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1 64 ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
by the President of Armenia, Mr. Sako Hampartsumian,
formerly a doctor. He had been elected since our meeting
with the Government at Erivan on our arrival. The previous
President, Mr. Lukashin, had now become the Armenian
representative in the Federal Government of the three republics
(Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan) at Tiflis.
An enormous crowd had assembled on the slopes on both
sides. They looked like diminutive ants swarming and
creeping about among the boulders under the precipitous
cliffs.
As usual the men mostly wore European dress, with soft
grey Bolshevik caps ; many had on white blouses—spotlessly
white for the occasion, and at intervals one saw the white
cap of an engineer. Here and there, too, one noticed the
darker face of a Kurd or Tatar beneath his indispensable big
cap of sheepskin ; but there was nobody in Armenian national
dress—it is never seen now. There were many types of faces,
but the Armenian predominated, with its high, short-skulled
head, narrow face without cheek-bones, high-bridged, turned
down nose, and high, rather receding forehead. Occasionally,
however, there would be a broader face, with a foreign look
about it. Almost without exception the faces were either
dean-shaven or else had a few short black bristles on the
upper lip just under the nose ; some had a short bristly tuft
on the chin as well ; but of grey-bearded old men there were
very few. On the whole, it was strange to see how young all
these people looked, both the men and the women ; one
could hardly discover an old face among them.
The womenfolk added a touch of brightness to the crowd
by their light, many-coloured dresses and hats, often quite
European in appearance ; and some of them had gay red
parasols. There were many handsome dark faces, narrow-oval
in shape, with delicate features and finely chiselled noses ;
also more savage-looking types with black tousled hair,
coarser features, more prominent cheek-bones and chins,
aquiline noses, and flashing black eyes.
It was half-past eleven, but according to the programme
the water was not to be let into the tunnel till twelve o’clock.
A long time to wait in the sun ; but patience is one of the
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