310
CAIRO TO DAMASCUS
"We have always gotten along well with them. When 1,200
of our Armenians decided to go to Armenia they begged them
to stay. They are a friendly and hospitable people, and quite
emotional. As to their national faults, they are divided into
fellaheen and effendi classes. The line of demarcation is sharp.
They have no caste system, but there are castes. They lack
discipline. The fellaheen are a huge mass of sweating human
beings who exist to work for the effendi. The fellaheen move
blindly and fanatically, and are kept ignorant and illiterate.
They have no sense of nationality or patriotism except when
incited. The leadership comes exclusively from within a small
circle in the effendi class."
The Patriarch then stopped his observations, changed the
subject, and brought the interview to an end.
LIFE IN THE BESIEGED VANK
I WENT among my people. Within the area of a few acres
built to house one thousand pilgrims lived nearly four thousand Armenians. They were in tiny cell-like rooms, in hallways, alleys, beneath damp archways, in tents and makeshift
shacks built in the stone corridors. The balcony of St. James
Cathedral housed fourteen families, and a curtain was drawn
over the balcony railing when High Mass was celebrated. I
was struck by the cleanliness of the Armenian women, who
seemed to be always at their tubs, elbows deep in suds.
Here, under a canopy in a draughty corridor, a cobbler had
set up shop; there, a tailor was engaged in cutting away the
worn-out portions of a father's trousers and making shorts for
the son. The women were busily knitting, sewing, darning.
And children! There were hundreds of friendly, plumpcheeked, tousle-haired boys and girls with large brown eyes,
clear skins, as mischievous as any American child. Dressed in
patched-up clothing made over from their elders' cast-offs,