Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/254

 2 1 8 Collectanea.

A portion of the Bishop's later work, Hamov ffodov, has been translated by M. Frederic Macler.^who also gives some account of the life of the author in his Preface.

Bishop Servantzdiantz was closely connected with His Holiness Mgrditch Khrimian, — teacher, Bishop, Patriarch, and late Catholicos of the Armenian Church, — in various enterprises set on foot for the betterment of his people.

After the Berlin Congress, Bishop Servantzdiantz was commis- sioned to travel through the Turkish Provinces in order to exhort the Armenians to be patient yet a little longer, and wait for the promised reforms before seeking a refuge in other countries. At the same time he collected various statistics, and also the folk-tales which appeared later in his books, — Shushan (Lily), Krots ou Prots (Of Pens and Picks), Hnots yev Ncrots (Of Old and New), Toros Aghpar (Brother Toros), Manana (Manna), and Hamov Hodov (Spicy and Fragrant).

Many villages have their local bard or story-teller, but it is not every one who is favoured with a recital. The story-teller is shy of exhibiting his skill in the presence of clergymen or foreigners. A degree of familiarity with devils, and indelicate allusions, appear in the tale, told as it has been handed down to him by a preceding raconteur, which he fears will offend such hearers. Bishop Servantzdiantz disguised himself as a layman in order to obtain these tales in their unexpurgated form, and he transcribed them accurately in the dialect peculiar to each region of country. It must have been a trial to the Bishop to curb his pen and give the short, crisp sentences of the Oriental story-teller instead of his own flowery style, of which the following extract will serve as an example, and give, at the same time, his aim in preserving these tales : —

" To save Armenians from oppression, they must be taught to know themselves. To rescue Armenians from the brink of the grave of indifference, it is necessary to call to them in the dialect of their ancestors. It is necessary to play upon the flutes of Mount Masis (Ararat) in their ears ; it is time to wipe the dust from our harps ; to reset and stretch their loose and broken

^ Collection de Contes et Chansons Populaires, Tome xix., Contes Arminiens^ (1905). Some of the same stories also appear in The Olive Fairy Book, 1907.