1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 207 



sunset, instead of reckoning up the day like a Christian." 

 One more striking point of diiference, and we have done. The 

 Turks through long ages led a roving, wandering life in the 

 immense plains of northern and central Asia. Rising from 

 the position of slave and subject to that of master, they 

 gradually fought their way down to the shores of the 

 Mediterranean and occupied the entire territory. But the 

 inherited instincts of so many generations have never been 

 completely laid aside. As in their warlike, migratory state, 

 the tent was to them simply a sleeping-place to which they 

 retired for the night, so the house has been to them ever 

 since. Home, in our sense of the word, with all its beauti- 

 ful associations, has no answering equivalent in their mind, 

 and, in fact, there is no word in their language which can 

 convey such an idea. 



To add to the difficulty of giving any adequate idea of the 

 people of Turkey, is the fact that they do not form a single 

 race, amalgamated and blended into one, though made up of 

 different race elements, but are composed of Turks, Jews, 

 Greeks, Armenians, wild tribes of Koords, Turcomans, 

 Kuzel Bash and the Bulgarian, Croatian and Slavonian 

 tribes of the Danubian principalities, each retaining its dis- 

 tinct nationality, its own religious rites, and its own peculiar 

 customs and ways. Of the population of eight millions in 

 round numbers in European Turkey, the Turks number 

 about 3,600,000, and the rest are Christians and Jews. In 

 Asiatic Turkey the proportion is about the same. Of these, 

 the Greeks and the Jews are the tradesmen ; the Armenians, 

 the artizans and bankers ; the Bulgarians and Croats are 

 agricultural in their tastes, while the Koords and Turcomans 

 live largely by plunder and by the produce of their herds. 

 In such an assemblage of races you would naturally expect 

 to find great differences ; and yet, after all, certain distinct 

 features will be found peculiar to all, and certain customs 

 that are common to all. 



As a rule, the Turk will be found to be honest and truth- 

 ful, and living up to the command laid down by Mahomet in 

 the earlier days of his inspiration : " When thou hast given 

 thy word, stand fast by it, and let the words of thy mouth 

 be even as thy written agreement." Of the other races we 



