Notes from Armenia. 429
occur. So we will begin with periodical religious attempts to secure rain.
Annual Rain-Charm.
Amongst the Armenian people it is the custom, on a par- ticular day in the year, to throw water over one another. The day of this exercise is the Feast of the Transfigura- tion, and the festival itself is called by the name of Vartevar. Although in its modern form the custom of water-throwing is little more than a sport of boys, the evidence is abundant that the throwing of water was originally a religious exercise, and that it goes back to very early times.
Its religious character is attested by the fact that in the Armenian Churches there is an aspersion of the people by the priests on the Transfiguration festival ; while the boys are throwing water out of doors the priests are throwing water indoors ; and since the custom prevails all over the Armenian Churches and, as I shall presently point out, in the Syrian Churches also, we have sufficient evidence of the antiquity of the custom, apart from the folklore parallels and the illustrations drawn from other and ancient religions. We are, therefore, entitled to say that there was an ancient annual Rain-Festival, held on a given day in the summer, probably throughout Asia Minor. Now for some details.
The custom can be verified all over Armenia; we found it at Moush, at Pirvan,^ at Egin," at Harpoot, at Ourfa, and practically in every place where we made inquiry.
But in no place did they seem to know the meaning of the term Vartevar, and when questioned they offered false etymologies, connecting the word with the name Rose
' A village not far from Kebana Maden, an ancient mining town on the Euphrates, somewhat lower down than the junction of the Upper Euphrates with the Lower Euphrates or Murad Su.
- A much-desolated city on the Upper Euphrates.
