Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. Across the Arax plain and in Erivan
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
136 ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
cap here and there, which looked anything but Occidental
in such burning sunshine ; otherwise they had on the dull,
" wholesale " Bolshevik caps of soft, drab cloth, with here
and there a white cotton blouse, but chiefly European coats
and long trousers and dilapidated foot-gear.
After we had had a look at the Arax and its banks, we
motored back for some way and took a turning which went
westward. Here some of the land needed water, and could
then be cultivated ; but much of it was already irrigated by
an old canal from the Arax, which, however, the engineers
told us, needed improvement. The road we were travelling
along was rather difficult and uneven. Our chauffeur was
a reckless driver, who went full speed over the roughest
places, so that we were jolted high in the air and had our
livers well shaken up ; several times we hovered on the edge
of the road, and at last we landed in the ditch and had a good
deal of trouble in getting out again. After that we got
another car and a better driver.
We passed a great many villages. The houses in these parts
are quite plain, with flat roofs. They are built of clay cut in
blocks and dried in the sun. Such houses are easy to build,
but soon deteriorate unless they are kept in repair. We saw
a church built in the same way ; it looked uncommonly like
a big, square brown box with a flat lid and a few hoies cut in
the sides for windows. A small wooden cross at one end of
the roof was the only sign that it was a church.
The fittings of these houses are simple in the extreme—
chiefly walls and a floor ; there is little furniture, and the
inmates sleep on mats on the floor. They do most of their
work outside, in front of the house. We saw one man sifting
corn on the pavement, where he had spread a piece of cloth ;
on this he was now kneeling and sifting it.
The irrigation canals flowed through the villages ; here the
black buffaloes lay with only their heads visible above the
water, partly, no doubt, to cool themselves in the heat, but
partly also to evade the attacks of insects. Naked children
were bathing in company with the buffaloes.
We saw several villages which had been destroyed by the
Turks, probably for the most part during their last invasion
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
