DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0218
208 THE ARMENIANS
This account, so far from being an exaggeration,
does not convey to people accustomed to safety of
the person, and unused to the brutality of which
Oriental nature is capable, an idea approaching the
real horror of the situation in which the Christians
lived in many parts—not in all parts—of Turkey.
As to European Turkey, a witness of unimpeachable
authority, who under the name of " A Consul's
Daughter and Wife " wrote in 1878 on The People of
Turkey, ii., p. 121, after mentioning the custom she
had seen in Macedonia of holding marriages in a
cellar, says : " The custom of marrying in the most
retired part of the house instead of the church,
among the peasants, is, according to my information,
the result of the dread they had in times of oppres-
sion of giving unnecessary publicity to their gather-
ings, and thus inviting the cupidity of some savage
band of their oppressors. . . . This state of things
was brought back during recent events. Some
months ago ... in Macedonia, the bridal pro-
cession had just returned from church, when a band
of Turks fell upon the house, robbing and beating
right and left until they arrived at the unfortunate
bride, whom, after divesting of all her belongings,
they dishonoured and left to bewail her misfortunes
in never-ending misery." It is a fact familiar to
every person who has even the slightest acquaint-
ance with the condition of the parts of Armenia
This account, so far from being an exaggeration,
does not convey to people accustomed to safety of
the person, and unused to the brutality of which
Oriental nature is capable, an idea approaching the
real horror of the situation in which the Christians
lived in many parts—not in all parts—of Turkey.
As to European Turkey, a witness of unimpeachable
authority, who under the name of " A Consul's
Daughter and Wife " wrote in 1878 on The People of
Turkey, ii., p. 121, after mentioning the custom she
had seen in Macedonia of holding marriages in a
cellar, says : " The custom of marrying in the most
retired part of the house instead of the church,
among the peasants, is, according to my information,
the result of the dread they had in times of oppres-
sion of giving unnecessary publicity to their gather-
ings, and thus inviting the cupidity of some savage
band of their oppressors. . . . This state of things
was brought back during recent events. Some
months ago ... in Macedonia, the bridal pro-
cession had just returned from church, when a band
of Turks fell upon the house, robbing and beating
right and left until they arrived at the unfortunate
bride, whom, after divesting of all her belongings,
they dishonoured and left to bewail her misfortunes
in never-ending misery." It is a fact familiar to
every person who has even the slightest acquaint-
ance with the condition of the parts of Armenia