KELIGION AMONG THE PEOPLE OF ASIA MIXOR. 



163 



Special forms of Christian prayer are in use for that day. 

 Grapes, which next to wheat are the agricultural product most 

 prized in Turkey, are hlessed in all the Armenian Churches at 

 the feast of Astvadzadzin, the feast of the Mother of God, 

 which fell in 1906 on August 26th. ^lany devout Armenian 

 women eat no fruit from Lent until Astvadzadzin, and in 

 general Armenians do not eat freely of the grapes, if at all, until 

 they have been blessed in the Church. 



These are specimen facts from the beliefs and practices of 

 our friends, the people of Asia Minor. They indicate a real 

 sense of sin and helplessness, of fear and failure, a groping for 

 peace, comfort and reconciliation with God. And yet my 

 experience is that however learnedly Anatolians discuss religious 

 principles, however devotedly and at whatever cost of money, 

 time and effort, they fulfil the rites which the custom of 

 immemorial ages has prescribed or the self-sacrifice which 

 conscience urges, they have no satisfying confidence in any. 

 They have no consistent way of salvation ; they have no clear 

 idea of a personal Saviour. 



This address has aimed to deal with notliing characteristically 

 Christian or Mohammedan, nothing directly from the Bible or 

 the Koran. It has dealt rather with facts as they have come 

 under the writer's personal observation ; questions of cause, 

 comparison and anthropological significance may be left to 

 scholars who specialize in such subjects. 



XoTES ox Three Photographs. 



No. 1. Eyuk, Central Asia Minor, A pair of Hittite sphinxes guarding- 

 a temple door, one now surmounted by a storic's nest. Each 

 sphinx about eight feet in height ; a double-headed eagle 

 supporting the figure of a priest on the inner wall of the right- 

 hand sphinx. Date, 1200 to 1400 B.C. 



No. 2. Eyuk, Central Asia Minor. Sacrificial scene, near the temple 

 door, being part of the approaching dromos. Altar, before 

 which stands a ministering priest with a musical instrument (?) 

 in his right hand. Bull on the other side of altar, for sacrifice 

 or to receive the sacrifice as a cattle god. 



No. 3. Boghaz-keuy (Pteria), Central Asia Minor, fifteen miles from 

 Eyuk. Two figures in the smaller Yasili-Kaya gallery, the 

 taller with ribbed cap, being a female, probably a mother- 

 goddess, her left arm being thrown around the neck of the 

 younger, smaller figure, her consort, and perhaps her son. 

 Eittite winged solar disc in upper ground ; figures with tip- 

 tilted shoes. Date, 1200 to 1400 B.C. 



