258 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



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i if M, */*. Xtirlim i(- (''/.. 3. Ft,, I ,v/-.f/. K.I'. 

 ARMENIANS WATER-CARRYING (NESTORIANS). 



People of Turkish race 

 have much the same dress all 

 over Asia Minor aud Syria. 

 The striped silk of the country 

 is the favourite material for 

 the upper clothing. Heavy 

 stuffs with gold-work are also 

 very popular. 



Colonel Burnaby, when 

 going through Asia Minor, 

 was struck by the economical 

 way in which the natives 

 build their dwellings. When 

 a man is old enough to 

 marry, and wishes to set up 

 under a roof of his own, he 

 marks a piece of ground, 

 generally of an oblong shape, 

 on the side of a hill. He 

 then digs out the earth to a 

 depth of 6 or 7 feet. His 

 next step is to cut down wood 

 and make six stout posts, each 

 about 10 feet high. These he drives into the ground to a depth of 3 feet, putting three 

 posts on each side of the oblong. Cross-beams are fastened to the top of these uprights, and 

 branches of trees, laid closely and plastered down with clay, make a covering. A few planks, 

 with a hole made in them to serve as a doorway, compose the ends and sides of the building. 

 The door is formed by a broad, heavy plank, with strips of cowhide to serve as hinges. One 

 part is devoted to lodging such sheep, oxen, camels, aud cows as the owner of the house 

 may possess. He and his family occupy the other part. No partition wall separates the cattle 

 from the human tenants. Colonel Burnaby may well be believed when he says that the 

 smell which arises at night from the confined air and the animals in the building is exces- 

 sively disagreeable to a European. In cold weather a hole in the roof which serves as 

 a ventilator is stopped up by a large stone. The inmates, sometimes consisting of twelve 

 or fourteen people, lie huddled together on the floor. In the poorer houses the floor is 

 covered with rugs made of camel's hair, and in the houses of the wealthier class with thick 

 Persian carpets. 



The Greeks have been connected with Asia Minor from the earliest period of their 

 history. Emigrants went out from ancient Greece and seized upon the maritime border of 

 Asia, where they planted important colonies. These formed some of the brightest jewels in 

 the diadem of imperial Athens. The Asiatic Greek to-day still bears many of the physical 

 characteristics of his ancestors. Tall and slim, but well proportioned, with oval face and 

 arched nose, regular white teeth, animated eyes, and small hands and feet, he ranks high 

 among civilised races in personal comeliness. By intermarriage with Armenians aud other 

 non-Hellenic peoples the Greeks have no doubt lost much of the purity of their race. But 

 their pride and individuality have always kept them from extensive intermixture with the 

 peoples among whom they live. Compared with their European brethren, they are probably 

 entitled to be considered more typical of the ancient Greeks. In Smyrna, and even inland, 

 the Hellenic build can frequently be seen. Greek women may from time to time have passed 

 into Turkish harems, but difference of faith has prevented any union of the two races. His 

 religion assists his deep sense of nationality to keep the Greek of Asia Minor comparatively 

 free from foreign elements. 



