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sufficient fontuae ^ ta feeconaae an objec t of cupidity to the Torka , he m tben > ou some pretext * pat to death , that his property may be confiscated ; att sxeeatffd mai i > therefore , implies oufy a Hiati of wealth and consequence . This display
is a but $ r bat just satire en Turkish justice , though the Turks are so Stupid &a ltot to comprehend it . I brought with Bae a worthy Armenian priest one day , who > with fear and tremblwg , trans ^ lated . for me the inscriptions on some of these tomb ? . I annex one as a sample ;
" Fou see my place of burial here in this verdant field . I give my Goods to the Robbers , My Soul to the Regions of Death , The World I leave to God , And my Blood I shed in the Holy Spirit . You who meet my Tomb , Say for me , * Lord , f have * sinned . '
1197 /* Pp . 55—5 8 . Little , unfortunately , can be said of Armenian literature : ic The Armenians , though fond of religious books , have little taste for , or acquaintance with , general literature .
They purchase with great avidity all the Bibles furnished by fhe British and Foreign Bible Society . Their patriarch sanctioned and encouraged a new edition of the New Testament , which the Itev . Mr . Leeves , the agent of the Bible Society , has had printed at an Armenian
press at Constantinople ; and I was encouraged to have a translation made into their language , of sorae of the Homilies of out CluiFch , on account of the Homily Society , in London , which I left in progress . They had early a printing-office
attached to the Patriarchate , and another more recently established by a private company at Korou Chesrne ' , in the neighbourhood of Constantinople . They have also a third which was set up at the convent of St . Lazaie , in Venice , from whence has issued a number of books in
their language . Their publications are , however , almost exclusively confined to books on religious subjects . I obtained a list Of all the books printed at the patriarchal press , from the year 1697 , the year of its establishment , to the end of the year 1823 . It conveys a better
idea of the literary taste and progress of the Armenians , than any other document could do . In a space of a hundred and twenty five years , only fifty-two books were printed , bat of each of these several editions . Forty-seven of them were commentaries on the Bible , sermons , boobs of prayer , lives of saints , hyinus and
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psalters , and a panegyric upon the angels . r £ he five not on sacked subjects , were , ' An Armenian Grammar /* a * His tory of Etcbmeasm / a * Treatise on Good Behaviour , * a * Tuact on Precious Stones , ' and a ' Romance of the City of Brass / 1 *—Pp . 59 , 6 Q .
Short as is the chapter of their literature , that of their superstition Is very long . We extract a few . passages : i € Like all the Orientate * the Armenians attribute great importance to fasting . Among people so comparatively
moderate and , simple in their diet , restraints imposed on their appetites cannot be felt in the same degree as by nations \ yho are less temperate ; but they are actually so severe , and so x \ - gMiy observed a& to evloce an extraordinary sincerity and seif-dejuaiL Their
first gneafc period of fasting corresponds with ours — the forty days preceding Easter . Sunday . Many commence the fast by abstaining three or four days from all kinds ef food , and then , during its continuance , they eat nothing til ]
three o ' clock in the day , in imitation of Cornelrtjs , who fasted till that hour . When they * do eat 3 they are not avowed the food that is permitted by other churches . They must not eat fish with blood , which is permitted in the LztUi church : nor fish with shells , which is
permitted in the Greek . r lhey are restricted to bread and oil ; . and because oFrve oil is too neiarishieg and too great a luxury , they use that which is expressed from a grain called sou&am , of a taste and odour exceedingly revolting . In this way they observe certain periods before
Christmas and other festivals , besides every Wednesday and Friday ; so that the whole year is a succession of Lents , with short intervals , dining which they maintain , not a nominal , but a rigid , uncompromising abstinence . Many of : he boatmen oa the Bosphorus , and the
hummals or porters , are Armenians . 1 have often pitied those unfortunate Bien , whom I have seen labouring whole days without remission , on scanty diet , scarcely sufficient to support a human body when not making any exertkm . Among the food from which they abstain altogether , is the flesh of a hare , which no will
call of appetite or scarcity of food induce some of them to touch . They do not allege for it any prejudice founded on the Levitical Law , which induct * some worthy people among ourselves to abstain from swine ' s flesh ; but they assign physical causes . They assert th ^ a hare has certain bodily hebitt , that
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6 J 8 R $ wew + ~~?; ke Anmie ^ GhrteUm Lit&mry Rememdranc ^
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1826, page 618, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2553/page/46/
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