Transcribed from the 1901 Methuen & Co edition by DavidPrice,
LAVENGRO
The Scholar—The Gypsy—The Priest
By
GEORGE BORROW
WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTION
By F. HINDES GROOME
VOLUME II
WITH A FRONTISPIECE
LONDON
METHUEN & CO
36 ESSEX STREET, W.C.
MDCCCCI
p.1 CHAPTER XLIX
Singular Personage—A Large Sum—Papa ofRome—We are Christians—DegenerateArmenians—Roots of Ararat—Regular Features.
The Armenian! I frequently saw this individual, availingmyself of the permission which he had given me to call uponhim. A truly singular personage was he, with his love ofamassing money, and his nationality so strong as to be akin topoetry. Many an Armenian I have subsequently known fond ofmoney-getting, and not destitute of national spirit; but neveranother who, in the midst of his schemes of lucre, was at alltimes willing to enter into a conversation on the structure ofthe Haik language, or who ever offered me money to render intoEnglish the fables of Z--- in the hope of astonishing thestock-jobbers of the Exchange with the wisdom of the HaikEsop.
But he was fond of money, very fond. Within a littletime I had won his confidence to such a degree that he informedme that the grand wish of his heart was to be possessed of twohundred thousand pounds.
p.2“I think you might satisfy yourself with thehalf,” said I. “One hundred thousand pounds isa large sum.”
“You are mistaken,” said the Armenian, “ahundred thousand pounds is nothing. My father left me thator more at his death. No, I shall never be satisfied withless than two.”
“And what will you do with your riches,” said I,“when you have obtained them? Will you sit down andmuse upon them, or will you deposit them in a cellar, and go downonce a day to stare at them? I have heard say that thefulfilment of one’s wishes is invariably the precursor ofextreme misery, and forsooth I can scarcely conceive a morehorrible state of existence than to be without a hope orwish.”
“It is bad enough, I dare say,” said the Armenian;“it will, however, be time enough to think of disposing ofthe money when I have procured it. I still fall short by avast sum of the two hundred thousand pounds.”
I had occasionally much conversation with him on the state andprospects of his nation, especially of that part of it whichstill continued in the original country of the Haiks—Araratand its confines, which, it appeared, he had frequentlyvisited. He informed me that since the death of the lastHaik monarch, which occurred in the eleventh century, Armenia hadbeen governed both temporally and spiritually by certainpersonages called patriarchs; their temporal authority, however,was much circumscribed by the Persian and Turk, especially theformer, of whom the Armenian spoke with much hatred, whilst theirspiritual authority had at various times been considerablyundermined p. 3by the emissaries of the Papa of Rome,as the Armenian called him.
“The Papa of Rome sent his emissaries at an early periodamongst us,” said the Armenian, “seducing the mindsof weak-headed people, persuading them that the hillocks