The Entrance May Be Shut Up By A Small Door; It Is The Exclusive
Habitation Of The Ladies, And Is Only Met With In Families Who Are
Possessed Of Large Property.
The tent or hut of a Turkman is always
surrounded by three or four others, in which the Fellah families live
who cultivate his land.
These Fellahs are the remaining peasants of
abandoned villages, or some poor straggling Kurds. The Turkmans find the
necessary seed, and receive in return half the produce, which is
collected by a few of them who remain for this purpose in the winter
quarters the whole year round. The Fellahs live wretchedly; whenever
they are able to scrape together a small pittance, their masters take it
from them under pretence of borrowing it; I was treated by several of
them at dinner with the best dish they could afford: bad oil, with
coarse bread; they never taste meat except when they kill a cow or an
ox, disabled by sickness or age; the greater part of them live literally
upon bread and water, neither fruits or vegetables being cultivated
here; they are nevertheless, a cheerful good-natured people; the young
men play, sing, and dance, every evening, and are infinitely better
tempered [p.637] than their haughty masters. My host, Mohammed Ali,
began a few years ago to plant a small garden of fruit trees near his
tents; his example will probably be generally followed, because the
Ryhanlu families, at every returning season, pitch their tents on the
same spot.
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