ; the
Tai-dong, on which is located Pyeng-Yang, the me-
THE HERMIT NATION AND HER PEOPLE 185
tropolis of the north; the Han, which almost bisects
the peninsula, rising within thirty miles of the Japan
Sea and emptying into the Yellow Sea at Chemulpo.
The environs of the Imperial Capital extend to the
Han, and are only twenty-six miles from its mouth by
rail. The fourth river is the Xak-dong, in the south,
which is said to be navigable for one hundred and forty
miles by vessels drawing not more than four and one-
half feet.
Until recent times, the chief modes of travel, aside
from that which nature provides, were either by na-
tive junk, or overland in chairs or on horseback. It
was not until 1890 that small river steamers were in-
troduced on the Han to ply between Chemulpo and the
capital. American enterprise started the first railroad,
which later was purchased and finished by the Japan-
ese, connecting Chemulpo and Seoul, a distance of
twenty-six miles. Seoul is now connected with Fusan,
the southern port, by a railroad two hundred and
eighty-seven miles long, and with Wiju, the frontier
city on the Yalu, by another road three hundred and
fifty miles long. A fourth road is projected between
Seoul and Wonsan, the northeast port, which will prob-
ably be one hundred and seventy-five miles long. All
these railroads arc owned by the Japanese, There are
two thousand one hundred and seventy-five miles of
telegraph lines in Korea, and the empire is a member
of the Postal Union.
Korea is a fair rival of Japan in the beauty of her
scenery. The bleak, barren shores of the west coast,
186 ORIENTAL LIFE— KOREA
which confront the visitor on his way to the peninsula,
are but a disguise to the hidden glories within. Mrs.
Bird Bishop says that Seoul is one of the most beauti-
fully situated cities in the world. Along the Korean
shoreline of the Japan Sea is the Yongdong Ku-up, or
the nine scenic regions, famous for centuries among
the natives for their great natural beauty. The "Dia-
mond" Mountains, near Wosan, derive their name
from the dazzling beauties of their rocky peaks, and
here is located the chief seat of the Korean Buddhist
hierarchy. Along the Han and the Tai-dong Rivers
may be found combinations of river and mountain
scenery well worthy of a visit. Korea is a land of
wonderfully clear and lucid atmosphere, rugged moun-
tains at times glow with a blaze of wild flowers, varied
with peaceful farming scenes, sleepy villages and rare
sunsets.
Korea is rich in natural resources. The chief prod-
uct of the country is rice, which is the main dependence
of the people for their livelihood and the chief article
on the national menu. Barley, wheat, and buckwheat,
and various vegetables such as onions, turnips, lettuce,
potatoes, cucumbers, etc., are also grown in abundance.
The chief native fruits are melons, persimmons,
pears, peaches, apricots, crab-apples, and cherries,
in fact, all the fruits and berries that are common
to the United States. An inferior grade of cotton
is raised, but with proper seed there are great pos-
sibilities for its culture in Korea, and already plans
are on foot for an extensive development of the
THE HERMIT NATION AND HER PEOPLE 187
cotton industry. Tobacco and silks are also pro-
duced, and the peninsula is the home of the great medic-
inal root, ginseng, the marketing of which is a govern-
ment monopoly. Korea is also rich in minerals. Con-
cessions for gold mining have been obtained by capi-
talists from the United States and other foreign coun-
tries, the American concession in Pyeng-an Province
covering eight hundred square miles, with five mines
opened and with five mills operating, and two hundred
stamps at work. Fifty thousand dollars' worth of cop-
per has been exported from native mines in one year.
The seas also bring a large amount of wealth to
Korea, as they teem with fish. Along the eighteen
hundred miles of shore, and about the ten thousand
isles of which the Korean Empire is lord, may be found
halibut, cod, salmon, the Tai (a species of carp), her-
rings, sardines, sharks, whales, and shrimps. Oysters
of immense size and clams are plentiful, and are much
appreciated by the people. One Japanese fishing com-
pany is said to have caught fish to the.value of $500,000
in one year. The pearl oyster abounds in the south,
and valuable pearls, pink, white, and black, are found.
The origin of the Korean people is still an un-
solved problem, though the concensus of opinion is
that several races united to form the present people
of the peninsula. They have the same general features
as the Chinese and Japanese, favoring somewhat their
neighbors of the "Sunrise Kingdom." They have the
dark, almond-shaped, oblique eyes, the high check
bones, and long, straight, coarse, black hair of the
188 ORIENTAL LIFE— KOREA
Mongoloid races. The men average about five feet
five inches in height, have a very erect carriage, due
to their habit of sitting on the floor instead of on chairs,
and move as a rule with considerable grace. They are
great pedestrians and perform prodigious journeys'
over their native mountains. The women average
about five feet two inches, having a great deal of ex-
pression in their faces ; among the upper classes they
never appear in public.
The costume of the men is generally white in color,
and is designed on a plan to consume large quantities
of cloth. In the old days, when clothing was made out
of the narrow goods of native manufacture, it was
not unusual to use a hundred yards or more of cotton,
silk, and linen in making a man's winter costume. A
gentleman dressed in this fashion passing along the
road on a breezy day made an impressive sight. He
reminded the observer of a full-rigged ship under sail.
The Koreans until recently wore their hair long, the
males not cutting the hair at all. In boyhood it is worn
down the back, in a long luxuriant braid, and after the
boy has grown to manhood, the braid is wrapped up
and confined on the top of the head by a tortoise-shell
comb. This custom gave rise to the industry of th^
manufacture of these combs, and some of the finest
that are bought to-day for the coiffures of the fash-
ionable American or European lady come from Korea,
principally from Seoul. The investiture of the male
Korean with a hat is a very important part of the mar-
riage ceremony. The prospective bridegroom is placed
THE HERMIT NATION AND HER PEOPLE 189
in the center of a group of the elders of his clan, his
long, black tresses gathered up over the head, a silken
cord tied around the hair close to the crown, and then
his hair is twisted and coiled until it is reduced to a
small knot on the top«of the head. This is known as
the top-knot, and like the scalp lock of the Indian
and ancient Japanese, and the queue of the Chinese,
forms a very convenient handle by which the natives
can seize each other in times of animated discussion.
To hold the hair on the top of the head, a band made
of horsehair and linen thread goes around the fore-
head, binding it very tightly. On top of this the hat
is placed, which is of interesting construction and con-
sists of a large brim with a top to it like an inverted
flower-pot. The hats of to-day are very diminutive
compared to the hats of years gone by, when the brims
were so large that it is said no more than three Koreans
could get into any ordinary sized room at the same time
with their hats on. There are many varieties of hats,
probably the most remarkable being the sak-kat of the
north, which is made of a kind of reed, and which is
so large that it admirably serves the purpose of an
umbrella.
The costume of the women is quite different from
that of the men, being varied among the younger
women with colors, and the most peculiar feature of
which is that the waist line is placed just under the
arm pits, giving them the appearance of overgrown
children. This style is used to an extent in Europe
and America, and is known as the Empire gown. The
190 ( HUENTAL LIFE— KOREA
Korean costume is a very easy and comfortable one,
having no buttons to it and being supported on the
body by garters and girdles. In appearance the Ko-
reans, in spite of the strange form of their interesting
and remarkable costume, are a dignified and impressive
people, and possessing as they do many of the graces
and accomplishments which attend genuine hospitality
and courtesy, they are a delightful people with whom
to become acquainted.
The population of Korea is estimated among the
people themselves as twenty million, but this is a great
exaggeration and twelve million would be a conserva-
tive estimate. Next to the Imperial clan, in the social
scale are the Yang-ban, or the nobility, who fill all the
offices, enjoy special privileges and prerogatives, and
are the absolute rulers of the land. With them are the
literati, whose position is an honorable and respected
one. Then come the middle class of men, who make-
up the real bulk of the population, and are farmers or
merchants, or occupy the clerical offices in the gov-
ernment. At the bottom of the scale are the coolies cr
laboring classes, consisting of several grades, the low-
est being the butchers, and above them in rank the
Buddhist priests, monks, and nuns, who in their turn
are outranked by the serfs or household slaves. Actors
are also regarded as in social disgrace, and classified
somewhere between the butchers and monks. Labor cf
all kinds is regarded as a badge of disgrace, and the
fear of it rests like a nightmare upon Korean gentry
who make any social pretensions.
THE HERMIT NATION AND HER PEOPLE 191
The occupation of the nobility is either "running"
the government, or being run by it — at least this was
their occupation before Japan took a hand. There are
two political parties in Korea, the Ins and the Outs.
The Ins regard themselves as orthodox, and consider
the Outs traitors. The literati as a class have high
ideals, and have given to the entire range of Korean
I'.fe a literary trend. It is no exaggeration to say that
though the Koreans may not be a nation of scholars,
they are certainly a nation of students. They are eager
to learn, quick to comprehend, strong to retain, and it
is a delight to be associated with them in the capacity
of an instructor. They reverence their teachers as
they do their parents and their officers. This devotion
to literary studies and ambition to be educated is not
confined to the literary classes, but among the lower
classes the same intense desire for education manifests
itself, and out from among them sometimes come men
of great mental superiority. In study a Korean will
not spare himself. A favorite motto is, "Tie your top-
knot to the ridge pole." the Korean equivalent of
"Burning the midnight oil." It is said of one of their
most famous prime ministers that when, at the age of
eighty, he retired from active life, he journeyed to
the early home which he had not seen since his boy-
hood. After visiting the house in which he was born,
he went to the schoolroom in which he was educated,
and taking the switch with which the boys are disci-
plined, he set it against the wall and then gravely got
192 ORIENTAL LIFE— KOREA
down on his knees and made three obeisances to it,
saying, "The rod that made me a man."
The Korean boy begins school at five years of age.
Schools are, as a rule, private in character, there being
one in nearly every village supported either by local
funds or maintained by some wealthy resident. Some-
times these local schools are endowed, the endowment
usually consisting of rice lands or a bull. Education
is through the medium of the Chinese classics, which
are bawled out by the boys in the first years of their
school life at the top of their voices. At first the boy
learns only the sounds and meaning of the characters,
and after he has acquired about two thousand of these,
he is taught to explain them in their grammatical and
textual sense. The course of study in these schools is
on a religious foundation. The Korean scriptures —
that is, the Confucian Classics — is the chief text-book,
and though a Korean may come from these schools
knowing very little of arithmetic, geography or his-
tory, he does know the religious faith of his people,
and how to conform to its requirements. One of the
supreme objects of Korean education is to impress
upon the boy that life without religion reduces him to
the level of the birds and beasts. A Korean would
regard with amazement the American debate on the
advisability of teaching the Bible in the public schools.
There are no schools for girls outside the mission
schools, and never have been.
The main occupation of the people is agriculture,
the Koreans being a nation of farmers, with the s-pirit,
THE HERMIT XATIOX AND HER PEOPLE 193
the good points, and the weaknesses of any farming
people. They have strong physiques, and readily en-
dure long hours of labor and exposure to the elements.
Their power to carry loads is surprising. They have
invented a rack, which they hang on their backs by
straps over the shoulders, supporting it on the hips,
and upon this rack a Korean has been known to carry
a bale of cotton goods, weighing five hundred pounds,
for a mile. They have only the crudest farming ap-
pliances, and farms are limited largely to small hold-
ings. As there are no native banks, the nobility and
the wealthy men of the land usually invest their for-
tunes in farm land, which is worked on shares by the
farming classes. Renting for a cash stipend is un-
known. An estate is made up of a large number of
these small holdings, presided over by a steward rep-
resenting the grand seigneur.
Business is greatly handicapped by the lack of confi-
dence, the native rates of interest ranging from two
per cent to ten per cent a month. In Seoul there are
wealthy and powerful guilds of various merchants who
have stalls where they show their goods. Such a
thing as a store, as understood in Western lands, is
unknown in the native cities. Small shops may be
found in some of the larger walled towns, and at the
open ports, where native products, — wooden, brass,
and iron ware, articles of apparel, household utensils,
mixed with foreign importations such as piece goods,
kerosene oil, cigarettes, umbrellas, and matches may be
purchased. Often, however, the entire stock in trade
194 ORIENTAL LIFE— KOREA
will not be worth more than fifteen or twenty dollars.
In many of the smaller towns the shops open only
once each five days, for shopping is done by the peo-
ple usually on market days. These occur each fifth
day, and are held at central points, to which hucksters
resort with such goods as they can carry on their backs
or on a pony. To these market places come the farm-
ers with their products, including chickens, fruit, and
bulls, and it is surprising to see the amount of business
thus done. As many as twenty thousand people will be
in attendance during the market days in some of the
thickly populated regions.
Native life in Korea is on a very simple and primi-
tive basis, and far behind that of their neighbors in
China and Japan. The manufacturers of Korea, like
their natural resources, await development. The com-
mercial outlook is certainly very good, for here we
have a nation of twelve million people strong in phy-
sique, sturdy in many of their characteristics, yet docile
under sympathetic control, diligent by nature, quick to
learn, and needing only instruction, the removal of an
oppressive government, and the rise of a generation
free from the hurtful views which prevail concerning
the dignity of labor, to become one of the most pros-
perous and progressive peoples in the Far East.
CHAPTER XVI
A VANISHING EMPIRE
THE passing of one of the world's ancient empires
can not but challenge our interests and sympathy.
However much Korea may have merited her tragic
fate, the way in which she has struggled against it is
pathetic. Owing to her situation it was long Korea's
part to act as a buffer state between China and Japan,
and later between Russia and Japan. As a result of
the conflict between the two last-mentioned powers
she now lies a helpless prize of war. Unable effectively
to defend herself and unable to secure a guaranteed
neutrality from the powers, she has ceased to exist as
one of the worlds independent nations. The foreign
ministers have been withdrawn from Seoul, and all
foreign matters are now handled from Tokyo. Diplo-
matically, Korea is dead.
It is inaccurate, strictly speaking, to think of Korea
as having been a sovereign, independent nation. His-
torically she was, until recent times, one of the depend-
encies of the great Chinese Empire. In blood, in lan-
guage, in religion, in social customs and political insti-
tutions she shows her remote origin from the Celestial
Empire, and only in local variations and minor pecu-
liarities do we find anything distinctive.
How different in results have been the seeds of civi-
lization which she, in turn, passed on to Japan ! While
195
196 ORIENTAL LIFE— KOREA
Korea, if she has not positively decayed and declined,
has for centuries remained stagnant, seeking to exclude
herself as completely as possible from all contact with
the rest of the world and thus earning the title of the
"Hermit Nation," the wonderful little Island Empire
has developed one of the most interesting civilizations
in the world.
Lying thus between the mother empire on the west
and the daughter empire on the east, Korea's nominal
dependence upon China, and the attempt on the part
of that country to make her suzerainty effective, led
to the short and decisive struggle between China and
Tapan in 1894. China was ignominiously beaten and
lapan emerged for the first time as one of the world's
fighting powers. As a result of this war China gave
up all her claims and the treaty of Shimonoseki, in
1895, declared the "full and complete independence
and autonomy of Korea."'
Then, for the first time, Korea became really inde-
pendent, though the inevitable result of the war was
to increase tremendously the influence of Japan. It
was as a protest against this growing power of the
Tapanese that a movement was soon started against
them, inspired, it seems, by the Korean Empress, whose
watchword seems to have been ''Korea for the Ko-
reans." This movement collapsed with the murder
of the Empress in 1895, a murder that is very gen-
erally attributed to the Japanese.
In the meantime the growl of the Russian bear was
becoming audible and threatening. Already Russia
A VANISHING EMPIRE 197
had made her wonderful march to the sea and was
fast overrunning Manchuria. She cast her eye over
Korea. Its resources, its harbors, and the general
usefulness of the peninsula in rounding out her do-
mains made possession seem quite inevitable to the
Russians. Furthermore, the acquisition looked as if
it would be an easy matter, for the people were docile,
the court weak and corrupt. The same tactics that had
been so successfully used at Peking were therefore
brought into play at Seoul. The Russian agents, boun-
tifully supplied with gold, plied all the arts of friend-
ship, cajolery, and corruption, and if these at times
seemed insufficient, they did not hesitate to threaten
to use the big stick.
These successful advances of Russia at the Korean
court filled Japan with alarm and hostility. Russia,
believed to be one of the world's strongest powers,
one that had just succeeded in wresting an important
province from China, was now threatening to undo
all that Japan had accomplished in the war of 1894,
and even to oust her completely from the peninsula.
And if she should succeed in doing this, why might
she not reach across the narrow stretch of water and
lay her heavy hand upon the Island Empire itself?
At the same time the population of Japan threatened
to increase beyond her ability to take care of it. If
Korea should be lost, where could Japan send her
surplus people? One of the Japanese statesmen ex-
pressed the situation at the time as follows : "Korea
is an important outpost in Japan's line of defense, and
198 ORIENTAL LIFE— KOREA
Japan, consequently, considers Korea's independence
absolutely essential to her own repose and safety."
This being the situation, a tug of war at Seoul
was inevitable. It was a thrilling struggle with an
empire at stake, and involved bluffing, hoodwinking,
bribery, chicanery, and finally an appeal to the sword.
The steady, bold aggression of Russia was met by
the dogged, determined opposition of Japan. In this
state of things, America was the favored nation at the
Korean court. Her citizens had large investments,
her missionaries were numerous and non-meddlesome,
her motives were not suspected, her minister (Dr.
Allen) was highly respected and trusted, and her
treaty contained a clause by which she agreed "to pro-
tect Korea's independence and safeguard her rights."
How little do treaties mean !
This being the situation, the Korean Emperor was
between two fires, and his policy was to blow first hot
and then cold. Lying, intrigue, and vacillation charac-
terized the Korean diplomacy. Finally, when the bear
squeezed too hard, Korea flew into the arms of Japan
— from the frying pan into the fire !
This was the state of affairs which led up to the
Russian- Japanese struggle for Korea. When Japan
finally declared war early in 1904, it was for the
avowed purpose of "preserving the independence of
the Hermit Nation." Before the hostilities began, the
Emperor of Korea declared that his country would
remain neutral. Coolly disregarding this declaration of
purpose, the Japanese soon occupied Seoul and im-
A VANISHING EMPIRE 199
pressed a treaty of alliance upon Korea, by which
Japan insured the "safety and repose" of the Korean
imperial house, and guaranteed the independence and
territorial integrity of the Korean Empire. Later in
the same year (August, 1904), another treaty was en-
tered into by which Korea agreed to employ a Japan-
ese and to decide by his advice all financial, foreign,
or diplomatic matters.
This was a bold step at undermining the autonomy
of Korea early in the war and while the outcome was
problematical. The next step was taken in the treaty
between Russia and Japan at the close of the war
(August 23, 1905), the second article of which was in
part as follows: "The imperial Russian government,
acknowledging that Japan possesses in Korea para-
mount political, military, and economic interests, en-
gages neither to obstruct nor interfere with measures
for the guidance, protection, and control which the im-
perial government of Japan may find necessary to take
in Korea."
This treaty was followed by the so-called suzer-
ainty protocol between Japan and Korea, of November
17, 1905, whose declaration of purpose was as follows:
"The governments of Japan and Korea, desiring to
strengthen the principle of solidarity which unites the
two empires, have, with that object in view, agreed
upon and concluded the following stipulations to serve
until the moment arrives when it is recognized that
Korea has attained national strength." It then goes
on to provide that Japan is to have control and direc-
200 ORIENTAL LIFE— KOREA
tion of the external relations and affairs of Korea ;
that Korea should not make an international act except
through Japan ; that the advice of the Japanese resi-
dent-general is to be asked and followed upon all im-
portant matters. In return for all these considerations
on Korea's part, Japan undertook "to maintain the wel-
fare and dignity of the Imperial House of Korea."
This was a most extraordinary document. It
amounted practically to a death-warrant of the nation,
and was wrung from the Emperor and his cabinet
only after a sweat-box pressure that drove more than
one of the ministers to commit suicide. The Emperor,
on January 29, 1906, issued a statement asserting that
his signature to the protocol had been forged, and im-
ploring the powers to establish a joint protectorate to
preserve the independence of his country. It was like
a voice crying in the wilderness — no notice was given
it in the chancelleries of the powers. It is worth while
to know that this statement of the Emperor's was
given to a British newspaper man who would not trust
to the local cable (operated by the Japanese), but car-
ried it across to the China coast and thence made it,
known to the world.
At the close of the war there were three possible
courses open to Japan in dealing with Korea. One
was to place her in practically the same position she
was before the war — an independent power— subject to
pressure, and even control, from Peking, St. Peters-
burg, or Tokyo. This course was clearly out of the
question.
A VANISHING EMPIRE 201
Another would have been to maintain her before
the world as practically an autonomous nation, subject
to her own emperor, who, however, should be guided
by the advice of the Japanese resident-general. Such
is the method many European nations use in dealing
with their dependencies. And this was the method
which was actually tried and which failed. It is an
essential part of such a scheme that the emperor be
contented with the appearance of power and of au-
thority while the substance is completely in the hands
of those behind the throne ; in other words, that he
rule and they govern. This situation the Korean
Emperor never fully accepted. He would agree, under
pressure, to anything that was proposed and then im-
mediately scheme, plot,, and intrigue to undo it. One
of the most important provisions in the treaty of No-
vember, 1905, was that whereby Korea agreed to sur-
render all her dealings with foreign powers to Japan,
and not to undertake any international act except
through Japan. The sending of a delegation to The
Hague in 1907 was in direct contravention to the
treaty.
The third possibility in the relation of the two
countries would be for Korea to lose completely her
identity as an independent power in annexation and
absorption by Japan. And can any one who has fol-
lowed carefully the trend of events for the past five
years doubt for a moment that this is the course that
was entered upon when, after sending the delegation
to The Hague, the old emperor was forced to abdicate ?
202 ORIENTAL LIFE— KOREA
The fate of the old ruler can not excite compas-
sion in any one. He did nothing to justify his rule.
The impression he gave one who saw him was that of
weakness and sensuality. His policy was purely self-
ish and unenlightened. He took upon himself none of
the burdens of a responsible ruler. His kitchen coun-
selors were often men who had forced themselves into
power by their brutal and corrupt practices while in
minor positions. The court was filled with sorcerers,
soothsayers, conjurors, diviners, and other intriguers,
who constantly played upon the emperor's fears and
superstition, causing him to abandon a plan no sooner
than he had formed it, and to withdraw a policy no
sooner that he had announced it.
Under this wretched rule, or misrule, the taxes
were farmed out and the peasants plucked of every-
thing but the barest necessities. In one of the recent
budgets $1,751,634 was set aside for the emperor's
personal and household expenses and $28,642 for pub-
lic improvements! Little wonder if, under such con-
ditions, the people are stolid and indifferent ; if the
wretched barrenness and poverty of the country are so
oppressive to the traveler. There is something thor-
oughly depressing about a Korean village with its lit-
tle one-room mud huts, thatched with straw, and gen-
erally without window or chimney, no trees, grass, or
flowers, the only animal visible a half-starved cur, and
not a spire or steeple or aspiring structure of any kind
in the whole enclosure. Yet the Oriental philosophy
which accepts the situation, whatever it may be, and
A VANISHING EMPIRE 203
makes the best of it, can be seen in the signs over the
shop-doors in Seoul, one of which translated, informs
us that "The People Enjoy Peace and Pleasure."
While, therefore, one can have little sympathy with
the deposed "Son of Heaven" in his exile and seclusion,
one can sympathize greatly with the down-trodden
people. Their relations with the Japanese have been
far from pleasant, and their path is likely to be a
thorny one, for the Jap is a stern master, and not easy-
going and indulgent as we have been in the Philip-
pines. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that this
harshness is due entirely to "cockiness" which they are
supposed to have acquired as a result of the war. Even
before the war the same thing was true, though of
course on a much smaller scale. It is due to the feel-
ing of superiority which the one race has toward the
other. The Koreans are dull and stolid, the Japanese
quick and clever; the Koreans are densely ignorant.
the Japanese well-informed; the Koreans are without
hope or ambition, the Japanese are full of both; the
Koreans are submissive and unwarlike, the Japanese
full of pluck and spirit.
This attitude on the part of the Japanese toward the
Koreans has, of course, been greatly accentuated by
the circumstances and the results of the war. Follow-
ing the advent of the Japanese army into Korea came
a swarm of camp followers. These adventurers, their
numbers constantly augmented by new recruits, treated
the Koreans with great harshness. The latter were
often impressed into service whether they wanted to
204 ORIENTAL LIFE— KOREA
work or not, and sometimes dismissed with a kick for
pay. They were not infrequently robbed of their
goods, driven off their lands, beaten and insulted. Is
it any wonder that even the long-suffering Koreans
chafed under this treatment, resented it bitterly, and
that the foreigners resident in Korea sympathized with
them almost to a man?
With this background in mind we can readily un-
derstand why there were mobs and rioting in Seoul
when it became known that the Emperor had abdi-
cated. The populace understood well enough that,
due to pressure from one source or another, he had
been forced out ; they saw their old empire and nation-
ality slipping away from them. If the Koreans had
been spirited people, if they had had any fighting quali-
ties, these would have asserted themselves at such a
crisis. That they did not do so in any serious way
shows that the people are without aggressiveness or
military resources, and that they realize fully the fu-
tility of attempting to oppose their conquerors. Up to
this date, the Japanese have not considered that the
moment has arrived in which "Korea has attained
national strength,'' though the Koreans are clamoring
loudly to-day for their independence. It can not yet
be said what the outcome will be.
It is not to be concluded from what has been said
that the Korean people will be any worse off under
the Japanese than they have been under their own
rulers. On the contrary, they could not be worse off,
and the probabilities are that their condition will be
A VANISHING EMPIRE 205
much improved. The Japanese are a wonderful peo-
ple. They know how to develop and use the resources
of a country to the utmost. It is to their interest to do
so in Korea. In this development the Koreans will
share, hut the mass of the people will he. as they always
have been, hewers of wood and drawers of water.
And it is to the interest of the Japanese, also, that the
Koreans should be made contented, industrious, and
prosperous. Korea has great resources, and their de-
velopment has hardly yet begun, but there is great
prospect for the trade of the future.
In this future development of trade and general
prosperity, the United States will have, relatively, a
much smaller share than we had in old Korea. In
old Korea we had important mining, street railway
and electric light interests, and our exportation of ma-
chinery, flour, oil, and cottons was growing apace. The
Japanese have been supplying the most of these during
the past live years, just as they have been supplying
the wants of Manchuria.
In whatever way the present agitation of matters
Korean and Japanese may be settled, it can hut he
hoped by those whose sympathies are ever with the
weaker and the oppressed that "peace and pleasure"
will be secured to the Koreans, and that they shall at
last have, for the first time, something like a "square
deal." So marvelous is the political sagacity of Japan
and so successful has been her political policy in the
past that it is believed only good can result for
Korea and the enhancement of the international repu-
206 ORIENTAL LIFE— KOREA
tation of Japan in the union of the destinies of these
two nations so much alike.
We should not close this chapter on the Passing
of the Korean Empire without some reference to the
religious life of the people that has furnished such a
vast field for American mission work. No other coun-
try has been so successful in carrying Christianity to
a benighted race as has America in her winning of
the Koreans to the precepts of the Nazarene. It is not
necessary to go into details regarding this vast accom-
plishment, but some of the features of their native
religion may prove interesting as well as valuable in
showing why Christianity has appealed so readily to
the Koreans.
The most universal belief among the Koreans is
that of spirit worship, or Animism. The cky, thunder,
trees, mountains, and the tiger are regarded as gods,
and worshiped and feared by the heathen man because
of their supposed relation to his own welfare. From
the sky comes rain, upon which depends the success
of his crops ; thunder is the voice of divine anger
against him ; the trees afford him shelter, and the tiger
is stronger than he. The name of these spirits is le-
gion, and it has been well said that "there are more
gods in Korea than people." To the Korean mind
these spirits exist everywhere, in earth, in sky, in sea.
They haunt the trees, they play in the ravines, they
dance by every crystal spring, and perch on every
mountain crest. On green hill-slopes, in peaceful agri-
cultural valleys, in grassy dells, on wooded uplands,
A VANISHING EMPIRE 207
by lake and stream, by road and river, in north, south,
east and west, at the center they abound, making sport
of human destiny and driving man mad with fear.
They are on roof, ceiling, and fireplace. They are
beside him, in front of him, over him, and beneath
him. They touch him at every point of his life, pre-
side at his birth, follow him to the grave and dance
on it when he is buried. They are hard masters,
punishing every slip that he makes with merciless
severity, and are the cause of all good or ill-fortune
and disease. In fact, some of the diseases have been
deified, and in Korea smallpox is a god to be pro-
pitiated. And so, believing as they do in the universal
presence of spirits, it is not difficult for them to accept
the doctrines of the spiritual nature of God. On the
other hand, this vast cult is hard to overcome, inas-
much as it is upheld by countless soothsayers and
sorceresses who practice their magic rites and influ-
ence not only on the common people, but even on
royalty itself.
The great religion, however, is Confucianism. Ko-
rean Confucianism recognizes four domains subject to
moral control. These are ( 1 ) the personal life of the
individual; (2) the family; (3) the nation or state;
f 4 ) the universe as far as man is related to it. The
destiny and end of each of these is to be achieved by
certain means. The individual will reach his destiny
through sincerity, the family through filial piety, the
nation through orderly administration, and the world
through peace. Sincerity, filial piety, orderly admin-
208 ORIENTAL 1.1 PR— KOREA
istration, and universal peace stand related in a vital
progression. The Korean Confucianist argues that
without sincerity in the individual there can be no filial
piety in the family, and without filial piety in the fam-
ily there can be no orderly administration, and with-
out orderly administration there can be no universal
peace : and so we see that this age-long insistence on
the fact that man is a moral being and must obey
moral laws, prepares them to sincerely exemplify
Christian ethics in their lives. The very willingness
of the Koreans to offer costly sacrifices and service to
pagan gods, becomes transformed into a free, unre-
served, full-hearted love to God and service to their
fellow men. And yet in presenting the claims of the
{ Christian faith to them, the missionary needs great
tact. Many of the tenderest relations of life, the
deepest emotions of the human heart center about the
Korean's religious life, and he who would play the
tyrant among them, attempting to force the human soul
against its cherished beliefs, would find himself tilting
with a straw against a champion cased in adamant.
The American missionaries as a body have been dis-
tinguished for tact, courtesy, and kindly consideration
in all their dealings with the religious life of the peo-
ple, and to this must be attributed their success in
Korea. There is no longer any independent Methodist
missionary work in Korea. In 1904, foreseeing the
union of Japan and Korea, the General Conference
combined the two countries under one Episcopal juris-
diction.
A VANISHING EMPIRE 209
Thus briefly do we set forth the influences of West-
ern civilization in the Orient, but it can not yet be
determined how lasting these new conditions will be.
There is a great contrast between American high press-
ure and the "calm life of thought" in the Hast, and the
sage may have spoken prophetically when he wrote :
"The East bowed low in solemn thought,
In silent, deep disdain
She heard the legions tin nder past,
Then plunged in thought again."
Progress will naturally be slow in Asia because, as
\V. T. Stead expresses it, "whole populations have
learned the lesson that life is better spent in the. con-
tented possession of a few things than in the mad rush
after many." Mr. Stead further comments that 'There
is a wealth which arises from the fewness of our
wants, as well as a wealth that is measured by the
amplitude of our resources." So perhaps, after alb
we should not be so glad for the Orient that she has
awakened to a recognition of her resources. As the
author minted intimates; "The solemn inquiry still
holds—' what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the
whole world and lose his own soul?' " p
AUTHORSHIP OF CHAPTERS
a and b, Samuel K. Nweeya, M. D., in Persia, Land of
the Magi.
c, Compiled from articles in Review of Reviews.
d, Samuel K. Nweeya, M. D.
e, James Hunter.
/, Review of Reviews.
g, President Howard S. Bliss in National Geographic
Magazine, and Airs. C. R. Miller in World
To-day.
h, G. E. White in World To-day.
i and /, S. M. Zwemer in Arabia the Cradle of Islam.
k, Walter Del Mar in The Romantic East.
I, J. Nisbit in Westminster Review.
m and n, From The Book 'of Ceylon.
o, Heber Jones in Korea, Its People and Customs.
p, Samuel McClintock in World To-day.
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