ZEITHIIN, a t. and district in the highlands of Cilicia, lying in 37° to 38° n. lat. and 34° to 35° e. inhabited by a community of Armenian Christians, virtually independ ent of the Turkish government, and forming in fact an Asiatic republic. Zeithun lies in UT upper basin of the Jyliun or Pyramus, where that rivcr crosses the Taurus mount ains in descending from the tableland of Asia Minor to the low plain of Cilicia, which .tirrourills the me. corner of the Mediterranean sea. It is surrounded on all sides by Ina( cessible crags. except on the e., where it is bounded by the deep channel of the Pyrettn‘m The hills are covered with magnificent pines, plane trees, and evergreen oaks. Springs and brooks, never dried up during the summer, irrigate the meadows in all diree tions; but the log, although abounding in patches of great fertility, does not produce train in sufficient quantity to supply the wants of the inhabitants. The mulberry trees are, howei;-er, numerous in the orchards, and give constant occupation to the women in feeding silk-worms. The men are chiefly engaged in smelting and manufacturing the iron supplied by the mountains into plowshares, horse-shoes, nails, etc., which they exchange for corn and other articles at Marash and Kaisariyeh. The language of Zeithun is a rude dialect of Armenian, in which the only literature consists of popular songs not committed to writing, Education is much neglected among children, who, except when intended for the priesthood, are not sent to school after the age of 10 or 12. The inhab itants, like the kindred race in Armenia, are free from Asiatic vices. They resemble Europeans in their respect for women. Crime is not frequent. No prisons exist, and it is asserted that murder has never been committed in the country for the sake of gain. There may lie exaggeration in these statements, but the Zeithumlus are certainly open hearted mountaineers. They have, however, shown the greatest jealousy of foreigners; mill until 1854, when their country was visited by M. Leon Paul, a French Protestant clergyman, we only knew of them from the statements of Armenian priests, and articles in the Armenian newspapers of Constantinople. Even now, our information about them
is rather scanty. The government seems to be patriarchal, vested in elders of the people, with sonic prerogatives in the priesthood. When a grievance is felt, complaint is made to the priests, who meet in council, and refer the complaint to the elders assembled as a senate: they decide on the course to be taken. All offices are conferred by popular election, the executive power being placed in the hands of four princes. There are 20 villages in the district, and the chief town, Zeithun, is said to contain 20,000 inhabitants. The Zeithumlus can muster an army of from 7,000 to 8,000 men to defend the mountains against the Turkish pashas; and they are in alliance With a neighboring Turcoman chief, also independent of the Turks, who brings 10.000 men into the field. Zeithun is a relic of the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia, founded in the 11th and destroyed in the 14th c. Since that period, the native populations have been gradually assimilating to the Turks, a. change much favored by the extreme facility with which the Turkish language is acquired. It was not till after the Crimean war that the massacres in the east called special attention to the existence of Zeithun and other Christian communities in the east, which had some claim to European sympathy. Au attempt by the Turks to settle Cir cassians near Zeithun, gave Aziz Pasha of Marash an opportunity of attacking the Chris tians, and the atrocities committed remind one of the worst excesses of Cawnpore. The inhabitants defended themselves, however, with the greatest gallantry, twice defeating in the field large Turkish forces; and the struggle was at length terminated by the inter ference of ;lie French and English governments at Constantinople, and the recall of the pasha. Unfortunately the Turks were allowed to suppress the Armenian newspaper which acquainted the European public with what is taking place at Zeithun, and we now hear little about it. But the Zeithumlus have from time to time to defend them selves against Turkish encroachment.