Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/104

98 travel alone unless some hired Kurd be with them. They would be very careful to close and lock their gates and doors early in the evening, and put strong iron bars and thick shutters to their small windows. They should always act and speak very kindly, even to the meanest Turk or Kurd, giving always the better side of the road to him, responding his salutation with bows or flattering words. If an Armenian was insulted or beaten or murdered by Kurds or Turks, his friends should keep silent in order not to add more horrors upon horrors. The constant counsel of the parents to their boys was not to go among the Moslem boys and not to return their bad conduct. There were streets, even quarters, in the towns where Christians could not dare to step. The women and the children were shut in their houses; the pretty girls were clothed like boys and wore short hair until their thirteenth year, when the poor creatures would be secretly married with another child in order to be saved from the assault of the brutes in human form. Thus skill, flattery, bribery and submission were the only means that Armenians could use for their benefit.

(c) The Turks' and Kurds' own Benefit demanded the Armenians' Existence. The Moslem is identified with his big turban around a very small and deformed head, wide coat, loose and heavy slippers, and a long pipe, sitting on his soft cushion, smoking lazily, and taking strong coffee frequently, walking very slowly, talking unintelligibly, giving his whole attention to his harem and kitchen, keeping a separate servant