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INDUSTRIOUS ARMENIANS 391
For in this land of fierce racial and religious hatreds
men are ever on the edge, not of riot and head-breaking,
but of massacre most savage. They cross the
line, and then make of the occasion a heaven-sent
opportunity, where the more slaughter the better
the deed and the greater the personal good work.
That hot morning, with its fervent crowds in white
waiting for Mahomet's hair, may stand as the picture
of Moslem Marash. Christian Marash makes another
sort of appearance, and, for one thing, ever avoids
combined display. It keeps quiet, and goes about its
business and duties unobtrusively, knowing that the
less it is heard and seen the better in every way.
But you discover the Armenian side of the city in
going about, and the more it is seen the more it
impresses, the more it reflects credit upon the Armenian
population. You see it in little shops where
the shopkeeper sits assiduous before a carpet-weaver's
frame while waiting for customers. You both hear
and see it through open doors and windows of many
cottages where linen-weaving and carpet-weaving are
going on incessantly. The very children take a turn
at the half- finished rug or carpet square stretched
on its frame, and thread the stitches in completion
of some piece of pattern ; and you watch them till
seeing you they leave their work in shyness. You
may notice also lengths of Marash linen in the
making, and girls at work on the curious embroidery
which bears the city's name. For Armenians of
Marash are truly a people who live by cottage
industries.
When crossing the plain tow^ards Marash I saw,
extending along the highest part of the town, a
line of large buildings which I supposed to be the
American Mission, I went to them the day after
arriving and found they were in fact the Mission ;
large buildinofs with no others between them and
Akhar Dagh, all standing in pleasant grounds. In
this way it came about that while in Marash I was
housed in the Hio^h School for Girls. It was an