Even
when foreign intervention procures some edict in their favor, these
same officials, in distant Oroomiah, are at no loss to evade its
demands.
The Nestorian is not allowed a place in the bazaar;[1] he cannot
engage in commerce. And in the mechanic arts, he cannot aspire
higher than the position of a mason or carpenter; which, of course,
is not to be compared to the standing of the same trades among us.
When our missionaries went to Oroomiah, a decent garment on a
Nestorian was safe only as it had an outer covering of rags to hide
it.
[Footnote 1: The bazaar is, literally, the market, but denotes the
business part of a city.]
In their language, as in Arabic, the missionaries found no word for
_home;_ and there was no need of it, for the thing itself was
wanting. The house consisted of one large room and was generally
occupied by several generations. In that one room all the work of
the family was performed. There they ate, and there they slept. The
beds consisted of three articles--a thick comfortable filled with
wool or cotton beneath, a pillow, and one heavy quilt for covering.
On rising, they "took up their beds," and piled them on a wooden
frame, and spread them down again at night.
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