New Page 1

Aissors in the Van province are basically found in the South-Western Hakkiari on the middle stretch of the Great Zab River and in some other parts like Beitelshababe, Shamdinan, Gjavar, Timare and Archivaz. As a matter of fact, a detailed description of Aissorian villages will be given in the topographic section quote The Van Province". But now I suppose I had better give a general description of the locality where Aissors could defend their independence. In this way they became tempered and well trained in the life and their traditions.

The homeland for Aissors is in a country, where only mountains could be found. These Aissorian tribes (ashirates) live in Tyari, baz, Jilu, and Dez. The local mountains in the villages of Baz, Jilu and Dez The local mountain Jilu branches out in many ridges making a multitude of almost impassable little narrow valleys. Local Mountain here have bare sheer I rocks. The highest pick Dunk IS somewhat around 13,000 feet high. Only a few tiny bushy spots can be found on the mountainsides. Cold springs and fast streams come out at the foothills almost in every place. They all bring their waters to the Great Zab River, which flows winding along the ridges.

The flora in these places is minimal, as the and mainly has a rocky terrain. The valleys are cultivated uncompromisingly. No spots are left in waste. Paths and roads are made outside" the villages high in the mountains. In many places one-meter wide terraces are built on slopes. They all are to be used for farming. Wheat is not very popular there. The land is scarce indeed so they mainly grow tobacco, rice, maize, cotton, and fruit trees.

Houses rest on those slopes, one above another, so that the roof of one could well be the yard of another. Somewhere the valley becomes narrower so that houses cannot be put up in rows. Therefore they just stretch one after another along the river flow. For example, the village of Ashuta has as many as 500 homes positioned at a stretch of around 10 kilometers. Every house usually has a little garden in front.

Autumn is a fine season here, especially in October and in early November. But it is very cold in winter. Snow can lay 2m thick in some places. In Tkhoma, Tyari and Baz where the slope reaches around 35 to 40° there is al ways a seasonal communication breakdown not only between villages but also between homes, which stand in the same place up to 150 m apart. Spring usually brings rain- falls and the weather is not clear till May. It gets hot in June though. People just get gnats and easily come down with a sort of hay fever. When it happens they sometimes have to climb up and live on pastures.

Aissors are pretty well aware of the fact that their independence is due to the absence of convenient paths or roads in the land. It is of some interest that the rocks that cut the passage from Tyari to Tkhoma are called the taxman's cliff". The Turkish taxman is said to be able to get as close as this cliff, and if that is the case he is unable to use a very narrow (a half meter only) path that winds very steeply down the slope. Therefore the villagers on the other side of the rocks became exempted from taxes. The Turkish government is not able to build roads here. Aissors do not intend to have roads either for they think Turks would use roads to send them their troops, rulers and taxmen. As ridges branch out in a very complex multitude, there are many little valleys. And every valley houses one or more villages. In this way one should have to climb over the ridge to get to a village. Rocky mountains are very steep in some places, and in fact no r9ad has been built there yet. Besides, as the soil is scarce, it is being used for farming as much as possible. Roads run across the rocky terrain as well as along the banks of the rivers. In the valley of the Great Zab river cliffs run so steep that anyone would take a risk of climbing down the narrow path. Every care- less step here might cause one to fall into a cold fast stream. As pathways are rocky smooth to trot, Aissors made special shoes called "rashik". In winter they like to use snowshoes made from tree branches when they have to travel in the 2 meters thick snow. Their only beast of burden locally is the mule, which is trained to travel on rocky pathways from its early days. Actually the mules are usually supplied from Mosul and Erivan every year. And it really is amazing, that how skilful these animals can be on the rocky pathways just where no man can man- age it at all. On the average it never takes longer than one hour to cover a distance of 1 or 2 kilometers to trot on these pathways. In the end of this journey when the traveler has reached the top of the mountains, his trials will be compensated by a lovely view of the landscape below.

As a matter of fact, Turkey does not know any consistent information about local populations. Therefore it is difficult to give a definite number of the Aissorian population in the Van province. That is why I just had to make stats on the Aissorian population of the Julamerk district. I just counted the homes in every place, but not the people living there. Besides, I used stats made by Vidal Kinne, Mayevski and largely by Shelkovnikovl,1

Aissors can densely be found in Turkey, Persia, Russia, India, China, and North America. Besides, Aissors being dispersed also can be found elsewhere.

According to their religious beliefs Aissors in those countries can be grouped into:

79,000 Turkish Aissors live in the Van province. They all basically belong to Nestorians and proportionally they reside in different parts of the province, namely

I suppose we basically shall focus on Aissors in Julamerk, where they have as many as 4,855 homes or about 41,000 residents.

These Aissors make 95% of the total Julamerk population, 37% of the Hakkari people, and 17% of the entire Van provincial communities.

Aissors are deeply routed with Semitic tribes according to anthropological and linguistic investigations. It is a pity that only a few anthropological investigations have been made so far, and if they have the scale was so small, 56 skulls were measured, totally including 22 male and 5 female skulls by Chantre2, 5 more by Erkert3, 11 by Pantyukhov4, and 13 by Arutyunov5. However, all these findings testify that Aissors look typical Semitic in the physical sense.

Chantre suggests that Caucasian Aissors is a pure Semitic tribe, as he points to the Aissorian physical features as well as their language, which accordingly belongs to the Aramaic branch of the Semitic group.

Arutyunov on his part concludes that Aissors are less mixed with other minorities though he finds in them some explicit characteristics of the Jews from Akhaltsikh.

According to Erkert Aissors have black hair, dark eyes, high forehead, plump lips, protruding cheekbones, and flat back of the head.

According to Pantyukhov, Aissors have soft black and wave hair and thick eyebrows.

According to Chantre Aissors have a dark complexion with black and wavy hair, many with dark eyes, thin lips, never too tall, a mouth 4.9 cm wide, straight, with healthy teeth.

Arutyunov describes' Aissors as people tall above the average (34.8%), and even taller (30,2%). Also, they are square-shouldered and broad chest. Body and upper/lower limbs and everything else have nice proportions and sizes. Normal face with narrow cheekbones, high forehead, medium sized nose, the lower part of the face is a little longer, eyes and mouth are never big. The head is a little larger than usual, but its upper part is considerably stretched while at the back and in the forehead it is a little flatter. Many Aissors (88%) are pure brachycephals (or 87, 72 on the average). Most of Aissors are dark haired, swarthy and brown eyed which sometimes are even darker with black wavy hair and beard. Body gets hairy very early.

Women work hard so they are slender and vigorous. Many have noble features on the face and look handsome.

Aissors presently speaks in the modern Aissorian language, which is a dialect of the ancient Syrian language. This dialect through long years has been subjected to many grammatical changes and numerous Arabian and Persian lexical adaptations. Obviously this language stems from the Aramaic language family of the Semitic group. As a matter of fact, it has so much in common with the Old Hebrew indeed. The ceremonies in church have until recently been performed in the ancient Syrian language. Besides, all the clerical books were written in the same language likewise. In fact, ordinary people ~ never know this language at all. In this way the priest in service just has to do translation of the books into the modern Aissorian language.

All Aissors in Hakkiari know their own native language, so they only use it when they speak to each other. Besides, many of them can speak Kurdish while not many do know Turkish, and only those who seem to have some relations in Julamerk and Bashkala. In Tyari, Tkhoma and Baz the modern Aissorian language does prevail among local people so that almost nobody could ever use Kurdish or Turkish indeed.

The Aissorian alphabet has only 22 letters where only 4 vowels, and just to overcome this discomfort of using the language they have long been making changes in the pronunciation of the letters by putting special signs. The clerical books of Aissors mostly are written by hand though some printed materials can really be found. Those books were published in New York and Urmia. As a matter of fact there is not a printing shop anywhere in the whole Van province. Be- " sides, Aissors do not know any hand written; or hectographically printed periodicals just like they are found with Armenians in the Van province, Akhtamar, Shatakh, Moks, etc. The sole Aissorian newspaper comes out in, Urmia of some printing shops set by missionaries who print books there as well.

The majority of Aissors remain illiterete. Those who can read would hardly make 1% of the total population. Among women, I suppose, the only exception is the sister of " Mar Shimmun, Surmi-Khanum by name. She apparently was educated at some missionary school. As a matter of fact, she can speak both English and modern Aissorian very fluently. Therefore, she runs the office of her brother. Even malics are ignorant in many ways themselves. Actually, missionaries have just recently begun to open schools for Aissors indeed.

This can be of some interest to know that educated people among Aissors are called &quottiratsu" or psalmody men.

The psalmody man. is a respected person, so every illiterate man wants to be one of ~ them to assist in church ceremonies. One young malik in Jilu who is literate enough and serves psalms to the audience in the local church two times a day dictated to me his address as &quotto the malik in Jilu Jibrail, the psalmody man ". And when I repeated his words casually omitting the word &quotpsalmody man", he proudly said, this word was meaningful, because he was better educated than any other malik in the area.

The poetry of Aissors basically is influenced by that of Kurdish. Aissorian traditional songs are very hard to find as they have a custom to sing Kurdish songs and to tell Kurdish tales.

The majority of Aissors in the Van province still belongs to their national church, and only he small part of them has adopted Catholic or Protestant beliefs. Aissors call their national church, the church of the East, while the foreigners know it as the church of Nestrians.

Leged has it that Aissors took to Christianty from the desciple to Apostle Peter, Mar Adhi or Mar Mari. Peter, the Apostle, used to be the Patriarch of Antioche who worked in Syria. He won great respect with Aissors. That is why the head of the Aissoiian church has always been given the name of Mar Shimmun or Saint Simon (Peter).

In 5 AD Aissors took teaching. from Nestor, the Patriarch of Constantinople, so they have been known as Nestorians. However, there happened a crisis in the church very soon. I mean, someone called Jacob Baradei who propagated the teaching of Evtikhi. In this way the church took its name after Jacob (Jacobite) as well. In 8 AD Saint Marona preached in monothelitism in Lebanon. His followers were called Maronites.

In the Middle Ages the Catholic church tried very hard to convert Aissors. But it was not until 1445 when Aissorian Maronites adopted the Catholic doctrine and joined its church. .

However, Maronites kept to their customs and the Syrian language anyway. In 1636 in the time of Pope Clement 12th they received the name of Lebanese Catholics. Catholic Church pursued the same interests among Nestorians in Mesopotamia as well. Nestorians eventually split and formed Chaldean Catholic Church.

Catholic ideas did not find their way into Jacobites until the 19th century. And the Syrian Catholic Church was founded only in 1830s.

Protestant vision of the world came to strengthen its position among Nestorians and Jacobites at the same time around. At the end of the century Persian Nestorians took to Orthodox belief.

It is noteworthy that Aissors of different confessions due to illiteracy have been not only forming one national core, but even coming to a point where they begin to hate one another instead.

Aissors of the Van province fall into two large groups: free highlanders and &quotraja" the slaves. Free tribes can be found in highland Hakkiari province while the slaves both in lower lands of the same province and somewhere in Van. The former stood upon their rights and independence as well as their national identity, the latter just were enslaved by beks and submitted eventually to Turkish control.

Highlanders politically and religiously are united under Mar Shimmun, their clerical leader, who is subjected to the power of Sultan. This is actually a free unity of several highland Aissorian tribes ruled by their leaders (maliks) according to their old customs and traditions. The tribes fall into kins or &quotkabyls", which in turn comprises several related families. The eldest or most noble member of the kabyl is supposed to be their leader. Besides political unity, highlanders have their own territory, namely, Kochanis, Great and Minor Tyari, Tkhoma, Baz, Jilu, and Ishtaz, where additionally Kurds make about 5% of the population who anyway are under direct influence from Aissors through language and maliks.

Moreover, Aissors kept to their own language, national church, customs and traditions. Mar Shimmun is their religious and political leader. He is the highest authority in handling theological and clerical issues, marriages, in assigning bishops and other people to service. He also is responsible for tax collection in favor of the Turkish government. Besides, he is the military leader of Aissors, i and in the event of a national uprising or defense like it was in case with Badir-khan bei he is supposed to lead volunteers in combat or in negotiations with the enemy. Also, he assigns or dismisses maliks as well as he handles crime stories.

The first Mar Shimmun was Mar Mari followed by elected Abrees, Abraham, Jacob I and others in succe.ssion. Through out the I 16th century Mar Shlmmun's throne was kept ~ taken by the Momm Kin, and until1889 patriarchs were selected only from the Gormis family related with the Momm Kin somehow. After that spell with them and up to now patriarchs have been selected from the Shakhmir family (as the Gormis ended up). Normally the worthiest nephew to Mar Shimmun is to be assigned to function within his responsibilities upon his death.

The first residence of Mar Shimmun was set up in Ktesifon (south of Baghdad on the Tigris). Then it was relocated to Mosul, the village of Alkush (north-east of Mosul) exactly. Then in the second half of the 17th century it was relocated to the village of Kochanis again.

After Mar Shimmun's authority the next is his deputy's -Saimana d'Mar Shimmun, who also carries the Metropolitan title and resides in the Der monastery near the village of Neo- chi a around Gjavar. Deputies always are to be selected from his nephews of one and the same Mar Khnanishu family (means fame of Christ) in the successive order again.

The Metropolitan is considered to be Mar Shimmun's full substitution deputy in case of his illness or long absence. As a matter of fact, this deputy plays a very important role in patriachal elections. and especially during Mar Shimmun's Confirmative inauguration. Actually it is he who sees Mar Shimmun off to the throne and hands him the attributes of power. In this way as Aissors say, the Metropolitan begins to mean to Mar Shimmun what actually John the Baptist meant for Jesus Christ.

The Metropolitan controls bishops who take a vow of celibacy. They usually are selected from popular families and very often by inheritance. There are only four Aissorian . bishops in the entire Turkey.

Bishops in turn control priest (Kasha) who might be married and who inherit this position within one family. They are selected by the community and assigned by the bishop. The allowance money for the clergy is collected from males (one kurish) and from females (0.5 kurish). Besides, everyone should spare one of a tenth of his grain and vegetable crops to support the clergy.

The allowance money for highest priests is gathered from the annual tax (rishvaite) equal to the amount of the tax collected in favor of the clergy, who also receive penalty money as well. When Mar Shimmun comes to visit his people, every community has to donate him something as well as a gift of one lamb or ram.

Virtually independent Aissorian highland- ers fall into the following ashirates or tribes: the Upper Tyari, the Lower Tyari, Tkhoma, Tal, Baz, Jilu (Zaran and Zeer) and Diza. Every tribe inhabits a certain territory of the tribal name. Next, it includes several communities in villages who hold pastures, forestry winter stations and ploughed land in joint ownership. In fact the latter has come into private use already.

Every community administers their own home affairs, having a judge, military leader (or malik), own church and priests.

Every tribe worship the tomb of their fore- father, swear by his name and very often like to organize their meetings or public gatherings around his tomb. They have their own graveyard where they bury their members who have died abroad as well.

The Malik ( or prince) in every tribe is selected from a certain old and noble family. Strictly speaking, selection is a mere formality. It looks like a crowd of people who gather by cause of the malik's death to approve the eldest son of this malik or sometimes his brother to succeed. The one approved has to bring some donation to Mar Shimmun who assigns him to a position by giving him a special garment.

It is the malik who rules the land. Actually he does a lot of things including military leadership in defence or in offensive, tax collection from the elders and money transfer to Mar Shimmun. Also, he does civil justice while in criminal case he is supposed to confer with Mar Shimmun directly.

Tribes fall into kins or kabyls. For example, the tribe in the Upper Tyari is built from 5 kin, Bnimata, Lakipa, Runta, Kalayata and : Bialata. The lower Tyari. tribe falls into 6 kin, namely Binemata (in the village of Lizan), Lagipta (in the village of Asliuta"), Sala- bak, Biraule, Minanish and Zavita in villages of the same names. Every kin claims to have come down from one and the same forefather. The kin have farming land and graveyard in common use and handle their home affairs by way of general public gatherings or old people reunion with the village elder man as chairman.

Normally the elder man is selected from a popular old and noble family and confirmed by maliks of the same tribe. He is supposed to be submitted to the tripe. His job is tax collection and transfer of the money to the malik, finding recruits for a military purpose. Also, he does justice in the tribe and obviously confers with the malik in case of grave crimes anyway.

Being a posterity ancient Aissors, they inherited from them a material spirit. Rocky! terrain and the neighborhood of a very, hostile Kurdish people strengthened this spirit in them. Every Aissorian boy has a dream of bec9ming a good warrior. His favorite pastime is' to hunt for birds with an arrow. Boys and youths have a dagger with silver handle tuck behind the bell. Modern guns are a common occurrence almost in every Aissorian house.

Aissors generally are uneducated and illiterate, especially in and around Tkhoma. They have no good schooling though, British and Catholic missionaries have opened several schools already, but however, they bring very little we indeed. Even maliks are never well- educated and know no other language than their native nor Turkish. There are quite a few priests ,who can, ul.1derstand the Gospel while he reads it. Priests are churlishly rough, and they have an instinct of plunder and disobedience to authorities.

Aissors seem to have kept to their religion however, due to recent missionary activity the significance of religion for them has considerably diminished. It has become a matter of bargaining. Many were offered a reward in exchange for a Catholic faith. But as soon as this reward is terminated, they prefer to go back to their own church or to take up anew religion. I should like to give the following fact when I was invited to visit the malik of Jilu and his wives father told me bitterly that the Catholic Bishop of Van had converted as many as 40 people and confirmed 40 more to be priests with a monthly salary of 10 rubles for Catholic propaganda during his visit to the Jilu district. This circumstance caused many disturbance so many fathers turned back on their sons who had adopted Catholic faith in exchange for real money. But some priests have returned to their Nestorian church lately again as they did not get any reward. Some have been converted to Protestant faith.

The Bishop, Aissors by birth, turned out to be a rather well educated man with a fairly good knowledge of the French language told me with enthusiasm that Catholic ideas were propagated rapidly among Aissors. And as he did, He pointed to the malik of Jilu and the priests this father-in-law as most faithful Catholics.

Later the malik and the priest came to me and declared that they pretended to be Catholic only till many lasted, and then they certainly would become Nestorians again. &quotWe just need money as religion can't pay us", they added.

Some cunning Aissors of Jilu has bad a .custom of traveling in Russia or in Europe alleging to be members of some Jerusalem brotherhood and asking for donations. For this purpose they even use some sacred bones. Those Aissors could be fluent in many language at a time. I met one who showed a good command of French, Italian and Spanish. He told me he had traveled a lot in those countries as a member of the Jerusalem Catholic Brotherhood. In the village of Mar Sabai the priest from Ashuta just wanted to make me home when he blessed the dinner in Russian. As a matter of fact, he had made a long journey to Russia as a member of Jerusalem Brotherhood.

Aissors in Julamerk basicaly do gardening make wine and bee-hives, cattle breeding and occasional farming. They also grow some fruit-trees like nut, apple, pear, cherry, peach and pomegranate trees. The wine comes up winding around those trees, but they just make a little wine and consume it only locally. Bee-hives are built in the old-fashioned manner. Honey is good and sweet, and commercially popular especially that from Kochanis. Cattles can be found everywhere. Plenty of sheep, but fewer goats on the farm they usually have a few cows and probably a couple of oxes in every village. Horses are rare to find, so are donkeys. Plenty of mules. No poultry for scarcity of land just not to have it to pick crops or spoil the gardens in front of houses.

People basically do maize, tobacco, rice, hemp and anise, quite occasionally grain, millet, potato and cabbage. As they till the soil very carefully, they usually harvest very much.

The late in autumn they finish all labor in the fields and all men leave for Mosul, Aleppo or Russia on open roads to get some odd jobs there till springtime. In Mosul they normally make cane baskets. For this job they grow willows in their home location. Else- where they just go to do cabby's or vendor's .job alike. Aissors in Gjavar and Agbak do a lot of farming growing wheat and hemp.

a Maliks of Zaranish in Jilu Legend has it that one man of the Nebuchadnezzar family, Mandu by name once left the town of Attur unreasonably. In his journies he actually was accompanied by this four brothers, namely Barut, Joseph, Bakos and Issa. He had taken a roe of finding a home wherever he would be served with lambs head and legs. After a long while lie" along with his brothers came to the village of Pachu, where one poor man treated him with the lamb things. Seeing that his row was fulfilled he decided to stay there and make himself the head of the local people. He choose a nice comfortable place in front of&nbspthe entire village and built a home (Now it is Zaranish). One day he was strolling in the forest when he saw 40 birds flying above and also a black stone near a large church. The doors were closed. On the following night he w had dream that the key to the church and one luster were buried under the nearest black. e stone. The following morning he went to find the thing, unlocked the church, and after he entered he began to pray. Since that day the ~'i church became a popular place among the local residents. They all liked to gather and pray there. Once Mandu was on a regular strall again. He saw a large cave, filled with skeletons. Some people obviously had tried escape, but Persian came and burnt every- -~ body they had captured in the cave.

Around the village there used to live pagan canibals. Mandu converted them to Christianity, and those who refused to accept it he just murdered. Four noble families resented to be Christians but Mandu saved them life and property ordering them to stay in the palaces somewhere around. So they did and they left a posterity offer long years to the latter day, but they still live only one i family life. (This malik Mandu then was followed by I other maliks who were called Mandu alike. ( Just in time of one of them Mar Shimmun of all Aissors fled to Alkush (near Mosul), but Persian came and took him to Persia. He was ordered to station in the. village of Shinnu. After a while he put up large church. Soon he was taken by malik Mandu and relocated to Zaranish. Over 60 years it was the residence of all Mar Shimmun, and even one of them was bwied locally. No records can explain why Mar Shimmun moved furthermore to Tirkunis and then to Kochanis that was donated to him by malik Mandu. Mar Shimmun could not stay there far too long because Kochahis was near Julamerk where the mir (military chief leader) had leis residence, so he occasionally made his raids to plunder. . Therefore Mar.Shimmun had to go and settle down in Dez. Malik Mandu was disappointed and went to counsel with the Julamerk chief leader as to try to get Mar Shimmun back at Kochanis. Mandu came to Dez, burht down Mar Shjmmun' s residence, then collected the money and built a new home for him and invited him back to Kochanis. Mar Shimmun had to accept it in the end.

Malik Mandu was inherited be malik Aron. He sieged the fortress of Harvat, took ; it and detroyed it picking up p~et1ty of . troplies.. -.:

Aron's heir w.as malik Mandu, like his predecessor this Mandu was a true warrior , and when there was a conflict between him and malik Hubiar, he just came to take and plunder Baz.

After malik Mandu came malik Suleiman. In his time the Ottoman government focused on structural organization of local administra- tion and assigned district authorities in Julamerk, Gjavar and Shamdinan who tried to stop strifes between ashirates. Ever since neither Suleiman nor his successor malik Shlimon did anything like that. So they maintained peace through out their office time.

Shlimon' s successor was malik Varda who is said to have been bribed l;&gty Oramar, the ) chief of the Kurdish ashirate. Varda was sup- posed to withdraw his troops when Oramar came to launch a war operation. And when Kurds came to murder and plunder, malik Varda did not stir a finger to help his own people.

The next malik Ishu came to fight Aissors in Tkhoma and stole as many as 2000 sheep. At that time Aissors of Dez annexed his terri- tory of Karsu cultivating the land and using the pasturas. In his turn malik Ishu came to take over in Dez, stole the cattle, seized the crop field and did the harvest.

Ishu was inherited by malik Mirza. The latter's activities remained unknown. Then in this time of malik Halil the Kurdish tribe attacked the tribe of Jilu stealing around 2000 sheep. Malik Halil complained to the Turkish government about it. Then malik supported by 400 brave Aissors and 40 Turkish soldiers went in opposition to Grammar who after all had to pay a contribution 200 lires, 682 sheep, 7 mules, 4 cows, several carpets, etc.

Then malik Halil set on journey to Europe in 1909. He wanted to raise some money. For this purpose he dressed like the ring of Jilu to see the Pope of Rome. He told Pope that his people were very ignorant and for Popes permission to raise money to open school. Pope granted him his permission, so Halil collected as much as 18000 roubles in a short while. He then returned to his land and began to put up the basement of new school, and soon, went to Europe for collection of money again. This he acted like a Catholic monk in Germany as far as I know he was arrested by the German government when he tried to raise some money for his own church alledgedly. They had made inquiries with the local Consul.

The founder of Ziri ash irate is malik Zamo who came along with his brother Beridji and his people from the province of Botana (from the village of Tornaher) and stopped over in the village of Talani after he had ousted Kurds from it. As a matter of fact, he was inherited be plenty of maliks with the time. One of them married his daughter to a man from one of the noblest families in the village of Ziri-. The same family produced a brave man called Aro who later took control of Talani and then made himself a malik. After all malik's title was passed over to his son Gewargis and then to his grandson Gamo, who by the way was not very notable.

Vormiz was the first malik in the Upper Tyari ashirate. At the time Julamerk khan Karim was at the helm of the Kurdish tribe Suran Baban. He came to fight Aissors of the Upper Tyari. Malik Vormiz was chased but he along with his people could get away eventually. They found shelter on top of the Smadar mountain where they made a strong- hold to fight Karim khan during a 20 day siege. After the Khan devastated the land he returned to his home and malik came down from his stronghold, gathered all his men who had survived to put them at the place called Champa. He ruled the place till his death. Modern Aissors still know the palace where he was buried. Therefore the local people at Champa still gather around this sacred tomb for a funeral meeting every year . Along with Vornuz other maliks were buried there, too.

The maliks that followed Vormiz, namely Kianev, Benyamin and J avne, left no deeds to remember by in historical memories. The only exception was malik Smael who is still a living memory. Under him. Aissorian lands were invaded by another Kurdish khan Badirbei. Malik Smael sustained a defeat from the bei after a 3 day fight and had to look for a shelter on top of the impossable mountain as he was badly wounded. Badir bet. ,promised not to stand in his way if the malik came down for negotiations. Smael did like it was said. Negotiations took place by the spring well. At the end of it the bei suggested that his opponent adopt Islam if he wanted to get ahead. But the malik was euraged and replied to him, that he himself would give the bei everything for his adop- tion of Christianity. Hearing that the bei just ordered his men to slab the malik promptly.

This unhappy malik was followed by Ben- yamin, Pitiv, Jindu and Yagub, but they left no chronicles. The present malik Israel is a well bred educated man.

Avdysh was the first malik in this ashirate. He more than once joined Mir-Ibrahim khan made raids onto Persian territories and devastated them. After such a raid Ibrahim khan set to Constantinople where the sultan granted him money provided that khan should built roads in Jerusalem. So he did that partly.

Avdysh was buried in the village of Sala- bag. Local people and the malik come to this sacred tomb with private donations on the second easter day. Priests also come to make a special ceremony over tomb and over the others. In the end the malik and the people sit down around the tomb to eat the food they brought there frqm home. People like to swear by his name to the latter day.

Barkho came to inherit the malik's authority from A vdysh. In his time the chief military leader of the Botana district of Jesir ( made a raid into Julamerk so Barkho supported by the Artush tribe of the Beitelshabal f district hurried to help them out. The raiders J were turned back.

Avdysh 2nd came to succeed Avdysh. This malik ruled his land in peace. Local people of Salabag still know the palace he was buried.

His immediate successor was malik Barkho, who also made raids, repeated his attack on the chief Barbara, destroyed the Kumn fortress and took a lot of trophies. ...

His men were satisfied with the trophies after all so another malik Daniel implemented a peaceful program instead so he built several roads.

Another Barkho came to succeed Daniel. In this time the Chalsk Kurdish tribe invaded his land and stole his cattle. Barkho followed them in pursuit. He made it after all. Under the influence from Catholic missionaries malik Barkho adopted Catholic belief. As a i result, Mar Shimmun was toppled from his ! throne, and malik Kiazhon who was assigned in succession still rules this land now.

The founder of Tkhoma tribe was arguably malik Shirin shah who had come from Attur along with other Aissors. He saw an old church standing alone in the forest and decided to shelter there after he settled down firmly, he began to fight locales.

Malik Manu was his successor. Now in his time Kurds of Artush came to take over in and around the village of Han. They killed many locales dispersed the rest of them and took their lands. Then Kurds turned to kill Aissors who had just recently come to live there. But malik Manu gave back to them and chased them away.

Manu was succeeded by malik Oragan who joined the Julamerk chief military leader Mir Maten in a raid against Kurds near MosuI. Kurds were defeated and plundered. They repeated this action against Kurds in Persia in a while.

Lachin became the next malik in successive year. He luckily repulsed the troops of Chalsk Kurds under Mirza-agha and destroyed them on the Zab river. His immediate successor, malik Dinkha, who sent a 3000 men troop to fight Kurds of Artush. They beat them down and took a big trophy.

His successor called Lachin repeated his action many times. So did the acting malik Georgi who repeatedly raided into the Kurdish territory and stole their cattle. In. this excitement he even attacked the chief of Oramef Kurds, Suti agha, who once had stolen 2000 sheep from Aissors. Actually he took a revenge on them stealing the same number of sheep.

There are 5 malik families or clans now. They all have almost equal rights and authority. That is why they agreed to have the acting malik from each family in turn once in 3 years.

The tribe of Baz is said to have fled from the town of Attur and settled down in the village of Shivahale in the Artush district. After several centuries of continuous living in the same place the tribe ousted by Kurds had to move to a place which then became a permanent home for them eventually. Their oldest prince or malik was called Evnan. He repulsed Mustafa-bekof Fiza.

After Evnan there was Daravush. He was at war the Kurdish tribe Muzul near Mosul who tried to take that land. Chasing Kurds away the malik became the ruler of this territory alone. Later he was succeeded by malik lob who built a church in Baz. Then malik Kanun slew the Julamerk chief Rashid Pasha in a fight. After this accident the newly assigned chief of Julamerk called Abdulla-bek made friends with Kamin' s successor malik Solomon. They together came to attack " Botan's Kurdish tribe in Jezir and destroyed them, but Malik Solomon was slain in fighting.

Malik Shahe was selected from the same Malik Evnan's house, but this time from village of Shauta. The main thing he did was a I defeat to the Kurdish tribe Pinianish. Malik Evnan 2nd came to succeed him. It is note, worthly that Aissorian Maliks as they were Turkish subject had to pay some dues to the Julamerk chief. However, Evnan did not pay him in 8 year as he ruled his land independently. Then he agreed to do it after negotiations with the Julamerk chief Nuribek in the village of Koi as he wanted to avoid a strife.

His successor Havshaba was malik for 9 days only as the Julamerk chief dismissed ) him for his disobedience. Also his 9 mules ( were taken away. Havshaba was then succeeded by malik Shakhe 2nd. Under him Kurdish tribes from Pinianish, Oramar, etc. came to plunder in Baz, as they knew all Aissorian men left to find odd jobs around Mosul or elsewhere. In spring when the men returned malik Shakhe 2nd called them up to make a raid into the Kurdish territory. Slaying 80 Kurds in clash, they took big trophies and turned back.

In the time of malik Avdysh, the annual tax 60 lires was half reduced after he petitioned to the Turkish government. ,

He was then followed by malik Zatu , iShimmon, Yakub, Evnan 3rd and Ishakha who actually left no deeds to mention their names.

The acting malik Gamo has repulsed the Kurdish tribe Oramar several times already. As a matter of fact, he can call up 900 volunteers promptly.

The Tull tribe can explain its origin by themselves. There was a malik called Aziz. He had a son called Tull who studied with the local priest. On a moon-lit night the little child presuming that morning Qad broken, put new dress decorated woth 'jewels and set to go to his teacher. The priest decided to take the boy's precious coat by force. He mur- dered the boy, took his garment and buried him in his place. The father searched for him everywhere but in rain. One day malik Aziz was making a prayer in the church he imagined that a bird had flown inside. The bird I had the body of his son, Tull. It spoke in a human tongue suddenly, saying that it was hi~, his son, ho. was murdered by the loyal priest and burled inside the church. The bud ~ demanded that his grave should be opended ~

-' priest should not be murdered as Tull, a martyr, had been accepted to the Heavens.

Malik Aziz opened the grave, took the body ~" out arid reburied it in the field where then he kcl built a church which was given the name . Mar- Tull. Since that time the tribe has been known as the Tull tribe.

Houses of Aissors usually may have a very large hall and only one room. The room is ! designed for a winter time dwelling while the i hall is to be used in summer. Floors and lower parts of the walls are normally coated with clay which is rammed so well that hard I cleaning is not necessary. There is a fireplace in the wall, and in the middle of the hall is the hearth. A peculiar feature is that the en- trance door is shielded by a cane form made tree branches in winter. Also, there is little a furnace in one of the corners of the hall. It is obviously different than the Armenian fur- nace as it is not put too deep in the ground, and has an opening at the side. The furnace is 10 cm in diameter. They make bread from corn and do general cooking in it as well.

Houses of maliks have the same structure except the arrangement of the hall. In some places the hall is laid above the living room just to make a perfect shooting position. For this purpose this room has small windows and a few little round openings for one can find good protection from the enemy's advance and on the other hand, make the use of them openings in combat. Besides these houses, maliks normally may have more typi- cal dwelling houses .in the same location.

As for the architecture even Mar Shimmun' s house in Kochanis is not exceptional. It has a simple structure with an antechamber, large hall and size rooms. In the antechamber there are antlers of the deer that were hunted and killed by Mar Shimmuns. As a matter of fact, hunting is their favourite pastime. The hall is divided in the middle by sofa (ottoman). The sofa is laid with carpets or matresses. The floor is carpeted, too. Mar Shimmun and his noble guests are seated on the sofa while their subject just squat.

In the villages they have no furniture, nor tables, nor even chairs. Everybody just squat mainly around the hearth. The host lays the . best carpet for honorable guests. Dinner is served on a carpet salver or an earthenware dish or sometimes even on goat's skin. It is note worthly that local Aissors never spare crumbs or leftovers just like Armenians do. Actually it obviously is a sign of welfare and prosperity~ Food sometimes is served in a large, only earthenware bowl. Food from it should be scooped by fingers.

No pictures of images could ever be found in the house of Aissors. Only a wooden cross is mounted on a pillar in the antechamber. In the morning and in the evening the elder member of the family make a prayer standing in front of this cross. However, in every house dwellers normally have a line of guns of the latest technology somewhere on the pillar or on the wall. Additionally, they might as well have daggers there, too.

Structurally, some special rooftops in Ais- sorian homes rest on four pillars. Actually, '- these roofs are built from tree branches which people use like night beds trying to escape from gnats and the heat of the night. Such pillars are frequent in the houses on the water edge. Pillars are put up outside the house or right in the water .

Prayer meeting are hold in a temple inside a regular house and outside in the yard. The altar is organized on the eastern side of the temple. It is separated from the other interior elements by curtain. Next to it, on the right, there is the Baptising bath. No altar walls have an image or sculpture. In the yard there normally are graves of most honorable people.

The single door that enters the temple and opens outside southward is fairly small. Win- dows are also small and narrow, so that it is always dark inside. The rooftop of the temple and the house is flat and covered with soil. No dome or cross stands upon it. The door of "" the churchyard is low and narrow so that Turks would never be able to pen their cattle inside. Very often a little altar is put up near the yard for services in the summertime mainly, but public worship is prohibited anyway.

Bells are a common occurrence everywhere indeed. I guess bell are gaining the momentum in worship locally now. They usually are fastened on a stick on the church wall. No church, actually, has a belfry as yet.

There is one more peculiar thing about the local monasteries. Its walls are cpvered with male and female garment as there is custom if someone falls ill, he should come to the monastery for worship and leave his old shabby clothes. Belief holds that all the sick- man's illness should be left along with his clothes. Maybe it is just the first step of this method which is known among Armenians who like to cut apiece of the garment and tie to the sacred tree or to stone crosses on a worship sight hoping to be healed.

It is curious that there is a little bell handing on the door of the monastery. It happens that the worshipper lays his kisses on the door, ring the bell and enters the temple just like Boodists qo when they want to heed the attention of Gods before entering.

12. Clothing and decorations Clothing and decoration of Aissors look just like those of Annenians or Kurdish in many ways.

Male clothing consists of shirt, pants, ish- lik and gjar.ik. In contrast, only gjarik is dif- ferent than that Armenian like to wear .This gjarik is really different, but looks almost like kezahik with only one exception, that is, it has no sleeves, and made from left. Rich people like to wear it with golden embroidery on the chest in the back. Gjarik covers all the upper part of the body down the waist on both sides leaving the chest bare through. Kurds and Armenians like to wear it as well, but only in Hakkiari. Ishlik is made from cotton cloth. It is to be put on shirt and lon~ sleeves. Then it is tried up on the chest with strings or buttons, but sometimes it has a triangle cut just to bare and display the pat- terned fragment of the shirt.

Aissors in Hakki~ri like to wear white cone left caps which look like headware items carved in high Assirian rocks and which can be considered the, prototype of the Armenian Vegar (black monks caps).

The thing that characterizes both adult and young Aissors is a small curvy dagger tucked behind the belt. Its handle look ready for the left hand unlike with Armenians and Kurds.

Aissors like anybody else on these rocky mountains like to wear rashik over socks. The advantage of this item of clothing is its soft- nesS yet it is never tight makes it slippery on the rocks.

Typically Aissorian men never cut their hair wearing two or three braids hanging loose behind. Only priests and men wear a bread. .On holiday Aissors like to decorate their hats with colored feathers and flowers. Women actually do just likewise. Aissorian women like to wear zbun which looks like that of Armenians. They put on the Greek golden jacket over it. Zbun is some kind of underwear that covers the waist with sidelong cuts in the skirt from weist down. Cuts are normally sewn on the edges with green and red laces. Zub is never but tones on the chest, but tightened on its edged and laid , t a little open. Pockets are cut into sides of i s zub. This garment is made from silk or printed cotton. Zbuns are supposed to be put Lt on one over another (2 or 3 items on a casual day), or 4 or 5 on a big holiday so that edges of the hems should be 5 cm apart from one another and be opened for the eye. In this matter zbuns are colored, and the red is the most popular. Poor women normally may wear gjarik over zbun instead of jacket. This gjarik is no different than males. Female principle hed wear is a cap tied with cloth ribbon around and with coins upfront. Maidens who were educated in Kochanis like Mar Shimmun's sister are supposed to wear just a cap.

Both maidens and women wear hair in braids hanging down the spine. It is noteworthly that Aissorian women in Kochanis have given up on their old local garment and like to wear daiza and yazma and only maidens do just a cap.

The entire clergy wear the same type of clothes as the common people. Only Mar Shimmun and bishops have to wear a long garment sometimes. Even in the church ceremony priests, bishops or Mar Shimmun never wear cope or chasuble. Only during liturgy this vestment is used be the deacon and the priest in service. Normally the deacon wears a long white shirt while the priest does like- wise, puts on a girdle and cope on his shoul- ders which is tied up on the girdle and only then comes his chasuble. Monks who do liturgy at a bishop's or metrapolitan's level are supposed to wear similar vestments. Recently Mar Shimmun has received some donations like crown, embraidered chasuble and long cope. When I was on a visit to the monastery in Dez, the Metropolitian complained about this innovation as he presumed that Mar Shimmun should wear just as simple gar- ments as he did Marriage and Wedding

Males are normally are wed at 15 to 20, and maidens at 12 to 14.Quality of Relationship According to clerical laws weds should be in the fourth degree of the quality, or in the seventh degree of relation. But in fact exceptions are rare to find really.

Nationality Aissors are not allowed to seek relation with other then Christians. 18 this way the present Mar Shimmun uncle is married to an Armenian women from Bitlis. If Aissors take Armenian women to be their wives, they do not have to do any special ceremony to be converted to a different religion for the Armenian church is consider be a brotherly church indeed. But if Aissor marries a Protestant or Catholic woman, the bride is supposed to be put to confession and special sacred ceremonies of the Aissorian church as well as to give vow of being Nestorian.

Engagement in cradle. Like Armenians Aissors have a custom of engaging two little children in cradle. The parents should take a row of having their children to be married as soon as they come of age. Breaking this sol- emn row is also rare to find.

Dissolution of marriage. As a matter of fact, it never happens unless the wife is fully errant. It is Mar Shimmun who is rested with the right of giving his consent to dissolution. In case the wife is barren, the husband is al- lowed to have an unlawful wife openly. The people hold it just fair, but the church clenies the man confession and sacrament before his death, and his funeral ceremony accordingly. Anyway unlawful children are to be baptized as if they were lawful.

Selection of bride. The weds are never asked if they really like to be married. Oth- erwise they can be influenced or forced. Par- ents are vested with right of solution. If the maiden flees away with her lover for fear of a forced marriage, parents tend to chase them, and sometimes try to murder both. In case they fail to do it, they will turn back on the young and deprive the maiden of her dowry, but they can make it all up eventually.

Meeting the bride. As a matter of fact Aissorian maidens may have a liberal life. So when they go to work in the field or in the nearest mountains, they might as well have a chance to date with young men and meet their parents. Further more the go between woman (hanuma) comes on the scene to tie them in marriage. So she obviously pays a visit to the maiden' s home under some good pretext and inspect and looks over in presence of her mother and relatives who certainly know the purpose of the visit. If she likes the maiden, she will take her as the bride. In care she does not, she just goes out without saying anything. If the parents seem to accept the proposal, they normally will give the women a nice treat, other wise they treat her coldly.

Engagement. After the bride is chosen, the parents of the groom finds ago between person to ask the parents of the bride to pro- pose to the maiden. And if they get a positive answer, they will invite a priest, the groom' s best man and a few honorable relatives to go far the engagement ceremony. The priest accordingly asks the young man if he wants to be engaged to the maiden, and if he consents to do so, the priest alone goes to enter the maiden's home. As rule, the youPg man's family sends wine, meat and of other food to the maiden's place to cook a meal. After the meal the priest twins to the maiden' s father and says,

&quotYou are welcome here! We are neigh- bours and friends. So we must came and see each other", replied the maiden's father just to show that he does not seem to know about the purpose of the visit. Then the priest says that they came to pro- pose to his daughter .

&quotIt is the daughter of her mother, not mine, the man said, &quotYou ' d better ask her as she reared and educated the young maiden."

When mother is asked in turn, she says that this daughter is not hers but husband' brother's who shifts his responsibility to an- other and another till the relatives this time point to the father again, saying &quotFather he knows! We're come here to feast and give our greetings. Let him give her someone he knows."

At this point Father gives his consent, and the priest formally asks the maiden and then he solemnly passes a ring or just something else over to the maiden.

Bring out the bride (khelle). Several days or weeks after her engagement the groom's 'c; father along with some young relatives go into the bride house where some of her rela- tives had already gathered. The dinner is served and the bargain begins about how much the groom's father should pay for the wife to his son. Bargain usually takes along time. All of the relatives sometimes put their heads together. In the end they conclude that the groom's father should spare 3 sheep, one bull, one lire, different gifts and 25 coins (piasters) for mother of the bride just to com- pensate for the milk she gave her as a baby.

Toastmaster. After the engagement the young man is not allowed to see his bride. He can come and see her secretly. On big holidays both family send gifts each other. Basically it's food, decorations or robes for the bride.Several days before the wedding the khelle is to be sent to the bride's family.

Then the friend of both the bride and the groom take them to the bath-house. Very often the local musicians accompany the man there before washing him, the barber comes and cuts his hair and beard. The barber never gets any gift for his job. unlike Armenians. Then the toastmaster is chosen (gorshad'hlola): every young man invited to the wedding brings a gift, and the one who did the best gift is to be the toastmaster. He gets all of the gifts in order to spare them to those who will donate the weds chicken, sheep, wheat, etc.

It should be emphasized that Armenians, Kurds and Aissors share in one common tradition to donate a sheaf of wheat, a ram or a bull to honourable guest and wait fro some reward not only on the wedding day, but also on some other occasions .like travels.

Wedding day. Next morning relatives of both sexes come gathering at the bride's and groom's houses at a time.

The groom's fellows bring wedding dresses to the bride place to the music of the local instrument (zurna). Those dresses have made for her by the groom. There her girl- friends help her dress up singing different songs. One of the groom's relatives puts a ribbon around his bride's waist as he gives her a donation. Then she is unveiled and her veil is taken to the church for consecration. The veil is brought back to cover the bride's face again.

The groom's fellow return from his bride~ house to dress him up and take him to the church. On the way there they play the music (zuma) and fire the salute from guns. Inside the church the groom is left alone with his best man while the fellows go to take the bride. The best man's wife takes her by the right hand, and the groom's sisters take her by the left hand to go with her three times round the hearth and further on to the church.

The bride is brought in to stand with her groom by his right side while the best man by his left side. In the end the bride takes the opposite side because God made woman from Adam's left side.

Then the priest prays and lays a cover band on the bride and the best man's necks and ties it up in a cross manner to symbolize i that the bride depends on her groom as she sticks to him fast. Next, the priest puts a cross and a ring inside the bowl filled with wine, offers them the sacrament, takes the cross out of the bowl and gives it to the groom while the ring goes to the right little finger of the maiden. The groom' s best man holds jablan in his hand. This is a couple of crossed wooden sticks fastened to a square frame. Just some fruit lays on it (mostly ap- ples).

After the church ceremony the newly weds are taken outside. As they step out, people throw peanuts, raisins and small change over the heads of the weas. Then the procession moves towards the groom' s place with dancing and singing and firing from guns. When they all come passing the house of a fellow man, some folks start casting dry raisins and peanuts from the rooftop or ask the weds to come round to colber or sherbet.

As soon as the procession comes outside the groom' s house, general dancing begins. At this point the bride's father and the groom' s best man climb to the roof, then the armed young men followed them. The bride as she reaches the doorway should halt just as if she hesitates to step inside. This moment the young men fire from guns while the groom picks up an apple from jablan and casts it at his bride. The same .moment the groom' s mother comes out to see the bride. She gives a present and kissing takes her in- side the house. Guests shove and push each over trying to catch the apple which was cast by the groom for it has become sacred.

Very often the whole bowl of oil brought so that the bride should put her finger in it and put this oil on the door. This must be done just to show that the bride's arrival in Ithe house should make it prosper and happy. In the specially designed room the newly weds a carpet is fastened to the wall, and a mattress is laid on the floor .

The groom along with his best man sit down on the side of the mattress while his bride with the best man' s wife sit on the other side.

As soon as the bride is seated, someone brings a little boy and lays him on her kness just to show that her first baby should be a boy.

Then the feast continues during 3 running days. All guests come every morning and every night to bring food and feast together .

On the final day (the fourth or seventh day in order) every guest brings some special

bread called puff-pastry (Kada) for the weds. The method is the bread is laid on a tray with lit candles on its edges, and some young man picks it up and carries to hand it over to the toastmaster. He dances as he does it. The same day they all have a delicious dinner together. While they eat they split and share the pastry.

After the dinner jablan is put up for sale. The groom's best man or someother authori- tative man declares that the king has been dismissed from his throne so the orchard (jablan) is for sale. Anybody can buy it now. There comes the bargain. One offers one medzhid, another two medzhids, and another some other gift, and so on. All the money and things offered are to be gathered, and jablan goes to someone who paid more. The owner of jablan disperses all the apples among the guests. The money paid for it sometimes compensates the wedding ex- penses.

The day jablan goes for sale the weds ie- tire to the bedroom. And women who are fond of rumours just come in to certify that the bride was a virgin.

14. Family life of Aissors Aissors in Tkhoma and Tyari still have a patriarchal family. There are some families that gathe~c arocund 50 people at a time. The organizatio11and family life just look exactly like Armenian. The highest authority also is

the properiety of the family and assign his people to the job.ccAfterhis death this author- ity passes over to his younger brother or el- der son. But it is the mother who runs the family life. She takes care of the entire wealth of the family and' assigns her maidens and daughters-in-law to the job. Like Arme- nians Aissors do not allow daughters-in-law to talk either to father-in-law mother-in-law or brother-in-law over a long time. They never dine along with the men, and she is allowed at the table no sooner than the men finish the meal.

The Aissorian woman just like the Arme- nian is very moral and highly industrious. And when the man goes out to find a job in another land, the woman does her household works and works in the field. As she returns home, she wears an armful of hay or water from the well. Then she makes bread and

.Children are only trained in military ex- ! cercises. At the age of 9 or 10 he gets a bow I and an arrow to go hunting for birds. When -he gets a little older, a curvy dagger becomes

a regular item of his clothing. Every Aisso- rian man carries a gun, and during any big holiday every young man takes his gun and goes to the church to pray and show his skill at shooting. Special horse riding that can show a skill never hapens as people in Ju- lamerk have no horses because of road scar- city. They just use mules instead.

gives birth to a boy child, she will dedicate her son to God sending him to do some per- manent job in the church, and if she gives a

girl she will give away the amount of money ~1 she gets for the girl' s marriage for the benefit .." of the church.

As soon as a child is born, he will be put in cold water and then his body dabbed with fine salt and wrapped up in a swaddle. This tradition stems from Ezekiel' s prophesy {XVI,4), &quotYou have never been washed for you revival, nor your skin has dabbed with salt nor wrapped up as a swaddle."

Parents normally are more happy to have a boy than a girl. Aissors just Armenian send their little children to congratulate the relatives of the new born baby and get a reward in return Baptizing. It must be done seven days after the child was born. On the eve they let the god father know about it without sending him a gift. In the morning he goes to visit the mother of the child to donate her one sheep if he can afford it, of course. Then he takes the child, passes him on his wife, and they go to the church together. There, if he is rich enough, he asks one priest to do liturgy and the other to baptize the child. Well, if he is not rich, then he invites only one priest. After the baptizing event the godfather or his wife carries the child away back home all alone holding no candles just to return the child to his mother who will put him in the crib or . beside her. In the end she gives all of them a i dinner .

They have some true national names, for example, Hoshaba-Resurection, Dinkha- Dawn. As a matter of fact, Aissors usually use patronimic names, Brun d' Gewargis -the son to Georgij Brata d'Gewargis the daughter to Georgij.

Removal of myrrh. The baptized child stays in the same swaddles during seven days. On the eigth day the godfathers wife comes to wash clean the parts of the child's body which were previously dabbed with myrh. Then the water is poured out in the river or in some clean place. The child then goes in for the washing and wrapping up in new swaddles. If a boy is born, his mother stays in bad during 40 days, if a girl, she should keep in bed for 60 days. While she does, she is not allowed to be with her husband or to go out. He eats alone and never touches anything in the house for she is held to be unclean. When she is up again she washes herself and her child and carries to the church along with gifts for priest, usually it is some oil, money or shawl. The priest reads a prayer for her and her child.

When the child begins to walk, they make kind of sweet mixture of roasted walnuts and raisins and pour it upon his head so that the little children who have gathered around should pick and eat it.

When the Aissor dies, someone shuts his eyes crossing his arms on the chest and straightening his legs. If the dead man's eyes remain open, he is said to have been waiting for some relative who went on quest for a job in another land.

The late man is put with his face looking east and with earthenware pot smoking frank incense at his feet. If someone dies, his rela- tives and the priest are to be called in immediately. After praying the priest makes a cross from wood places it inside a pot filled with water and tells someone to heat the water . Then the belfry man or some old man if the late person is a male, or an old woman if the late person is a female, comes in to wash it. The method is washing starts with the index finger on the right hand plunged in the holy water and then the washing person by hand makes cross on the forehead of the late per- son. Next he washes the whole right side of the body with water and soap, then he repeats this method on the other side. Some of the holy water will be poured into a basin, the remainder will go wasted. Then the cross is put inside the basin. Near the basin there is a candlelight. They also place the upturned pot over the basin and candlelight so that some air should go in to keep candle lights for 3 running days. Then they make a canvass shirt and underwear to dress the late person. Its legs arms and spine are tied with canvass again. The face remains unveiled temporarily. Then the body will be laid on a kind of stretchers made from two long sticks with some cloth across. Rich people sometimes may buy a coffin.

Soon the priest and relatives both men and women come along. Then the funeral begins when relatives take up the stretchers and put down three times at a time, then carry it to the graveyard. In the house where the body was before they put up a candle which burns for three days. Meantime, the funeral procession is headed be the priest and the deacon followed by four men with the coffin or stretchers on their shoulders.

If the late man was rich, a horse is led by ahead of the procession. The horse carries a saddle mounted correctly unlike Armenians do. Only Aissors lay a long band of colored cloth on the back of the horse. Some of the procession carry a sabre and some other arms in the reverse manner .

When the funeral procession comes to any place, the body will be put down, and the woman gather around to cry for the dead singing songs full of sorrow.- Sometimes they are not allowed to do so for their tears will 'soak' the place of the dead man in his life after death and he will be trouble. Then the women return to the house of the late person while the men take up the stretchers or coffin and put it down three times again and then carry it to the graveyard. In the burial event the priest the picks up some soil and every- body does the same. Then the body is taken out of the stretchers and lowered inside the grave, and the priest consecrates the soil around, and a handful of it he takes and casts on the coffin. During the funeral ceremony a special carpet is held over the coffin and then they carry it back home to wash clean and re- use.

After that the people who attended the fu- neral express their condolence with the rela- tives of the dead and start out to the riverside or some other pool of water, where the priest reads prayers to those who have gathered there. If there is no river reads a pool of wa- ter around, then the prayer is to be made over the water someone brought for the purpose. Everybody washes up with this water and goes to the church to hear liturgy if the buried man was rich.

If the man was poor, .then people just go back to his home. In both cases the people from the funeral are offered a dinner that was brought by the relatives of the late person. After the dinner the priest blesses the meal and makes the service fot the dead man's relatives again and start out fro home.

On the third day after the funeral the woman take the basin of the water that was used to wash the dead body and the wooden cross to go to the graveyard where the priest waits for them. The priest blesses the grave sprinkling the same water over it, and fixing the wooden cross at the head of the dead person. Then he breaks the basin. Everybody goes inside the church to hear liturgy. After that a large pot is brought outside the church. They cook meat in it. Everyone gets apiece of meat on bread in the end.

On the ninth day everybody goes to the graveyard to the church and then to hear lit- urgy again. Then they. are invited to the dinner.

When the dinner is over, everybody is gone except the godfather and godmother along with some close relatives of the dead man. The godfather disperses gifts among those present grief and call in the barber who cuts the men's beards while the godmother heats up some water to wash the woman's hair.

After a year the people gather in the church for liturgy again. Now the whole village .is treated with food. For this purpose they cut 5 to l0 sheep or l or 2 bulls. .

The grave, Cemetries are laid out on either' J side of the road outside the village. Every family has its own sector in it. Normally ~ graves are dug lm deep, but for woman 1 graves are done even that deeper for death happened because of them as Eva betrayed , Adam and caused him to die." Some cobble- stones are to be laid in circle on the bottom of the grave, and when the body is lowered inside: then some cobble-stones are also to be laid on the face of the dead person, filling the openings between the stones with dort and then only with the ground. Instead of tomb-stone they lay the dead man's shabby old garments in a cross manner on the grave. However, the garments should be taken and re-used in three days after the funeral. On the rich man's grave construction that looks like a little lm high square house will be put up with an opening on the side. On the same 1 side a small niche is made to house some .I frankincense and candle lights. The grave digger gets his fee in a fashion that he should j be invited to a meal several times shortly .1 after the funeral.

1 Newsletters from Caucasian Military Distirct. 1904, nos 3-4

2 E. Chantre, Recherches anthrop. Dans le Caucase. T.IV, 1887

3 G. Von Erkert,. Anthropological measurements of Caucasian peoples. Newsletters from Caucasian Branch, I.R.G.O., vol. 8 1884-1885

4 I.I. Pantyukhov. Anthropological surveys in Caucasus Notes from Caucasian Branch, I.R.G.O., vol 8 1884-1885

5 A. A. Arutyunov, Anthropology of Aissors. Russian Anthropological Journal, 1902, no. 4

6 I should like to mention that I did not use any printed material on the history of maliks as noneluck. I could . really find. According to Mar Shimmun and Kochanis 1 missionaries nothing has ever been writen about it. I .~j gathered all iliformation from old residents in the t villages where maliks live