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diff --git a/old/53046-0.txt b/old/53046-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 68782aa..0000000 --- a/old/53046-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6494 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ravished Armenia, by H. L. Gates - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Ravished Armenia - The Story of Aurora Mardiganian - -Author: H. L. Gates - -Contributor: Nora Waln - -Release Date: September 13, 2016 [EBook #53046] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAVISHED ARMENIA *** - - - - -Produced by Cindy Horton and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - -Transcriber’s Note: Suspected printer errors have been corrected. -There are variations in the spelling of a number of names that have -been transliterated from the Armenian, and these have not been changed. - - - - - -RAVISHED ARMENIA - -[Illustration: THE LONG LINE THAT SWIFTLY GREW SHORTER - -One of the most striking photographs of the deportations that have come -out of Armenia. Here is shown a column of Christians on the path across -the great plains of the Mamuret-ul-Aziz. The zaptiehs are shown walking -along at one side.] - - - - - RAVISHED ARMENIA - - THE STORY OF - AURORA MARDIGANIAN - - THE CHRISTIAN GIRL WHO LIVED THROUGH - THE GREAT MASSACRES - - _INTERPRETED BY H. L. GATES_ - - WITH A FOREWORD BY - NORA WALN - - _AND FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS_ - - [Illustration: SAVE - A LIFE - - ARMENIAN SYRIAN RELIEF] - - NEW YORK - KINGFIELD PRESS, INC. - - Copyright, 1918, by - KINGFIELD PRESS, INC. - New York - - - - -MY DEDICATION - - -To each mother and father, in this beautiful land of the United States, -who has taught a daughter to believe in God, I dedicate my book. I saw -my own mother’s body, its life ebbed out, flung onto the desert because -she had taught me that Jesus Christ was my Saviour. I saw my father die -in pain because he said to me, his little girl, “Trust in the Lord; His -will be done.” I saw thousands upon thousands of beloved daughters of -gentle mothers die under the whip, or the knife, or from the torture of -hunger and thirst, or carried away into slavery because they would not -renounce the glorious crown of their Christianity. God saved me that I -might bring to America a message from those of my people who are left, -and every father and mother will understand that what I tell in these -pages is told with love and thankfulness to Him for my escape. - -AURORA MARDIGANIAN. - -The Latham, New York City, December, 1918. - - - - - THIS STORY OF - AURORA MARDIGANIAN - - which is the most amazing narrative ever written - has been reproduced - - for the American Committee for - Armenian and Syrian Relief in a - - TREMENDOUS MOTION PICTURE - SPECTACLE - - “RAVISHED ARMENIA” - - Through which runs the thrilling yet - tender romance of this - - CHRISTIAN GIRL WHO SURVIVED - THE GREAT MASSACRES - - Undoubtedly it is one of the greatest and most - elaborate motion pictures of the age--every stirring - scene through which Aurora lives in the book, is - lived again on the motion picture screen. - - SEE AURORA, HERSELF, IN HER STORY - - Scenario by Nora Waln--Staged by Oscar Apfel - - Produced by Selig Enterprises - - Presented in a selected list of cities - - By the - - American Committee for - ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - ACKNOWLEDGMENT 9 - - FOREWORD 11 - - ARSHALUS--THE LIGHT OF THE MORNING 19 - - I WHEN THE PASHA CAME TO MY HOUSE 29 - - II THE DAYS OF TERROR BEGIN 47 - - III VAHBY BEY TAKES HIS CHOICE 64 - - IV THE CRUEL SMILE OF KEMAL EFFENDI 80 - - V THE WAYS OF THE ZAPTIEHS 99 - - VI RECRUITING FOR THE HAREMS OF CONSTANTINOPLE 116 - - VII MALATIA--THE CITY OF DEATH 132 - - VIII IN THE HAREM OF HADJI GHAFOUR 145 - - IX THE RAID ON THE MONASTERY 158 - - X THE GAME OF THE SWORDS, AND DIYARBEKIR 174 - - XI “ISHIM YOK; KEIFIM TCHOK!” 191 - - XII REUNION--AND THEN, THE SHEIKH ZILAN 208 - - XIII OLD VARTABED AND THE SHEPHERD’S CALL 223 - - XIV THE MESSAGE OF GENERAL ANDRANIK 239 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - The Long Line that Swiftly Grew Shorter _Frontispiece_ - - Map Showing Aurora’s Wanderings _Page_ 75 - - Waiting They Know Not What _Facing Page_ 158 - - Driven Forth on the Road of Terror ” ” 192 - - The Roadside of Awful Despair ” ” 234 - - - - -ACKNOWLEDGMENT - - -For verification of these amazing things, which little Aurora told -me that I might tell them, in our own language, to all the world, I -am indebted to Lord Bryce, formerly British Ambassador to the United -States, who was commissioned by the British Government to investigate -the massacres; to Dr. Clarence Ussher, of whom Aurora speaks in her -story, and who witnessed the massacres at Van; and to Dr. MacCallum, -who rescued Aurora at Erzerum and made possible her coming to America. -You may read Aurora’s story with entire confidence--every word is true. -As the story of what happened to one Christian girl, it is a proven -document. - - H. L. GATES. - - - - -FOREWORD - - -She stood beside me--a slight little girl with glossy black hair. -Until I spoke to her and she lifted her eyes in which were written -the indelible story of her suffering, I could not believe that she -was Aurora Mardiganian whom I had been expecting. She could not speak -English, but in Armenian she spoke a few words of greeting. - -It was our first meeting and in the spring of last year. Several weeks -earlier a letter had come to me telling me about this little Armenian -girl who was to be expected, asking me to help her upon her arrival. -The year before an Armenian boy had come from our relief station in the -Caucasus and kind friends had made it possible to send him to boarding -school. I had formed a similar plan to send Aurora to the same school -when she should arrive. - -We talked about education that afternoon, through her interpreter, but -she shook her head sadly. She would like to go to school, and study -music as her father had planned she should before the massacres, but -now she had a message to deliver--a message from her suffering nation -to the mothers and fathers of the United States. The determination in -the child’s eyes made me ask her her age and she answered “Seventeen.” - -Tired, and worn out nervously, as she was, Aurora insisted upon telling -us of the scenes she had left behind her--massacres, families driven -out across the desert, girls sold into Turkish harems, women ravished -by the roadside, little children dying of starvation. She begged us to -help her to help her people. “My father said America was the friend of -the oppressed. General Andranik sent me here because he trusted you to -help me,” she pleaded. - -And so her story was translated. Sometimes there had to be intervals of -rest of several days, because her suffering had so unnerved her. She -wanted to keep at it during all the heat of the summer, but by using -the argument that she would learn English, we persuaded her to go to a -camp off the coast of Connecticut for three weeks. - -You who read the story of Aurora Mardiganian’s last three years, -will find it hard to believe that in our day and generation such -things are possible. Your emotions will doubtless be similar to mine -when I first heard of the suffering of her people. I remember very -distinctly my feelings, when, early in October of 1917, I attended a -luncheon given by the Executive Committee of the American Committee for -Armenian and Syrian Relief, to a group of seventeen American Consuls -and missionaries who had just returned from Turkey after witnessing -two years of massacre and deportation. I listened to persons, the -truthfulness of whose statements I could not doubt, tell how a church -had been filled with Christian Armenians, women and children, saturated -with oil and set on fire, of refined, educated girls, from homes as -good as yours or mine, sold in the slave markets of the East, of little -children starving to death, and then to the plea for help for the -pitiful survivors who have been gathered into temporary relief stations. - -I listened almost unable to believe and yet as I looked around the -luncheon table there were familiar faces, the faces of men and women -whose word I could not doubt--Dr. James L. Barton, Chairman of the -American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, Ambassadors -Morgenthau and Elkus, who spoke from personal knowledge, Cleveland H. -Dodge, whose daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Huntington is in Constantinople, -and whose son is in Beirut, both helping with relief work, Miss Lucille -Foreman of Germantown, C. V. Vickrey, Executive Secretary of the -American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, Dr. Samuel T. Dutton -of the World Court League, George T. Scott, Presbyterian Board of -Foreign Missions, and others. - -And you who read this story as interpreted will find it even harder to -believe than I did, because you will not have the personal verification -of the men and women who can speak with authority that I had at that -luncheon. Since then it has happened that nearly every communication -from the East--Persia, Russian Caucasus and the Ottoman Empire, has -passed through my hands and I know that conditions have not been -exaggerated in this book. In this introduction I want to refer you to -Lord Bryce’s report, to Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story, to the recent -speeches of Lord Cecil before the British Parliament, and the files of -our own State Department, and you will learn that stories similar to -this one can be told by any one of the 3,950,000 refugees, the number -now estimated to be destitute in the Near East. - -This is a human living document. Miss Mardiganian’s names, dates and -places, do not correspond exactly with similar references to these -places made by Ambassador Morgenthau, Lord Bryce and others, but we -must take into consideration that she is only a girl of seventeen, -that she has lived through one of the most tragic periods of history -in that section of the world which has suffered most from the war, -that she is not a historian, that her interpreter in giving this story -to the American public has not attempted to write a history. He has -simply aimed to give her message to the American people that they may -understand something of the situation in the Near East during the past -years, and help to establish there for the future, a sane and stable -government. - -Speaking of the character of the Armenians, Ambassador Morgenthau says -in a recent article published in the New York _Evening Sun_: “From -the times of Herodotus this portion of Asia has borne the name of -Armenia. The Armenians of the present day are the direct descendants -of the people who inhabited the country 3,000 years ago. Their origin -is so ancient that it is lost in fable and mystery. There are still -undeciphered cuneiform inscriptions on the rocky hills of Van, the -largest Armenian city, that have led certain scholars--though not many, -I must admit--to identify the Armenian race with the Hittites of the -Bible. What is definitely known about the Armenians, however, is that -for ages they have constituted the most civilized and most industrious -race in the Eastern section of the Ottoman Empire. From their mountains -they have spread over the Sultan’s dominions, and form a considerable -element in the population of all the large cities. Everywhere they -are known for their industry, their intelligence and their decent and -orderly lives. They are so superior to the Turks intellectually and -morally that much of the business and industry has passed into their -hands. With the Greeks, the Armenians constituted the economic strength -of the Empire. These people became Christians in the fourth century and -established the Armenian Church as their state religion. This is said -to be the oldest Christian Church in existence. - -“In face of persecutions which have had no parallel elsewhere, these -people have clung to their early Christian faith with the utmost -tenacity. For 1,500 years they have lived there in Armenia, a little -island of Christians, surrounded by backward peoples of hostile -religion and hostile race. Their long existence has been one unending -martyrdom. The territory which they inhabit forms the connecting link -between Europe and Asia, and all the Asiatic invasions--Saracens, -Tartars, Mongols, Kurds and Turks--have passed over their peaceful -country.” - -Aurora Mardiganian has come to America to tell the story of her -suffering peoples and to do her part in making it possible for her -country to be rebuilt. She is only a little girl, but in giving her -story to the American people through the daily newspapers, in this -book, and the motion picture which is being prepared for that purpose -by the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, she is, I -feel, playing one of the greatest parts in helping to reëstablish again -“peace on earth, good will to men” in ancient Bible Lands, the home -in her generation of her people. Her mother, her father, her brothers -and sisters are gone, but according to the most careful estimates, -3,950,000 destitute peoples, mostly women and children who had been -driven many of them as far as one thousand miles from home, turn their -pitiful faces toward America for help in the reconstructive period in -which we are now living. - -Dr. James L. Barton, who is leaving this month with a commission of two -hundred men and women for the purpose of helping to rehabilitate these -lands from which Aurora came, is a part of the answer to the call for -help from these destitute people. The American Committee for Armenian -and Syrian Relief Campaign for $30,000,000, in which it is hoped all of -the people of America will participate, is another part of the answer. - -You who read this book can play a part also in helping Aurora to -deliver her message, by passing it on to some one else when you have -finished with it. - - December 2, 1918 - One Madison Ave., - New York - - NORA WALN, - Publicity Secretary, - American Committee for - Armenian and Syrian Relief. - - - - -ARSHALUS--THE LIGHT OF THE MORNING - -A PROLOGUE TO THE STORY - - -Old Vartabed, the shepherd whose flocks had clothed three generations, -stood silhouetted against the skies on the summit of a Taurus hill. His -figure was motionless, erect and very tall. The signs of age were in -every crease of his grave, strong face, yet his hands folded loosely on -his stick, for he would have scorned to lean upon it. - -To the east and north spread the plains of the Mamuret-ul-Aziz, with -here and there a plateau reaching out from a nest of foothills. -Each Spring, through twenty-five centuries, other shepherds than -Old Vartabed had stood on this same hilltop to watch the plains and -plateaux of the Mamuret-ul-Aziz turn green, but few had seen the grass -and shrubs sprout so early as they had this year. Old Vartabed should -have been greatly pleased at such promise of a good season, and should -have spoken to his sheep about it--for that was his way. - -But the shepherd was troubled. A strange foreboding had come to him in -the night. Even at daybreak he could not shake it off. He was gazing -now, not at the stretches of welcome green which soon would soothe the -bleating of his sheep, but across into the north beyond, where the blue -line of the Euphrates was lost in the haze of dawn. What his old eyes -sought there, he did not know; but something seemed to threaten from up -there in the north. - -Suddenly the lazy, droning call to the Third Prayer, with which the -devout Mohammedan greets the light of day, floated up from the valley -at Old Vartabed’s feet. It brought the shepherd out of his reverie -abruptly. “There, that was it! That was the sign. The danger might come -from the north, but it would show itself first, whatever it was to be, -in the city.” - -The shepherd looked down into the valley, onto the housetops and the -narrow, winding streets that separated them. He caught the glint of -the minaret as the muezzin again intoned his summons. Quickly his eyes -leaped across the city to where the first glimpse of sunshine played -about a crumbled pile of brown and gray--the ruins of the castle of -Tchemesh, an ancient Armenian king. A piteous sadness gathered in his -face. The minaret still stood; the castle of the king was fallen. That -was why there were two sets of prayers in the city, and why trouble was -coming out of the north. - -The old man planted his stick upright in the ground as a sign to his -sheep that where the stick stood their shepherd was bound to return. -Then he picked his way down the path that led to the lower slopes where -the houses of the city began. With a firm, even step that belied his -many years, he strode through the city until he came to the streets -marked by the imposing homes of the rich. A short turn along the side -of the park that served as a public square brought him to the home of -the banker, Mardiganian. In this house Old Vartabed was always welcome. -He had been the keeper of herds belonging to three succeeding heads of -the Mardiganian families. - -A servant woman opened the door in the street wall and admitted the -shepherd to the inner garden. When she had closed the door again, the -visitor asked: - -“Is the Master still within the house, or has he gone this early to his -business?” - -“Shame upon you for the asking!” the woman replied, with a servant’s -quick uncivility to her kind. “Have you forgotten what day it is, that -you should think the Master would be at business?” - -Amazement showed in the old man’s eyes. The woman saw that he had, -indeed, forgotten. She spoke more kindly: - -“Do you not know, Vartabed, that this is Easter Sunday morning?” - -The old man accepted the reminder, but his dignity quickly reasserted -itself. “If you live as many days as Old Vartabed you will wish to -forget more than one of them--perhaps one that is coming soon more -than any other.” - -The woman had no patience for the sententiousness of age, and the -veiled threat of coming ill she put down for petulance. But her sharp -reply fell upon unheeding ears. The shepherd crossed the garden without -further parleys and entered the house. - -The house of the Mardiganians was typical of the homes of the -well-to-do Armenians of to-day. The wide doorway which opened from -the garden was approached by handsome steps of white marble, and the -spacious hall within was floored with large slabs of the same material. -Outside, the house presented a rather gloomy appearance, because, -perhaps, of the need of protection against the sometimes rigorous -climate; inside there was every sign of luxury and opulence. The space -of ground occupied was prodigious, as the rooms were terraced, one -above the other, the roof of one being used as a dooryard garden for -the one above. - -In the large reception room, into which Old Vartabed strode, there was -a great stone fireplace, with a low divan branching out on either side -and running around three sides of the room. Beautiful tapestry covers -of native manufacture, and silk cushions made by hand, covered this -divan. Soft, thick rugs of tekke, which is a Persian and Kurdish weave -built upon felt foundations, were strewn over the marble floor. Over -the fireplace hung a rare Madonna; a landscape by a popular Armenian -artist, and a Dutch harbor by Peniers hung on the walls at the side. In -a corner of the room, under a floor lamp, was a piano. Oriental delight -in bright colorings was apparent, but the ensemble was tasteful and -subdued. - -The shepherd waited, standing, in the center of the room until his -employer entered and gave him the Easter morning greeting which Armenia -has preserved since the world was young: - -“Christ is risen from the dead, my good Vartabed!” - -“Blessed be the resurrection of Christ,” the old man replied, as the -custom dictates. Then he spoke, with an earnestness which the other man -quickly detected, of that which had brought him to the house. - -It was a vision he had seen during the night. “Our Saint Gregory -appeared to me in my sleep and pressed his hand upon me heavily. -‘Awake, Old Vartabed; awake! Thy sheep are in danger, even though -they be favored of God. Awake and save them!’ This, the good saint -said to me. Hurriedly I arose, but when my old eyes were fully opened -the vision was gone. I rushed out to the fold, but it was only I who -disturbed the flock. They were resting peacefully. - -“But I could not sleep again. Each time my eyes closed our Saint stood -before me, seeming to reprove my idleness. At dawn I took my sheep to -the hills--and then I remembered!” - -Here the shepherd hesitated. He had spoken fast, and was nearly -breathless. His employer had listened with the consideration due one -so old, and so faithful, but not without a trace of amusement in his -immobile face. - -“It is a pity, Vartabed, your sleep was restless. This morning, of all -others, you should be joyful. Tell me what it was you remembered at -dawn, and then dismiss it from your mind.” - -“Some things, Master, neither you nor I can dismiss from our minds. I -remembered that once before our Saint appeared to me in my sleep with -a warning of danger. I gave no attention then, for I was younger, and -thoughtless. Those, also, were joyous times in Armenia, for there was -peace and prosperity. But that very day the holocaust came out of the -north; for that was twenty years ago.” - -Now, the other man started. He was shaken by a convulsive shudder, and -his face blanched. Twenty years ago--that was when a hundred thousand -of his people were massacred by Abdul Hamid! Without a word he walked -to a window, separated the curtains and looked out upon the house -garden. - -The banker, Mardiganian, was a true type of the successful, modern -Armenian business man. He did not often smile, but his voice was kind, -and his eyes were gentle. In the Easter morning promenades in any -avenue in Europe or America he would have been a conventional figure, -passed without notice. When he turned from the window, after a moment, -only a close observer could have detected in his face or manner that -inexplainable, intangible something which, indelibly, marks a race -cradled in oppression. - -“What happened twenty years ago, my Vartabed, can never happen again. -We Armenians have done nothing to rouse the anger of our overlords, -the Turks. On the contrary, we have proven our willingness to serve -the state. Our young men have been called into this great war which is -ravaging the world. Even though their sympathies are with the Sultan’s -enemies, they have not shown it. They have freely given their lives in -battle for a cause they hate, that the Turk may have no excuse to vent -his wrath upon our people. Less than a week ago the Sultan’s minister, -the powerful Enver, expressed his gratitude to us for the services we -are rendering the Crescent. They dare not molest us again.” - -“But the vision that came to me last night was the same that would have -warned me that night in 1895 of the tragedy then in store for us.” - -“This time, nevertheless, it was but an idle dream.” - -The banker spoke with the finality of conviction. The shepherd was -affronted by his calm disbelief in the sign of coming evil, as the -shepherd considered it. The old man left the room and crossed the -garden in high dudgeon. His hand was upon the gate, and in another -moment he would have been gone when a fresh, youthful voice arrested -him. - -“Vartabed--wait; I am coming!” - -The old man stopped abruptly. Looking back he saw coming toward him the -one who was closer to his heart than any other living thing--Arshalus, -a daughter of the Mardiganians. - -Arshalus--that means “The Light of the Morning.” There is but one -word in America into which the Armenian name can be translated--“The -Aurora.” And no other would be so fitting. She was a merry-eyed child -of fourteen years, hair and eyes as black as night; smile and spirit as -sunny as the brightest day. Every sheep in Old Vartabed’s flock was her -pet, especially the black ones. - -When she reached the waiting shepherd Aurora quickly discovered that he -was glum, and she chose to be piqued about it. - -“Surely you were not going without wishing me the happiness of the -Easter time, or has Old Vartabed ceased to care for the one who plagues -him so much?” She made a great show of pouting, but the old man’s hurt -could not be so easily mended. Perhaps the sight of Aurora intensified -it. - -“It is idle to wish happiness; it is better to give it. When one has -none to give he has no mission. I have no joy to give to-day, even to -you, my Aurora, and so I had not thought of seeking you.” - -“That is very wrong, Vartabed. To-day Christ is risen, and there is -joy everywhere. And even more for me than many others. Just yesterday -my father told me that before another Easter comes I am to go away to -finish my schooling--to Constantinople, or, perhaps, to Switzerland or -Paris. Does that not make you happy for me, Vartabed?” - -For an instant the old man gazed down upon the upturned face. Then his -hand reached for the gate again, as if to give support to the tall, -straight body that seemed to droop. Aurora thought she had pained him. -With an impulsive fondness she raised her hands as if to rest them upon -the old man’s breast. But before she could reach him the shepherd was -gone, and the gate had closed between them. - -An hour later Old Vartabed again stood on the summit of the hill, -looking down upon the city and the plains of the Mamuret-ul-Aziz, -bathed, now, in the glory of the full morning sun. A few miles to the -south lay the ridges and long abandoned tunnels which, according to -tradition, once were the busy workings of Solomon’s mines. Harpout, -where the caravans stop; Van, the metropolis, and Sivas, the “City of -Hope,” were far beyond the horizon, outpost cities of a nation which -was born before history. The old man’s thoughts visited each of these -jewel cities in turn, and pictured the hope and faith with which they -celebrated the coming of Easter. Then he turned again to the spires -and housetops reaching up from the plains below. For he was thinking -not only of Armenia--the beautiful, golden Armenia of that Easter day -in 1914, but, also, of the child who was named for “The Light of the -Morning.” - - H. L. GATES. - - - - -THE STORY OF AURORA MARDIGANIAN - - - - -CHAPTER I - -WHEN THE PASHA CAME TO MY HOUSE - - -My story begins with Easter Sunday morning, in April, 1915. In my -father’s house we prepared to observe the day with a joyous reverence, -increased by the news from Constantinople that the Turkish government -recently had expressed its gratitude for the loyal and valuable -service of the Armenian troops in the Great War. When Turkey joined -in the war, almost six months before, a great fear spread throughout -Armenia. Without the protecting influence of France and England, my -people were anxious lest the Turks take advantage of their opportunity -and begin again the old oppression of their Christian subjects. The -young Armenian men would have preferred to fight with the Sultan’s -enemies, but they hurried to enlist in the Ottoman armies, to prove -they were not disloyal. And now that the Sultan had acknowledged their -sacrifices, the fear of new persecutions at the hands of our Moslem -rulers gradually had disappeared. - -And in all our city, Tchemesh-Gedzak, twenty miles north of Harpout, -the capital of the district of Mamuret-ul-Aziz, there was none more -grateful for the promise of continued peace in Armenia than my father -and mother, and Lusanne, my elder sister and I. I was only fourteen -years old, and Lusanne was not yet seventeen, but even little girls -are always afraid in Armenia. I was quite excited that morning over -my father’s Easter gift to me--his promise that soon I could go to an -European school and finish my education as befits a banker’s daughter. -Lusanne was to be married, and she was bent upon enjoying the last -Easter day of her maidenhood. Even the early visit that morning of Old -Vartabed, our shepherd, who came just after daybreak, with a prophecy -of trouble, did not dampen our spirits. - -Standing before my looking glass I was rearranging for the hundredth -time the blue ribbons with which I had dressed my hair with, I must -confess, a secret hope that they would be the envy of all the other -girls at the church service. Lusanne was making use of her elder -sister’s privilege to scold me heartily for my vanity. Lusanne was -always very prim, and quiet. I was just about to tell her that she was -only jealous because she soon would be a wife and forbidden to wear -blue ribbons any more, when my mother came into the room. She stopped -just inside the door, and leaned against the wall. She did not say a -word--just looked at me. - -“Mother, what is it?” I cried. She did not answer, but silently pointed -to the window. Lusanne and I ran at once to look down into the street. -There at the gate to our yard stood three Turkish gendarmes, each with -a rifle, rigidly on guard. On their arms was the band that marked them -as personal attendants of Husein Pasha, the military commandant in our -district. - -I turned to my mother for an explanation. She had fallen in a heap on -the floor and was weeping. She did not speak, but pointed downward and -I knew that Husein Pasha had come to our house, and was downstairs. -Then my happiness was gone, and I, too, fell to the floor and cried. -Somehow I felt that the end had come. - -For a long time the powerful Husein Pasha, who was very rich and a -friend of the Sultan himself, had wanted me for his harem. His big -house sat in the midst of beautiful gardens, just outside the city. -There he had gathered more than a dozen of the prettiest Christian -girls from the surrounding towns. In Armenia the Mutassarif, or Turkish -commandant, is an official of great power. He accepts no orders, except -those that come direct from the Sultan’s ministers, and, as a rule, he -is cruel and autocratic. - -It is dangerous for an Armenian father to displease the Mutassarif. -When this representative of the Sultan sees a pretty Armenian girl he -would like to add to his harem there are many ways he may go about -getting her. The way of Husein Pasha was to bluntly ask her father -to sell or give her to him, with a veiled threat that if the father -refused he would be persecuted. To make the sale of the girl legal -and give the Mutassarif the right to make her his concubine it was -necessary only for him to persuade or compel her to forswear Christ and -become Mohammedan. - -Three times Husein Pasha had asked my father to give me to him. Three -times my father had defied his anger and refused. The Pasha was afraid -to punish us, as my father was wealthy, and through his friendship with -the British Consul at Harpout, Mr. Stevens, had obtained protection of -the Vali, or Governor, of the Mamuret-ul-Aziz province. But now the -British Consul was gone. The Vali was afraid of no one. And Husein -Pasha could, I knew, do as he pleased. Instinctively I knew, too, that -his visit to our house, with his escort of armed soldiers, meant that -he had come again to ask for me. - -I clung to my mother and Lusanne, with my two younger sisters holding -onto my skirt, while we listened at the head of the stairs to my father -and the governor talking. Husein was no longer asking for me--he was -demanding. I heard him say: “Soon orders from Constantinople will -arrive; you Christian dogs are to be sent away; not a man, woman or -child who denies Mohammed will be permitted to remain. When that time -comes there is none to save you but me. Give me the girl Aurora, and I -will take all your family under my protection until the crisis is past. -Refuse and you know what you may expect!” - -My father could not speak aloud. He was choked with fear and horror. -My mother screamed. I begged mother to let me rush downstairs and give -myself to the Pasha. I would do anything to save her and father and my -little brothers and sisters. Then father found his voice, and we heard -him saying to the Pasha: - -“God’s will shall be done--and He would never will that my child should -sacrifice herself to save us.” - -My mother held me closer. “Your father has spoken--for you and us.” - -Husein Pasha went away in anger, his escort marching stiffly behind. -Scarcely had he disappeared than there was a great commotion in the -streets. Crowds began to assemble at the corners. Men ran to our house -to tell us news that had just been brought by a horseman who had ridden -in wild haste from Harpout. - -“They are massacring at Van; men, women and children are being hacked -to pieces. The Kurds are stealing the girls!” - -Van is the greatest city in Armenia. It was once the capital of the -Vannic kingdom of Queen Semiramis. It was the home of Xerxes, and, we -are taught, was built by the King Aram in the midst of what was the -first land uncovered after the Deluge--the Holy Place where the ark of -Noah rested. It is very dear to Armenians, and was one of the centers -of our church and national life. It lies two hundred miles away from -Tchemesh-Gedzak, and was the home of more than 50,000 of our people. -The Vali of Van, Djevdet Bey, was the principal Turkish ruler in -Armenia--and the most cruel. A massacre at Van meant that soon it would -spread over all Armenia. - -They brought the horseman from Harpout to our house. My father tried to -question him but all he could say was: - -“Ermenleri hep kesdiler--hep gitdi bitdi!”--“The Armenians all -killed--all gone, all dead!” He moaned it over and over. In Harpout the -news had come by telegraph, and the horseman who belonged in our city -had ridden at once to warn us. - -I begged my father and mother to let me run at once to the palace of -Husein Pasha and tell him I would do whatever he wished if he would -save my family before orders came to disturb us. But mother held me -close, while father would only say, “God’s will be done, and that would -not be it.” - -Lusanne was crying. Little Aruciag and Sarah, my younger sisters, were -crying, too. My father was very pale and his hands trembled when he put -them on my shoulders and tried to comfort me. I closed my eyes and -seemed to see my father and mother and sisters and brothers, all lying -dead in the massacre I feared would come, sooner or later. And Husein -Pasha had said I could save them! But I couldn’t disobey my father. -Suddenly I thought of Father Rhoupen. - -I broke away from my mother and ran out of the house, through the -back entrance and into the street that led to the church where Father -Rhoupen was waiting for his congregation. No one had had the courage to -tell the holy man of the news from Van. When I ran into the little room -behind the altar he was wondering why his people had not come. - -I fell at his feet, and it was a long time before I could stop my tears -long enough to tell him why I was there. But he knew something had -happened. He stroked my hair, and waited. When I could speak I told him -of the visit of Husein Pasha, and what he said to us--and then I told -him of the message the horseman had brought. I pleaded with him to tell -me that it would be right for me to send word to Husein Pasha that I -would be his willing concubine if he would only save my parents and my -brothers and sisters. - -Father Rhoupen made me tell it twice. When I had finished the second -time he put a hand on my head and said, “Let us ask God, my child!” - -Then Father Rhoupen prayed. - -He asked God to guide me in the way I should go. I do not remember all -the prayer, for I was crying too bitterly and was too frightened, but -I know the priest pleaded for me and my people, and that he reminded -the Father we were His first believers and had been true to Him through -many centuries of persecution. As the priest went on I became soothed, -and unconsciously I began to listen--hoping to hear with my own ears -the answer I felt must surely come down from up above to Father -Rhoupen’s plea. - -When he said “Amen” the priest knelt with me, and together we waited. -Suddenly Father Rhoupen pressed me close to his breast and began to -speak. - -“The way is clear, my child. The answer has come. Trust in Jesus Christ -and He will save you as He deems best. It were better that you should -die, if need be, or suffer even worse than death, than by your example -lead others to forswear their faith in the Saviour. Go back to your -father and mother and comfort them, but obey them.” - -All that day and the next messengers rode back and forth between -Harpout and our city, bringing the latest scraps of news from Van. -We were filled with joy when we heard the Armenians had barricaded -themselves and were fighting back, but we dreaded the consequences. No -one slept that night in our city. All day and all night Father Rhoupen -and his assistant priests and religious teachers in the Christian -College went from house to house to pray with family groups. - -The principal men in the city waited on Husein Pasha to ask him if we -were in danger. He told them their fears were groundless--that the -trouble at Van was merely a riot. My father and mother clutched eagerly -at this half promise of security, but Tuesday we knew we had been -deceived. That morning Husein Pasha ordered the doors of the district -jail opened, and the criminals--bandits and murderers--who were -confined there, released and brought to his palace. - -An hour later each one of these outlaws had been dressed in the uniform -of the gendarmes, given a rifle, a bayonet and a long dagger and lined -up in the public square to await orders. That is the Turkish way when -there is bad work to do. - -At noon officers of the gendarmes, or, as they are called, zaptiehs, -rode through the city posting notices on the walls and fences at every -street corner. My father had gone to Harpout early in the morning to -confer with rich Armenian bankers there and to appeal direct to Ismail -Bey, the Vali. Mother was too weak from worry to go to the corner and -read the notices, so Lusanne and I went at once. The paper read: - - ARMENIANS. - - You are hereby commanded by His Excellency, Husein Pasha, to - immediately go into your houses and remain within doors until - it is the pleasure of His Excellency to again permit you to go - about your affairs. All Armenians found upon the streets, at - their places of business or otherwise absent from their homes, - later than one hour after noon of this day will be arrested and - severely punished. - - (Signed) - - ALI AGHAZADE, _Mayor_. - -When we reported to our mother she was greatly worried because of our -father’s absence at Harpout. He might ride into the city at any time -during the afternoon, ignorant of the orders, and be caught in the -streets. Our brother Paul, who was fifteen years old, was visiting at a -neighbor’s. We sent him, through narrow, back streets, out of the city -and onto the plains where he could watch the road our father must ride -along, and, should he appear before dark, warn him of the order. We had -reason later to be thankful father was away. - -We could not imagine what the order meant. We could not bring ourselves -to believe it meant a deliberate massacre was planned, and that this -means was taken to have us all in our homes for the convenience of the -zaptiehs. - -At 4 o’clock gendarmes, among them the prisoners released from jail, -marched up to the homes of the wealthiest men, with orders for them to -attend an audience with Husein Pasha. - -When mother explained to the officer who came to our door that my -father was out of town the zaptiehs searched the house, roughly pushing -my mother aside when she got in their way. They then demanded the keys -to my father’s business place. When Lusanne ran upstairs to get them -the officer insisted upon going with her. While she was getting the -keys from my father’s room he embraced her, tearing open her dress as -he did so. When she screamed he slapped her in the face so hard she -fell onto the floor. He left her there and went out with his men. - -From our windows we could overlook the public square. Here the zaptiehs -gathered fifty of the city’s leading men. Among them were Father -Rhoupen; the president of the Christian College, which had been founded -by American missionaries; several professors and physicians; bankers, -the principal merchants and other business men. - -Instead of marching their prisoners toward the palace of the Pasha, the -guards turned them toward the other part of the city. Then we knew they -were being taken, not to an audience with the commandant, but to the -jail which had been emptied by the Mutassarif that morning. - -Many women, when they realized where their husbands were being taken, -ignored the order to keep to their homes, ran into the street and -tried to rush up to their men folk. The gendarmes knocked them aside -with rifle butts. One woman, the wife of a professor, managed to break -through the guard and reach her husband. A gendarme tried to pull her -away, but she clung tightly, screaming. The soldier turned his rifle -about and drove his bayonet into her. Her husband leaped at the man’s -throat and was killed by another gendarme. - -The prisoners were compelled to march over the bodies of the professor -and his wife, while their children, who had also run out of their -house, stood aside, wringing their hands and weeping, until the company -passed, when they were permitted to tug the bodies of their parents -into their home. None of us who watched dared go to the assistance of -these little ones. - -The jail is a rambling stone building, built more than seven centuries -ago. Originally it was a monastery, but the Turks took possession of -it in 1580, and have used it as a prison ever since. It is surrounded -by a high wall and has a large courtyard onto which the great, barren -dungeons open. - -Throughout that afternoon mother, Lusanne and I waited anxiously -for father to come from Harpout. Toward evening a gendarme came to -the house and asked if father had returned yet, saying that he was -missed “at the audience with the Mutassarif.” Mother asked him why the -men folk were taken to jail, if the Mutassarif wanted to see them. -The soldier said the governor thought that would be handier, as it -was a long walk to the palace. We were comforted a little by that -explanation, but when evening came and the men had not returned to -their homes we became worried again. And we began to fear, too, that -father and Paul had been intercepted. - -At dark the wives and daughters of the men who had been taken from -their homes could not stand the suspense any longer. Braving the order -to remain indoors they began to gather in the streets, and little -companies of women and children, and even the more daring men, moved -toward the jails. They waited outside until well toward midnight, -hoping to catch a glimpse of their relatives or to hear what was going -on inside. At 11 o’clock the prison gates opened and Husein Pasha, in -his carriage and escorted by a heavy guard of mounted soldiers, came -out. - -The women crowded around him, but the soldiers drove them away. -Scarcely had the Pasha’s carriage disappeared than there was shouting -and screaming in the prison. Lusanne and I, who had stolen up to the -prison wall, ran home frightened. Father and Paul were there, having -reached home late in the evening. - -Father looked very careworn. He took me into his arms and kissed me -in a strange way. Big tears were in his eyes when I looked into them. -I knew, without asking, that he had not succeeded in his mission to -Harpout for protection. We sat up all that night, listening to the -cries that came from the prison. We learned the next day what had -happened, when the one man who had escaped crept into his home to be -hidden. - -When Husein Pasha arrived at the prison he told the men who had been -gathered that new word had come from Constantinople that the Armenians -were not loyal to Turkey, and that they had been plotting to help the -Allies. He demanded that the prisoners tell him what they knew of such -plots. Every one of them assured him there had been no such plotting, -that the Armenians wanted only to live in peace with their Turkish -neighbors, obey the Sultan and do him whatever service was demanded of -them. Husein seemed at last convinced and went away, saying the men -could all return to their homes in the morning. - -While the prisoners were congratulating each other upon their promised -release, and hoping there might be some way to get word to their -families in the meantime, gendarmes appeared and drove the men into -one corner of the courtyard. While the others were held back by the -levelled guns and bayonets one prisoner at a time was pulled into a -ring of soldiers and ordered to confess that he had been conspiring -against the Sultan. - -As each one denied the accusation and declared he would confess to -nothing, he was stripped of his clothes and the gendarmes fell to -beating him on his naked back with leather thongs. As fast as the -men fainted from the lashing they were thrown to one side until they -revived, when they were beaten again, until all the soldiers had taken -turns with the thongs and were tired. Eight of the older men died under -the beatings. Their bodies were thrown into a corner of the jail yard. - -While they were beating Father Rhoupen an officer interfered. He said -it was a waste of time to beat the priest, as all priests must be -killed anyway. He then turned to Father Rhoupen and told him he could -live only if he would forswear Christ and become Mohammedan. If he -refused, the officer said, he would be beaten until he died. - -Poor Father Rhoupen was almost too weak to answer. When the soldiers -dropped him, at the officer’s command, he fell into a heap on the -ground. When he tried to speak his head shook and the Turk thought he -was signifying he would accept Mohammed. - -“Hold him up--on his feet,” the officer ordered. - -Two soldiers lifted him. The officer commanded him to repeat the creed -of Islam--“There is only one God, and Mohammed is his prophet.” - -“There is only one God”--Father Rhoupen began, just as clearly as -he could, and with his eyes turned full upon the cruel officer. He -stopped for breath, and then went on--“and Jesus Christ, His Son, is my -Saviour!” - -The officer drew his sword and cut off Father Rhoupen’s head. - -Professor Poladian, president of the College, was next told that he -might save his life if he would profess Mohammed. Professor Poladian -was one of the most loved men in all Armenia. He had studied at Yale -University, in the United States, and had been highly honored by -England and France because of his noble deeds. He was very old. - -I loved him more than any man besides my father, because once when I -was very little I was sick and cried when I had to stay away from a -Christmas tree at the College on which Professor Poladian had hung -bags of candy for all the little girls of Tchemesh-Gedzak. Professor -Poladian asked Lusanne, my sister, why I was not with the other -children who gathered about the tree, and when she told him I was at -home, ill, and that I cried because I couldn’t come, he drove all the -way to our house, almost two miles, brought me my candy bag and told -me the Christmas story of the birth of Christ. I remember after that I -always wanted to pray to Professor Poladian after I had prayed to God, -until my mother made me understand why I shouldn’t. - -Professor Poladian was not beaten, but the officer told him he had -been spared only that he might swear faith in Islam. The Professor was -almost overcome with his suffering at having to witness the treatment -of his friends, but he told the officer he would give his life rather -than deny his religion. The soldiers then tore out his finger nails, -one by one, and his toe nails and pulled out his hair and beard, and -then stabbed him with knives until he died. - -Throughout the night the screams from the prison yard continued, and -the women waiting outside were frantic. At dawn soldiers drove the -women away, telling them their husbands would soon be home. - -As soon as the women were out of sight the soldiers took out the men -who had lived through the torture, and, tying them together with a long -rope, marched them out of the city behind the jail toward the Murad -River, ten miles away. When they reached the river bank the soldiers -set upon the men and stabbed them to death with bayonets. Only the one -escaped by pulling a dead body on top of him and making believe that -he, too, was dead. - -The next day, Thursday, which is the day before the Mohammedan Sunday, -the soldiers went through the streets at 9 o’clock, calling for all -Armenian men over eighteen years of age, to assemble in the public -square. In every street an officer stopped at house doors and told the -people that any man over eighteen who was not in the square in one hour -would be killed. - -Mother and Lusanne and I flew to father’s arms. We each tried to get -our arms around his neck. He was very sad and quiet. “One at a time, my -dear ones,” he said, and made us wait while he kissed and said good-by -to each of us in turn. Little Sarah, who was seven, and Hovnan, who was -six, he held in his arms a long time. Then he kissed me on the lips, -such as he had never done before. He told mother she must not cry, but -be very brave. Then he went out. - -Little Paul followed father at a distance, to be near him as long as -possible. When father got to the square Paul tried to turn back, but a -soldier saw him and caught him by the collar, saying, “You go along, -too, then we won’t have to gather you up with the women to-morrow.” -Father protested that Paul was only fifteen, but the soldiers wouldn’t -listen. So my brother never came back home. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE DAYS OF TERROR BEGIN - - -I had gone upstairs to my window to watch father crossing the street -to the square. Mother had fallen onto a divan in the reception room -downstairs. Lusanne and my little brothers and sisters stayed with her, -even the little ones trying to make believe that, perhaps, father would -return. When I saw the soldier take Paul, too, I screamed. Mother heard -and came running upstairs, Lusanne and the others following. I was the -only one who had seen. I would have to tell them--to tell them that not -only father, but that little Paul, who had wanted to be a priest, when -he grew up, like Father Rhoupen, was gone too. For a moment I could not -speak. Mother thought something had happened to father in the street, -and that I had seen. - -“Tell me quick--what is it? Have they killed him?” she cried. I -couldn’t answer--except to shake my head. Suddenly mother missed Paul -for the first time. Something must have told her. She asked Lusanne: -“Where is my boy? Where is Paul? Why isn’t he here?” - -Lusanne started to run downstairs to look in the yard. I motioned her -not to go. I put my arms around mother and said, between my sobs: - -“They took Paul too--he is with our father!” - -Mother sank upon the floor and buried her face. Lusanne and I knelt -beside her. But she didn’t cry. Her eyes were dry when she gathered us -to her. I never saw my mother cry after that, even when the Turkish -soldiers, at the orders of Ahmed Bey, were beating her to death while -they made me look on before returning me to Ahmed’s harem. - -Out of my window we could see the men comforting each other, or -talking excitedly with the leaders, in the square. By the middle of -the afternoon more than 3,000 men and older boys had assembled. The -soldiers and zaptiehs searched our houses that no man over eighteen -might escape. When women clung to husbands and fathers the soldiers -said the men were summoned only to be addressed by Ishmail Bey, the -Vali, who was coming up from his capital, Harpout. Some of the women -believed this explanation. Others knew it was not true. - -Not very far from our house was the home of Andranik, a young man who -had graduated from the American School at Marsovan, and who had come to -our city with his parents to teach in our schools. He was very popular -in the city, and it was to him Lusanne was to be married. When the -Turks conscripted young Armenian men they spared Andranik because of -his position as a teacher. - -When his father answered the summons to the square Andranik remained -behind. He disguised himself in a dress belonging to his sister and -made his way to the edge of the city where he bought a horse from a -Turk whom he knew he could trust. By the Turk, Andranik sent word -to Lusanne that he would ride to Harpout, where he knew the German -Consul-General, Count Wolf von Wolfskehl, and beg of this powerful -German official to intercede for the Armenians of Tchemesh-Gedzak. - -Lusanne was much encouraged when she heard Andranik was safe. All -afternoon neighboring women, some of them wives of wealthy men, came -to our house to look from our windows into the square, hoping to catch -a glimpse of their loved ones. The soldiers would not let the women -gather near the square, nor communicate with the men. - -One pretty woman, Mrs. Sirpouhi, who had been married not quite a -year to a son of our richest manufacturer, was just about to become a -mother. From our window she caught sight of her husband. She could not -keep herself from running across to the square, screaming as she went, -“My Vartan--my Vartan!” Vartan was his name. - -The young husband heard his wife calling and ran to the edge of the -square, holding out his arms to her. Just as she was about to throw -herself upon him a zaptieh struck her on the head with his gun. When -this zaptieh and his companions saw the young woman was almost a mother -they took turns running their bayonets into her. The husband fell to -the ground. I think he fainted. The soldiers carried him off. They left -his bride’s body where it fell. - -At sundown, when nearly all the Christian women in the city must have -cried their eyes dry, as did Lusanne and I, we heard the muezzin -calling the First Prayer from the minarets of the El Hasan Mosque in -the Mohammedan quarter. It seemed to me the muezzin was mocking us as -he sang: “There is no God but Allah; come to prayer; come to security!” -Without letting mother know I knelt by myself and asked our God if He -would not think of us--and send our fathers back. Perhaps He heard me -for as soon as the Mohammedan prayer was over a soldier came to our -door. - -He said father had paid him to bring a message; that he would be able -to speak to us if we should go at once to the north corner of the -square. To prove his message was true the soldier showed us father’s -ring. - -With my little sisters and brothers holding to our hands, mother, -Lusanne and I ran quickly to the north corner, and there father and -Paul were awaiting us. For a time he could not speak. Then he said: - -“We are to be driven into the desert!” - -The officers had told them they would be taken only to Arabkir, sixty -miles away, and allowed to camp there until the Turks were ready for -them to return home again. Father said he hoped this were true--but -he did not believe they would be allowed to return. He told mother -that since little Paul was along he would like to have her bring -him a blanket to wrap up in at night, and money. He had with him a -hundred liras, or $440. in American money, but perhaps if he had more, -he thought he could bribe the soldiers to let Paul ride a horse, or -perhaps, escape when they began the march. - -Mother and I hurried to the house. She went into the basement, where -father had hidden a great deal of money for us. When I went to get a -blanket I thought of my “yorgan,” a birthday blanket father had brought -me from Smyrna when I was ten years old. It was the most beautiful -thing I had. The Ten Commandments were woven into it, and it had been -made, many people had said, a thousand years ago. I took this to Paul -and another blanket for father. Paul cried when he saw I had given him -my yorgan. We wrapped dried fruit, and cheese in thin bread, also, to -give them. Mother took 200 liras--almost a thousand dollars. - -The soldiers would not let us talk long to father the second time. We -stood across the street just looking at him until it was too dark to -see him any more, and then we went home. We never saw father or Paul -again. - -When we reached our house we found Abdoullah Bey, the police chief, -waiting in the parlor. Abdoullah always had been a friend of father’s, -and we thought him a kindly man. Perhaps he would have helped us if he -could, but when mother begged him to have Paul, at least, restored to -us, he showed us a written order, signed by Ismail Bey, the Vali, which -had been given him by Husein Pasha. It read: - -“During the process of deportation of the Armenians if any Moslem -resident or visitor from the surrounding country endeavors to conceal -or otherwise protect a Christian, first his house shall be burned, then -the Christian killed before his eyes, and then the Moslem’s family and -himself shall be killed.” - -“You see I cannot help you,” Abdoullah Bey said, “even though I would. -But I can advise you as a friend. You have two daughters who are young. -It is still possible for them to renounce your religion and accept -Allah. I will take word personally, if you wish, to Husein Pasha that -your Lusanne and Aurora will say the rek’ah (the oath to Mohammed). He -is willing to take them both, and thus spare them and you many things, -which, perhaps, are about to happen. Soon it may be too late.” - -Husein wanted us both! I remembered Father Rhoupen’s words, “Trust -in God and be true to Him.” But it seemed as if I ought to sacrifice -myself. Even then I would have gone to the Pasha’s house, but mother -said to Abdoullah: - -“Tell the Pasha we belong to God, and will accept whatever He wills!” -Abdoullah respected mother for her courage. He bowed to her as he went -out. “I am sorry for what may come,” he said. - -That evening Andranik returned from Harpout and came at once to our -house. He still wore his sister’s dress. When he appeared at the door -Lusanne ran into his arms. I read in his face bad news. - -“I begged of Count von Wolfskehl to save us. He said the Sultan had -ordered that no Christian subject be left alive in Turkey, and that he -thought the Sultan had done right.” - -Lusanne secretly had thought Andranik would be successful. She had such -confidence in him she did not think he could fail. She was overcome -when her hope was destroyed, but she thought more of Andranik than of -herself. She begged him to try to escape. Andranik decided he would -remain in his women’s clothes. Lusanne cut off some of her own hair -and arranged it on his head so bits of it would show under his shawl -and make him look more nearly like a girl. They thought perhaps he -might get out of the city at night, unmolested, and hide with friendly -farmers. - -But, somehow, the authorities learned Andranik had not surrendered -himself. Early in the evening the zaptiehs under command of Abdoullah, -surrounded his house and demanded that he come out. When his mother -said he was not there, the gendarme chief replied that if he did not -appear at once the house would be burned with all who were in it. - -A neighbor woman ran in to tell us. Andranik threw off his disguise, -took an old saber father had hung on our wall, and rushed out. He -cut his way through the gendarmes and got into his home, where he -found his mother and sister and his other relatives in a panic of -fear. The gendarmes shouted to him to come out at once. Andranik saw -them bringing up cans of oil. He kissed his mother and sister again -and stepped out into the street. They killed him with knives on the -doorstep. His sister ran out and threw herself on his body, and they -killed her, too. When a neighbor told us what had happened, Lusanne ran -out to Andranik’s house and helped his mother carry in the two bodies. - -Father and the other men were taken away that night. In our house we -were sitting in my room trying to pick them out from the shadows in -the square made by the torches and lanterns of the zaptiehs, when many -new soldiers appeared, and, suddenly, there was a great shouting. Soon -we saw the men, formed into a long line, march out of the square, -with zaptiehs and soldiers all about them. It was too dark for us to -identify father and Paul, but we knew they would be looking up at our -window and hoped they could see us. - -They took the men toward the Kara River, which is a branch of the -Euphrates. Many were so old and feeble they could not walk so far, and -fell to the ground. The zaptiehs killed these with their knives and -left their bodies behind. It was daylight when they came to the little -village of Gwazim, which is on the river bank twelve miles away. There -was a large building at Gwazim which the Turks sometimes used as a -barracks when there was war with the Kurds, and at other times as a -prison. Half the men were put into this building and told they would -have to stay until the next day. The zaptiehs then took the others -across the river toward Arabkir. - -At noon of that day the zaptiehs returned to Gwazim. They had killed -all the men they had taken across the river just as soon as they were -out of sight of the village. When we, in Tchemesh-Gedzak, heard that -part of our men had been left in the prison, hundreds of women walked -the dusty road to Gwazim. Lusanne and I went, hoping to get one more -glimpse of father and Paul. - -In Gwazim there was an aged Armenian woman who had lived in our city -at the time of the massacre in 1895. She was pretty then, and when the -Kurds stole her she saved her life by turning Mohammedan. Then she -was sold to a Turkish bey at Gwazim. He kept her in his harem until -she grew old. All the time, while professing Islam, she secretly was -Christian. The bey had given her the name “Fatimeh.” - -Fatimeh persuaded the guards at the prison to let her take water to the -men. When she told the prisoners the zaptiehs had returned without the -other men they knew the same fate was in store for them. - -When Fatimeh came out she told me father and Paul were inside and had -sent word to us to be hopeful. In a little while we saw her going into -the prison again, this time with two big rocks, so heavy she could -hardly carry them, hidden in her water buckets. She came out again and -filled her buckets with coal oil. - -When it was dark the younger men, who were strong and brave, killed all -the older men by hitting their heads with the rocks Fatimeh had taken -them. Father killed Paul first, because he was so little. When all -the old and feeble men were dead, the young men prayed that God would -think they had done right in not letting the old men suffer and then -they spread the oil, set it afire, and threw themselves in the flames. -Fatimeh told us what had happened while the prison burned. The zaptiehs -suspected her and carried her into the burning building and left her. - -It was almost dawn Saturday morning when Lusanne and I returned to -mother. “As God wills, so be it,” was all she said when we told her -what had happened at the prison. She said there had been a great -celebration in the El Hasan mosque, in honor of the Mohammedan Sunday, -while we were at Gwazim. A special imam, or prayer reader, had come all -the way from Trebizond to read special prayers set aside for such great -events as the beginning of a holy war or massacre of Christians. - -That morning soldiers went through the streets posting a new paper on -the walls. It was what we had feared--an order from the Governor that -all Armenian Christian women in the city, young and old, must be ready -in three days to leave their homes and be deported--where, the order -did not say. - -As soon as the Turkish residents heard of the new order many of them -began to go about the Armenian half of the town offering to buy what -the Armenian women wanted to sell. As there were none of the men left, -the women had no one to advise them. To our house, which was one of the -best in the city, there came many rich Turks, who told us we had better -sell them our rugs and the beautiful laces mother, Lusanne and I had -made. - -Every Armenian girl is taught to make pretty laces. No girl is happy -until she can make for herself a lace bridal veil. Always the Turks are -eager to buy these, as they sell for much money to foreign traders, but -no Armenian bride will sell her veil unless she is starving. Lusanne -and I had made our veils, and had put them away until we should need -them. We knew we could not carry them with us when we were deported, -as they would soon be stolen. So we sold them, and mother’s, too. The -most we could get was a few piasters. Since I have come to America I -have seen spreads and table covers, made from such bridal veils as -ours, for sale in shops for hundreds of dollars. Father had brought us -many rugs from Harpout, Smyrna and Damascus. For these mother could get -only a few pennies. - -On the second day after the proclamation, which was our Sunday, the -soldiers visited all the houses. They walked in without knocking. They -pretended to be looking for guns and revolvers, but what they took was -our silver and gold spoons and vases. - -That afternoon a company of horsemen rode past our house. We ran to -the window and saw they were Aghja Daghi Kurds, the crudest of all the -tribes. At their head rode the famous Musa Bey, the chieftain who, a -few years before, had waylaid Dr. Raynolds and Dr. Knapp, the famous -American missionaries, and had robbed them and left them tied together -on the road. - -The Kurds rode to the palace of Husein Pasha. In a little while they -rode away again, and some of the Pasha’s soldiers rode with them. That -meant, we knew, that the Governor had given the Kurds permission to -waylay us when we were outside the city. - -All that night the women sat up in their homes. In our house mother -went from room to room, looking at the little things on the walls -and in the cupboards that had been hers since she was a little girl. -She sat a long time over father’s clothes. I got out my playthings -and cried over them. Some of them had been my grandmother’s toys. -Lusanne did not cry. She thought only of Andranik and the loss of her -bridal veil, and her tears had dried, like mother’s. Little Hovnan and -Mardiros, our brothers, and Sarah and Aruciag, our sisters, cried very -hard when we told they must say good-by to their dolls and their kites. - -When morning of the last day came I slipped out of our home to visit -Mariam, my playmate, who lived a few doors away. Mariam’s family was -not very rich, and mother had said I might give her twenty liras from -our money, that she might have it to bribe soldiers for protection. But -Mariam was not there. - -During the night zaptiehs had entered her house and taken her out of -her bed, with just her nightdress on, and had carried her away. The -soldiers said Rehim Bey had promised them money if they would bring -Mariam to his house. Mariam’s mother and little brother were kneeling -beside her empty bed when I found them. - -On my way back to our house a Turk stopped me. He asked me to go with -him. He said I might as well, as “all the pretty Christian girls would -have to give themselves to Turks or be killed anyway.” I broke away -and ran home as fast as I could. I could not forget the look on that -Turk’s face as he spoke to me. It was the first time I had ever seen -such a look in a man’s face. I tried to explain to mother. She put her -arms around me, but all she said was: - -“My poor little girl!” - -The women had been allowed until noon to assemble in the square. -Already they were arriving there, with horse, donkey and ox carts, some -with as many of their things as they could heap on their carts, others -with just blankets and comforts, a favorite rug and bread and fruits. -In Armenia every family keeps a year’s supply of food on hand. The -women had to leave behind all they could not carry. - -When it came time for us to go I thought again of the look in that -Turk’s face. For the first time I realized just what it would mean -to be a captive in one of the harems of the rich Turks whose big -houses look down from the hills all about the city. I had heard of the -Christian girls forced into haremliks of these houses, but I had never -really understood. Lusanne was older. She knew more than I. “If only I -could have died with Andranik,” she said. - -Mother thought of a plan she hoped might save Lusanne and me from the -harems or a worse fate among the Kurds and soldiers. She brought out -two yashmaks, or veils, such as Turkish women wear on the street, -and made us put them on, hiding our faces. Over these she had us put -on a feradjeh, a Turkish woman’s cloak. We looked quite as if we were -Turkish women, with all our faces hidden. - -“It is only death that faces me, but for you, my daughters, there are -even greater perils,” mother said to us. “You will be able now to walk -in the streets and the soldiers will think you are Mohammedan women. -Try to reach Miss Graham, at the orphanage. Perhaps she can hide you -until there is a way for you to escape into the north, where the sea -is. And if you do find safety, thank God, and remember He is always -with you.” Then she kissed us and bade us go. - -Miss Graham, who was an English girl, had come to our city from the -American College at Marsovan, to teach in our school for orphaned -Armenian girls. She was very young and pretty. The Turks had seemed to -respect her, and mother thought we would be safe with her. - -While mother went to the square with Aruciag, Sarah, Hovnan and -Mardiros, Lusanne and I mingled with Mohammedan women who had gathered -to watch the scenes at the square and to bargain for pieces of jewelry -and other things the Armenian women knew they must either sell or have -stolen from them. We planned to wait until dark before venturing to -reach Miss Graham’s. - -Soon we saw Turks, both rich citizens and military officers, walking -about in the square roughly examining the Christian girls. When they -were pleased by a girl’s appearance these beys and aghas tried to -persuade their mothers to let them profess Mohammedanism and go away -with them, promising to save her relatives from deportation. When -mothers refused the Turks often struck them. Officers killed some -mothers who clung too closely to their daughters. - -Many young girls gave in to the Turks and agreed to swear faith in -Allah for the sake of their mothers, sisters and brothers. Toward -evening the khateeb, or keeper of the mosque, was brought to receive -their “conversions.” - -More than fifty girls took the oath. Just as soon as the oaths were all -taken the officers signaled to the zaptiehs and they took all these -girls away from their families and gathered them at one side of the -square. - -Then the richer beys began to examine the apostasized girls. The -soldiers would give a girl to the one who paid them the most money, -unless an officer also wanted her. The higher military officers were -given first choice. - -One by one the soldiers dragged the girls who had sacrificed their -religion in vain to save their mothers and relatives out of the square -and toward the homes of the Turks. Lusanne and I had gone close to -watch our chance to speak once more to mother. We saw everything. And -while they were taking the girls away we saw a zaptieh carrying Miss -Graham in his arms. She struggled hard, but the zaptieh was too strong. -We learned afterward the soldiers had gone to her school to get the -little Armenian girls, and when Miss Graham tried to fight them they -said her country couldn’t help her now, and since she was a Christian -they would take her, too. - -It was to Rehim Bey’s house, where Mariam already had been carried, -they took Miss Graham. They did not even try to make her become a -Mohammedan. Rehim Bey was very powerful, and was a cousin of Talaat -Bey, the Minister of the Interior at Constantinople. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -VAHBY BEY TAKES HIS CHOICE - - -For a time Lusanne and I debated whether we should return to the square -and join mother, since Miss Graham had been stolen and could not help -us, or whether we should make an effort to escape since we had so far -escaped notice in our disguises. We decided that, perhaps, if we could -reach the house of a friendly Turk, outside the city, and we knew of -many of these, we might find a way to help mother. We did not know how -this could ever be done, but we clung to a hope that surely some one -would aid us. - -When it was quite dark we crept through side streets to our deserted -house and succeeded in getting into the garden without attracting -attention. We dared not make a light, or remain on the lower floors, -soldiers might enter the house at any moment. The safest place to hide, -we thought, would be the attic. - -In the attic there were a number of boxes of old things of mother’s. -We searched until we found some old clothes, and each of us put on an -old dress of mother’s under the cloaks she had given us. If we were -discovered, the old clothes, we thought, might deceive the Turks if we -could keep our faces covered. - -Neither Lusanne nor I had slept during the three days the Turks allowed -the Armenian women to prepare for deportation. Toward morning we were -both so worn out we fell asleep. Suddenly I awoke to find an ugly -zaptieh standing over me, a sword in his hand. He had kicked me. Three -or four others, who, with the leader, had broken in to search for -valuables, were coming up the ladder into the attic, and the one who -had found us was calling out to them: - -“Mouhadjirler--anleri keselim!”--(“Here are refugees--let’s kill them!”) - -The zaptieh’s shout awakened Lusanne and she screamed. - -By this time the Turks had pulled me to my feet, but when Lusanne -screamed they dropped me. “That’s no old one,” the chief zaptieh said, -as he turned to my sister. “Her voice is young.” - -They kicked me aside while they gathered around Lusanne, picked her up -and carried her down the ladder to the floor below, where our bedrooms -were. There they found a lamp and lighted it from the torch one of them -carried. They began to examine Lusanne, who screamed and fought them -desperately. I followed them down the ladder and ran into the room, but -when they saw me one of them struck me with his fists, and I fell. They -thought I at least was as old as my clothes looked. One of them said, -“Stick the old one on a bayonet if she don’t keep still.” I could do -nothing but stay on the floor, crouch tight to the wall and look on. - -A zaptieh tore off Lusanne’s veil and cloak. When they saw her face -and that she was young and good looking they shouted and laughed. The -leader dropped his gun and laid his sword on a table and then took -Lusanne away from the others and held her in his arms. She fought so -hard the others had to help hold her while the officer kissed her. Each -time he kissed her he laughed and all the others laughed too. One by -one the zaptiehs caressed her, each passing her to the other, all much -amused by her struggles. - -When Lusanne’s dress was all torn and her screams grew weak I could not -stand it any longer. I crept up to the men on my knees and begged them -to stop. I knew there was no longer any hope that we might escape, so -I pleaded: “Please take us to the square to our relatives; we will get -money for you if you will only spare us.” - -They allowed us to leave the house, but followed across the street to -the square. It was daylight now and the women were stirring about, -sharing with each other the bread and meats some had brought with them. -The zaptiehs made Lusanne stay with them while I searched for mother. -She was caring for a baby whose mother had died during the night. The -first thing she asked was, “Where is Lusanne--have they got her?” - -Mother gave me two liras. The zaptiehs took them and shoved Lusanne -away. She fainted when she realized they had released her. - -During the first day and night no one knew what was to happen. Such of -the soldiers as would answer questions said only that the Pasha had -ordered the women deported. None knew how or when. During the first -night three of the mothers of girls who had been taken by the Turks the -day before died. One of them killed herself while her other children -were sleeping around her. So many were crowded into the square not all -could find room to lie down and the soldiers killed any who attempted -to move into the street. - -In the center of the square there was a band-stand, where the -Mutassarif’s band often played in the summer evenings. In this -band-stand the soldiers had put the little girls and boys taken from -the Christian Orphanage when they carried off Miss Graham. There were -thirty little girls, none of them more than twelve years old, and -almost as many boys. - -The children were crying bitterly when Lusanne and I, at mother’s -suggestion, went to see if we could not help care for them. There was -no food for them except what the women could spare from their own -stores. The Turks never give food to their prisoners. - -Toward noon of that day Vahby Bey, the military commandant of the -whole vilayet, who had under him almost an army corps, rode into the -city with his staff and a company of hamidieh, or Kurdish cavalry. He -was on his way to Harpout, from Erzindjan, a big city in the north, -where he had attended a council of war with Enver Pasha, the Turkish -Commander-in-Chief. - -Vahby Bey walked from his headquarters into the public square, -accompanied by his staff. Hundreds of women crowded around him, but his -staff officers beat them away with swords and canes. The general walked -at once to the band-stand and looked at the children. Abdoullah Bey, -the chief of the gendarmes, was with him, and they talked in low voices. - -When Vahby Bey had gone, several officers began to ask Armenian girls -if they would like to accompany the orphans and take care of them in -the place where the government would put them. The officers said they -would take several girls for this purpose, and thus save them the -terrors of deportation and death, or worse, if they would first agree -to become Mohammedan. - -Many mothers thought this the only way to save their daughters from -the harem. Some of the younger women, among them brides whose husbands -had been killed, were so discouraged and frightened they were eager -to accept this chance. The officers said only young girls would be -accepted, and bade all who wanted to take advantage of the opportunity -to gather at the band-stand. More than two hundred assembled, with -mothers and relatives hanging onto them. I don’t think any of them -really was willing to forswear Christ, but they thought they would -be forgiven if they seemed to do so to save themselves from being -massacred, stolen in the desert or forced to be concubines. - -A hamidieh officer, looking smart and neat in his costly uniform, -went to the stand to select the girls. He chose twelve of the very -prettiest. One girl who was tall and very handsome, and whose father -had been a rich merchant, refused to take the Mohammedan oath unless -her two sisters, both younger, also were accepted. The officer -consented. The three girls had no mother, only some younger brothers, -and these the officers said might accompany the orphans. The three -sisters were very glad they were to be saved. One of them was a friend -of Lusanne’s, and to her she said: “Our God will know why we are doing -this; we will always pray to Him in secret.” - -Esther Magurditch, daughter of Boghos Artin, a great Armenian author -and poet, who lived in our city, also was willing to take the oath, -and was chosen. Esther had been one of my playmates. Her mother was -an English woman, who had married her father when he was traveling in -Europe. Esther had married Vartan Magurditch, a young lawyer, just a -week before. When both her father and husband were taken from her she -almost lost her mind. - -When all the fourteen girls had said the Mohammedan rek’ah, soldiers -took them with the orphans to the big house in which Esther’s family -had lived. It was the largest Armenian home in the city. - -As soon as the children and the apostasized girls entered the house -Esther prepared a meal for them from the bread and other food that had -been left. While the children were eating the girls were summoned to -another part of the house, where an aged Mohammedan woman awaited them -with yashmaks, or Turkish veils, which she told them they must put on, -as they had become Mohammedan women and must not let their faces be -seen. - -The young women were then told to seat themselves until an officer -came to give further instructions. They still were waiting in the room -when childish voices in the other part of the house were lifted up in -screams. The girls rushed to the door, only to find it locked. - -Suddenly the door opened and Vahby Bey, with his chief of staff, Ferid -Bey, and Ali Riza Effendi, the Police Commissary, whose headquarters -were in Harpout, entered. With them were a number of other smartly -dressed officers, who had been traveling with General Vahby. The girls -fell to their knees before the officers, and asked them, in Allah’s -name, to let them go to the children. The officers laughed. The three -sisters, who had taken their little brothers with the other children, -appealed to General Vahby to tell them what had happened to their -little ones. Vahby Bey did not answer, but pointed to the taller one -of the three girls, the one who was so handsome, and said to the chief -of staff: “This one I will take; guard her carefully.” Ferid Bey, the -chief officer, then called some soldiers, who picked up the girl and -carried her upstairs to a room which Vahby Bey had occupied. Vahby Bey -followed. Ferid Bey then selected Esther, and soldiers carried her up -to another room. Ferid Bey followed and dismissed the soldiers, with -orders to place a guard outside his door and another outside the door -of Vahby Bey’s room. - -Downstairs the other officers of Vahby Bey’s staff each selected a -girl, the officers of higher rank taking first choice. There were three -girls left, one of them the youngest sister of the girl Vahby Bey had -taken, and the soldiers took possession of these, not even removing -them from the room. - -How long these three girls lived I cannot tell. It was Esther who told -us what happened that afternoon in her house, for she was the only one -of the fourteen who escaped alive. Before she got away from the house -she looked into the room where the soldiers had been, and saw that the -three girls were dead. - -Esther tried to resist Ferid Bey, and to plead with him; but he -threatened to kill her. When she told him she would rather die he -opened the door so she could see the men standing guard in the hall, -and said to her: - -“Very well then; if you do not be quiet I will give you to the -soldiers!” - -Surely God will not blame Esther for shrinking away from the sight of -those many men and allowing Ferid Bey, who was only one man, to remain. - -The officers busied themselves with the girls until evening. When Ferid -Bey left her Esther begged him again to at least tell her where the -children were, that she might go to them. He had assured her during the -afternoon that the orphans were safe, and that the girls could return -to them later. Now he pretended no longer. “We have no time to bother -with the children of unbelievers,” he said. “We drowned them in the -river!” - -Ferid Bey told the truth. We found some of their bodies when we passed -that way later on. The soldiers had tied the children together with -ropes in groups of ten and had driven them to Kara Su, also a branch -of the Euphrates, ten miles away. Those who were too little to walk or -keep up with the others, the soldiers had killed with their bayonets -or gun handles. They left their bodies, still tied together, at the -roadside. On the river banks we found other bodies that had been washed -up. - -As soon as Ferid Bey had gone and Esther heard the other officers -assembling on the floor below, something warned her to try to escape -immediately. Her clothes had been nearly all torn away, but she dared -not wait even to cover herself. She climbed onto the roof by a small -stairway which the Turks were not guarding, and hid herself there. - -General Vahby and his officers went to their quarters. The soldiers -hunted out the girls they had left behind. Esther heard them fighting -among themselves over the prettiest ones. After a time most of the -girls died. The soldiers killed the rest with their swords when they -were finished with them. From what Esther heard them saying to each -other as they did this, she believed they had been ordered not to leave -any of the young women alive as witnesses to Vahby Bey and his officers -having done such things openly. - -Esther crept out of the house and crawled through a back street to -the square. She found my mother and fell into her arms. When daylight -came a soldier saw her and recognized her as one of the girls who had -apostasized the day before, and the zaptiehs carried her away. - -At noon more soldiers came to the square, with zaptiehs and hamidieh, -and officers began to go among us, saying that within one hour we were -to march. They told us we were to be taken to Harpout, but we soon saw -our destination was in the direction of Arabkir. - -That last hour in our city, which had been the home of many of our -family ancestors for centuries, and beyond the borders of which but -few of our neighbors ever had traveled, was spent by most of the -mothers and their children in prayer. There was almost no more weeping -or wailing. The strong, young women gathered close to them the aged -ones or frail mothers with very young babies. Each of us who had more -strength than for our own needs tried to find some one who needed a -share of it. - -We were encouraged a little when the time came for us to move by the -apparent kindness of some of the new Turkish soldiers, who seemed to -want to make us as comfortable as possible. It was at the suggestion -of these that many aged grandmothers whose daughters had more than -one baby were placed together in a group of ox carts, each with a -grandchild that had been weaned. The soldiers said this plan would -relieve the young mothers of so many children to watch over, and would -let the old women have company, while, being together, the soldiers -could keep them comfortable. - -[Illustration: THIS MAP SHOWS AURORA’S WANDERINGS - -The black line indicates the route covered by Miss Mardiganian, who -during two years walked fourteen hundred miles.] - -When we were three hours out from town these ox carts fell behind. -Presently the soldiers that had been detailed to stay with them joined -the rest of the party ahead. When we asked where the grandmothers and -the babies were, the soldiers replied: “They were too much trouble. We -killed them!” - -It was very hot, and the roads were dusty, with no shade. Many women -and children soon fell to the ground exhausted. The zaptiehs beat these -with their clubs. Those who couldn’t get up and walk as fast as the -rest were beaten till they died, or they were killed outright. - -Our first intimation of what might happen to us at any time came when -we had been on the road four hours. We came then to a little spot where -there were trees and a spring. The soldiers who marched afoot were -themselves tired, and gave us permission to rest a while, and get water. - -A woman pointed onto the plain, where, a little ways from the road, we -saw what seemed to be a human being, sitting on the ground. Some of us -walked that way and saw it was an Armenian woman. On the ground beside -her were six bundles of different sizes, from a very little one to one -as large as I would be, each wrapped in spotless white that glistened -in the sun. - -We did not need to ask to know that in each of the bundles was the body -of a child. The mother’s face was partially covered with a veil, which -told us she had given up God in the hope of saving her little ones--but -in vain! - -She did not speak or move, only looked at us with a great sadness in -her eyes. Her face seemed familiar and one of us knelt beside her -and gently lifted her veil. Then we recognized her--Margarid, wife -of the pastor, Badvelli Moses, of Kamakh, a little city thirty miles -to the north. Badvelli Moses once had been a teacher in our school -at Tchemesh-Gedzak. He was a graduate of the college at Harpout, and -Margarid had graduated from a Seminary at Mezre. They were much beloved -by all who knew them. Often Badvelli Moses had returned, with his wife -and Sherin, their oldest daughter, who was my age, to Tchemesh-Gedzak -to visit and speak in our churches. - -Besides Sherin, there were five smaller girls and boys. All were there, -by Margarid’s side, wrapped in the sheets she had carried with her when -the people of her city were deported. - -“There were a thousand of us,” Margarid said when we had brought her -out of the stupor of grief which had overcome her. “They took us away -with only an hour’s notice. The first night Kurdish bandits rode down -upon us and took all the men a little ways off and killed them. We -saw our husbands die, one by one. They stripped all the women and -children--even the littlest ones--so they could search our bodies for -money. They took all the pretty girls and violated them before our eyes. - -“I pleaded with the commander of our soldier guards to protect my -Sherin. He had been our friend in Kamakh. He promised to save us if -I would become a Moslem, and for Sherin’s sake, I did. He made the -bandits allow us to put on our clothes again, and Sherin and I veiled -our faces. - -“The commander detailed soldiers to escort us to Harpout and take me -to the governor there. When we left the Kurds and soldiers who were -tired of the girls were killing them, and the others as well. When we -reached here the soldiers killed my little ones by mashing their heads -together. They violated Sherin while they held me, and then cut off her -breasts, so that she died. They left me alive, they said, because I had -become Moslem.” - -We tried to take Margarid into our party, but she would not come. “I -must go to God with my children,” she said. “I will stay here until He -takes me.” So we left her sitting there with her loved ones. - -It was late at night and the stars were out when we arrived at the -banks of the Kara Su. Here we were told by the soldiers we could camp -for the night. In the distance we could see the light on the minaret in -the village of Gwazim, where father and Paul had died in the burning -prison. - -All along the road zaptiehs killed women and children who could not -keep up with the party, and many of the pretty girls had been dragged -to the side of the road, to be sent back to the party later with tears -and shame in their faces. Lusanne and I had daubed our faces with mud -to make us ugly, and I still wore my cloak and veil. - -For a time it seemed as if we were not to be molested, as the guards -remained in little groups, away from us. Only the scream now and then -of a girl who had attracted some soldier’s attention reminded us we -must not sleep. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE CRUEL SMILE OF KEMAL EFFENDI - - -During the night Turkish residents from cities near by came to our camp -and sought to buy whatever the women had brought with them of value. -Many had brought a piece of treasured lace; others had carried their -jewelry; some even had brought articles of silver, and rugs. There were -many horse and donkey carts along, as the Turks encouraged all the -women to carry as much of their belongings as they could. This we soon -learned was done to swell the booty for the soldiers when the party was -completely at their mercy. - -As the civilian Turks went through the camp that night, they bargained -also for girls and young women. One of them urged mother to let him -take Lusanne. When mother refused he said to her: - -“You might as well let me have her. I will treat her kindly and she can -work with my other servants. She will be sold or stolen anyway, if she -is not killed. None of you will live very long.” Several children were -stolen early in the night by these Turks. One little girl of nine years -was picked up a few feet away from me and carried screaming away. When -her relatives complained to the soldiers, they were told to be glad she -had escaped the long walk to the Syrian desert, where the rest of the -party was to be taken. - -Dawn was just breaking, and we were thankful that the sleepless, -horrible first night was so nearly over, when, in a great cloud of sand -and dust, the Aghja Daghi Kurds, with Musa Bey at their head, rode down -upon us. The soldiers must have known they were coming, for they had -gathered quite a way from the camp, and were not surprised. Perhaps it -was arranged when Musa Bey visited Husein Pasha, in Tchemesh-Gedzak, -just before we were taken away. - -The horses of the Kurds galloped down all who were in their way, their -hoofs sinking into the heads and bodies of scores of frightened women. -The riders quickly gathered up all the donkeys and horses belonging to -the families, and when these had been driven off they dismounted and -began to walk among us and pick out young women to steal. Lusanne and I -clung close to mother, who tried to hide us, but one of three Kurds who -walked near us saw me. - -He stopped and tore my veil away. When he saw the mud and dirt on my -face he roughly rubbed it off with his hands, jerking me to my feet, -to look closer. When he saw I really was young, despite my disguise, -he shouted. One of the other Kurds turned quickly and came up. When I -looked up into his face I saw it was Musa Bey himself! - -The bey clutched at me roughly, tore open my dress and threw back my -hair. Then he gave a short command, and, so quickly, I had hardly -screamed, he threw me across his horse and leaped up behind. In another -instant he was carrying me in a wild gallop across the plains. His -band rode close behind, each Kurd holding a girl across his horse. I -struggled with all my strength to get free. I wanted to throw myself -under the horse’s hoofs and be trampled to death. But the bey held me -across his horse’s shoulder with a grip of iron, as he galloped to the -west, skirting the banks of the river. - -I screamed for my mother. The other girls’ screams joined with mine. -Behind us I could hear the shouts and cries of our party. I thought I -heard my mother’s voice among them. Then the shouts died away in the -distance. Soon I lost consciousness. - -When I came to I was lying on the ground, with the other girls who had -been stolen. The Kurds had dismounted. Some were busy making camp, -while others were in groups amusing themselves with such of the girls -as were not exhausted. Musa Bey was absent. - -My clothes were torn and my body ached from the jolting of the horse. -My shoes and stockings were off when the Kurds came down upon us, so -my feet were bare. For a long time I lay quietly, fearing to move -lest I attract attention and suffer as some of the girls already were -suffering. When I could look around I saw that among the girls were -several whom I had known, and some I recognized as young married women. -Some I knew were mothers who had left babies behind. - -On the ground near me was quite a little girl, Maritza, whose mother -had been killed by the zaptiehs just after we left Tchemesh-Gedzak. She -had carried a baby brother in her arms during all the long walk of the -first day on the road. She was weeping silently. I crawled over to her. - -“When they picked me up I was holding little Marcar,” she sobbed. “The -Kurds tore him out of my arms and threw him out on the ground. It -killed him. I can’t see anything else but his little body when it fell.” - -It was several hours before Musa Bey came back. A party of Turks on -horseback rode up with him. They came from the West where there were -many little villages along the river banks, some of them the homes of -rich Moslems. - -When they dismounted, Musa Bey began to exhibit the girls he had stolen -to the Turks. Some of the Turks, I could tell, were wealthy farmers. -Others seemed to be rich beys or aghas (influential citizens). Musa -Bey made us all stand up. Those who didn’t obey him quick enough he -struck with his whip. When I got up off the ground he caught me by the -shoulder and threw me down again. “You lie still,” he said. I saw that -he did the same thing to two or three other girls. - -The Turks brutally examined the girls Musa Bey showed them, and began -to pick them out. Those who were farmers chose the older ones, who -seemed stronger than the rest. The others wanted the prettiest of the -girls, and argued among themselves over a choice. - -The farmers wanted the girls to work as slaves in the field. The others -wanted girls for a different purpose--for their harems or as household -slaves, or for the concubine markets of Smyrna and Constantinople. Musa -Bey demanded ten medjidiehs, or about eight dollars, American money, -apiece. I thought, as I lay trembling on the ground, what a little bit -of money that was for a Christian soul. - -Little Maritza, who stood close to me, was taken by a Turk who seemed -to be very old. Another man wanted her, but the old one offered Musa -Bey four medjidiehs more, and the other turned away to pick out another -girl. The Turk who bought Maritza was afraid to take her away on his -horse, so he bargained with Musa Bey until he had promised two extra -medjidiehs if a Kurd would carry her to his house. Musa Bey gave an -order and a Kurd climbed onto his horse, lifted Maritza in front of -him and rode away by the side of the man who had bought her. She did -not cry any more, but just held her hands in front of her eyes. - -After a while all the girls were gone but me and the few others whom -Musa Bey had not offered for sale. The ones who were bought by the -farmers were destined to work in the fields, and they were the most -fortunate, for sometimes the Turkish farmer is kind and gentle. Those -who were bought for the harem faced the untold heartache of the girl to -whom some things are worse than death. - -When the last of the Turks had gone with their human property, Musa -Bey spoke to his followers and some of them came toward us. We thought -we had been reserved for Musa Bey himself, and we began to scream and -plead. They picked us up despite our cries and mounted horses with us. -Musa Bey leaped onto his horse and we were again carried away, with -Musa Bey leading. - -I begged the Kurd who carried me to tell me where we were going. He -would not answer. We had ridden for two hours, until late in the -afternoon, when we came to the outskirts of a village. We rode into the -yard of a large stone house surrounded by a crumbling stone wall. It -was a very ancient house, and before we had stopped in the courtyard -I recognized it from a description in our school books, as a castle -which had been built by the Saracens, and restored a hundred years ago -by a rich Turk, who was a favorite of the Sultan who then reigned. - -I remembered, as the Kurds lifted us down from their horses, that the -castle was now the home of Kemal Effendi, a member of the Committee -of Union and Progress, the powerful organization of the Young Turks. -He was reputed throughout our district as being very bitter toward -Christians, and there were many stories told in our country of -Christian girls who had been stolen from their homes and taken to him, -never to be heard from again. - -Only a part of the castle had been repaired so it might be lived in, -and it was toward this part of the building the Kurds took us when -they had dismounted. I tried to plead with the Kurd who had me, but he -shook me roughly. We were led into a small room. There were servants, -both men and women, in this room, and they began to talk about us and -examine us. Musa Bey drove them to tell their master he had arrived. - -In a little while Kemal Effendi entered. He was very tall and middle -aged. His eyes made me tremble when they looked at me. I could only -shudder as I remembered the things that were said of him. - -When Kemal Effendi had looked at all of us for minutes that seemed -torturing hours he seemed satisfied. He spoke to Musa Bey and the Kurds -went out, followed by him. I do not know how much Musa Bey was paid -for us. - -Women came into the room and tried to be kind to us. One of them put -her arms around me and asked me to not weep. She told me I was very -fortunate in falling into such good hands as Kemal Effendi. “He will -be gentle to you. You must obey him and be affectionate and he will -treat you as he does his wife. He will not be cruel unless you are -disobedient,” the woman said. I do not know what was her position in -the house, but I think she was a servant who had been a concubine when -she was younger. - -Until then I had tried to keep myself from thinking that I had lost my -mother and sisters and brothers. What the woman told us was to happen -to us in the house of Kemal took away my hopes of ever seeing them -again. I told her I would kill myself if I could not go back to my -relatives. - -It was late in the evening before Kemal Effendi summoned us. He had -eaten and seemed to be gracious. One of the girls, who had been a -bride, threw herself on the floor before him, weeping and begging him -to set us free. Kemal Effendi lost his good humor at once. He called a -man servant and told him to take the girl away. “Shut her up till she -learns when to weep and when to laugh,” he ordered. The man carried the -girl out screaming. - -Kemal then asked us about our families, how old we were, and if we -would renounce our religion and say the Mohammedan oath. One girl, -whose name I do not know, but whom I had often seen in our Sunday -school at Tchemesh-Gedzak was not brave enough to refuse. The Kurds had -treated her cruelly, and the one who had carried her away had beaten -her when she cried. She moaned, “Yes, yes, God has deserted me. I will -be true to Mohammed. Please don’t beat me any more.” - -When she had said this Kemal smiled and put his hand on her head. “You -are wise. You will not be punished if you continue so.” - -The second girl would not forsake Christ. “You may kill me if you -wish,” she said, “and then I will go to Jesus Christ.” As soon as she -had said this a man servant dragged her out of the room. I looked at -Kemal Effendi, but he was still smiling, as soft and smoothly as if he -could not be otherwise than very gentle. I could see that he was more -cruel even than people had said of him. - -When Kemal Effendi spoke to me his voice was very soft. I can still -remember it made me feel as if some wild animal’s tongue was caressing -my face. - -“And you, my girl,” he said, “are you to be wise or foolish?” - -“God save me,” I whispered to myself again, and then something seemed -to whisper back. I heard myself saying, without thinking of the words, -“I will try to be as you wish.” - -“That is very good. You will be happy,” Kemal replied. “You will -acknowledge Allah as God and Mohammed as his prophet? Then I will be -kind to you.” - -“I will do that, Effendi, and I will be obedient, if you will save my -family also,” I said. - -“And if I do not?” Kemal asked. - -“Then I will die,” I replied. - -The Effendi looked at me a long time. Then he asked me to tell him of -my family. I told him of my mother, my sister, Lusanne, and of my other -sisters and brothers. He made me stand close to him. He put his hands -on me. I stood very straight and looked into his face. I promised that -if he would take my mother and sisters and brothers also I would not -only renounce my religion, but obey him in all things. And for each -thing I promised I whispered to myself, “Please, God, forgive me.” But -I could think of no other way. I was afraid that even now, perhaps, my -mother, brothers and sisters were being murdered. It seemed as if my -body and soul were such little things to give for them. - -Kemal kept me with him more than an hour, I think. Each time he tried -to touch me I shrank away from him. It amused him, for he would laugh -and clap his hands, as if very pleased. “I will die first,” I said -each time, “unless you save my family.” - -I had begun to lose hope; to think Kemal was but playing with me. I -could hardly keep my tears back, yet I did not want to weep for I knew -he would be displeased. Then, suddenly, he appeared to have made up his -mind. He arose and looked down at me. - -“Very well. The bargain is made. I will protect your relatives. I -prefer a willing woman to a sulky one. We will go to-morrow and bring -them.” - -I would have been happy, even in my sacrifice, had it not been that -Kemal Effendi smiled as he said this--that cruel, wicked smile. I would -have believed in him if he had not smiled. But I felt as plain as if it -were spoken to me that behind that smile was some wicked thought. - -I begged him to go with me then to bring my people before it was too -late. He said it would not be too late in the morning; that he would go -with me after sunrise; that I need have no further fears. When he left -the room the woman who had spoken to me earlier came in to me. She took -me into the haremlik, or women’s quarters, where there were many other -women. - -I think the harem women would have been sorry for me had they -dared. They tried to cheer me. They asked much about our religion, -and why Armenians would die rather than adopt the religion of the -Turks. I could not talk to them, because I could think only of the -morning--whether I would be in time--and wonder what could be behind -that smile of the Effendi’s. - -They put me in a small room, hardly as large as an American closet. -They told me an Imam would come the next day to take my oath. - -They did not know the Effendi had promised to save my relatives and -bring them to the house. - -I had not been alone in my room very long when a pretty odalik, a young -slave girl, slipped silently through the curtained door and took my -hand in hers. She was a Syrian, she told me, whose father had sold her -when she was very young. She had been sent from Smyrna to the house of -Kemal. She was the favorite slave of the Effendi. She wanted to tell me -that if I needed some one to confide in when her master had made me his -slave, too, I could trust her. She said she was supposed to have become -Mohammedan, but that secretly she was still Christian. She did not know -many prayers she explained, for she was so young when her father had -been compelled to sell her. She wanted me to teach her new ones. - -It was so comforting to have some one to whom I could talk through -the long hours of waiting until sunrise. I told the little odalik I -had promised to be a Moslem only to save my mother and sisters and -brothers. I told her what Kemal had promised, how he had smiled and -how I feared something I could not explain. - -“When he smiles he does not mean what he says,” the girl said, sadly. -“Often when he is displeased with me he smiles and pets me. Soon -afterwards I am whipped. When the Kurd, Musa Bey, who brought you, came -to tell the Effendi he had stolen some girls and wished to sell the -prettiest to him, the Effendi smiled and said, ‘Be good to the best -appearing ones, and bring them here.’ I would not trust him to keep his -promise.” - -Early in the morning the Effendi sent for me and asked me to describe -my relatives. I told him it would be impossible for him to find them -in so large a party. He agreed I should go with him and we set out, he -riding his horse while I walked beside him. I tried to convince him I -was contented with the bargain we had made--even that I was glad of the -opportunity to have his protection. Yet I knew that behind his smile -was his resolve to have my family killed as soon as he had brought -about my “conversion” and had obtained the willing sacrifice he desired. - -Kemal knew the party in which my family was would be taken across the -river at the fording place to the north. We went in that direction, but -they had not yet arrived and we turned back to meet them. - -When we came close to the river bank, which was high and cliff-like, -I looked down at the water and saw it was running red with blood, -with here and there a body floating on the surface. I screamed when I -saw this, and sank to the ground. I shut my eyes, yet I seemed to see -what had happened--a company of Armenians taken to the river bank and -massacred, cut with knives and sabres before they were thrown into the -river, else they would not have stained the river for many miles. - -The Effendi reproached me. - -“Christians are learning their God cannot save their blood. It is what -they deserve. Why should you weep now, my little one, when already you -have decided to give your faith to Islam?” I could not look at him, but -somehow I could feel that in his eyes there would be the gleam of that -terrible smile. - -I gathered strength and replied firmly: “I am not used to blood, -Effendi.” - -We went on, close by the river, looking for the vanguard of my people -who would come from the south. The river banks reached higher, and -the river narrowed until it was almost a solid red with the blood. -Afterwards I learned seven hundred men and boys from Erzindjan had been -convoyed to the river and killed by zaptiehs. The zaptiehs stabbed them -one by one and then threw them into the river. And this river was a -part of the Euphrates of the Bible, with its source in the Garden of -Eden! - -Kemal rode close to the high banks. I walked at his side. Below me the -river seemed to call me to security. If I went on I knew Kemal would -only feed false hopes by promising protection to my relatives he would -soon tire of giving. And I would have to make the sacrifice he demanded -in vain. I waited until we were at the very edge of the cliff. Then I -jumped. I heard the curse of Kemal Effendi as I struck the red water. -When I came to the surface I saw him sitting on his horse at the top of -the cliff, looking down at me. I was glad I could not tell if he were -smiling. - -I had learned to swim when I was very young. Unconsciously I struck out -for the opposite shore and reached it safely. The banks were not so -high on that side. Soon I was free. It must have been that Kemal did -not have a revolver or he would have shot me. I did not look back, but -ran onto the plain. I did not know if Kemal would send searchers for -me, so I hid in the sand, covering myself so Kurds or zaptiehs could -not see me if they rode near, until I saw the long line of my people -from Tchemesh-Gedzak approaching on the other side of the river. - -I remained through the rest of the day and night, while the refugees -camped at the fording place. When they crossed the river the next -morning I managed to get in among them during the confusion. My mother -was so happy she could not speak for a long time. Kemal Effendi had -ridden up to them, she told me, and had demanded that the leader of the -zaptiehs find my relatives and punish them for my escape. Mother bribed -the soldiers and they told Kemal my relatives were not among the party. - -The party was given no opportunity to rest after the laborious fording -of the river, but was made to push on toward Arabkir. Little Hovnan -and Mardiros, and Aruciag and Sarah, already were almost exhausted. -Their little feet were torn and bleeding, and mother and Lusanne kept -them wrapped in cloths. There were no more babies in the party, for -just before they forded the river the zaptiehs made the mothers of the -youngest babies leave them behind. The mothers nursed them while they -were waiting to be taken over the river and then laid them in little -rows on the river bank and left them. - -The soldiers said Mohammedan women would come out from a nearby village -to take the babies and care for them, but none came while we still -could see the spot where they were left, and that was for several -hours. Several of the mothers, when they realized the promise of the -soldiers was just a ruse, jumped into the river to swim back. The -soldiers shot them in the water. After that we were not allowed to go -near the river, even to drink. - -Late that day we came to a khan, or travelers’ rest house, such as are -found along all the roads in Asia Minor, maintained after an ancient -custom of the Turks as stopping places for caravans. We were told we -could rest there for the remainder of the day and night, but when we -drew near the khan a party of soldiers came out and halted us. We could -not go to the building, our guards were told, as it was occupied by -travelers being taken north to Shabin Kara-Hissar, a large city in the -district of Trebizond near the Black Sea. - -Soon we learned who these travelers were. They were a company of -“turned” Armenians, as the Turks call Christians who have given up -their religion. The company was from Keban-Maden, a city thirty miles -south. The company arrived at the khan that morning, having traveled -twenty miles the day before. - -The zaptiehs who guarded our party and the soldiers who had come from -Keban-Maden with the others, soon became friends and talked earnestly -with each other. They had forbidden us to go near the khan, and we -wondered why the “turned” Christians were not to be seen. Presently a -slim young girl crept out of the house and, unseen by the soldiers, -crawled along the ground until she came to the outskirts of our camp. -She was naked and her feet were cut and bruised. - -She was a bride, she said, who had “turned” with her young husband. The -Mutassarif of Keban-Maden had promised all the Armenians in his city -that their lives would be saved if they accepted Islam, the child-bride -said, and more than four hundred of them, mostly the younger married -people, agreed. - -Then they were told, she said, they would have to go to Shabin -Kara-Hissar. As soon as they were outside the city the soldiers robbed -them of everything worth taking. Then most of the soldiers returned to -Keban-Maden so as not to miss the looting there of the Armenian houses. -The soldiers that remained tied the men in groups of five and made them -march bound in this way. During their first night on the road, the -bride said, the soldiers stripped all the women of their clothing and -made them march after that naked. - -Terrible things happened during that night, the girl said. Nearly -all the women were outraged, and when husbands who were still tied -together, and were helpless to interfere while they looked on, cried -out about it, the soldiers killed them. The little bride had come over -to us to ask if some of us would not give her a piece of clothing to -cover her body. Many of our women offered her underskirts and other -garments, and she crawled back to the khan with as many as she could -carry, for herself and other women. - -They did not know what was going to happen to them. They did not -believe the soldiers who said they would be permitted to live at Shabin -Kara-Hissar in peace. Their guards already were grumbling, she said, -at having to take such a long march with them just because they had -“turned.” - -That night a dozen or more of our youngest girls, from eight to ten -years old, were stolen by the soldiers and taken to the khan. We didn’t -know what became of them, but we feared they were taken to be sold -to Mohammedan families, or to rich Turks. Mother slept that night, -she was so worn out, but Lusanne and I took turns keeping guard over -our sisters and brothers, keeping them covered with dirt and bits of -clothing, so the soldiers as they prowled among us, would not see them. - -Before daylight the Armenians in the khan were taken away. We had not -been upon the road next day but a few hours when we came upon a long -row of bodies along the roadside, we recognized them as the men of the -party of “turned” Armenians. A little farther on we came to a well, but -we found it choked with the naked corpses of the rest of the party--the -women. The zaptiehs had killed all the party, and to prevent Armenians -deported along that road later, from using the water, had thrown the -bodies of the women into it. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE WAYS OF THE ZAPTIEHS - - -While we stood, in groups, looking with horror into the well, I -suddenly heard these words, spoken by a woman standing near me: - -“God has gone mad; we are deserted!” - -I turned and saw it was the wife of Badvelli Markar, a pastor who had -been our neighbor in Tchemesh-Gedzak. When the men of our city were -massacred the Badvelli’s wife was left to care for an aged mother, who -was then ill in bed with typhoid fever, and three children--a baby, a -little girl of three, and a boy who was five. She had begged the Turks -to let her remain in her home to care for her mother, but they refused. -They made the aged woman leave her bed and take to the road with the -rest of us. She died the first day. - -During the first days we were on the road the Badvelli’s wife was very -courageous. Then her little boy died. The guards had compelled her to -leave her baby at the river crossing and now her little girl, the last -of her children, was ill in her arms. When we passed the bodies of the -Armenians from the khan, laid along the road, the Badvelli’s wife -suddenly lost her mind. - -“God has gone mad, I tell you--mad--mad--mad!” - -This time she shrieked it aloud and ran in among the others in our -company, crying the terrible thing as she went. A woman tried to stop -her, to take the little girl out of her arms, but she fought fiercely -and held on to the child. - -I have heard how sometimes a sickness like the plague will spread from -one person to another with fatal quickness. That was how the madness -of the Badvelli’s wife spread through our party. It seemed hardly -more than a minute before the awful cry was taken up by scores, even -hundreds, of women whose minds already were shaken by their inability -to understand why they should be made to suffer the things they had to -endure at the hands of the Turks. - -It was the mothers of young children, mostly, who gave in to the -madness. Some of these threw their children on the ground and ran, -screaming, out of the line and into the desert. Others ran wild with -their children hanging to their arms. Their relatives tried to subdue -them, but were powerless. - -I think there were more than 200 women whose minds gave way under this -sudden impulse, stirred by the crazed widow of the pastor. - -The zaptiehs who were in charge of us could not understand at first. -They thought there was a revolt. They charged in among us, swinging -their swords and guns right and left, even shooting point blank. Many -were killed or wounded hopelessly before the zaptiehs understood. Then -the guards were greatly amused, and laughed. “See,” they said; “that is -what your God is--He is crazy.” We could only bow our heads and submit -to the taunt. Some of the women recovered their senses and were very -sorry. Those who remained crazed the zaptiehs turned onto the plains to -starve to death. They would not kill an insane person, as it is against -their religion. - -We had been told we were to go to Arabkir, but soon after leaving the -khan we changed our direction. It was apparent we were headed in the -direction of Hassan-Chelebi, a small city south of Arabkir. None of our -guards would give us any definite information. - -The zaptiehs made us march in a narrow line, but one or two families -abreast. The line of weary stragglers stretched out as far as I could -see, both ahead and behind. We had but little water, as the zaptiehs -would not allow us to go near springs or streams, but compelled us to -purchase water from the farmer Kurds who came out from villages along -the way. The villagers demanded sometimes a lira (nearly $5.) a cup for -water, and always the boys we sent out to buy it were sure to receive -a beating as well as the water. We who had money with us had to share -with those who had none. Sometimes the villagers would sell the water, -collect the money, and then tip over the cups. - -After we were on the road a week we were treated even more cruelly -than during the first few days. The old women, and those who were too -ill to keep on, were killed, one by one. The soldiers said they could -not bother with them. When children lagged behind, or got out of the -line to rest, the zaptiehs would lift them on their bayonets and toss -them away--sometimes trying to catch them again as they fell, on their -bayonet points. Mothers who saw their young ones killed in this way for -the sport of our guards could not protest. We had learned that any sort -of a protest was suicide. They had to watch and wring their hands, or -hold their eyes shut while the children died. - -Our family had been especially fortunate because none of our little -ones became ill. Although Hovnan was only six years old, he seemed to -realize what was going on. My youngest aunt, Hagenoush, who was with -us, was carried off from the road by a zaptieh, who beat her terribly -when she tried to resist him. When he had outraged her he buried his -knife in her breast and drove her back to us screaming with the fright -and pain. I think I was never so discouraged as when we had treated -Hagenoush and eased her pain. - -News of the massacres and deportations had not yet reached all the -villages we passed, as the road was little traveled. We came upon one -settlement of Armenians where the women were at their wash tubs, in the -public washing place, only partly clothed, as is the way in country -villages in Turkey. Our guards surrounded the women at once and drove -them, just as they were, into our party. Then they gathered the men, -who did not know why they were molested until we told them. We rested -on the road while the soldiers looted all the houses in that village. -Then they set fire to it. - -We were now in a country where there were many Turkish villages, as -well as settlements of Kurds. We camped at night in a great circle, -with the younger girls distributed for protection inside the circle as -widely as possible. Each day young women were carried away to be sold -to Turks who lived near by, and at night the zaptiehs selected the most -attractive women and outraged them. - -The night after the Armenian village had been surprised we had hardly -more than made our camp when the captain of the soldiers ordered the -men who had been taken from the village during the day to come before -him, in a tent which had been pitched a little way off. The captain -wanted their names, the soldiers explained. We had hoped these men -would remain with us. There were seventy-two of them, and we felt much -safer and encouraged with them among us. But we knew what the summons -meant. The men knew, too, and so did their womenfolk. - -Each man said good-by to his wife, or daughters, or mother, and other -relatives who had been gathered in at the village. The captain’s tent -was just a white speck in the moonlight. Around it we made out the -figures of soldiers and zaptiehs. The women clung to the men as long as -they dared, then the men marched out in a little company. Our guards -would not allow us to follow. We watched, hoping against hope. - -Soon we saw a commotion. Screams echoed across to us. Figures ran out -into the desert, with other figures in pursuit. Only the pursuers would -return. Then it was quiet. The men were all dead. - -That was the first time the officers had raised a tent. We wondered at -their doing this, as usually they slept in the open after their nightly -orgies with our girls. After that we shuddered more than ever whenever -we saw the soldiers put up a tent for the night. - -After the massacre of the men, the soldiers who had participated came -into the camp and, with those which had remained guarding us, went -among us selecting women whose husbands had belonged to the more -prosperous class and ordering them to go to the tent. The captain -wished to question them, the soldiers said. They summoned my mother and -many women who had been our neighbors or friends, until more than two -hundred women whose husbands had been rich or well-to-do were gathered. -With my mother my Aunt Mariam, whose husband had been a banker, was -taken. - -As soon as the women had arrived at the tent the captain told them -they were summoned to give up the money they had brought with them, -“for safe keeping from the Kurds,” he said. The women knew their money -would never be returned to them and that they would suffer terribly -without it. They refused to surrender it, saying they had none. Then -the zaptiehs fell upon them. They searched them all, first tearing off -all their clothes. - -One woman, who was the sister of the rich man, Garabed Tufenkjian, of -Sivas, and who had been visiting in our city when the deportations -began, was so mercilessly beaten she confessed at last that she had -concealed some money in her person. She begged the soldiers to cease -beating her that she might give it them. The soldiers shouted aloud -with glee at this confession and recovered the money themselves, -cutting her cruelly with their knives to make sure they had missed none. - -The soldiers then searched each woman in this way. My Aunt Mariam was -to become a mother. When the soldiers saw this they threw her to the -ground and ripped her open with their bayonets, thinking, in their -ignorant way, she had hidden a great amount of money. They were so -disappointed they fell upon the other women with renewed energy. - -Of the two hundred or more who were subjected to this treatment, only -a little group survived. When they crawled back into the camp and into -the arms of their relatives they had screamed so much they could not -talk--they had lost their voices. My poor mother had given up all the -money she had about her, but had not admitted that others of her family -had more. She was bleeding from many cuts and bruises when she reached -us, and fainted as soon as she saw Lusanne and me running to her. We -carried her into the camp and used the last of our drinking water, -which we had treasured from the day before, to bathe her wounds. - -When the soldiers and zaptiehs had divided the money which they had -taken, they came in among us again to pick out young women to take -to the officers’ tent. The moonlight was so bright none of us could -conceal ourselves. Lusanne was sitting with the children, comforting -them, while I had taken my turn at attending mother’s wounds. A zaptieh -caught her by the hair and pulled her to her feet. - -“Spare me, my mother is dying--spare me!” Lusanne cried, but the -zaptieh was merciless. He dragged her along. I could not hold myself. -I ran to Lusanne and caught hold of her, pleading with the zaptieh to -release her. Lusanne resisted, too, and the zaptieh became enraged. -With an oath he drew his knife and buried it in Lusanne’s breast. The -blade, as it fell, passed so close to me it cut the skin on my cheek, -leaving the scar which I still have. Lusanne died in my arms. The -zaptieh turned his attention to another girl he had noticed. - -Mother had not seen--she was still too exhausted from her own -sufferings. Aruciag and Hovnan, my little brother and sister, saw it -all, however, and had run to where I stood dazed, with Lusanne’s limp -body in my arms. I laid her on the ground and wondered how I could tell -mother. - -A woman who had been standing near took my place at mother’s side. I -led the little ones away and asked another woman to keep them with her, -then I returned to my sister’s body. I could not make myself believe -it. I counted on my fingers--father, mother, Paul, Lusanne, Aruciag, -Sarah, Mardiros, Hovnan and my two aunts. With me that made eleven of -us--eleven in our family. Then I counted father, Paul, Aunt Mariam, and -now Lusanne--four already gone! - -I cried over Lusanne a long time. Then I realized I must do something. -I was afraid a sudden shock might kill mother, so I must have -time, I knew, to prepare her. With the help of some other women I -carried Lusanne to the side of the camp and with our hands we dug her -grave--just a shallow hole in the sand. I made a little cross from bits -of wood we found after a long search, and laid it in her hands. - -When morning came mother had gathered her strength, with a tremendous -effort, and was able to stand and walk. Some strong young women, -offered to help carry her, even all day if necessary, if she could not -walk. Mother insisted upon walking some of the time, though, leaning -upon my shoulder. - -She asked for Lusanne as soon as we began preparation to take up the -day’s march. I tried to make her believe Lusanne was further back -in the company--“helping a sick lady,” I said. But mother read my -eyes--she knew I was trying to deceive her. - -“Don’t be afraid, little Aurora,” she said to me, oh, so very gently; -“don’t be afraid to tell me whatever it is--have they stolen her?” - -“They tried to take her,” I said, “but--” - -I stopped. Mother helped me again. “Did she die? Did they kill her? If -they did it was far better, my Aurora.” - -Then I could tell her. “They killed her--very quickly--her last words -were that God was good to set her free.” - -We saw the zaptieh who killed Lusanne, during the day, and little -Aruciag recognized him. “There is the man who killed my sister,” she -cried. Mother put her hands over her eyes and would not look at him. - -We all were in great fear of what might happen to us at Hassan-Chelebi. -Some of the young women who had been taken during the night to the -tent of the officers reported that the officers had told them during -the orgie that some great beys were coming from Sivas to meet us at -Hassan-Chelebi, and that something was to be done about us there. We -were afraid that meant that all our girls were to be stolen. - -When the city loomed up before us our young women began to tremble -with dread, and many of them fell down, unable to walk, so great was -their anguish. The soldiers whipped them up, though, and we were guided -into the center of the town. Hundreds of our women were wholly nude, -especially those who had been stripped and beaten when the soldiers -robbed them. The zaptiehs would not allow them to cover themselves, -seeming to take an especial delight in watching that those who were -without clothes did not obtain garments from others. These poor women -were compelled to walk through the streets of Hassan-Chelebi with their -heads bowed with shame, while the Turkish residents jeered at them from -windows and the roadside. - -At the square the Turkish officials from Sivas came out to look -at us. Among them were Muamer Pasha, the cruel governor of Sivas; -Mahir Effendi, his aide de camp; Tcherkess Kior Kassim, his chief -hangman, who, we afterward learned, had superintended the massacre -of 6,000 Armenian Christians at Tchamli-Bel gorge, near Sivas; a -captain of zaptiehs and a Hakim, or judge. Two of these officials were -noted throughout Armenia--Muamer Pasha and his hangman, for their -characteristic cruelties toward Christians. - -After the officials had walked among us, closely surrounded by soldiers -so that none could approach them, the Mudir, or under-mayor of the -city, came with the police to get all boys over eight years of age. The -police said the mayor had provided a school for them in a monastery, -where they would be kept until their mothers had been permanently -located somewhere and could send for them. Of course, we knew this was -a false reason. - -I greatly feared for Mardiros, but he was so small they did not take -him. There must have been 500 boys with us who were between eight and -fifteen, and these all were gathered. - -The little fellows were taken to the mayor’s palace. Then soldiers -marched them away, all the little ones crying and screaming. We heard -the cries a long time. When we arrived at Arabkir we were told by -other refugees there that all the boys were killed as soon as they had -crossed the hills into the valley just outside Hassan-Chelebi. The -soldiers tied them in groups of ten and fifteen and then slew them with -swords and bayonets. Refugees passing that way from Sivas saw their -bodies on the road. - -Before we left Hassan-Chelebi, Tcherkess Kior Kassim, the hangman, came -among us, with a company of zaptiehs and picked out twelve very young -girls--most of them between eight and twelve years old. The hangman was -going soon to Constantinople, the soldiers said, and wanted young girls -to sell to rich Turks of powerful families, among whom it is the custom -to buy pretty girls of this age, whenever possible, and keep them in -their harems until they mature. They are raised as Mohammedans and are -later given to sons of their owners, or to powerful friends. - -Just outside Hassan-Chelebi, which we left in the afternoon, we were -joined by a party of 3,000 refugees from Sivas. They, too, were on -their way to Arabkir, and had encamped outside the city to wait for -us. Among them was a company of twenty Sisters of Grace. These dear -Sisters, several of whom were Europeans, had been summoned at midnight -from their beds by the Kaimakam, or under-governor. When the Turkish -soldiers went for them they were disrobed, sleeping. The soldiers -would not permit them to dress, but took them as they were, barefooted -and in their nightgowns. - -They had managed, during the long days out of Sivas, to borrow other -garments, but none had shoes and their feet were torn and bleeding. -They were very delicate and gentle, and all had received their -education in American or European schools. They had demanded exemption -from the deportation under certain concessions made their convent by -the Sultan, but the soldiers ignored their pleas. - -Instead of arousing some slight respect upon the part of their guards -because of their holy station, these Sisters had been subjected to -the worst possible treatment. They told us that every night after -their party left Sivas the soldiers and zaptiehs took them away from -the party and violated them. They begged for death, but even this was -refused them. Two of them, Sister Sarah and Sister Esther, who had come -from America, had killed themselves. They had only their hands--no -other weapons, and the torture and agonies they endured while taking -their own lives were terrible. - -The refugees from Sivas included the men. There were more than 25,000 -Armenians in that city, and all were notified they were to be taken -away. The party which joined ours was the first to be sent out. They -had passed many groups of corpses along the road, they reported, the -reminder of deportations from other cities. - -When we arrived at Arabkir we were ordered to encamp at the edge of the -city. Parties of exiles from many villages between Arabkir and Sivas -already were there. Some of them still had their men and boys with -them, others told us how their men had been killed along the route. - -The Armenians of Arabkir itself were awaiting deportation, herded in -a party of 8,000 or more, near where we halted. They had been waiting -five days, and did not know what had happened to their homes in the -city. - -A special official came from Sivas to take charge of the deportations -at Arabkir. With him came a company of zaptiehs. Halil Bey, a great -military leader, with his staff, also was there, on his way to -Constantinople where he was to take command of an army. - -In the center of the city there was a large house which had been used -by the prosperous Armenian shops. On the upper floors were large rooms -which had been gathering places. Already this house had come to be -known as the Kasab-Khana--the “butcher-house”--for here the leading men -of the city had been assembled and slain. - -Shortly after the special official’s arrival soldiers summoned all -the men still with the Sivas exiles, to a meeting with him on the -Kasab-Khana. The men feared to go, but were told there would be no -more cruelties now that high authority was represented. The men went, -two thousand of them, and were killed as soon as they reached the -Kasab-Khana. Soldiers were in hiding on the lower floors and as the -men gathered in the upper rooms the doors were closed and the soldiers -went about the slaughter. Men leaped out of the windows as fast as they -could, but soldiers caught them on their bayonets. - -The bodies were thrown out of the house later in the day. The next -morning they were still piled in the streets when the official called -for the girls who had been attending the Christian colleges and schools -at Sivas, and the Mission at Kotcheseur, an Armenian town near Sivas. -There were two hundred of these girls, all of them members of the -better families, and all between fifteen and twenty years old. The -soldiers said the official had arranged for them to be sent under the -care of missionaries to a school near the coast, where they would be -protected. - -The girls were summoned to the Kasab-Khana. It was then we learned, for -the first time, what had happened to the men the day before. They stood -in line but a few yards from the great piles of the bodies still lying -in the street. - -The official received them in a room on the upper floor of the house, -which still bore the stains of blood on the walls and floors. He asked -them to renounce Christ and accept Allah. Only a few agreed--these were -taken away, where, I do not know. The rest were left in the room by the -official and his staff. As soon as the officers had left the building -the soldiers poured into the room, sharing the girls among them. All -day and night soldiers went into and came out of the house. Nearly all -the girls died. Those who were alive when the soldiers were weary were -sent away under an escort of zaptiehs. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -RECRUITING FOR THE HAREMS OF CONSTANTINOPLE - - -The exiles from my city were kept in a camp outside Arabkir. On the -third day the hills around us suddenly grew white with the figures of -Aghja Daghi Kurds. They waited until nightfall then they rode down -among us. There were hundreds of them, and when they were weary of -searching the women for money, they began to gather up girls and young -women. - -I tried to conceal myself when a little party of the Kurds came near. -But I was too late. They took me away, with a dozen other girls and -young wives this band had caught. They carried us on their horses -across the valley, over the hills and into the desert beyond. There -they stripped us of what clothes still were on our bodies. With their -long sticks they subdued the girls who were screaming, or who resisted -them--beat them until their flesh was purple with flowing blood. My -own heart was too full--thinking of my poor, wounded mother. I could -not cry. I was not even strong enough to fight them when they began to -take the awful toll which the Turks and Kurds take from their women -captives. - -When the Kurds were tired of mistreating us they hobbled us, still -naked, to their horses. Each girl, with her hands tied behind her back, -was tied by the feet to the end of a rope fastened around a horse’s -neck. Thus they left us--neither we nor the horses could escape. - -I have often wondered since I came to America, where life is so -different from that of my country, if any of the good people whom I -meet could imagine the sufferings of that night while I lay in the -moonlight, my hands fastened and my feet haltered to the restless -animal. - -There seems to be so little of tragedy in this country--so little of -real suffering. I can hardly believe yet, though I have been free so -many months now, that there is a land where there is no punishment for -believing in God. - -When the dawn broke the Kurds came out to untie their horses. It is -characteristic of even the fiercest Kurds that their captives always -are fed. The Kurds will rob and terribly mistreat their victims, -especially the women of the Christians, but they will not steal their -food. When their captives have no food they will even share with -them. The Kurd is more of a child than the Turk, and nearly all the -wickedness of these bandits of the desert is inspired by their Turkish -masters. - -When we had eaten of the bread and drank the water they brought for -us, the Kurds lifted us upon their horses and galloped toward the -north. There were more girls than Kurds, and we were shifted frequently -that double burdens might be shared among the horses. - -We did not know where we were being taken, nor to what. After many -hours of riding I was shifted to the care of a Kurd who--either because -he was kinder or liked to talk--answered my pleading questions. He told -me a great Pasha was at Egin, a city to the north, who had come down -from Constantinople especially to take an interest in Armenian girls. -This Pasha, the Kurd said, even paid money to have Christian girls who -were healthy and pleasing brought before him. - -Egin is on the banks of the Kara Su. From Erzindjan, Shabin Kara-Hissar -and Niksar, large northern cities, thousands of Armenians had been -brought to Egin. Here special bands of soldiers had been stationed to -superintend the massacres of these Christians. All around the hills and -plains outside the city huge piles of corpses were still uncovered. -We passed long ditches which had been dug by convicts released from -Turkish prisons for that purpose, and in which an attempt had been made -to bury the bodies of the Armenians. But the convicts had been in such -a hurry to get done the work for which they were to be given their -liberty, that the legs and arms of men and women still stuck out from -the sand which had been scraped over them. - -There had been many rich Armenian families in Egin. It was the meeting -place of the rich caravans from Samsoun, Trebizond and Marsovan, bound -for Harpout and Diyarbekir. For many years the Turkish residents and -the Armenians had been good neighbors. When the first orders for the -deportation and massacres reached Egin the rich Armenian women ran to -their Turkish friends, the wives of rich aghas and beys, and begged -them for an intercession in their behalf. There was at that time an -American missionary at the hospital in Egin who had been an interpreter -attached to the American Embassy at Constantinople. He procured -permission from the Kaimakam to appeal by the telegraph to the American -Ambassador, Mr. Morgenthau, for the Christian residents of the city. - -In the meantime the rich Armenian women gave all their jewels and -household silver and other valuables to the wives of the Turkish -officials, and in this way obtained promises that they would not -be molested until word had come from Constantinople. The American -Ambassador secured from Talaat Bey, the Minister of the Interior, and -Enver Pasha, the Minister of War, permission for the Armenians of Egin -to remain undisturbed in their homes. - -There was great rejoicing then among the Christians of Egin. A few -days later the first company of exiles from the villages to the west -reached the city on their way to the south. They had walked for three -days and had been cruelly mistreated by the zaptiehs guarding them. -Their girls had been carried off and their young women had been the -playthings of the soldiers. They were famished also for water and -bread, and the Turks would give them none. - -The Armenians of Egin were heart-stricken at the condition of these -exiles, but they feared to help them. The refugees were camped at night -in the city square. During the night the zaptiehs and soldiers made -free with the young women still among the exiles and their screams -deepened the pity of the residents. In the morning the Armenian priest -of the city could stand it no longer--he went into the square with -bread and water and prayers. The Kaimakam had been watching for just -such an occurrence! - -He sent soldiers to bring the priest before him. He also sent for -twenty of the principal Armenian business men and had them brought into -the room. As soon as the Armenians arrived his soldiers set upon the -priest and began to torture him, to pull out his hair and twist his -fingers and toes with pincers, which is a favorite Turkish torture. The -soldiers kept asking him as they twisted their pincers: - -“Did you not advise them to resist? Did you not take arms to them -concealed in bread?” - -The priest screamed denials. The twenty men had been lined up at one -side of the room. In his trickery the Kaimakam had stationed his -soldiers at a distance from the Armenians. When the torture of the -priest continued and his screams died away into groans the Armenians -could stand it no longer. They threw themselves upon the torturers--not -to assault them, but to beg mercy for the holy man. Then the soldiers -leaped upon them and killed them all. - -The Kaimakam reported to Constantinople that it was impossible longer -to obey the Ministry’s orders to allow the Armenians in Egin to -remain--that they had revolted and attacked his soldiers and that he -had been forced to kill twenty of them. Talaat Bey sent back the famous -reply which now burns in the heart of every Armenian in the world--no -matter where he or she is--for they all have heard of it. Talaat Bey’s -reply was: - -“Whatever you do with Christians is amusing.” - -After this reply from Talaat Bey, the Kaimakam issued a proclamation -giving the Armenians of Egin just two hours to prepare for deportation. -The women besieged the officers and said to them: “See, we have given -our precious stones to your wives, and we have given them many liras -to give to you. Your wives promised us protection, and we have done -nothing to abuse your confidence. Our men did not attack your soldiers -in violence.” - -But the officers would only make light of them. “We would have gotten -your jewels and your money anyway,” they replied. - -In two hours they had assembled--all the Armenians in the city. The -soldiers went among them and seized many of the young women. These they -took to a Christian monastery just outside the city, where there were -several other Armenian girls residing as pupils. - -The Armenians had many donkeys and horse carriages. The mayor had told -them they might travel with these. The soldiers tied the women in -bunches of five, wrapped them tightly with ropes, and threw one bunch -in each cart. Then they drove away the donkeys and horses and forced -the men to draw these carts in which their womenfolk were bound. The -soldiers would not let husbands or brothers or sons talk to their -womenfolk, no matter how loudly they cried as the carts were pulled -along. - -An hour outside the city the soldiers killed the men. Then they untied -the women and tormented them. After many hours they killed the women -who survived. - -The Kaimakam sent his officers to the monastery where the young women -were imprisoned. They took with them Turkish doctors, who examined the -captives and selected the ones who were healthy and strong. Of these, -the Turks required all who were maidens to stand apart from those who -were not. The brides and young wives then were told they would be sent -to Constantinople, to be sold there either as concubines or as slaves -to farmer Turks. The maidens were told they might save their lives if -they would forswear their religion and accept Mohammed. Some of them -were so discouraged they agreed. An Imam said the rek’ah with them, and -they were sent away into the hopeless land--to be wives or worse. - -One maiden, the daughter of an Armenian leader who had been a deputy -from that district to the Turkish Parliament, was especially pretty, -and one of the officers wanted her for himself. He said to her: - -“Your father, your mother, your brother and your two sisters have been -killed. Your aunts and your uncles and your grandfather were killed. I -wish to save you from the suffering they went through, and the unknown -fate that will befall these girls who are Mohammedan now, and the -known fate which will befall those who have been stubborn. Now, be a -good Turkish girl and you shall be my wife--I will make you, not a -concubine, but a wife, and you will live happily.” - -What the girl replied was so well remembered by the Turks who heard her -that they told of it afterward among themselves until it was known -through all the district. She looked quietly into the face of the -Turkish officer and said: - -“My father is not dead. My mother is not dead. My brother and sisters, -and my uncle and aunt and grandfather are not dead. It may be true you -have killed them, but they live in Heaven. I shall live with them. I -would not be worthy of them if I proved untrue to their God and mine. -Nor could I live in Heaven with them if I should marry a man I do not -love. God would not like that. Do with me what you wish.” - -Soldiers took her away. No one knows what became of her. The other -maidens who had refused to “turn” were given to soldiers to sell to -aghas and beys. So there was none left alive of the Christians of Egin, -except the little handful of girls in the harems of the rich--worse -than dead. - -When the Kurds carried me and the other girls they had stolen with me, -into Egin they rode into the center of the city. We begged them to -avoid the crowds of Turkish men and women on the streets because of our -nakedness. They would not listen. - -We were taken into the yard of a large building, which I think must -have been a Government building. There we found, in pitiable condition, -hundreds of other young Armenian women, who had been stolen from bands -of exiles from the Erzindjan and Sivas districts. Some had been there -several days. Many were as unclothed as we were. Some had lost their -minds and were raving. All were being held for an audience with the -great Pasha, who had arrived at Egin only the night before. - -This Pasha, we learned soon after our arrival, was the notorious Kiamil -Pasha, of Constantinople. He was very old now, surely not less than -eighty years, yet he carried himself very straight and firm. Once, many -years before, he had been the governor of Aleppo and had become famous -throughout the world for his cruelties to the Christians then. It was -said he was responsible for the massacres of 1895, and that he had been -removed from office once at the request of England, only to be honored -in his retirement by appointment to a high post at Constantinople. - -With Kiamil Pasha there was Boukhar-ed-Din-Shakir Bey, who, I afterward -learned, was an emissary of Talaat Bey and Enver Pasha. - -A regiment of soldiers had come from Constantinople with Kiamil Pasha, -and had camped just outside the city. This regiment later became known -as the “Kasab Tabouri,” the “butcher regiment,” for it participated in -the massacre of more than 50,000 of my people, under Kiamil Pasha’s -orders. - -Kiamil Pasha and Boukhar-ed-Din-Shakir Bey came to the building where -we were kept and sat behind a table in a great room. We were taken in -twenty at a time. Even those who were nude were compelled to stand in -the line which faced his table. - -The pasha and the bey looked at us brutally when we stood before them. -That which happened to those who went to the audience with me, was what -happened to all the others. - -“His Majesty the Sultan, in his kindness of heart, wishes to be -merciful to you, who represent the girlhood of treacherous Armenia,” -said Boukhar-ed-Din-Shakir, while Kiamil looked at us silently. “You -have been selected from many to receive the blessing of His Majesty’s -pity. You are to be taken to the great cities of Islam, where you will -be placed under imperial protection in schools to be established for -you, and where you may learn of those things which it is well for you -to know, and forget the teachings of unbelievers. You will be kindly -treated and given in marriage as opportunity arises into good Moslem -homes, where your behavior will be the only measure of your content.” - -Those were his words, as truly as I can remember them. No girl answered -him. We knew better than to put faith in Turkish promises, and we knew -what even that promise implied--apostasy. - -“Those of you who are willing to become Moslems will state their -readiness,” the bey continued. - -Though I cannot understand them, I cannot blame those who gave way now. -The Pasha and the Bey said nothing more. They just burned us with -their cold, glittering eyes, and waited. The strain was too terrible. -Almost half the girls fell upon their knees or into the arms of -stronger girls, and cried that they would agree. - -Boukhar-ed-Din-Shakir waved his hand toward the soldiers, who escorted -or carried these girls into another room. We never heard of them again. -Kiamil still looked coldly and silently at those of us who had refused. -The Bey said not a word either, but raised his hand again. Then -soldiers began to beat us with long, cruel whips. - -We fell to the floor under the blows. The soldiers continued to beat us -with slow, measured strokes--I can feel them now, those steady, cutting -slashes with the whips the Turks use on convicts whom they bastinado to -death. A girl screamed for mercy and shouted the name of Allah. They -carried her into the other room. Another could not get the words out of -her throat. She held out her arms toward the Pasha and the Bey, taking -the blows from the whip on her hands and wrists until they saw that she -had given in. Then she, too, was carried out. Others fainted, only to -revive under the blows that did not stop. - -Twice I lost consciousness. The second time I did not come to until it -was over and, with others who had remained true to our religion, had -been left in the courtyard. - -I think there were more than four hundred young women in the yard when -I first was taken into it. Not more than twenty-five were with me -now--all the rest had been beaten into apostasy. No one can tell what -became of them. It was said Kiamil and Boukhar-ed-Din-Shakir sent more -than a thousand Armenian girls to Kiamil’s estates on the Bosphorus, -where they were cared for until their prettiness had been recovered -and their spirits completely broken, when they were distributed among -the rich beys and pashas who were the political associates of Kiamil, -Boukhar-ed-Din-Shakir Bey, and Djevdet Bey of Van. - -We were kept in the courtyard four days, with nothing to eat but a bit -of bread each day. Three of the young women died of their wounds. Often -Turkish men and women would come to look into the yard and mock us. -Turkish boys sometimes were allowed to throw stones at us. - -On the fourth day we were taken out by zaptiehs to join a party of a -thousand or more women and children who had arrived during the night -from Baibourt. All the women in this party were middle-aged or very -old, and the children were very small. What girls and young women were -left when the party reached Egin, had been kept in the city for Kiamil -and Boukhar-ed-Din-Shakir Bey to dispose of. The older boys had been -stolen by Circassians. There were almost no babies, as these either had -died when their mothers were stolen or had been killed by the soldiers. - -With this party we went seven hours from the city and were halted there -to wait for larger parties of exiles from Sivas and Erzindjan, which -were to meet at that point on the way to Diyarbekir. - -Both these parties had to pass through Divrig Gorge, which was near by. -The exiles from Erzindjan never reached us. They were met at the gorge -by the Kasab Tabouri, the butcher regiment, and all were killed. There -were four thousand in the party. Just after this massacre was finished -the exiles from Sivas came into the gorge from the other side. - -The soldiers of the Kasab Tabouri were tired from their exertions in -killing the 4,000 exiles from Erzindjan such a short time before, so -they made sport out of the reception of those from Sivas, who numbered -more than 11,000 men, women and children. - -Part of the regiment stood in line around the bend of the gorge until -the leaders of the Armenians came into view. Panic struck the exiles -at once, and they turned to flee, despite their guards. But they found -a portion of the regiment, which had been concealed, deploying behind -them and cutting off their escape from the trap. - -As the regiment closed in, thousands of the women, with their babies -and children in their arms, scrambled up the cliffs on either side of -the narrow pass, helped by their men folk, who remained on the road to -fight with their hands and sticks against the armed soldiers. - -But the zaptiehs who accompanied the party surrounded the base of the -cliffs and kept the women from escaping. Then the Kasab Tabouri killed -men until there were not enough left to resist them. Scores of men -feigned death among the bodies of their friends, and thus escaped with -their lives. - -Part of the soldiers then scaled the cliffs to where the women were -huddled. They took babies from the arms of mothers and threw them over -the cliffs to comrades below, who caught as many as they could on their -bayonets. When babies and little girls were all disposed of this way, -the soldiers amused themselves awhile making women jump over--prodding -them with bayonets, or beating them with gun barrels until the women, -in desperation, jumped to save themselves. As they rolled down the base -of the cliff soldiers below hit them with heavy stones or held their -bayonets so they would roll onto them. Many women scrambled to their -feet after falling and these the soldiers forced to climb the cliffs -again, only to be pushed back over. - -The Kasab Tabouri kept up this sport until it was dark. They were under -orders to pass the night at Tshar-Rahya, a village three hours from the -gorge, so when darkness came and they were weary even of this game they -assembled and marched away singing, some with babies on their bayonets, -others with an older child under their arms, greatly pleased with such -a souvenir. Some salvaged a girl from the human débris and made her -march along to unspeakable shame at the Tshar-Rahya barracks. - -Only 300 of all the 11,000 exiles lived and were able to march under -the scourging of the handful of zaptiehs who remained to guard them. -They joined us where we had halted. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -MALATIA--THE CITY OF DEATH - - -Seven days after the massacre at Divrig Gorge, those of us who survived -the cruelties of our guards along the way, saw just ahead of us the -minarets of Malatia, one of the great converging points for the -hundreds of thousands of deported Armenians on their way to the Syrian -deserts which, by this time, I knew to be the destination of those who -were permitted to live. When the minarets came into view, I was much -excited by the hope that perhaps my mother’s party might have reached -there and halted, and that I might find her there. - -When we drew close to the city we passed along the road that countless -other exiles had walked before. At the side of the road, in ridicule of -the Crucifixion and as a warning to such Christian girls as lived to -reach Malatia, the Turks had crucified on rough wooden crosses sixteen -girls. I do not know how long the bodies had been there, but vultures -already had gathered. - -Each girl had been nailed alive upon her cross, great cruel spikes -through her feet and hands. Only their hair, blown by the wind, covered -their bodies. - -“See,” said our guards with great satisfaction; “see what will happen -to you in Malatia if you are not submissive.” - -In the vicinity of Malatia, and in the city itself, there were more -than twenty thousand refugees waiting to be sent on. Kurds were -camped outside in little bands, each with its “Claw chief,” waiting -to waylay and plunder the exiles. Arabs rode about the hills in the -distance--outlaw bands, who swooped down upon the Christians in the -night and stole the strongest of the women and girls for the harvesting -in the fields. Turkish beys and aghas, with here and there a dignified -pasha, rode out along the road to inspect each band of exiles as it -approached the city, their cruel, sensual eyes trying to pierce the -veils the younger girls wrapped about their faces to conceal their -youth and prettiness. - -From Sivas, Tokat, Egin, Erzindjan, Kerasun, Samsoun and countless -smaller cities in the north, where the Armenians had had their homes -for centuries, they had all been started toward Malatia. All the rivers -in between were running red with blood; the valleys were great open -graves in which thousands of bodies were left unburied; mountain passes -were choked with the dead, and every rich Turk who kept a harem between -the Black Sea and the River Tigris, had one or more, sometimes a -score, of new concubines--Armenian girls who had been stolen for them -along the road to this city. - -I often wonder if the good people of America know what the Armenians -are--their character. I sometimes fear Americans think of us as a nomad -people, or as people of a lower class. We are, indeed, different. My -people were among the first converts to Christ. They are a noble race, -and have a literature older than that of any other peoples in the world. - -Very few Armenians are peasants. Nearly all are tradesmen, merchants, -great and small, financiers, bankers or educators. In my city alone -there were more than a score of business men or teachers who had -received their education at American colleges. Hundreds had attended -great European universities. My own education was received partly at -the American college at Marsovan and partly from private tutors. Many -Armenians are very wealthy. Few Turks are as fortunate in this respect -as the great Armenian merchants. - -Of the twenty thousand Christians herded in Malatia, in camps outside -the city, in the public square or in houses set apart by the Turks -for that purpose, I think much more than half were the members of -well-to-do families, girls who had been educated either in Europe or -in great Christian colleges at home, such as that at Marsovan, Sivas -or Harpout, or in schools conducted by the Swiss, the Americans, the -English and the French. These girls had been taught music, literature -and art. - -I want to tell what happened to one group of school girls near Malatia, -as it was told me by one of them. - -At Kirk-Goz, a small city outside Malatia, there had been a German -school, where young Armenian women from all over the district were -sent to be taught by German teachers. The rule of the school was that -the money received from the rich Armenian girls for their tuition was -used in paying the expenses of poor girls. There were more than sixty -pupils at this school when the attack on the Armenians began. As the -school was under German protection, these girls considered themselves -safe, and their families were happy to think they were protected. Aziz -Bey, the Kaimakam, sent soldiers, however, with orders to bring all the -girls into Malatia, to be deported or worse. Mme. Roth, the principal, -refused to open the gates. She declared Eimen Effendi, the German -consular agent in that district, would demand reparation if any attack -on the school’s pupils were made. - -Mme. Roth--who was a German and old--herself, went to Malatia to -consult Eimen Effendi. He told her Turkey was an ally of Germany, -that Turkey declared Armenians to be obnoxious, and that Germany, -therefore, must support the Sultan. He said the pupils would have to be -surrendered. Then the soldiers took them away. Each girl was permitted -to have a donkey, which the teachers bought in the city for them. They -started west, to Mezre, where, the authorities promised, the girls -would be taken care of in a dervish monastery. - -Mme. Roth went, herself, before Aziz Bey and pleaded for the girls. -She told him she was ashamed of being a German since Eimen Effendi -had allowed such a horrible thing to be perpetrated with the consent -of Germany. She offered the Bey all her personal possessions, all -the money she had with her at Kirk-Goz, if he would return the girl -pupils and allow her to keep them with her. Mme. Roth was very wealthy. -She had more than 1,000 liras, and jewels worth much more. Aziz Bey -accepted the bribe and sent her, with an escort of soldiers, after the -young women. - -Two days later Mme. Roth and her escort approached the crossing of the -river Tokma-Su, at the little village Keumer-Khan. There were tracks -on the plain which showed the party they sought had passed that way -but a little while before. Suddenly down the road toward them came an -unclothed girl, running madly and screaming in terror. When she came -near Mme. Roth and recognized her, the girl cried, “Teacher, teacher, -save me! Save me!” - -The girl, whose name was Martha, and whose parents were rich people of -Zeitoun, threw herself on the ground at her teacher’s feet and clasped -them. “Save me! Save me!” she continued to scream. Mme. Roth gave her -drops of brandy from a bottle she had carried with her, and tried to -quiet her. Two zaptiehs from the guard which the bey had sent with the -school girls came running up. When Martha saw them she went mad again -and became unconscious. The zaptiehs tried to take possession of her -limp body, but Mme. Roth defied them. Her escort persuaded the zaptiehs -to go away. When Mme. Roth knelt again by the girl she was dead. Marks -on her body and bruises and wounds and her torn hair were evidences of -the struggle she had made to save herself. - -Mme. Roth hurried on. She heard more screams as she neared the river -banks. She came upon two zaptiehs, sitting on the sand, prodding with a -pointed stick the bare shoulders of a girl whom they had buried in the -earth above her elbows. This was a favorite pastime of the zaptiehs of -the Euphrates provinces. They had commanded the girl to submit to them -quietly and she had fought them. To punish her and break her spirit -they buried her that way and tortured her. She screamed with pain and -fright, and this amused them greatly. When they wished the zaptiehs -would take her out, and then bury her again. It was from such torture -as this Martha had escaped. - -The soldiers of Mme. Roth’s escort rescued the girl, at her command. -Mme. Roth left her with three soldiers and crossed the river. She -could hear screams from the other side. Once zaptiehs on the raft -taking them across the river broke into a loud guffaw. The oarsmen -steered the raft so as to escape two floating objects, and it was -these which amused them. Mme. Roth saw the bodies of two of her girls -floating down the river from where the screams came. - -“Look--look there,” shouted a laughing zaptieh; “two more Christians -whom their Christ forgot!” - -On the other side Mme. Roth found all who were left of her sixty or -more pupils--only seventeen. Their lives were saved only because the -zaptiehs had become weary. They were, too, the least pretty of the -original party. Mme. Roth took them all back to Malatia, where the -Kaimakam insisted that she house them. They were living there in -constant fear of being taken away again when I was taken from the city. - -It was said by those who knew, that Mme. Roth refused to receive Eimen -Effendi when he called upon her after her return with her surviving -pupils. It is said she sent word to him that she was no longer German, -and would ask no protection except that which she could buy with gold -liras as long as she could obtain them from her relatives. - -In every open space in the city and in every empty building Armenian -refugees were camped, hungry, footsore and dying, with little food or -water. In all our company there were not ten loaves of bread when we -entered the city. When we asked at the wells of Turks for water we were -spat at, and if soldiers were near the Turks would call them to drive -us away. Each day thousands of the refugees were taken away, and each -day thousands of others arrived from the north. - -Inside the city there was no attempt to care for the arriving exiles. -Some of the men in our party finally led the way to a great building -which had been a barracks, but in which many thousands of Christians -had taken refuge. We seldom ventured out on the streets, for Turkish -boys and Kurds and Arabs thronged the streets and threw stones or -sticks at us, or, in the case of girls as young as I, carried them into -Turkish shops or low houses, and there outraged them. - -When we had passed the second day in Malatia I could rest no longer -without seeking my mother--hoping that she and the Armenians of -Tchemesh-Gedzak might be among the other refugees. I went into the -street at night and went from place to place where exiles were herded. -Nowhere could I find familiar faces--people from my own city. - -When morning came I could not find my way back to the building I had -left. Morning comes quickly in the midst of the plains, and soon it was -light, and I was in a part of the city where there were no exiles. - -The streets of Malatia are very narrow, and there are few byways. -My bare feet were tired from walking all night on cobblestones and -pavements. I felt very tired--not as if I really were but little over -fourteen. I knew I would soon be carried into one of these Turkish -houses and lost, perhaps forever, if soldiers or gendarmes should catch -me at large. I hid in a little areaway. - -Suddenly I realized that I was hugging the walls of a house over which -hung the American flag. A feeling of relief came over me. The American -flag is very beautiful to the eyes of all Armenians! For many years it -has been to my people the promise of peace and happiness. We had heard -so much of the wonderful country it represented. Armenia always has -thought of the United States as a friend ever ready to help her. - -When the street was clear I left my hiding place and went to the -door of the house. I rapped, but Turks entered the street just then -and spied me. They were citizens, not soldiers, but they shouted and -started to run at me, recognizing me perhaps from the bits of garments -which I had managed to gather to cover my body, as an Armenian. - -I screamed and pushed at the door. It opened, and I found myself in the -arms of a woman who was hurrying to let me in. - -I was too frightened to explain. The Turks were at the door. I thought -I would be carried away. One of them pushed himself inside the door. -Another followed, and they reached out their hands to take me. - -The woman, who was not Turkish, stepped in front of me. “What do you -want?--Why are you here?” she asked in Turkish. “The girl--we want her. -She has escaped,” they said. - -The woman startled me by refusing to allow me to be taken. She told the -Turks they had no authority. When the men motioned as if to take me by -force she stepped in front of me and told them to remember that I was -her guest. One of the men said: - -“The girl is an Armenian. She has run away from the rest of her people. -She has no right to be at large in the city. The Kaimakam has ordered -citizens to take into custody all Christians found outside quarters set -aside for them to rest in while halting on their way past the city.” - -“Your Kaimakam’s orders have nothing to do with me. I shall protect the -girl. You dare not harm an American!” said my new friend. The Turks, -grumbling among themselves, and threatening vengeance, went out. - -The young woman told me she was Miss McLaine, an American missionary. -The house was the home of the American consul at Malatia, but he had -taken his wife, who was ill, to Harpout. Miss McLaine kept the flag -flying while they were gone. She had tried to persuade the officials to -be less cruel to the refugees, but could do very little. She had been -a pupil of Dr. Clarence Ussher, the noted American missionary surgeon, -of New York, and Mrs. Ussher, both of whom were famous throughout -Armenia for their kindness to our people during the massacres at Van. -Mrs. Ussher lost her life at Van. - -Late that day a squad of soldiers came from the Kaimakam to the -consul’s house and demanded that I be given up. Miss McLaine again -refused to surrender me. The soldiers declared they had orders to take -me by force. Miss McLaine asked that they take her to the Kaimakam that -she might ask his protection for me. To this the soldiers agreed, and I -was left alone in the house. - -When Miss McLaine returned she was crying. The soldiers returned with -her. The Kaimakam had said I must rejoin the exiles, but that I might -be taken to a house where a large company of women who had embraced -Mohammedanism were confined, with their children. This company, the -mayor said, was to be protected until they reached a place selected by -the government. - -So Miss McLaine could do nothing more. She kissed me, and the soldiers -led me away to the house where the apostasized women with their -children were quartered. - -These apostasized Armenians were nearly all women from small cities -between Malatia and Sivas. None of them really had given up -Christianity, but they thought they were doing right, as nearly all -the women were the mothers of small children who were with them. They -wanted to save the lives of their little ones. They did not know what -was to become of them, but the beys had promised they would be taken -care of by the government. - -This party of exiles was fed by the Turks--bread, water and coarse -cakes. We were not allowed out of the house, but the Turks did not -bother us. I soon had occasion to realize that the Kaimakam really had -given me at least some protection when he allowed me to join this party. - -In some of the companies waiting in Malatia the men had not been -killed. One day the soldiers gathered all of these into one big party. -The mayor wanted them to register, the soldiers said, so allotments of -land could be made them at their destination in the south. So earnest -were the soldiers the men believed them. Many went without even putting -on their coats. They were marched to the building in which I had first -been quartered, and from which other refugees had been taken out the -night before. - -Almost 3,000 men were thus assembled. Outside soldiers took up their -station at the doors and windows. Other soldiers then robbed the men -of their money and valuables--such as they had saved from Kurds along -the road, and then began killing them. When bodies had piled so high -the soldiers could not reach survivors without stumbling in blood, then -they used their rifles, and killed the remainder with bullets. - -That afternoon soldiers visited all the camps of refugees and took -children more than five years old. I think there must have been eight -or nine thousand of these. The soldiers came even to the house in which -I was with the “turned” Armenians, and despite the promises of the -mayor took all our boys and girls. When mothers clung to their little -ones and begged for them the soldiers beat them off. “If they die now -your God won’t be troubled by having to look after them till they grow -up,” the soldiers said--and always with a brutal laugh. - -They took the children to the edge of the city, where a band of Aghja -Daghi Kurds was waiting. Here the soldiers gave the children into -the keeping of the Kurds, who drove them off toward the Tokma River, -just outside the city. The Kurds drove the little ones like a flock -of sheep. At the river banks the boys were thrown into the river. The -girls were taken to Turkish cities, to be raised as Mohammedans. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -IN THE HAREM OF HADJI GHAFOUR - - -After the massacre of the men all the exiles waiting in Malatia were -told to prepare for the road again. We were assembled outside the city -early one morning. Only women and some children, with here and there an -old man, were left. We were told we were to be taken to Diyarbekir, a -hundred miles across the country. Very few had hopes of surviving this -stage of the journey, as the country was thickly dotted with Turkish, -Circassian and Kurdish villages, and inhabited by most fanatical -Moslems. Civilians were more cruel to the deportees along the roads -between the larger cities, than the soldiers. Some of the treatment -suffered by our people from these fanatical residents of small towns -was such that I cannot even write of it. - -When the column was formed, outside Malatia, it was made up of fifteen -thousand women, young and old. Very few had any personal belongings. -Few had food. Many had managed to hold onto money, however, and these -were ready to share what they had with those who had none. Money was -the only surety of enough food to sustain life on the long walk, and -the only hope of protection against a zaptieh’s lust for killing. - -The company of apostates which I had been permitted to join was placed -at the head of the column, with a special guard of soldiers. Zaptiehs -guarded the other companies, but there were very few assigned. Most -of the zaptiehs in that district had been placed in the Mesopotamian -armies. My party of apostates, of which there were about two hundred, -was the best guarded. The others were wholly at the mercy of Kurds and -villagers. - -It was now late in June, and very hot. Scores of aged women dropped to -the ground, prostrated by heat and famished for water, of which there -was only that which we could beg from farmers along the way. The mother -of two girls in my party, who, with her daughters, already had walked -a hundred miles into Malatia, was beaten because she fell behind. She -fell to the ground and could not get up. The soldiers would not let us -revive her. Her two daughters could only give her a farewell kiss and -leave her by the roadside. - -One of these two girls was a bride--a widowed bride. She had seen her -husband and father killed in the town of Kangai, on the Sivas road, and -when the Kurds were about to kill her mother because she was old, she -begged a Turkish officer, who was near by, to save her. The officer -had asked her if she would renounce her religion to save her mother, -and she consented--she and her younger sister. - -The sisters walked on with their arms about each other. They dared not -even look around to where their mother lay upon the ground. When we -could hear the woman’s moans no longer I walked over to them and asked -them to let me stay near them. I knew how they must feel. I wondered if -my own mother and my little brothers and sisters had lived. A soldier -in Malatia had told me exiles from Tchemesh-Gedzak had passed through -there weeks before and had gone, as we were going, toward Diyarbekir. -Perhaps, he said, they might still be there when we arrived--if we ever -did. - -A few hours outside the city we were halted. We were much concerned by -this, as such incidents usually meant new troubles. This time was no -exception. As soon as we stopped villagers flocked down upon us and -began to rob us. - -Just before sundown a loud cry went up. We looked to the east, where -there was a wide pass through the hills, and saw a band of horsemen -riding down upon us. They were Kurds, as we could tell from the way -they rode. The villagers shouted--“It is Kerim Bey, the friend of -Djebbar. It is well for us to scatter!” They then scrambled back into -the hills, afraid, it seemed, the Kurd chieftain would not welcome -their foraging among his prospective victims. - -To say that Kerim Bey was “a friend of Djebbar” explained his coming -with his band. Djebbar Effendi was the military commandant of the -district, sent by the government at Constantinople to oppress Armenians -during the deportations. His word was law, and always it was a cruel -word. Kerim Bey was the most feared of the Kurd chiefs--he and Musa -Bey. Both were of the Aghja Daghi Kurds. Kerim Bey and his band ruled -the countryside, and frequently revolted against the Turks. To keep him -as an ally Djebbar Effendi had given into his keeping many companies of -exiled Armenians sent from Malatia to Diyarbekir and beyond. - -There were hundreds of horsemen in Kerim’s band. They had ridden far -and were tired, too tired to take up the march in the moonlight, -but not too tired to begin at once the nightly revels which kept us -terrorized for so many days after. Scarcely had they hobbled their -horses in little groups that stretched along the side of the column -when they began to collect their toll. Screams and cries for mercy and -the groans of mothers and sisters filled the night. - -I saw terrible things that night which I cannot tell. When I see them -in my dreams now I scream, so even though I am safe in America, my -nights are not peaceful. A group of these Kurds so cruelly tortured -one young woman that women who were near by became crazed and rushed -in a body at the men to save the girl from more misery. For a moment -the Kurds were trampled under the feet of the maddened women, and the -girl was hurried away. - -When they recovered, the Kurds drew their long, sharp knives and set -upon the brave women and killed them all. I think there must have been -fifty of them. They piled their bodies together and set fire to their -clothes. While some fanned the blaze others searched for the girl who -had been rescued, but they could not find her. So, baffled in this, -they caught another girl and carried her to the flaming pile and threw -her upon it. When she tried to escape they threw her back until she was -burned to death. - -When the Kurds approached my party of apostates, the soldiers with us -turned them away. “You may do as you wish with the others--these are -protected,” said the Turkish officer in charge. But this same officer -was not content to be only a spectator while the Kurds were reveling. - -Five soldiers came from his tent and sought a young woman they thought -would please their chief. They tore aside the veils of women whose -forms suggested they might be young, until they came upon a girl from -the town of Derenda, toward Sivas. She was very pretty, but one of the -soldiers, when they were dragging her off, recognized her. - -“Kah!” he grunted to his comrades. “This one will not do. She is no -longer a maid!” They pushed her aside and sought further. But each girl -they laid their hands on after that cried to them, “I, too, am not a -virgin!” Each one was given a blow and thrust aside when she claimed to -have been already shamed. - -Soon the soldiers saw they were being cheated of the choicest prey. -They turned upon some older women and seized three. One of them they -forced to her knees and two of the soldiers held her head back between -their hands until her face was turned to the stars. Another soldier -pressed his thumbs upon her eyeballs, and said: - -“If there be no virgin among you, then by Allah’s will this woman’s -eyes come out!” - -There was a cry of horror, then a shriek. A girl who must have been -of my own age, and whom I had often noticed because her hair was so -much lighter than that of nearly all Armenian girls, threw herself, -screaming, upon the ground at the soldiers’ feet. Winding her hands -about the legs of the soldier whose thumbs were pressing against the -woman’s eyes, she cried: - -“My mother! my mother! Spare her--here I am--I am still a maid!” - -The soldiers seized the girl, guffawing loudly at the success of their -plan. As they lifted her between them she flung out her hands toward -the woman, who had fallen in a heap when the soldiers released her. -“Mother,” the girl screamed, “kiss me--kiss me!” - -The poor woman struggled to her feet and reached out her arms, but her -eyes were hurt and she could not see. The girl begged the soldiers to -carry her to her mother. “I will go--I will go, and be willing--but let -me kiss my mother!” she cried. But the soldiers hurried her away. - -The mother stood, leaning on those who crowded close to comfort her. -Then, suddenly, she drooped and sank to the ground. When we bent -over her she was dead. We sat by the body until the daughter came -back--after the moon had crossed the sky, and it must have been -midnight. The girl hid her face when she came near, until she could -bury it in her mother’s shawl. She sat by the body until morning, when -we took up our march again. - -Every night such things happened. - -Other parties along that road had fared the same. Sometimes I counted -the bodies of exiles who had preceded us until I could count no longer. -They lay at the roadside, where their guards had left them, for miles. - -On the eleventh day we came to Shiro, the Turkish city where caravans -for Damascus spend the night in a large khan and then turn southward. -There are even more caravans now than there used to be, for now they -travel only to the Damascus railway and then return. Shiro is the home -of many Turks, who profit from traders, or who have retired from posts -of power and profit at Constantinople. It is not a large town, but more -a settlement of wealthy aghas. - -We camped outside this little city. Early the next morning military -officers came out. Kerim Bey met them, and there was a short -conference. Then the Kurds began to gather the prettiest girls. They -tore them from their relatives and half dragged, half carried them to -where guards were placed to take charge of them. - -All morning the Kurds carried young women away until more than a -hundred had been accepted by the officer from the city. Then the -apostates were ordered to join these weeping girls, and we were marched -into the town. - -The narrow streets were crowded with Turks and Arabs. They hooted at -us, and made cruel jests as we passed. Among the apostates were many -old women, whose daughters had sworn to be Mohammedans to save them. -When the crowds saw these they laughed with ridicule. Once the citizens -swooped down upon the party and, unhindered by our guards, seized four -of the older women, stripped off their clothing and carried them away -on their shoulders, shouting in great glee. We never heard what became -of these. I think they were just tossed about by the crowd until they -died. - -We were taken to a house which we soon learned was the residence of -Hadji Ghafour, one of the largest houses in the city. Only devout -Moslems who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca may be called “Hadji.” -Hadji Ghafour was looked up to as one of the most religious of men. - -In the house of Hadji Ghafour we were crowded into a large room, with -bare stone walls, where camels and dromedaries were often quartered -over night. - -Hadji Ghafour came into the room, accompanied by soldiers. We of the -apostate party had been put into one corner with Kurds to watch us. -Hadji Ghafour gave an order to his servants and they separated the most -pleasing girls and younger women from the others. Of these, with me -among them, there were only thirty. We were taken out of the room and -into another, not so large, on another floor of the house. The fate -of those who were not satisfactory to Hadji Ghafour I never learned. -A soldier told one of us they were allowed to rejoin the deportation -parties. - -Those of us who had been chosen were taken to the hamman, or bath -chamber, and garments were brought for those whose clothes were frayed -or, as it was with some, who had almost none at all. Turkish women and -negro slave girls watched us in the bath and locked us up again. - -At the end of an hour we heard steps. The door was opened and a huge -black slave, with other negroes behind him, summoned us. Frightened and -too cowed to ask questions or hold back, we followed the slave through -halls and up stairways, until we came to a huge rug-strewn chamber, -brilliantly lighted with lamps and candles. On divans heavy with -cushions, at one side of the room, sat Hadji Ghafour and a group of -other Turks who were of his class, all middle aged or older, none with -a kindly face. - -Those of us who had been taken from the apostasized party stood to one -side, while a servant said, to the others: - -“It is the will of Hadji Ghafour, whose house has given you refuge, -that you repay his kindness in saving you from the dangers that -confront your people by repenting of your unbelief and accept the grace -of Islam.” - -The Turks made sounds of approval, and a turbanned Khateeb, or priest -of the mosque, entered the chamber, with an attendant who carried the -prayer rug. Behind him was a negro servant carrying a whip of bull’s -hide. The prayer rug was spread, and the Khateeb waited. - -The Turks pointed to a shrinking girl and the servants pulled her out -“What say you?” the officer asked. “I belong to Christ--in His keeping -I must remain,” the girl replied. The negro’s whip fell across her -shoulders. When she screamed for mercy the Khateeb bared his feet, -stepped upon the prayer rug and turned to Mecca. “Allah is most great; -there is no God but Allah!” his voice droned. The negro flung the girl -onto the carpet. He held his cruel whip ready to strike again if she -did not quickly kneel. Her face also turned to Mecca as she stumbled to -her knees. Her flesh already was torn and bleeding. Terror of the whip -was in her heart. To escape it she could only say the rek’ah--“There is -no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet.” - -When the last one had recited the sacrilegious creed the Khateeb folded -the prayer rug and left the room. Hadji Ghafour, smiling now, ordered -us all to stand before his guests again. All were apostates now except -me, whom the Turks thought had previously taken the oath, else I would -not have been in the party which I had joined. The law as well as Hadji -Ghafour’s piousness allowed them to do with us now as they chose. - -One by one they selected us, according to their fancies--Hadji Ghafour -first, and then his guests. How they had arranged the order of choice -I do not know, but they had agreed among themselves. There were five -or six girls for each of the Turks. I was among those ordered aside -for Hadji Ghafour, who had also chosen the two daughters who had been -compelled to leave their mother dying on the Sivas road. - -The two sisters had been very quiet all that day. They had spoken but -little to any of the rest of us since we were taken into the house of -Hadji Ghafour. Nor had they cried--afterwards I remembered how their -faces that day seemed to be bright with a great courage. - -The girls chosen by the guests of Hadji Ghafour were taken away in -separate groups to the houses of those who claimed their bodies. When -these guests and their captives had gone Hadji Ghafour again summoned -us. It was one of the sisters, the elder, to whom he spoke first. His -words were terrible. He asked her, oh, so cruelly low and soft, if she -were willing to belong to him, body and soul, to live contented in his -house, to be obedient and--affectionate in her submission. - -The girl waited not an instant. “I had renounced my God to save my -mother, but it availed me nothing. Her life was taken. I have given -myself to God--and I will not betray Him again!” - -Hadji Ghafour motioned to his negro slave, who caught the girl in his -arms and carried her out of the room. Her sister had been standing near -her. Hadji Ghafour’s eyes fell upon her next. - -“And you, my little one,” he said, just as low and soft. And he -repeated the questions to her he had spoken to her sister. She spoke -softly, too--softer than had her sister, yet just as firmly. “She was -my sister. With her I saw my mother die, and now you have taken her. -You may kill me also, but I will never submit to you.” - -Those of us who watched looked with terror at Hadji Ghafour. This time -his eyes narrowed and glittered. “You have spoken well, my little one,” -he said, still so gently he might have been speaking to a beloved -daughter. “Perhaps I had better kill you as a warning to my other -little ones.” - -The negro with the whip stood near. Hadji Ghafour did not even speak to -him--just motioned with his hands. Two other servants sprang forward. -Quickly they stripped the girl of her clothes. And then the whip fell -upon her naked body. - -I shut my eyes so I could not see, but I could not shut out the sound -of the whip cutting into the flesh, again and again, until I lost -count. Even when the girl screamed no more and her moans died away the -whip did not stop for a long time. Then suddenly I realized the blows -had ceased. I opened my eyes and saw one of the servants lifting the -girl’s body from the floor. He held her by the waist, and her arms and -bleeding legs hung limp. She was dead. - -None of us had courage after that. We gave Hadji Ghafour our promises. -We were taken out another door, this time to the women’s apartments, -where women of the household were waiting to receive us. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -THE RAID ON THE MONASTERY - - -The women of the haremlik had retired, except the three who awaited -our coming. These took us through a long, narrow corridor, lit only by -a single lamp, to a separate wing of the house. Through a curtained -doorway we entered a series of small stone-floored rooms, in which -women were sleeping. At last we came to a wooden door, which one of the -women opened, pushing us through. One of them lit a taper. - -The room was barren, with not even a window. On the floor was a row of -sleeping rugs, but there were neither cushions nor pillows. The women -told us to remove our clothing, and took it from us as we obeyed. -Without another word the women left us, taking the taper with them and -locking the door. - -Through the long night we waited--for what we did not know. We were -afraid to sleep, even if we could. - -We knew morning had come when we heard the faint call to prayer from -some neighboring minaret. Soon the haremlik was astir. We trembled as -we waited for the door to open. - -[Illustration: WAITING THEY KNOW NOT WHAT - -The Armenians of a prosperous city assembled in front of the government -building, by order of the authorities. They are waiting to be deported. -Just outside the city they were massacred.] - -It was a big negro who finally swung it wide, letting into the room -the light from the windows that opened from the other rooms of the -haremlik. One of the servant women who had received us the night before -entered after him. - -For each of us the woman brought an entareh, or Turkish house dress, -and slippers and stockings. The dresses were of satin and linen, but -very plain. Though I wanted something with which to cover myself, I -could not help shrinking from the hated Turkish dresses. The woman saw -me and seemed to understand. - -“You will have prettier things after a while--after your betrothal!” - -After my betrothal! - -When we had dressed, with the aid of the woman, she ordered us to -follow the negro. “What you will see now, according to the desire of -Hadji Ghafour, will serve to guide your conduct in the haremlik,” the -woman said. - -The slave led us through a smaller room into a large chamber, in which -were gathered many excited women crowded about a window. - -At the window-sill the slave peered out and then ordered us to draw -nearer. The window opened upon a wide court. Across the court were many -small windows. For a moment I saw nothing but the bleak stone wall. -Then my eyes lifted to a window higher up. I shrieked and recoiled. - -The dead body of the elder sister of the girl who had been beaten to -death, the one who had been carried away when she defied Hadji Ghafour, -was hanging by its feet from a rope attached to the window-sill. The -girl’s arms had been tied behind her back and now hung away from her -body. Her hair was hanging from her swaying head. A bandage, still tied -over her mouth, had muffled her screams. - -One of the girls with me, Lusaper, who had cried all night, fell to her -knees and became hysterical. The slave lifted her and tried to make her -look again. When he saw she was half mad he carried her to a couch at -the other side of the room and two little negro slave girls immediately -began to comfort her. Other women crowded around her, too. The slave -left us then, as did the woman servant who had been with us. - -The women of the haremlik seemed to want to be very kind. The Turkish -women were older than the apostate women. Hadji Ghafour’s two wives -were not among them, as their apartments were elsewhere, and I do not -know what the relationship of the other women to him was, whether as -concubines or relatives. Nearly all the younger women were Armenian -girls who had been stolen. They were very sorry for us. - -Food was brought in this chamber, and we ate together. Already I had -made up my mind to be as brave as I could and to hope and pray that I -might be delivered from that house. - -All the Armenian girls in the haremlik had at one time passed through -just such experiences as had been ours the night before in the presence -of Hadji Ghafour. There were eight of them, and all had apostasized -with the hope of saving relatives, only to be taken to Hadji Ghafour’s -house upon their arrival at Geulik. Only one of them knew what had -become of her family. This one had seen her mother killed and her -sister taken by the Kurds on the road from Malatia. - -Four days I remained in the haremlik without being summoned by Hadji -Ghafour. On the third day one of the other of the “new” girls came -back to us in the morning, quiet and ashamed, with her eyes downcast. -That same day the harem slaves took away her plain entareh and gave -her a richly embroidered dress. Such was the sign of her having been -“betrothed.” - -We were not allowed outside the haremlik. Each night we were compelled -to say the Mohammedan prayers. I learned to say them aloud and -translate them in my mind into the words of Christian prayers. The -head servant of the haremlik, an elderly Turkish woman, who was as -kind to us as she could be, took occasion every day to warn us that if -we wished to live and be happy we must be pleasing to Hadji Ghafour. -Other women told us of girls who had come into the harem, never to -appear again after their “betrothal” to the master. When these things -were spoken of we could not help thinking of the body we saw hanging -from the window across the court--that was Hadji Ghafour’s way of -teaching us to be submissive. - -We were not put in the dark, windowless room again. Once one of Hadji -Ghafour’s wives came into the harem to see us. She was middle-aged, -and from Bagdad. She once had been very beautiful, I think, but seemed -to be cruel and without affection. She had us brought before her and -questioned each one of us about our experiences in the deportations. -She seemed to want to trap us into admissions that we had not truly -become Mohammedans. - -Among the Armenian girls in the harem was one who came from Perri, a -village between my own city and Harpout. During the nights she told -me of the massacres in her village, and how the Turks had spared her -because she accepted Islam, until they reached Malatia. There she had -been stolen, taken first to the home of a bey and then sent with other -Armenian girls to Geulik. She, too, had been taken straight to the -house of Hadji Ghafour. She had gone through with her “betrothal,” and -had found some favor in the eyes of the Turk. - -This little girl was Arousiag Vartessarian, whose father, Ohannes, -had owned much land. She had been educated at Constantinople. In -Constantinople she learned of the American, Mr. Cleveland Dodge, of New -York, who has done so much for education in Turkey. Since I have come -to America I have learned that this same Mr. Cleveland Dodge is the -best friend the Armenians have in all the world. - -Arousiag was secretly Christian still. But she did not hope ever to -escape from the harem. She told me Hadji Ghafour kept Armenian girls -only until he had tired of them or until prettier ones were available. -Then he sent them to his friends, or to be sold to Turkish farmers. She -had tried to please him, so she would not be sold into an even worse -state, for sometimes a girl who falls into the slave market will be -sold into a public house for soldiers and zaptiehs. - -On the evening of the fifth day my heart sank and my knees grew weak -when a little negro slave girl came to tell me Hadji Ghafour had sent -for me. - -The servant women gathered around me, each professing not to understand -why I was not elated. Only when my tears fell did they cease their -jesting at the arrival--“at last,” they said, of the hour of my supreme -torture--my “good fortune” they called it. - -While I was being dressed I closed my eyes and prayed--not to be saved, -for that was too late, but for strength and for the joy of knowing that -God would be watching over me. One of the harem women walked with me -down the narrow corridor and through the door I had not passed since I -left Hadji Ghafour’s presence five days before. - -The lights of many lamps glowed in the room. Just inside the door the -big negro was waiting. Across, on his cushions, with his nargilleh on -the floor beside him, sat Hadji Ghafour. His eyes were full upon me -when I stopped at the sound of the door closing behind me. - -He motioned for me to approach and sit upon a cushion at his feet. -Involuntarily I shrank back and threw my hands before my eyes. An -instant later I felt the negro’s hand gripping my arm. I tried to hold -back and I tried to gather courage to go forward--I knew my hopes of a -happier future depended upon my submission. - -The negro tightened his grip. Under his breath he murmured, “Be a good -little one. You will be the better for it.” I could not look up, but I -went and sat upon the cushion at Hadji Ghafour’s feet! - -It is needless to say more of that terrible night! - -To Arousiag I confided the next day that I must, somehow, escape from -Hadji Ghafour’s house. To remain meant more tortures and lessened such -chance as there might be that I would find my mother at Diyarbekir, -where refugees with money were allowed by the Vali to remain just -outside the city--provided they paid liberally for the privilege. When -their money was gone they were sent away with other exiles into the -Syrian desert. - -I had tried to coax Hadji Ghafour to send messengers to Diyarbekir to -rescue my family if they could be found there, or to learn what had -become of them. He would not grant me this favor. “You are a Turkish -girl now,” he said, “and you must forget all past associations with -unbelievers.” - -Arousiag feared for me the consequences of my being caught in an -attempt to escape. Captives who had tried to run away before had been -sold into the public houses, where they soon died. When I had made her -understand, though, that I would risk anything rather than remain in -Hadji Ghafour’s house, she promised to help me. It was then she told -me, when we were alone in our couches that night, that to the west, -across the plains, toward the Euphrates, was a monastery, founded ages -ago by Roman Catholic Dominican Fathers, who came into Armenia as -missionaries. During all the centuries Armenian religious refugees had -been received in this monastery, Arousiag told me, and from there many -teachers were sent into Syria and even to Kurdistan. - -A man from Albustan, who really was an Armenian Derder, or priest, -but who was disguised as a Turk and making his way to the Caucasus, -where he hoped to get aid for the exiles from the Russians, had told -Arousiag of the monastery while she was being kept in Malatia. Many -Armenian girls had found safety there, the Derder had said, as the -Fathers in the monastery had not been molested, and their refuge was -far off the track of the companies of deported Christians. Many years -ago, the Derder told Arousiag, the monastery Fathers had saved the life -of a famous chieftain, and there were legends about it which kept the -Kurds from attacking the monastery. For some reasons the Turks had not -molested it, either. - -Arousiag confided to me that she had often planned to escape from -the house and try to go alone to the monastery. There, she was sure, -there would be safety--for a time at least. But each time her courage -deserted her. Now she was willing to make the effort, since I, too, -would rather risk everything than remain a victim of Hadji Ghafour. - -The windows of the sleeping apartments were high, and were not barred, -as they opened only into a courtyard. Arousiag knew of a passageway -from the courtyard into the divan-khane, or reception chamber, which -opened onto the street. Often the servants of the haremlik went into -the street through this passageway. - -A night came when Hadji Ghafour sent early for the girl he desired. It -was long before the haremlik’s retiring hour. Arousiag and I slipped -away and let ourselves down from a window into the courtyard. We -hurried through the divan-khane and into the streets. We had veiled -ourselves, and, with Turkish slippers, we were mistaken for Turkish -girls or harem slaves hurrying home to escape a scolding. - -When we came to the gates of the city we were frightened lest we be -stopped--but the Turkish soldiers guarding the gate had stolen for -themselves some Armenian girls from refugees camped near the city, and -were too busy amusing themselves with these girls to notice us. Soon -we were beyond the city, alone in the night. The sands cut through -our thin slippers, and we were afraid that every shadow was that of a -lurking Kurd. - -It was twenty miles or more, Arousiag believed, to the monastery. For -three days we traveled, hiding most of the days in the sand for fear of -wandering villagers or Kurds, and walking as far as we could at night. -We had no bread or other food, and only late at night, when the dogs in -the villages were asleep, could we dare to approach a village well for -water. - -Arousiag suffered much from thirst on the fourth day. She was so -famished for water, of which we had none the night before, that when -I cried she moistened her tongue with my tears. At last she could go -no further and sank to the earth. In the distance was an Arab village. -The Arabs are not like the Kurds--they are very fierce sometimes, and -do not like the Armenians, but unless they are in the pay of Turkish -pashas they are not always cruel. To save Arousiag’s life I left her -and went into the village. - -The Arab women gathered around me, and to them I appealed for food and -water, as best I could. The women pitied me, and when the Arab men -came to inspect me they, too, felt sorry. They brought a gourd of cool -water, and bread, and some of the women went with me to where Arousiag -lay. The water revived and strengthened her, and it gave me strength -too. Our clothes were mostly torn away, and the Arab women gave us -other garments and sandals for our feet. The monastery, they said, was -but a few miles further on, and they showed us the nearest way. An Arab -boy went with us to tell the men of other villages that we must not be -harmed. Also the boy guided us away from a Circassian village, where we -would have been made captives. - -When the gray stone walls of the convent rose before us in the distance -Arousiag and I knelt down on the earth and thanked our Savior. The Arab -boy turned and ran back when he saw we were praying to the Christ of -the “unbelievers.” But we were very grateful to him. - -It was almost evening, and the monks were at prayer. We stood at the -gate until some of them heard our call, and then they let us in. The -monks were very kind. They gathered around us and listened to our -story. Then they took us into their little chapel and knelt down around -us, while the prior chanted a prayer of thankfulness. - -When the prayer was finished a monk led us to a part of the monastery -separated from the main buildings. Here we were astonished to find -more than half a hundred Armenian girls and widowed brides, who, like -us, had found refuge among the monks. Nearly all these girls and young -women were from Van, the largest of the Armenian cities, or from -districts near by. Some were from Bitlis, where thousands of my people -had been killed in a single hour, only the girls and brides being left -alive for the pleasure of the Turks. Some had escaped from Diyarbekir. - -All had been directed to the monastery as a refuge by friendly Arabs -or Armenian Derders. One by one or in groups of two and three they had -applied at the monastery gates just as had Arousiag and I, and the -monks had taken them in, disregarding the great danger to themselves. - -We all were cautioned not to show ourselves outside the smaller -building which the monks had given over to us, lest wandering Kurds or -soldiers chance to see us and thus discover that the monastery was the -retreat of escaped refugees. The monks prayed with us twice every day -and nursed back to health those who were ill. Little Arousiag became -very glad when the prior assured her that God had understood, when she -renounced Him, that in her heart she was still loyal to Him. When the -aged prior knelt with her alone and prayed especially that God forgive -her every blasphemous prayer she had made to Allah while under the -eyes of the watchful harem women in the house of Hadji Ghafour, she was -happy again. - -For two weeks we were safe in the monastery. Then, suddenly, our peace -was ended. One night, long after every one in the monastery had gone to -sleep, we, were awakened by a great shouting and pounding at the gates. -From our windows we could look into the yard, but we could not see the -gate itself. While we huddled together in fright we saw the little -company of monks, hastily robed, led by their aged prior, carrying a -lighted candle, move slowly across the yard. When they had passed out -of our sight toward the gate the shouting suddenly stopped, and we -heard voices demanding that the gate be opened. - -I think the monks refused. The shouting began again, and we saw the -monks retreating across the yard. An instant later a horde of strange -figures, which we recognized as those of Tchetchens, or Circassian -bandits, pushed across the yard to the monastery doors. When the monks -refused to open the iron gates they had climbed the walls. - -Tchetchens are even more cruel and wicked than the Kurds. They are -constantly at war, either with the Kurds and Arabs, or the Turks -themselves. During the massacres the Turks had propitiated them by -giving them permission to prey upon the bands of Armenian exiles in -their district and to steal as many Christian girls as they wished. -Always in the past it has been the Tchetchens who have brought to the -harems of the pashas their prettiest girls, as they do not hesitate to -steal the daughters of their own people, the Circassians, for the slave -markets of Constantinople and Smyrna. - -The monks tried to barricade themselves in their chapel. The prior -pleaded through the iron barred windows with the Tchetchen leader, -appealing to him for the same consideration even the Kurds had always -given the monastery. But the Tchetchen chief had learned in some -manner that Armenian girls had been concealed in the monastery, and he -demanded that we be surrendered as the price of mercy for the monks. - -The monks refused to open their chapel doors or to reveal our hiding -place. But the chapel doors were of wood--they gave way when the -Tchetchens rushed against them. We heard the shrieks of our friends, -the monks. There were cries for mercy, prayers to God and brutal shouts -from the Tchetchens. In a little while there were no more screams, no -more prayers--just the shouting of the bandits. - -There was no escape for us. The Tchetchens were swarming about the -yard below and through the chambers of the monastery proper. The only -way out of the buildings the monks had set aside for us was through -passages or windows leading directly into the yard. We heard one band -of Tchetchens breaking in the door that opened into the rooms on the -floor below us. We crowded into a corner and waited, trembling, too -frightened even to pray. - -The Tchetchens climbed the stone stairway. They were cursing their -ill fortune at not having found us. One of them pushed in the door of -the room in which we had gathered. The moon was shining through the -windows and the bandits saw us. Then the spell of our silent fear was -broken--we screamed. In an instant the Tchetchen band came pouring into -the room. - -They called terrible jests to each other. Arousiag and I were kneeling, -with our arms around each other. A Tchetchen caught my hair in one hand -and that of Arousiag in the other and dragged us down the stairway. The -others were either dragged out in the same way or carried into the yard -tossed across a Tchetchen’s shoulder. - -About the steps of the chapel we saw the bodies of the monks. All had -been driven out of the chapel into the moonlight and then killed. The -Tchetchens dragged us outside the monastery gate. They then gathered up -their horses and drove them into the yard, where they could be left for -the night. Then the Tchetchens returned to us. - -Each claimed the girl or girls he had captured and dragged through the -yard. Those who were not satisfied with their prizes, in comparing -their beauty with those who had fallen to the lot of others, -quarreled. Little Arousiag’s arm was broken when one Tchetchen, seeing -that the bandit who had captured us had two girls, pulled her away from -him. Her captor paid no attention to her screams of pain. He subdued -her by twisting her broken arm until she was unconscious. - -When daylight came and the Tchetchens could see our faces more plainly -they selected those whom they considered the prettiest, and killed the -rest. They killed Arousiag because of her broken arm. Then they lifted -us onto their horses and took us to Diyarbekir. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -THE GAME OF THE SWORDS, AND DIYARBEKIR - - -From the edge of a sandy plateau I caught my first view of Diyarbekir, -once the capital of our country. For two days we had ridden with the -Tchetchens. We knew that some new peril awaited us in this ancient city -which, centuries before, had been one of the most glorious cities of -Christ. - -When the Tchetchens drew up at the edge of the plateau, the walls of -the city spread out far below us, with here and there a minaret rising -over the low roofs. Just beyond the city was the beautiful, blue -Tigris--the River Hiddekel, of the Bible. And as far as I could see, -dotting the great plains that are watered by the Tigris, were Christian -refugees from the north and east and west, thousands and thousands of -them. Some had walked hundreds of miles. Nearly all the Armenians who -were permitted to live that long were brought to Diyarbekir, where -those who were not massacred in the city or outside the walls were -turned south into the Syrian and Arabian deserts, to be deserted there. - -More than one million of my people were started toward Diyarbekir when -the deportations and massacres began. Only 100,000, I have heard, lived -to reach the ancient city on the Tigris. And of these more than half -were massacred within the city and outside the walls. Only young women -and some of the children were saved, and these were lost in harems, -or, as with the children, placed in Dervish monasteries to be taught -Mohammedanism, so they might be sold as slaves when they grew up. - -Nail Pasha, the Vali of Diyarbekir, was very wicked. Inside the city -there are several ancient forts, built centuries ago--one of them -in the days of Mohammed, and two great prisons. Already more than -3,000 Russian prisoners of war had been marched from the Caucasus to -Diyarbekir for confinement in these prisons. Nail Pasha had taken -away all the clothing of these prisoners, and had compelled them, by -refusing to give them food, to work as masons on a large house the -pasha was building for himself. - -When the refugees began to arrive at Diyarbekir in great numbers Nail -Pasha crowded the Russians into one of the fortresses so closely they -had almost no room to lie down at night. The other prisons he then -filled with the Armenian men who had been permitted to accompany their -women from some of the smaller Armenian villages in the north. When the -prisons were full of these exiles he had his soldiers massacre them. -Outside the city their women waited on the plains or were taken away -without even being told what had been the fate of their husbands, sons -and brothers. - -When more Russian prisoners arrived Nail Pasha crowded Armenians into -the prisons in the daytime and killed them, and then compelled the -Russians to carry out the bodies and remove the blood before they -could lie down to rest from their day’s labor in the fields or on the -stonework of his new house. The soldiers of Nail Pasha told with great -enjoyment how the bodies of little Armenian children had been mixed -in with cement and built into the walls of the new house to fill the -spaces between the stones. - -The Tchetchens who had stolen us from the monastery decided to enter -the city by its southern gate--where the walls reach down almost to the -river banks. But when they had galloped around that way soldiers from -the gate came out and told them the Vali had issued orders that no more -refugees were to be brought into the city until some of those already -within the walls were “cleared out”--massacred or sent away. - -Afterward I learned why the city itself was crowded with refugees -while so many others were camped outside the walls. The Vali promised -protection from further deportation to all who had managed to preserve -enough money to bribe him. These he allowed to go within the city and -occupy deserted houses. When their money ran out the “protection” -ceased, and they were sent out of the city in little companies--always -to be killed at the gates by Tchetchens, who had been notified to wait -for them. - -When the Tchetchens saw they could not enter the city with us at once, -they lifted us from their horses and ordered us to sit in a circle so -they could guard us easily. Of the two hundred in the monastery, only -twenty-seven of us still lived. Three of the girls were younger than I. -None was more than twenty, although several had been brides when the -massacres came. - -The bandit leader then went into the city by himself. All that day, -and the next, and most of the day after that, we sat in the sand in -the burning sun. The Tchetchens foraged bread and berries and gave us -just a little of what they did not want themselves. Only once each -day would they let us have water. On the second day one of the girls -became hot with fever. She cried for water, and when a Tchetchen would -have slapped her for her cries she showed him her tongue, which had -begun to swell. When the Tchetchen saw this he called to his comrades, -and they were afraid lest the fever spread to others of us. They paid -no attention to the poor girl’s pleading for water, but dragged her a -hundred feet away and left her. Once she got to her feet and seemed to -be trying to get back to us. A Tchetchen went out to her and struck -her down with the end of his gun. She could not get up again, and we -saw her rolling about in the sand until she died. - -On the evening of our second day of waiting outside the walls there was -a great commotion at the city’s southern gate, and presently a stream -of refugees, all women, came pouring out onto the plain. All that day -groups of Tchetchen horsemen had been gathering from the surrounding -country and taking up positions nearby. Now we knew why these horsemen -had come--they had been notified a company of refugees was to be sent -out of the city. - -The Turks themselves seldom massacred women in a wholesale way. -Constantinople had not authorized the killing of submissive women--the -work was left to Kurds and other bands. - -I think there must have been more than 2,000 women and some children -in this company. They began to come out of the gate before sundown, -and were still coming long after it was dark. The Tchetchens herded -them into a circle about one mile from the walls. They were half a mile -or more from us, but when the moon came up we could plainly hear the -shouts and screams that told us the Tchetchens had begun their evil -work. - -All night long we heard the screams. Sometimes they would be very near, -as if fugitives were coming our way. Then we would hear shouts and the -hoofbeats of horses. There would be piercing shrieks and then only the -sound of hoofbeats growing fainter. The Tchetchens who guarded us did -not bother us, they seemed to be saving us for something else. But we -could not sleep that night. Sometimes even now I cannot sleep, although -I am safe forever. Those screams come to me in the night time, and even -with my friends all about me I cannot shut them out of my ears. - -When the first gray mist of dawn spread over the plain the excitement -was still at its height. Then, suddenly, everything was quiet. We were -too far from the city to hear the voices on the minarets, but we knew -that silence meant that the hour for the Prayer of Islam had arrived. -Even in the midst of their awful work the Tchetchens instinctively -heard the call and stopped to kneel toward Mecca. I remember how I -wondered that morning, while the bandits were reciting their prayer to -their Allah for his grace and commendation, how my Christ would feel -if His people should come to Him in prayer at the sunrise after such a -night’s work as that. - -More than ever before I loved Jesus Christ and trusted Him that morning -while the Mohammedan bandits were praying to him they call Allah. - -I think less than 300 of that company of Armenians were alive when the -sun came up and we could see across the plain. One little group we saw -moving about, huddled together. All around them were the Tchetchens -searching the bodies scattered over a great circle--making sure in the -daylight they had missed nothing of value in the massacre and robbery -during the night. - -During the morning the Tchetchens busied themselves with the young -women who had been permitted to survive the night. We could see them go -up to the little group of survivors and drag some of them away. - -It was when the Tchetchens began to tire of this that we saw them -preparing, a little way from where we were, in a flat place on the -plain, for one of the pastimes for which wild Circassian tribes are -famous, and which they frequently repeated, as I afterward learned, as -long as my people lasted. - -They planted their swords, which were the long, slender-bladed swords -that came from Germany, in a long row in the sand, so the sharp pointed -blades rose out of the ground as high as would be a very small child. -When we saw these preparations all of us knew what was going to happen. -When Armenian children are bad their mothers sometimes tell them the -Tchetchens will come and get them if they don’t be good. And when the -children ask, “And when the Tchetchens come, what will they do?” their -mothers say: - -“The Tchetchens are very wicked robber horsemen, who like to sharpen -their swords with little boys and girls.” - -Already I was trembling with sickness of heart because of the awful -night before and the things I had seen that morning when daylight came. -The other women beside me were trembling, too, and felt as if they -would rather die than see any more. We begged our Tchetchens to take us -away--to take us where we could not look upon those sword blades--but -they only laughed at us and told us we must watch and be thankful to -them we were under their protection. - -When the long row of swords had been placed the Tchetchens hurried -back to the little band of Armenians. We saw them crowd among them, -and then come away carrying, or dragging, all the young women who were -left--maybe fifteen or twenty--I could not count them. - -Each girl was forced to stand with a dismounted Tchetchen holding -her on her feet, half way between two swords in the long row. The -captives cried and begged, but the cruel bandits were heedless of their -pleadings. - -When the girls had been placed to please them, one between each two -sword blades, the remaining Tchetchens mounted their horses and -gathered at the end of the line. At a shouted signal the first one -galloped down the row of swords. He seized a girl, lifted her high in -the air and flung her down upon a sword point, without slackening his -horse. - -It was a game--a contest! Each Tchetchen tried to seize as many girls -as he could and fling them upon the sword points, so that they were -killed in the one throw, in one gallop along the line. Only the most -skillful of them succeeded in impaling more than one girl. Some lifted -the second from the ground, but missed the sword in their speed, and -the girl, with broken bones or bleeding wounds, was held up in the -line again to be used in the “game” a second time--praying that this -time the Tchetchen’s aim would be true and the sword put an end to her -torture. - -In the meantime the Jews of Diyarbekir had come out from the city, -driven by gendarmes, to gather up the bodies of the slain Armenians. -They brought carts and donkeys with bags swung across their backs. Into -the carts and bags they piled the corpses and took them to the banks -of the Tigris, where the Turks made them throw their burdens into the -water. This is one of the persecutions the Jews were forced to bear. -The Mohammedans did not kill them, but they liked to compel them to do -such awful tasks. - -Late in the afternoon the chief of our Tchetchens came out from the -city. His men drew off to one side and talked with him excitedly. When -it grew dark they lifted us upon their horses and carried us into the -city through the south gate. At the gate the Tchetchen chief showed to -the officers of the gendarmes a paper he had brought from the city, and -the Tchetchens were permitted to enter. We passed through dark narrow -streets until we came to a house terraced high above the others, with -an iron gate leading into a courtyard off the street. A hammal, or -Turkish porter, was waiting at the gate and swung it open. - -The bandits dismounted outside the gate to the house and lifted us to -the ground. The leader waved us inside. With half a dozen of his men he -entered behind us and the gate closed. Some of the Tchetchens went into -the house. In a few minutes they came out, followed by a foreign man, -whose uniform I recognized as that of a German soldier. - -Servants followed with lighted lamps, and the soldier looked into our -faces and examined us shamefully. Only eight of the girls pleased him. -I was among these. We were pushed into the house and the door was -closed behind us. Then we heard the Tchetchens gather up the other -girls and take them into the street. I do not know what became of them. - -The soldier and the servants, all of whom were foreigners, whom I -afterward discovered were Germans, took us into a stone floored room -which had been used as a stable for horses. - -It must have been two or three hours afterward--after midnight, I -think; we could not keep track of the time--when the soldier and the -servants came for us. Before they took us from the stable room they -took away what few clothes we had. They led us, afraid and ashamed, -into a room where were three men in the uniforms of German officers. -The soldiers saluted them. The officers seemed very pleased when they -had looked at us. We tried to cover ourselves with our arms and to hide -behind each other, but the soldier roughly drew us apart. The officers -laughed at our embarrassment, and then dismissed the soldier, saying -something to him in German, which I do not understand. - -The officers talked among themselves, also in German. They tried to -caress us. It amused them greatly when we pleaded with them to spare -us, to let us have clothes and to have mercy, in God’s name. - -Almost two weeks I was a prisoner in this house. The principal -officer’s name was Captain August Walsenburg. He was middle-aged, I -think, and very bald. After awhile I learned many things about him. -He had been connected with a German trading company, the “Oriental -Handelsgellschaft,” in the city of Van. - -He was a reserve army officer and had been called into service. He -helped the Turkish officials at Van mobilize an army there and had -taken part in the Armenian massacres at that city. He had been ordered -to report to a German general whose name I do not remember at Aleppo, -where the German commander was organizing Turkish soldiers for the -Mesopotamian armies. But when he reached Diyarbekir there was news -of the Russian advance in the Caucasus, and he had been ordered, -by telegraph, to wait at Diyarbekir for instructions. The two other -officers were lieutenants, who had accompanied him from Van, and they, -too, were awaiting instructions. - -They were the only German officers at Diyarbekir at that time. The Vali -was very friendly with them. He had set aside for them the house to -which we were taken as captives. To this house were brought many pretty -Armenian girls stolen by the Kurds and Tchetchens. When they tired of -them they sent them away to the refugee camps outside the city or to be -sold to Turks. - -The German captain asked me to be submissive. I fought him with all my -might. I told him he might kill me. This amused him. It was while I -was his prisoner I tasted, for the first and only time in my life that -which I have learned in America is called “whiskey”. It was bitter and -terrible. The officers had brought some of this from Van. They drank -much of it, and it made them very brutal. One night they assembled -all the girls in the house into a room where they were eating and -forced them to sit on a table and drink this awful whiskey. They were -delighted when it made us ill. - -One by one the other girls who had been stolen with me from the -monastery were sent away, after the officers had wearied of them, -and their places were taken by new ones. I think I was kept because -I fought so hard when one of them approached me. The captain always -clapped his hands and laughed aloud when I fought. - -There was another girl, who had been a prisoner in the house longer -than others--since before I was taken there. She had especially pleased -one of the under-officers. She told me of one night when the officers -had taken much of their whiskey and were particularly cruel. She said -they sent for some of the girls then in the house and, standing them -sideways, shot at them with their pistols, using their breasts as -targets. Afterward I was told this thing was done very often by the -Turks in the Vilayet of Van when they massacred our people there. - -At last orders came to the officers to leave Diyarbekir. I understood -they would have to go to Harpout. They prepared to leave immediately -and set out the next morning. They had in the house many rugs and -articles of valuable jewelry they had bought from Kurds and Tchetchens, -who had stolen them from Armenians, and all of this booty they -carefully packed in boxes to be kept for them by the Vali until a -caravan bound for the railway at Ras-el-Ain came through. - -They were so hurried they paid little attention to us. When they left -all their servants accompanied them, riding donkeys behind their -masters’ horses. So we were alone in the house. - -We would have been happy in our deliverance had it not been for the -danger which threatened us at the hands of the Turkish gendarmes, who -would be sure to discover us. We searched until we found where the -servants had hidden our clothes in a dark room, into which the clothes -of all Armenian girls who had been brought to the house had been -thrown. We each took something with which to cover ourselves. - -We spent a day and night in constant terror of discovery. We were -afraid to venture into the streets and afraid to stay where we were. -There were many foreign missionaries in the city, including Americans, -but they lodged in a different quarter, and we never could have reached -them. The gendarmes came the third day after the officers left. I do -not think they expected to find any one in the house, but came to look -for things the Germans might have left unpacked. - -We saw them entering through the courtyard gate. There was no place we -could hide, as the house was built in tiers. We could only huddle in a -corner and put off our capture till the last minute. The gendarmes saw -us from the courtyard and rushed after us with shouts. - -When I ran through the room that had been occupied by one of the -officers I saw a knife he had left behind. I seized this and hid it in -my clothes. It was the first time I had held a knife in my hands or -other weapon since I was taken from my home in Tchemesh-Gedzak. - -A gendarme cornered me in one of the rooms, just as all the other girls -were trapped. He caught me by the arms. He was taking me into another -room when the officer of the gendarmes saw me. He halted the man, took -me from him and ordered him to “find another one for himself.” The -officer pushed me into the room. - -But when he tried to pinion my arms I turned on him with the knife. I -know God guided my hand, for I am sure I killed him. He fell at my feet. - -In other parts of the house and in the courtyard the gendarmes were -giving their attention to the girls they had found. I reached the -street without being seen. I looked in each direction and could see no -one except a Turkish woman, who came out of her gate on the opposite -side of the street. For an instant I thought I would be caught, and I -gripped the knife, which I still kept under my clothes. - -But the Turkish woman was kind. She pitied me. She stepped back into -her gate and motioned me to follow. I was afraid, yet I trusted her. -She closed the gate and took me in her arms. She was sorry for me and -my people, she said, and would help me. But she dared not take me into -her house. She told me I could hide in her yard till night, when I -might slip out of the city to where the refugees were. - -During the day she brought me food. At dark she came to take leave of -me, and kissed me, and gave me three liras, which was all she could -spare without earning a scolding from her husband. “Go out by the north -gate, not by the south gate,” she said to me. “All the refugees who are -taken around by the south gate are killed; those who are camped beyond -the north gate may live. But do not join them while it still is night, -or you may be caught in a massacre. Hide among the rocks in the pass -through the Karajah hills, a mile from the city. If the Armenians are -allowed to pass these rocks when they are taken away, it means they -will be allowed to live through another stage of their journey.” - -I reached the north gate without being stopped, as I was careful to -keep in the shadows. Gendarmes guarded the gate, but they were not very -watchful. I ran onto the plain and followed the directions the friendly -Turkish lady had given me until I came to the rocks which marked the -road through the low hills that skirted the city on the north. Along -this road the refugees sent to the southern deserts from Diyarbekir -must pass. - -I waited at the rocks through the night. In the morning I thought to -walk along the road to where I would not be seen by soldiers, Kurds or -Tchetchens roving on the plains near the city, and where I could wait -until a company of my people passed. - -But while I was picking my way through the narrow pass between the -rocks I saw a little group of zaptiehs coming toward me along the road -beyond. I had not expected to meet any one. I screamed before I could -stop myself. The zaptiehs heard me and I ran back into the shelter -of the rocks and drew out my knife, which I had kept so I might kill -myself rather than be stolen again. But I was afraid God would not -approve. While the zaptiehs searched the rocks I knelt in a crevice and -asked God to tell me what I should do--if He would blame me if I killed -myself before the zaptiehs found me. “Dear God, tell me, shall I come -now to You or wait until You call?” I asked of Him. - -I know He heard me, and I know He answered. For something told me to -throw the knife far away--and I did. - -That was God’s will, I know, for after awhile He was to lead me into -the arms of my mother that I might be with her once again before the -Turks killed her. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -“ISHIM YOK; KEIFIM TCHOK!” - - -I threw the knife away and stood up. The zaptiehs soon found me. I was -resigned for whatever was to happen, and did not run from them. - -I told them I had come out from the city; that I wanted to join some -of my people; that if they would not harm me I would not give them any -trouble. I still had the three liras, or three pounds, which the good -Turkish lady had given me, but I knew if I gave it to them they would -only search me for more and then, perhaps, kill me. So I told them I -would get money for them from my people if they would let me join a -company that was not to be killed. - -“Maybe all will be killed; maybe not all. We do not know. Come with us. -Get us money and we will let you live,” one of them said to me. - -I walked with them a little ways, until we saw coming toward us a long -line of refugees. Then the zaptiehs halted, and from what they said to -each other I knew they had been sent from a village a little way behind -us to join the guards escorting this party. - -Soon the party drew near. The zaptiehs said I must stay near the front -of the line, and that they would come after a while and hunt for me, -and that I must have money or they would take me off and kill me. They -came to me a few hours later, and I gave them the three liras, and they -kept their promise and did not molest me again. - -The party of refugees I had joined was from Erzeroum and the little -cities in that district. My heart leaped with joy when I saw among -them a few Armenian men. It was the first time I had seen men of my -people for so long, and I was so happy for the women whose husbands -and fathers could still be with them. When I was led up to this party -by the zaptiehs the first women to see me held out their arms to me. -They thought I was one of the girls of their own party who had been -stolen the night before. When I told them I had escaped from Diyarbekir -they were glad for me, and one lady who had lost her sixteen-year-old -daughter to the Turks said I might take this daughter’s place and march -with her. Another little daughter, six years old, was with her still. - -[Illustration: DRIVEN FORTH ON THE ROAD OF TERROR - -The old and the very young just leaving their homes in an ancient city, -on their way to the desert. In the foreground is a zaptieh, who has -stolen an armful of rugs from the exiles.] - -There were two thousand, or a few more, in this party. They were all -that were left of 40,000 Armenian families who had been deported from -Erzeroum and nearby villages. Erzeroum is 150 miles directly north of -Diyarbekir, but the Armenians there had been sent to Diyarbekir in two -directions. Some had come by way of Erzindjan and Malatia. These had -walked almost 300 miles. Others had come by way of Khnuss and Bitlis, -and these had walked 250 miles. The survivors of both parties reached -Diyarbekir at almost the same time as those who came by way of Bitlis -had been kept for many days at towns along the route. - -The only friend the Armenians at Erzeroum had when they were being -assembled for deportation was the good Badvelli, Robert Stapleton, the -American vice-consul, whose home is in New York City. Dr. Stapleton -took all the Armenian girls he could crowd into his house at Erzeroum, -and when the Turks came for them he showed the Turks the American flag -over his door, and ordered them away. There were many mothers in this -party when I joined it who were glad their daughters had been among -those who were left under Dr. Stapleton’s protection, and they wondered -if they still were safe. - -Many months later I learned the good American Badvelli kept them all -safely until the Russians came to Erzeroum and took them under their -care. - -There were almost 75,000 men, women and children in the parties that -went by way of Erzindjan. Of these only 500 reached Diyarbekir. All the -prettiest and youngest girls had been stolen by the Kurds or zaptiehs -and given to Turks along the way. The girl children under ten years -old had all been either killed, if they were not strong and pretty, or -sold to the Turks, who kept them to raise as Moslems for their harems -or sent them to Constantinople to be sold into the harems of wealthy -Turks there. Many of the younger women who were not stolen had been -outraged to death. All the grandmothers and women who were ill had been -abandoned at the roadside, or killed outright. So only the 500 remained. - -Of the other parties, which had numbered 50,000 individuals, and who -had mostly come from the smaller cities near Erzeroum, with many rich -families, including teachers, bankers, merchants and professional men -from the city itself among them, only 1,500 were left--about 300 men, I -think. - -When the different parties recognized each other in camp outside -Diyarbekir, they rejoiced greatly, and they were allowed to move their -camps together. They remained outside Diyarbekir eleven days, because -all of them had been robbed of their money and all valuables, so they -could not bribe the Vali to let them stay inside the city. - -Each night while they were camped outside Diyarbekir Turks came forth -from the city to steal girls, and soldiers came out to borrow girls -and young women for a little while. They had no food except one loaf -of bread for each person, every other day, sent out by the Vali, and -occasionally something which American missionaries in the city managed -to smuggle out to them by bribing Turkish water carriers. - -During the night, while I was hiding in the rocks, they were told -they were to be taken away again in the morning, this time to Ourfa. -They had begged the Turkish officers to let them stay a while longer, -because so many of them were suffering with swollen feet, which had -grown more painful, even to bursting, during their eleven days of rest. -They asked to be allowed to wait until their feet were better again, -but the Turks would not grant this. - -So they had started early in the morning, and now I was with them, and -before me lay the long walk to Ourfa, 200 miles further toward the -Arabian deserts--unless I suffered the harder fate of being stolen -again along the way. - -For the first time since I had been taken from my home that Easter -Sunday morning, so many weeks before, I learned, when I joined this -party on the way to Ourfa, where my people were being taken--those -who were allowed to live. Soldiers who went out to the refugee camps -from Diyarbekir had told these exiles that all who reached Aleppo, a -large city on the Damascus railway, were to be taken from there to -the Der-el-Zor district, on the southern Euphrates, and there put to -building military roads through the deserts. As only a few men lived to -reach there, the strong women were to be used. - -But always there was hope of deliverance. So many Armenians had friends -in America, sons and brothers who had left our country to go to the -wonderful United States. They prayed every night that from America -would come help before all were dead. There were rumors even then that -help was coming; that good people in the United States were sending -money and food and clothing and trying to get the Turks to be more -merciful. It was this hope that kept thousands alive. - -When I joined this party it could only move along very slowly, because -of swollen feet. When we came to the rocks where I had been discovered -it was very painful for those whose feet were broken open to pass -between them, because the pass was very narrow and the stones sharp. -For more than a mile we had to walk along this rocky defile--then -we came into the open again. I had a pair of sandals, with leather -bottoms, which I had saved from the house of the Germans. These I -gave to the lady who had asked me to march with her, for her own feet -were bleeding. No one else in the party had shoes or slippers or any -covering for their feet, except rags which some could spare from their -clothing. - -Outside Diyarbekir some of the refugees had traded laces which they had -saved by wrapping them around their bodies, for donkeys and arabas (ox -carts). They had been told they might keep these until they reached -Ourfa. In the arabas they had hidden many small pieces of bread which -they had saved from their occasional rations at Diyarbekir, hoping -thus to provide against the sufferings of starvation along the road. -But when they reached the rocks the pass was so narrow there was great -trouble getting the arabas through. - -Some Turkish villagers from the other side had come to the rocks, and -when they saw the trouble the refugees were having with their arabas -they asked the zaptiehs guarding us why they could not have the donkeys -and the carts. The zaptiehs told them if they would give some money to -be divided among the guards they could take them. - -So the villagers paid money to the zaptiehs and then swooped down upon -us and took away our animals and carts. They would not allow us to take -what few belongings were in the carts, and the pieces of bread, saying -they had bought everything the carts contained from the zaptiehs. - -In one of the carts were two little girl twins, nine years old, whose -mother had died at Diyarbekir. They were being taken care of by their -aunt, who had three times bribed soldiers to let them alone, until -she had nothing more to bribe with. She had hidden them in her araba, -thinking she could save them and spare them the weary walking. The -villagers who took her cart refused to let her take them out. He said -they went with the cart. - -The woman was crazed, and screamed loudly. She attacked the villagers -with her hands. An Armenian man was near, and he and many women rushed -at the Turk, who was alone. Three zaptiehs rushed up, but the women -and the man were determined, and the zaptiehs were afraid to help the -villagers. They told him to let the aunt have the two little girls. - -Although there were about 2,000 refugees in this party, I could count -only eleven zaptiehs sent along as guards. As many men as could be -spared by the Turks at Diyarbekir had been sent north to the army, and -the supply of guards for refugees was very short. Had there been more -zaptiehs they would not have hindered the Turk from stealing the little -girls. - -At the next village the zaptiehs decided they would have to have more -help if they were to enjoy the license customary among them along the -road. At this village they stopped us and held a long conversation with -the Mudir, or village chief. Soon after the Mudir approached, followed -by twenty or thirty of the most evil looking Turks I ever saw. Each -one of them carried a gun and wore on his sleeve a strip of red woolen -cloth, the badge of police authority. - -When we went on these Turks were distributed among us by the zaptiehs -as additional guards. - -During the second day upon the road we met a party of mounted Turkish -soldiers, escorting a group of very comfortable looking covered arabas, -such as are used by the wealthy for traveling in the interior of -Turkey. In these arabas there were forty hanums, or Turkish wives, who -were on their way with the soldier escort to Erzeroum, to join their -husbands, who were high military officers with the army in the great -military fortress there. They had come from Damascus, Beirut and Aleppo. - -When our party approached, the arabas of the hanums halted, and the -soldiers ordered our guards to halt us also. Then we saw that several -of the arabas were occupied by young Armenian girls, from eight to -twelve years old, all very sweet and gentle looking, as if they were -the daughters of wealthy families. Some of them waved their little -hands from under the curtains, and that is how we discovered them. -From six to ten were crowded in each of their arabas, and each of the -hanum’s arabas hid others. - -The little girls told us they were from Ourfa and Aleppo. Their parents -and relatives all had been killed, and they had been given to the -hanums, who, they understood, intended to put a part of them in Moslem -schools at Erzeroum, so they could have them for sale when they were a -little older. The others the hanums would keep as servants or to sell -at once to friends among rich Turks. - -The hanums descended from their arabas and asked our zaptiehs if -there were any very pretty girl children among us. The zaptiehs did -not approve of losing girl children to these Turkish wives, who, they -thought, would take them without paying for them. So they said there -were none. But one of the hanums saw a little girl holding onto her -mother, and insisted upon having her brought to her. When she looked at -the little girl closely she saw she was pretty, and commanded one of -the soldiers to take her into her carriage. - -The child’s mother held onto it desperately, and when the hanum, with -her soldier near, put her hands on the little girl to pull it away the -mother lost her reason and struck at her. - -The soldier immediately caught hold of the woman and asked of the -hanum, “What shall I do with her?” The hanum said, “Have we any oil to -burn her?” The soldier said, “I do not think so.” Then the hanum held -out her hand and the soldier gave her his pistol. The Turkish woman -went up to the mother and shot her with her own hands. She then caught -the little girl’s hand and led her to the arabas. The little one wanted -to kiss her mother, but the hanum jerked her away. - -With our party was the wife of Abouhayatian Agha, the great scholar, -of Van, who had escaped, when the massacres began, to Diyarbekir. Her -husband had been a friend of Djevdet Bey. When the soldiers were turned -loose upon the Armenians at Van, so Mrs. Abouhayatian told me, her -husband went to Djevdet Bey and remonstrated with him. His reply, now -famous all over Turkey, was: - -“Ishim yok; Keifim tchok,” which means, “I have no work to do; I have -much fun!” After that, whenever regular soldiers were sent to slaughter -Armenians, they called out to each other: - -“Ishim yok; keifim tchok!” - -Over this same path I walked, more than 400,000 of my people had -trod--some of them having walked a thousand miles or more to get there. -And of these, sole survivors of the millions who were deported from -their homes, those who are alive to-day are lost in the deserts, where -there is no bread or food. - -God grant that I may soon go back to this desert, from which I escaped, -with money and food for those of my people who may still be alive! - -When we camped near a village at night our zaptiehs would invite the -village gendarme and his friends to come out, and they would sell young -women to them for the night. The mother or other relatives of these -young women dared not even object, for if they did the zaptiehs would -kill them. Sometimes there would be better class Turks in some of these -villages, and they would pick out girl children and buy them. They -would pay our guards for the child they fancied and take it out of its -mother’s arms. These children now are being taught to be Moslems, and, -if they are old enough, made to work in the fields. Some of them are -concubines besides. - -Three babies were born during the first days of this journey. The -mothers were not allowed to rest along the way, neither before nor -after. They were made to keep up with the party until the little ones -were born. Sometimes the men would carry the mother a little way, but -when the zaptiehs saw them doing this they would make them put her -down. They would say the woman didn’t deserve to be carried because she -was bringing an unbeliever into the world. - -These events always amused the zaptiehs greatly. When one of them -discovered a baby was about to be born he would call his comrades, and -they would walk near the poor woman, making her keep on her feet until -the last minute. Then they would stand close to her and laugh and jest. -As soon as the baby was born the mother would have to get upon her feet -and walk. If she could not walk the zaptiehs would leave her on the -road and make the party move on. - -Almost always the zaptiehs killed the babies. The first two born near -me they took from the mothers and threw up in the air and caught them -like a ball. They did this four or five times and then threw them -away. The mothers saw, but they had to walk on. The third baby was -not killed. It was born in the evening, just after we had camped. The -zaptiehs were busy with their horses and did not notice. This one was -a sweet little boy. Its father was dead. Its mother was so happy--and -so sad, both together--when she first held it in her arms. She asked -God to let it live, but there was no way. She had had so little food -herself she could not nurse it. The little thing starved to death in -her arms. - -When we left the district where the villages were we began to suffer -for water. The zaptiehs carried great water bags over their saddles, -but they would give none of it to us. For days at a time we marched -without a drop of moisture to quench our thirst. Then we would come to -a group of houses where Turks lived around a well, or spring. The Turks -always would refuse to let us go near the wells, demanding pay for each -gourd of water. Men would stand guard at the wells with guns and sticks -to drive us off if we went near. - -But no one in our party had anything left to pay with. Our women would -go as near to the houses as they dared, and get down on their knees and -beg for just a swallow of the precious water. Sometimes the Turks would -let us go to the wells when they were convinced we had nothing to give -them. But not always. At one place the head man, who had been a pilgrim -and was called Hadji, demanded that if we could not give him money or -rugs, we must give him for the community three strong men who could -help till the fields which were watered from his spring. - -We appealed to our guards, but they would not take our part. They stood -by the Turks, and said if we wanted water we should be willing to pay. -At least thirty of our party had died that day for want of drink. Some -of the women’s tongues were so swollen they could not talk. There was -talk of rushing on the spring in a body, but we knew this would cost -many lives, for our zaptiehs stood near with their guns, and we knew, -too, it would be held against us and probably cause a massacre. - -Finally Harutoune Yegarian, who had been a student at Erzeroum, said -he would sacrifice himself. He asked if there were two other men who -would give themselves. Two men whose wives had died, and who had no -daughters, at once said they were willing. Many women embraced them. -Harutoune was standing near me, and I cried for him. He saw me. - -“Don’t weep for me, little girl,” he said to me. “Every Armenian in the -world should be glad to give himself for his people.” Then he kissed -me, and I think his kiss was the kiss of God. - -The three men said they would stay and work in the field for the Turks, -and so they let us have water--all we could drink and carry away. - -When we reached the city of Severeg, half way to Ourfa, we had not had -water for four days. There are three open wells on one side of Severeg, -and they feed an artificial lake, which was filled when we arrived. - -Some of our women were so parched they threw themselves into the lake -and were drowned. Others could not wait until they reached the lake, -and jumped into the wells. - -So many did this they choked the wells, and the Turks, who had come out -to meet us, had to pull them out. We who had kept our senses crowded -around those who were pulled out and moistened our tongues from their -wet clothes. - -After we left Severeg a fever attacked our party. Every day many died -by the wayside. The zaptiehs rode at a distance away from us, and when -any of the men or women dropped behind, they would shoot them. The -fever parched the throats of those who suffered from it so badly that -when we came to the next group of houses where there was a well the men -braved the guns of the Turks and zaptiehs and rushed up to them. - -After that the zaptiehs were wary of persecuting us too much, but we -paid the penalty at Sheitan Deressi, or “Devil’s Gorge,” which we -reached on the twenty-third day out of Diyarbekir. - -When all our party had entered the gorge the zaptiehs left their horses -and climbed above us and opened fire upon us. We were trapped so we -could not turn back and could not escape. The zaptiehs picked off all -the men. From early morning until dark they continued shooting from the -walls of the gorge, and at each shot a man fell. When evening came all -had been killed or mortally wounded. - -When night fell the zaptiehs came down and began killing women with -their knives and bayonets. They picked out the older women first, -and soon all these were dead. When the moon lighted up the gorge the -zaptiehs picked out the young married women--or those who had been -married but now were widows--and amused themselves by mutilating them. -They would not kill them outright, but would cut off their fingers, or -their hands, or their breasts. They tore out the eyes of some. When -dawn came only those who had succeeded in hiding behind rocks, or we -who were young and might be sold to Turks, were alive. During the next -day I counted, and there were only 160 left of the 2,000 who left -Diyarbekir with me. I have heard it said that more than 300,000 of my -people were killed in this spot during the period of the massacres. - -Now that we were so few the zaptiehs made us march faster, and as we -were nearly all young they were more cruel to us. I was glad that -morning when I discovered that the lady who had let me march with her -had survived. She had hid during the night, and had saved her little -girl too. But my gladness for her soon became sorrow. The little girl -was taken with the fever that day. The next day she could not walk any -more. When the zaptiehs discovered she was suffering from the fever -they commanded the mother to leave her at the roadside. The mother laid -the little girl down, but she could not leave her when the child held -out her arms and cried. A zaptieh came up with his bayonet pointed, -ready to kill the mother, and I pulled her away and comforted her. -Every step or two the mother would look back until we could not see her -little girl any more. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -REUNION--AND THEN, THE SHEIKH ZILAN - - -With so few of us to guard, and almost all of us either young or not -so very old, the nights were made terrible by the zaptiehs. For many -days they had been on the road with us, and had tired of ordinary -cruelties and the mere shaming of the girls under cover of darkness at -the camping places. The Turks who had been recruited from the villages -and made guards over us were especially brutal. It was their first -opportunity to visit upon Christians that hatred with which Islam looks -upon the “Unbeliever.” - -When we drew near to Ourfa we were joined by a party numbering, I -think, four or five hundred exiles from the Sandjak of Marash, a -subdistrict north of the Amanus, of which Zeitoun, Albustan and Marash -are the large cities. Nearly all of these were from the city of Marash -itself--some from Zeitoun. The removal of the Armenians from the -Sandjak of Marash was begun later than in other parts of Asia Minor. -When Haidar Pasha first issued the orders for deportation some of the -Armenians who had arms resisted. They refused to leave or submit to the -zaptiehs unless they were given guarantees they would be allowed to -return to their homes after the war. - -Haidar Pasha had few soldiers at his command just then. He sent to -Aleppo for assistance to carry out his wish to send the Armenians away. -From Aleppo came Captain Schappen, a German artillery officer, who was -stationed there with other German officers. Captain Schappen organized -large bodies of zaptiehs and taught them the use of machine guns. He -then led them personally, and with other German officers and their -aides made a raid on the Armenian houses. In quarters where there was -resistance he turned the machine guns on the houses. - -From Marash and nearby cities fourteen thousand of my people, men, -women and children, were sent away, guarded by the zaptiehs, under the -command of this captain. For some reason which none of the Christians -knew, these exiles were not taken directly into the desert toward -Bagdad, as were others from that district, but they were kept many -days, even weeks at a time, in camp with almost no food or water, then -to move on only a few miles and to camp again. They were many weeks -reaching the vicinity of Ourfa. When they joined us, of the fourteen -thousand who were torn from their homes only the three or four hundred -remained alive! No men were left--just mothers and daughters and aunts -and nieces. - -Captain Schappen had returned, after three weeks on the road, to -Aleppo. He took with him a Miss Tchilingarian, who was fifteen years -old, and who had just returned from a private school in Germany, where -her parents had sent her to be educated. She was home on a vacation -when the deportation began. She was very pretty, those who knew her -told me, and had already won honors in music. Her family intended she -should become a singer and take to the Christian world outside Turkey -the beautiful folk ballads of my people. Captain Schappen marked her -during the first night on the road, and had her taken to his tent. He -then designated a zaptieh to be her especial guard until he took her -away with him. He also took with him Mrs. Sarafian, the young wife of -Dr. Dikran Sarafian, who had been educated in Switzerland, and was -one of the most prominent Armenian physicians in central Turkey. Mrs. -Sarafian was a Swiss, and had learned to love Dr. Sarafian while he was -a student in her country. She had come to Marash to marry him just two -years before. Captain Schappen had her taken to his tent also, soon -after they began their march, and when her husband objected the officer -ordered a zaptieh to shoot him. - -When Captain Schappen and his companions decided to return to Aleppo -they sent zaptiehs scouring the country for miles around looking for -donkeys. For these the officers traded girl children. A pretty child -was given for one donkey. Of the children who were plain the officers -gave two, or sometimes three, for a single donkey. Thus they collected -a large herd of donkeys, which probably were needed by the army. - -In another day after this remnant of the Christians of Marash joined -us, we came into sight of Ourfa. We were ordered to camp close to an -artificial lake--such a lake as often is found outside Moslem cities. -The leaders of our zaptiehs rode into the city for instructions. Soon -Turks, in long white coats, came out of the city to look at us. When -they saw that ours was a party of almost all younger women, with girl -children still left, they spread the news in Ourfa, and in a little -while dozens of Turks came out in little groups of four and five. - -They tried to persuade our zaptiehs to let them carry away with them -the young women and children they wanted. The zaptiehs would not permit -this, however, unless they were paid what was then considered high -prices for Christian women. They said they had brought us this far, and -now they intended to profit--that they had only permitted us to live -because they hoped to get “good prices” for the choicest of us in the -Ourfa market. - -The Turks did not want to pay the high prices, and the zaptiehs would -not trade with them. The zaptiehs said there was a good market in Ourfa -for pretty Armenian women, and they preferred to get the Mutassarif’s -permission to hunt purchasers there who would bid against each other. -The Turks went back to the city disappointed. - -That night, just after sundown, these same Turks came out again and -opened the sluices that held the artificial lake, allowing the water to -spread over the plain and flood our camp. We had to run as fast as we -could to scramble to safety, and there was great confusion. Even the -zaptiehs were caught by surprise. - -In this confusion the Turks rushed in among us and helped themselves to -our youngest girls--the prettiest children they could seize. We were -powerless to save them, as each of the Turks carried a heavy stick, -with which they beat down the mothers or relatives who tried to rescue -their little ones. By the time we had escaped the water and assembled -again, and the zaptiehs were recovered from their own panic, the Turks -were gone--and with them fifteen or twenty beautiful little girls. - -Later I learned what was the immediate fate of the children stolen when -the lake was opened on us. Haidar Pasha had seized the ancient Catholic -Armenian monastery there, and had transformed it into a “government -school for refugee children.” Since I have come to America I have -learned that when complaints were made to the Sultan at Constantinople -by foreign ambassadors of the stealing of children the Sultan’s -officials replied that they were taken as a kindly deed by the -government, which wished to place them in comfort in the “government -school” at Ourfa and other cities. - -But this is what the “government school” at Ourfa was: - -Haidar Pasha sent his soldiers, under command of a bey, to take -possession of the monastery, a large stone building. They surrounded it -and forced the monks, among them Father Antone and Father Shiradjian, -two priests who were much beloved by Protestant as well as Catholic -Armenians, to walk in between two rows of soldiers. The soldiers closed -in behind them and marched with them outside the walls of the city. -Then the soldiers halted and the Bey asked how many there were among -the monks who were willing to take the oath of Islam and forswear -Christ. - -When the Bey ceased speaking Father Antone lifted his voice with the -words of an ancient song of the good Saint Thomas Aquinas, and all the -monks joined in. - -While they sang the soldiers shot them down--volley after volley--until -all were dead. The last monk to fall died with the words of the song on -his lips. - -Haidar Pasha then cleared out the monastery of all its relics and -religious symbols. Among these were some things which were very dear to -my people. There was, for instance, a piece of the lance which pierced -the side of Jesus at the Crucifixion. What has become of this and other -things that were associated with Christ, Himself, and kept by the -Fathers in this monastery I do not know. It is said they were taken to -Damascus and placed in a mosque there, to be ridiculed by the Moslems. - -When the monastery was cleared Haidar Pasha gathered from among the -Armenians who were then being taken out of the city, a number of -Armenian girls of the best families and confined them in the monastery. -He then seized hundreds of Armenian girl children, from 7 to 12 years -old, and shut them in the monastery, to be taught the Moslem religion -and raised as Moslems. He compelled the older girls to teach them the -beliefs of Islam, under penalty of the most awful cruelties. To this -monastery then came rich Turks from all over Asia Minor to select as -many little girls as they wished and could buy for their harems--where -they would grow up to be submissive slaves. - -While we were waiting outside the city for the zaptiehs to dispose -of us according to whatever their plans might be I saw coming toward -us, out of a city gate, a company of hamidieh, or Kurd cavalry, with -a supply train of donkeys and arabas, which indicated a long journey -ahead. There must have been a full regiment of the horsemen, as they -filled the plain outside the city while forming their line of march. - -When they drew near, to pass us within a hundred yards or so, I saw a -little group of women and children riding on donkeys and ponies between -the lines of horsemen. I recognized these as Armenians. This was an -unusual sight--Armenians under protection instead of under guard. In -those days my curiosity had been stunted. So many unusual things went -on about me all the time I had lost my sense of interest in anything -that did not actually concern me. But something seemed to hold my -attention to this strange looking company. - -I got up from the ground where I was sitting and went to the edge of -our camp to watch the soldiers passing. The first lines went by. The -Armenian women came nearer. Suddenly all the world about me seemed lost -in a haze. I rushed in between the horses, screaming at the top of my -voice: - -“Mother! Mother! Mother!” - -She heard, and little Hovnan, and Mardiros, and Sarah heard. Mother -slid to the ground as I ran up to her. I tried to throw my arms around -her neck, while my little brothers and sister clung to me. But mother -caught my arms and held them. Her eyes were closed, and she was still -and silent. I cried to her to speak to me. A terrible fear came over -me. Had she gone mad? Had she lost her speech? - -I screamed--this time with anguish. Mother opened her eyes. - -“Be patient, my daughter,” she said, with the dear, sweet gentleness -for which all our friends had loved her. “Be patient, my daughter. I -was just talking with God--thanking Him that my prayers have come -true!” When I had kissed and cried over Hovnan and Mardiros and Sarah I -looked again into mother’s face. - -Little Aruciag--she was not there. Mother saw the question in my eyes. - -“Aruciag has gone. She grew tired one day and could not keep up. A -soldier threw her over a precipice!” - -An officer of the hamidieh came up to learn what was happening, why -mother and the children had dismounted to stand in the way of the -horsemen. Mother explained to him that I was her daughter, who had -come back to her. She said she wished that I might travel with her. -The officer was kind. He gave permission and promised to send another -donkey for me to ride. - -There were four young Armenian girls with mothers and several older -women, whose faces bore the marks of much suffering. As we rode along -mother explained to me. - -When I was stolen from her and our party from Tchemesh-Gedzak, so many -weeks before, she was lying at the roadside, cruelly wounded by the -soldiers. But the thought of the children summoned her back to life. -Friends cared for her, and the next day when the company moved on they -carried her in their arms until she could walk again. - -She passed Malatia, Geulik and Diyarbekir. At last she reached Ourfa. -By this time only eighteen were left of the original four thousand -exiles from Tchemesh-Gedzak. - -At Ourfa there lived my uncle, mother’s cousin, Ipranos Mardiganian, -who had moved from Tchemesh-Gedzak to Ourfa many years ago--before I -was born. Uncle Ipranos had become very wealthy, and had established -a great trading business, which had branches even in Persia and in -Constantinople. - -In the Abdul-Hamid massacres of 1895 Uncle Ipranos was persuaded by -his powerful Turkish friends at Constantinople and in Ourfa to become -Moslem and thus save his life. He pretended to do so, and was rewarded -with a government position of high trust, and rose to high estate among -the Moslems. He adopted a Turkish name, and was known as Ibrahim Agha. -Secretly, though, he still prayed to God and was Christian. - -Mother remembered him when she reached Ourfa with the refugees. She -knew he was in the favor of the Turks, who no longer looked upon him -as Armenian. She asked one of the soldiers with her party if he would -take a letter into the city for her, promising that if he would deliver -the letter secretly he would receive pay. The soldier took the letter -to Ibrahim Agha’s house. In it mother appealed to her cousin for his -assistance in the name of their family, and asked him to give some -money to the soldier. - -Ibrahim Agha was grieved by mother’s letter. He sent her word that -he would help her. He went at once to Haidar Pasha and procured his -permission to bring mother and her children to his house. Then he -came for her and took her to his home. In his house mother found four -Armenian girls. Their mothers were deported from Ourfa, but before -they had left the city they had appealed to Ibrahim Agha to take their -daughters under his protection, thinking to save them. He could not -refuse, although he endangered his own life, and had to keep the girls -hidden from his neighbors. A few older women also were in his house, -hidden in his cellar. He had taken them in from the streets when -soldiers were not looking. - -For more than a month mother and the children were safe in her -cousin’s home. Then, one day, Haidar Pasha sent him word to come to -the government building. He returned with heavy heart. Haidar Pasha -had told him it would not be safe for him to keep his relatives in his -house any longer; that many high military officials were in Ourfa, and -if some of them should hear of refugee Armenians being thus protected -all might be killed, and both he and Ibrahim Agha suffer. - -But Haidar Pasha offered to obtain from the Turkish general at Aleppo -military permission for mother and the children and the other exiles in -his house, of whom my uncle now told him, to travel back to their homes -in the north with soldiers being sent to Moush to join the campaign -against the Russians. For this Haidar Pasha asked one thousand liras -cash--about $5,000--and another thousand liras when mother and the -others had safely reached their homes and had received permission from -their home authorities to remain. This permission the Pasha promised to -arrange also. - -My uncle had to comply. The four girls had no homes or relatives in the -north, but they had to go, too, or be deported and seized by Turks. -Mother agreed to take them to her home in Tchemesh-Gedzak--if they -should really reach there alive. - -At Moush an army corps was assembling. The Turks had retired before the -first advance of the Russians through the Caucasus, and Djevdet Bey, -Vali of Van, was rallying his armies here for a dash at the Russian -flanks, which already had reached Van. Soldiers occupied all the houses -in Moush, from which the Armenians had been ejected, and the hamidieh -officers believed it would be best for us to be quartered outside the -city while arrangements were made for the rest of our journey. Mother -depended upon the papers given her by Haidar Pasha to secure for us an -escort from Moush to Tchemesh-Gedzak--and Ibrahim Agha had said Haidar -would telegraph the authorities at Moush to guarantee our safety. - -We stopped at Kurdmeidan, a village a few miles outside of Moush, -at the foot of Mount Antok. There had been many Armenians in the -village, and there was an Armenian church. All the Christians had been -massacred, however, and their homes were occupied by mouhajirs--Moslem -immigrants from the lost provinces in the Balkans. We went into the -deserted church and prepared to remain there until arrangements -were made for us to leave. The hamidieh officers called the village -Mudir before them and cautioned him that we were to be protected and -fed--that we were “especially favored by the Porte.” - -The villagers treated us kindly--so great is the fear of the population -of anything “official” or governmental. Days went by and we did not -hear from the city. We began to worry. Mother wanted so much to see our -home again at Tchemesh-Gedzak. “Were it not for you and the children,” -she would say to me, “I would be willing to die on my doorstep--if God -would just let me see our home again!” My poor, dear mother! - -We dared not go alone into the city to inquire what was to be done for -us--we could only wait. - -One night, just after the Moslem prayer, the streets of the little city -suddenly became crowded with horsemen. Some Turkish women who were -just outside the church rushed in to get out of the way of the horses’ -hoofs. “It is Sheikh Zilan,” they said. “The Sheikh Zilan of the Belek -tribe, who has been called in from the mountains with his thousand -Kurds to fight for the Turks!” - -The name of Sheikh Zilan was widely known. His horsemen had harried the -countryside for many years. It was said he frequently made raids with -his tribe into Persia, and even into the Russian Caucasus before the -war, to steal women for the secret slave markets in European Turkey. - -The tribe was on its way into Moush. Entrance would be denied them -after dark, they knew, so they had decided to camp for the night in -Kurdmeidan. Some followers of the Sheikh saw the Armenian church -building, and decided to use it as a stable for the horses of the -Sheikh and his chiefs. They broke in the door while mother and the rest -of us crouched in a corner. But we could not hide--the Kurds saw us and -gave the alarm. Soon the church was full of the wild tribesmen. - -Mother showed her letters from Haidar Pasha. This awed the Kurds for a -moment, and they sent for one of their chiefs. When the chief came he -read the letter carefully. Then he examined our party. “The Pasha here -says there is an Armenian woman and her servants and three children, to -whom immunity has been promised and safe conduct. That we will grant, -although the word of a Pasha is not binding upon the will of the great -Sheikh Zilan. But the Pasha’s writing says nothing of five young -Armenian women, too old to be classed as children and too young to be -described as servants. These we will take, lest the Pasha be imposed -upon.” - -They would not believe that I also was mother’s daughter. They took me -and the four girls mother had brought from the house of Ibrahim Agha, -and at the same time forced mother to leave the shelter of the church -and camp in a nearby yard. They took us out of the village, to where -their main camp was. - -With halter ropes they tied our hands behind our backs and then tied -us to each other by looping a rope through our arms. Soon Sheikh Zilan -himself came to look at us. He seemed greatly pleased when he had -looked into our faces. He gave some orders we could not understand, -but which, evidently, had to do with our safety, and walked away. We -spent the night sitting on the ground, for we were bound in such a way -we could not lie down. The Kurds looked at us curiously as they walked -around us, and often one of them would kick us to make us turn our -faces toward him. But otherwise they did not molest us. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -OLD VARTABED AND THE SHEPHERD’S CALL - - -Early in the morning we were taken into the city, tied across horses -which were led just behind the group of chiefs who followed Sheikh -Zilan, himself. Inside the city four horsemen led our horses into one -of the low quarters of the city. Here we were given into the keeping -of a cruel looking Kurd, whom I was soon to know was Bekran Agha, the -notorious slave dealer of Moush. - -Ten thousand Armenian girls, delicate, refined daughters of Christian -homes, college girls, young school teachers, daughters of the rich and -the poor, have experienced the terror of the same feeling that came -over me that day when I realized that I was a captive in the house of -this notorious slave dealer. His slave market had been boldly operated, -in the security of his house, for many years, but never had he enjoyed -such a profitable trade as when the Armenian girls were available to -him. - -Bekran left us in his donkey stable at night. In the morning his hammal -came in to feed the animals. When he had finished this task he ordered -us to follow him. - -Bekran awaited us in his selamlik. I shuddered when I saw him--he was -so old and withered and cruel looking. A negress waited upon him. -He sat on the floor in the old fashion. The selamlik was barren and -ill-kept. Everywhere there was dirt. Bekran’s flowing garments, once of -rich texture, were ragged and frayed. Yet I knew Bekran must be very -rich--from the profits the helplessness of Armenians had brought him. - -We fell upon our knees before him--then we bent into the posture of the -Mohammedans--we wanted so much to make him listen to our pleading. I -had suffered so much, I thought surely I could persuade this old man -to let me go to my mother again. But Bekran did not even speak. His -eyes roved over us--I could feel them. He signed to the hammal and -the man lifted us to our feet, one by one, that his master might see -our height, our size and judge of our attractiveness. Then he gave -another sign and we were taken across the inside court, through a stone -doorway, and into a large room where there were a number of other -Armenian girls, with here and there a Circassian or a Russian from the -Caucasus, among them. - -Soon the hammal came into the room with figs and bread. I could not -eat, neither could any of the four girls who had been of my mother’s -party from Ourfa. Few of the others ate, either--as all had come but -recently into the hands of Bekran and were too downcast. When the -hammal saw that we, who were late comers, did not eat, he said, “That -is well. We will lose no time at the bath.” He then compelled us to -cleanse ourselves as well as we could of the marks of our nights in -the sand and in the donkey stable with water from a fountain in the -courtyard. - -Two men servants who came into the court while we were bathing joined -the hammal. Together they made us stand in a long line. The girls who -had been in the house when we arrived, saved us from the whips the -hammal and his men carried by telling us what to do. - -We were taken into a large room at the back of the house, barren of -any furniture, save a pile of cushions on a rug in one corner. We were -allowed to sit on the floor any place in the room, but in this corner -where the cushions were. Before long Bekran Agha came in and sat on the -cushions. - -All morning purchasers came. As each one spoke to Bekran the porter -would clap his hands and we were made to gather in a circle around the -customer. Many girls were sold--but for only a few pennies apiece. -There were too many in the market to demand large prices! When a girl -was sold she remained until a servant came to take her away. - -Late in the afternoon of the second day a customer to whom Bekran Agha -paid great deference, entered the room. He was a servant, but from his -clothes I knew him to be the servant of a rich man. From those of us -who were left he selected three--and I was one of the three. While we -stood near he bargained with Bekran. At last the terms were agreed -upon. I was bought for one medjidieh--85 cents! - -Outside was an araba. The other two girls and I were placed in this. -We were taken outside the city, to a country house occupied by Djevdet -Bey, Vali of Van, then commander of the Turkish army operating against -the Russians. - -We were taken at once to the haremlik, where there were a number of -other young Armenian women. Before evening the kalfa, or head servant, -came in to us and we were asked, one by one, if we were willing to -become Mohammedans. The kalfa explained that only those could remain in -the care and keeping of Djevdet Bey, the mighty man, and have the honor -of his protection, who willingly adopted the creed of Islam. - -Though he was cruel and, as his deeds show, the most unscrupulous of -all the Turks, Djevdet Bey desired, it was made plain to us, to keep -within the provisions of the fetva issued by Abdul Hamid and still in -effect, which pretends to prohibit the enslaving of Armenian and other -Christian girls unless they first become Mohammedans. - -I did not know what the kalfa would do with me if I refused to accept -the creed of Islam. I feared the punishment would be death, or the -public khan at once, but I could not bring myself to deny Christ, after -having remained faithful to Him so long. I asked Him what I should -do--and His answer came, just as clear and direct as when I was about -to use my knife outside the rocks of Diyarbekir. I seemed to see Father -Rhoupen, the priest, and I even felt his hand on my shoulder again, -just as when he said to me, “Always trust in God and remain faithful -unto Him.” I told the kalfa I could not forswear Jesus Christ. - -One of the other girls who had been brought to Djevdet Bey’s house with -me also refused to give up her religion, even to save her life. The -third girl had suffered so much--her heart and soul were broken. She -gave way. The kalfa put her into another room. In a little while we who -had refused to apostasize were summoned, put into separate arabas, and -driven away. What became of the other little girl I do not know. I was -taken to the house of Ahmed Bey, one of the rich men of Moush. I was a -present to him from Djevdet Bey. - -I cannot forget the depression that came over me when I entered the -courtyard of Ahmed Bey’s house. Twice before, since the deportations -began, had I been taken a captive into the houses of Turks and left -at their mercy. Yet now I felt as if the future were darker than ever -before. Perhaps it was because the house of Ahmed was outside the city, -in the plains--as a prison would be. And there were twenty-four other -girls in the haremlik, each with her own memory of sufferings, more -terrible even, some of them, than had been my own. - -Ahmed Bey, himself, was very old, yet some of these twenty-four girls -had been sacrificed to him. The others had been divided between his two -sons. Ahmed was, perhaps, a truer type of the fanatical Turk than any -whose victim I had yet been. His interest seemed not to be so much in -the young women themselves, as in the children he wanted them to bear -to his sons--children in whom the blood of the noble Armenian race -might be blended with that of the savage Turk, and who might live to -perpetuate and improve the blood of his family. - -I was summoned before Ahmed Bey the next day. I had asked for clothing, -but the haremlik attachés would not give me any, nor would they allow -me to accept garments from other girls in the harem. “Not until Ahmed -indicates his desires,” was the answer of the kalfa to my pleadings. - -Ahmed Bey spoke to me gently, but it was with the gentleness that hurts -worse than blows. “You are to be one of the favored of my women,” -he said, “because you have been sent to my house by His Excellency, -Djevdet Bey.” He gave a sign, and a little slave girl appeared with -the rich dress of a favored Turkish girl. “Many of these and many -ornaments, as well as kindness and affection, shall be yours as long -as you are obedient and respectful,” Ahmed said. “First, you shall -renounce the Christ you have been taught to worship and accept the -forgiveness of Allah and Mohammed, his prophet.” - -I told him I was weary of suffering, but that I had been given into the -keeping of God by my mother, and that I would not desert Him. At this -Ahmed became furious. All his gentleness passed away. He trembled in -his anger. He upbraided me and my people and blasphemed my religion. I -cried with shame at hearing him, but he had no pity. I pleaded with him -to free me, that I might return to my mother’s party, and I told him of -the paper given my mother by Haidar Pasha of Ourfa. But he would not -listen. - -The little slave was sent from the room to summon one of Ahmed’s sons. -The son came in almost immediately. Ahmed called him “Nazim.” “This -is the one sent me by Djevdet Bey, himself. I have set her aside for -you, my son, because of her comeliness and youth. But her spirit -must be broken. I have sent for you that you might look upon her and -decide--what shall be done with her.” - -Ahmed’s son spoke to me, but I did not answer. Then he took my hand, -drew me up before him and lifted my face that he might look into my -eyes. - -“Leave her to me, my father, that I may try to persuade her to be happy -in our house,” Nazim said. - -The little slave led me to an apartment--a small room looking out upon -the inside court, with a divan. I asked her to leave the dress with me, -that I might at least cover myself, but she said she could not do that -without permission. When she had left me Nazim crossed the court from -the selamlik and came at once to me. - -He had the same gentleness as his father--and it hurt in the same way. -He asked me to accept Mohammed that he might make me his “bride.” He -told me my sufferings would be very hard to bear if I refused, but that -I would have many luxuries if I consented. - -I knew I could not escape. My thoughts went to my mother. I told Nazim -that as long as my mother was an exile, doomed to die a wanderer, I -could not speak of being a “bride.” I told him if he would save her, -if he would bring her to me, I would ask her if she thought best that -I sacrifice my religion in return for my life and safety--and if she -would say it would be right, then, with her always near to comfort me, -I would let my soul die that my body and hers might live. - -“You will have to learn it is not the slave’s privilege to bargain,” he -said, as he strode away. - -Hours went by, and I crouched on the divan--waiting. At every step I -feared I was to be summoned again--this time for something I could only -expect to be torture. At last a zaptieh who was one of Ahmed Bey’s -personal retainers came for me. He lifted me roughly and dragged me -with him across the court and into the road in front of the house. A -little way from the garden wall there was a group of other zaptiehs. - -Among them I saw my mother, little Hovnan and Mardiros and little -Sarah, my brothers and sister, and the others of my mother’s party. I -had told Nazim where they were when I pleaded with him to restore them -to me--and he had sent for them. - -I tried to break away, to run toward them. The zaptieh at my side held -me. My mother was kneeling, with her hands lifted to heaven. Sarah ran -toward me, her arms stretched out. “Aurora--Aurora--don’t let them kill -us!” Sarah cried. The zaptieh swung the heavy handle of his whip high -in the air and brought it down on Sarah’s head so that the blow flung -her little body far out of the path. She did not move again. I think -the blow must have crushed in my little sister’s head. - -Mother saw--and so did Hovnan and Mardiros. Mother fell to the ground, -motionless. A zaptieh lifted her and struck her with his whip. - -I fell upon my knees before the chief of the zaptiehs. “Spare my -mother--spare my brothers!” I cried to him. “I will do anything you -wish--I will belong to Allah--I will thank him only--if you will spare -them!” - -“It shall be as Nazim Bey desires,” the zaptieh said. I did not -understand--I clung to him and prayed to him. I tried to touch my -mother, but the zaptieh kicked me to the ground. Then, suddenly, I knew -why they waited. Nazim Bey had come out of the house. When I saw him I -crept to his feet and begged him for mercy. “I will be Turkish--I will -pray to Allah--I will obey--just to save my mother,” I cried to him. - -“That is well--but you shall not only be a Moslem but you also shall be -the daughter of a Moslem--that will be better still”--said Nazim. “What -does the old woman say?” - -A zaptieh jerked mother to her feet again. He lifted his whip. “The -creed--quick!” he said to her. - -“Mother, please--God will forgive you--father is in heaven and he will -understand!” I cried to her. - -Mother was too weak to speak aloud, but her lips moved in a whisper: -“God of St. Gregory, Thy will be done!” - -The zaptieh’s heavy whip descended. Mother sank to the ground. I tried -to reach her, but the zaptiehs held me. I fought them, but they held -me fast. Again and again the whip fell. Mardiros screamed and tried to -save her with his weak little hands. Another zaptieh caught him by the -arm and killed him with a single blow from his whip handle. When they -flung him aside Mardiros’s body fell almost at my feet. - -Hovnan wrapped his arms around the zaptieh who was beating my mother, -but his strength was too feeble. The zaptieh did not even notice him -until my mother’s body relaxed and I knew she was dead. Then he drew -his knife and plunged it into little Hovnan. - -It was only a little while--two minutes, perhaps, or three, that I -stood there, held by the zaptieh. But in those short minutes all that -belonged to me in this world was swept away--my mother, Mardiros and -Hovnan, and Sarah. Their bodies were at my feet. Both mother and Hovnan -died with their eyes turned to me, looking into mine! My eyes see them -now, every day and every night--every hour, almost--when I look out -into the new world about me. I must keep them closed for hours at a -time to shut the vision out. - -I heard Nazim Bey give an order to his zaptiehs. Some of them picked up -the bodies of my dear ones and carried them away, I do not know where. -The others lifted me off the ground--I could not walk--and carried me -to the house and back to the room where the divan was. For two days and -nights no one came near me but the slave girls. All that time I cried; -I could not keep the tears from coming. That was when my eyes gave way; -that is why I cannot see very well now without glasses. - -On the third day Nazim, accompanied by his father, Ahmed, came to my -room. Ahmed spoke with the same cruel gentleness. “What is past is -gone, little one; it is time your thoughts should turn to the future. -Nazim desires you. You are honored. He has punished you for your -stubbornness, and he would forgive you and take you to his heart. That -is as it must be. Your people are gone. There is none to give you -mistaken counsel. You will now accept the favor of Allah and enter into -a state of true righteousness.” - -“I want to die--kill me! I will never listen to your son nor to your -Allah,” I said. - -They took me into another wing of the house, to a dungeon room, with -just one iron-barred window looking out into the courtyard. There was -no divan or cushions, just the floor and the walls. The window was high -in the wall. I could not look out at anything but the sky--that same -sky which covered so much of tragedy in my ravished Armenia. - -Day after day, night after night, went by. Each day the alaiks came -and brought me bread, berries and milk. And each day the hodja, a -teacher-priest, came to ask me if I were ready to accept Islam. But -each day God took me closer into His heart, for I kept up my courage by -talking to Him. - -[Illustration: THE ROADSIDE OF AWFUL DESPAIR - -First the children died, and then the parents, and uncles and aunts. -The grieving parents wrapped the little ones in the sheets they had -brought along, and then lay down beside them to starve. It was a common -scene in the deserts and along the sandy roads over which the exiles -travelled.] - -And then one night, after so many days had passed I had lost count of -them, God reached in through my dungeon window. I was awakened by a -commotion in the courtyard, where, on other nights, it had been very -quiet. Soon I understood what was happening--sheep were being driven in -through the gate. Ahmed’s flock was coming in from the hill pastures, -driven in, perhaps, by military conditions. - -I heard the yard gates swing shut. Then, above the bleating of the -excited, restless sheep, I heard the shepherd whistle his call to quiet -them. I jumped to my feet, my heart throbbing. Breathlessly I listened -for the shepherd to repeat the call. Then I was sure--it was the same -peculiar call, sharp and shrill, which my father always taught his own -shepherds, the call which he had been taught by his own father when, as -a little boy, he learned the ways of his father’s sheep on the great -pastures of Mamuret-ul-Aziz. When I was very young our shepherds used -to laugh at me when I tried to imitate them. I had been a very happy -little girl when, one day, I succeeded so well that suddenly the sheep -in our flock turned away from their grass and came toward me. - -No other shepherds than ours or, at least, one who had come from -Tchemesh-Gedzak, would know that call, I was certain. Ahmed’s sheep -were tired and nervous. The unknown shepherd remained among them, every -now and then repeating that same whistle, softer and softer. I went -close to the window, lifted my face toward the iron-barred window and -repeated the call. Even the sheep seemed to sense something unusual. -They were suddenly quiet. Again I whistled, this time with more -courage. Instantly the shepherd answered--I could almost detect his -note of wonder. - -I had learned that by leaping as high as I could I could catch the -window bars with my hands and lift myself until my face reached above -the window-sill. Often I had caught glimpses of the yard in this way. -But I was not strong enough to hold myself up more than a few seconds -at a time. - -Now I tried this, hoping to catch a glimpse of the shepherd in the -moonlight. As I pulled myself up, I whistled again. Many times I tried -before I attracted his attention to the window. When I had succeeded -and he understood that behind that window there was a captive who was -trying to signal him, he made me understand by repeating his whistle -three times in quick succession directly under the window. - -I dared not call out to him. I tore a great piece of cloth from the -dress that had been given me. I rolled this into a ball and threw -it out. He saw and answered by whistling softly. I hoped he would -understand the torn cloth as a symbol of my imprisonment--and of -my hope that he would save me. I could hardly believe that even an -Armenian shepherd would be left alive, yet it seemed to be so. - -In the morning when the sheep were taken out the shepherd whistled -again under my window and I knew he was trying to attract my -attention. I answered as softly as I could. All that day a new hope -gave me courage. I was sure deliverance was at hand, though I could not -explain why. - -I did not even attempt to sleep that night. The sheep came in early -and the shepherd whistled. An hour later I heard the call again--the -shepherd still was in the yard. It must have been near midnight when I -heard a rattling at the window bars. I looked, and there, framed in the -moonlight, was a face I knew--the face of Old Vartabed, who had come to -our house that Easter morning with his prophecy of ill--the prophecy -that came true. God had sent him to me and had made me to hear and -understand that familiar, whistled call! - -Old Vartabed whispered: “Who is here who comes from the -Mamuret-ul-Aziz?” - -“It is Aurora, the daughter of the Mardiganians of Tchemesh-Gedzak. You -are Old Vartabed, and I am the Aurora you loved so much.” - -Old Vartabed tried to speak, but his voice shook so I could not -understand him. I told him all that I could, quickly. How I had come to -be a captive of Ahmed and why I was in the dungeon. Tears came into Old -Vartabed’s ancient eyes when I told him how all my people were dead. I -asked him how it was that he had been saved. “Old Vartabed is not worth -the slaughter,” he said. “I am of much value, since I have taught -the sheep of Ahmed to behave only for me. Ahmed has forgotten I am an -Armenian, since I bend my knees for every prayer to Allah and thus -prolong my days.” He told me to be patient. He would find a way to save -me. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE MESSAGE OF GENERAL ANDRANIK - - -Two nights went by before Old Vartabed came again. But each night he -signaled and I answered. On the third night, his face was framed again -in the window casement. - -“Be ready, little one--I shall lift you out soon,” he whispered. He -had brought a steel bar with which to pry aside the iron bars in the -window. The bars were very old--perhaps for a hundred years or more -they had served to shut in the prisoners that once had been confined in -this same dungeon room in Ahmed Bey’s big house. I knelt to pray, and I -was on my knees when Vartabed whispered: - -“Come, little one--reach Old Vartabed your hand--he will lift you.” - -The bars were bent aside. There was room for the shepherd to lean -inward and reach down. I caught his hands and he lifted me until I -could catch hold of the iron and help myself. In a moment I leaped down -to the stump which the shepherd had brought to stand on, and from this -to the ground. The sheep, which were resting all about, stirred and -bleated when I fell among them, but Old Vartabed whistled and they -were quiet. - -“We must go quickly; the gate is not locked. You must be far away, to a -place I will tell you of, before morning comes and you are missed,” Old -Vartabed said as he hurried me across the yard. - -When we were outside the gate, Old Vartabed wrapped his coat around me, -for it was cold. Then we struck out across the plains, away from the -town and toward low hills in the distance. - -Old Vartabed did not talk much. He was so old he needed his strength. -He was anxious that I get far away before dawn. When we came to the -hills the shepherd showed me a path and told me to follow it, and go on -alone until I came to the hut of a friendly Kurdish family. - -“But you, Old Vartabed--are you not coming with me? Will not Ahmed Bey -suspect you if you return?” I asked. - -“Old Vartabed is too old to live in the desert, and then, who would -care for my sheep?” the old man replied. - -Poor, dear Old Vartabed! Ahmed Bey had him killed in the morning. - -I ran along the path the shepherd pointed out to me until, after many -hours, I came to the hut of the Kurds, of whom Old Vartabed had told -me. They were shepherd Kurds, and had great respect for Old Vartabed, -who had told them I was the daughter of his one-time master in the -Mamuret-ul-Aziz. They expected me, and were very kind. - -When I thought of Old Vartabed going back to his sheep, and to the -mercy of Ahmed Bey, I cried. The shepherd Kurd’s wife and daughters -were sorry, and the Kurd himself went down toward the plain in which -Ahmed’s house stood, to learn if Old Vartabed still tended his sheep. -That night he came back in great distress. He had learned of Old -Vartabed’s fate. None but the shepherd could have helped me escape, -Ahmed Bey had been sure. He had summoned Old Vartabed before him and -the shepherd had confessed, as there was no other way. Ahmed Bey sent -for his zaptiehs. Old Vartabed was led out to where his flock was -waiting to be taken to the pasture. There was a shot, and he had paid -with his life for his kindness to the little daughter of his one-time -master. - -The Kurd was much alarmed for me. Ahmed Bey had sent zaptiehs to search -in the plains and hills. Perhaps they would soon be at the hut. - -They would not send me away, but I knew that I must go. The hut was too -close to the house of Ahmed, and the zaptiehs might come when least -expected. So they gave me woolen stockings, the best they had, a great -loaf of winter bread, a jug in which to carry water, and a blanket to -wrap about me at night. Then I went out into the hills. - -Beyond these hills was the great Dersim--the highlands of grass and -sand, with hills and mountains everywhere. For many, many miles in -each direction no one lived but Dersim Kurds, some in little villages, -some in roving bands. On each side of the Dersim lived the Turks. Once -Armenians lived in the cities of the Turks, but now the Armenians all -were gone--only Turks were left. - -The inhabitants of the Dersim deserts and wastes are not the vicious -type of Kurds who live in the south in the regions to which we had been -deported from our homes. The Kurds in the south are nomadic tribes, -harsh and cruel. The Dersim Kurds mostly are farmers, and often rebel -against their Turkish overlords. They are fanatical Moslems, and have -their racial hatred of all “unbelievers,” as they look upon Christians. -But they do not have the lust of killing human beings common with the -tribes of the south. To this I owe my life. - -For more than a year I was a captive or a wanderer in the Dersim. For -many days after I left my friends at the news of Old Vartabed’s fate -I hid in the daytime and traveled at night, walking, walking, always -walking; somewhere, and yet nowhere. When a settlement loomed up before -me I turned the other way, trudging aimlessly across the wide plains, -through the hills or over deserts. - -My bread soon gave out, and water was hard to get, for wherever there -was a well or a spring a settlement of Kurds was close. Near one well I -hid throughout one whole day, waiting my chance to slip up unobserved -and cool my parched throat. There was no opportunity in the daylight, -and when night came and I gathered courage to creep near to the well -the dogs from the houses ran out and barked at me. I was too exhausted -to run when the villagers came out to see what had aroused the dogs. -They took me into the settlement and shut me up in a cave for the -night. In the morning the chief of the settlement took me as his slave -and commanded me to obey the orders of his family. - -They made me do the work a man would do. I tended the stock, carried -the water and worked in the fields. When I did not do enough work the -Kurds would beat me with their long, thick sticks and refuse me food. -When I did enough work to please them the women would throw me a piece -of bread. At night I slept on the ground, outside the huts, with rags -and torn blankets to keep out the cold, but never was I warm. - -After weeks passed I was too weak to work any longer. I fell down when -I went to the fields, and could not get up when a Kurd kicked me. So -they gave me half a loaf of bread and told me to go away. I went a -little way and then rested for two days. It was so nice not to have -to drag a plow made of sticks from morning to night, I soon got my -strength back. And then I started to walk again. - -Beyond Erzerum I knew there were Russians--friends of the Armenians. -I tried to keep my face turned to where I thought Erzerum would be--a -hundred miles or more through the Dersim. I kept away from the villages -until I could walk no more for want of food or water. Then I would give -myself up to be a work slave again. Each time the Kurds kept me until -my strength gave way. Then they gave me the half loaf of bread and let -me go away. - -Although it was very cold now, I had no clothes. The Kurds would never -let me have any of the cloth they spun. Snow in the crevices among the -hills gave me water, but all I had to eat for weeks, even months, at a -time was the bark from small trees, weeds that grow in the winter time, -and the dead blades of grass I found under the snow. - -The snow had melted when I reached the edge of the Dersim to the west. -I do not know what month it was, as I had lost all track of time, but -I knew spring was passing because the snow disappeared. I was now in -the neighborhood of Turkish cities. Occasionally I saw Turks, in their -white coats, walking over the plains. I saw flocks of sheep now and -then, and other signs that I was near cities. Yet I knew I must keep -away from these cities or their inhabitants. - -One day from the side of a hill where I was hiding, almost too weak -from hunger to walk, I saw a great line of people with donkeys and -carts and arabas, passing on what seemed to be a road to the south. As -far as I could see, this cavalcade stretched out. For hours it wound -its way across the plains. I wondered what it meant. I crept down from -the hill and, crawling on the ground, drew as near as I could. I saw -the people were Turks, and that they were carrying household goods with -them. I saw, too, that they were excited and seemed to be unhappy. - -I watched the line of Turkish families go by all day. When it was dark -I determined to go the way they had come from. Whatever it was that had -sent the Turks from their homes in the cities further east, it could -not be anything that meant ill for a girl of the Armenians. - -Already I had crossed the Kara River, the farthest branch of the -Euphrates. Along the roads over which the Turks had passed in the -daytime there were scraps of bread, glass jars from which fruits had -been emptied, and other remnants of food. I gathered enough to give me -strength for walking. - -The plains across which I made my way that night were those which once -formed the Garden of Eden, according to the teachings of the priests -and our Sunday school books. The Kara River was one of the Four Rivers. -Nearby were the Acampis of the Bible and the Chorok and the Aras, the -other three. Among these same rocks through which I hurried along as -fast as my strength would allow, Eve herself once had wandered. When I -sat down at times to rest I thought of Eve, and wondered if she were -some place Up Above, looking down upon me, one of the last of the -great race of people which had been the first to accept the teachings -of Christ and which had suffered so much in His name through all the -centuries that have passed since Eve’s gardens blossomed on the plains -and slopes about me. - -The next day there were more lines of Turkish refugees. These appeared -to be belated and hurried in great confusion. Turkish soldiers appeared -among them, and there were many zaptiehs. Far beyond I saw the minarets -of a city. I knew it must be Erzerum. I came near to a village and saw -the inhabitants rushing about from house to house in excitement. - -I was afraid to travel in the daytime. I could not go near one of these -villages, even to beg for water, because I had no clothes, and would be -ashamed, even if I dared to trust that I would not be taken captive. -During the night I crept closer to the distant city. In the morning I -stood at the edge of a plateau, which broke downward in a sheer drop to -the plain. Clinging close to rocks, which hid me from the view of the -refugees who still passed along the roads, I could look down into the -city. - -I saw a great rushing about. Moving bodies of soldiers came and went. -Refugees were streaming out of the city and were joined by others from -villages all around. In the distance I could hear what I knew to be the -firing of guns. - -The firing came closer. Now and then big guns spoke, shaking the ground -about me. I saw explosions in the city. Houses appeared to fall each -time the big guns sounded. Far across the city there suddenly appeared -clouds of dust. They drew nearer. Soldiers fled out of the gates of the -city nearest me, in the wake of the civilians. - -Late in the afternoon the firing ceased. The dust clouds beyond the -city had drawn closer. Out of them suddenly emerged bands of horsemen. -They rode directly toward the far gates. Companies of Turkish soldiers -met them at the city walls. There was a clash. The Turks were driven -back. The horsemen followed. There was rifle firing. Other bands of -horsemen rode down from every direction in the east, in through the -gates and into the city itself. - -_The Russians had come!_ - -In an hour the city was almost quiet again. Far off I saw great columns -of troops moving slowly. Behind the Cossacks the Russian army was -coming. The Turks in the city had surrendered. - -When night fell I went down from the rocks and into the town. I hoped -before dawn came I could find a garment, or a piece of shawl, which -had been thrown away and with which I could cover myself. Terror of the -Cossacks kept indoors the citizens who had been brave enough to remain -in their homes. The streets were deserted in the outskirts, except for -an occasional zaptieh stealing along, as afraid to be seen as I was. - -Suddenly, as I turned the corner of a narrow street, hugging close to -the wall, hoping that this turn, or the next, would bring me near one -of the houses I knew the Russians must have occupied, I saw a beautiful -sight--the American flag. The rays of a searchlight played on it. - -Lights shone from all the windows in the house over which the flag -flew. There, I knew, would be my haven of safety. But not until after -the dawn did I have the courage to go near. Then I saw the figures of -men moving about the yard and near the doorways. I ran out of my hiding -place and fell at the feet of a tall, kindly-looking man, who had just -emerged from the house door, and who stood talking to a Russian officer. - -I felt the tall man stoop down and put his hand upon my head. All at -once the sun seemed to break out of the gray dawn and shine down upon -me. Then I fell asleep. When I opened my eyes again it was many days -after, they told me. I was in a warm bed, and kindly people were all -about me. When they spoke to me, in a strange language, I tried to ask -for the tall man who had lifted me up from the street at the doorstep. -An interpreter came, and then, in a little while, the tall man came in -and smiled gently, and I knew that everything was all right. - -This man, they told me, was a famous missionary physician, Dr. F. W. -MacCallum, who was known for his kindnesses to my people throughout the -Turkish empire. He had been compelled to leave Constantinople when the -war came, but he had come into Erzerum with the Russians--to be among -the first to give succor to my people. The house had once been the -American mission. The missionaries had been compelled to flee, but they -had returned with the Russians. - -Dr. MacCallum, who now is in New York and was the first good friend I -found after my arrival in this country, bought thousands of Armenian -girls out of slavery in those days when the Russians were pushing into -Turkey from the Caucasus. With money supplied by the American Committee -for Armenian and Syrian Relief he purchased these girls from their -Turkish captors for $1. apiece. The Turks, knowing the Russians would -liberate these captive Christian girls if they found them, were glad to -sell them at this price rather than risk losing them without collecting -anything. - -General Andranik, the great Armenian leader, who is our national hero, -came to see me. For many years General Andranik kept alive the courage -of all Armenians. He promised them freedom and constantly endangered -his life to keep up the spirits of my people. The Turks put a price -upon his head, and he was hunted from one end of the empire to the -other--yet he always escaped. He led the Armenian regiments, made up of -Armenians who lived in Russia, in the vanguard of the Russian army sent -against the Turks. - -When I told General Andranik how I had seen my own dear people killed -he felt very sorry for me. He comforted and cheered me, and called me -his “little girl.” I would rather he said that to me than give me all -the riches in the world. - -A Russian officer who could speak Armenian also came to talk with me. -When I had told him everything he left, but in an hour he returned. -This time a very distinguished looking officer, very tall, with a kind -face, came with him. I knew he must be of very high rank, for there was -much excitement when he entered the house. The officer who had talked -with me first repeated to the other many of the things I had told him. -The distinguished looking officer then spoke to me, first in Russian, -and then in French, which I understood. - -“You have been a very unhappy girl,” he said, “and I am very happy to -have arrived in time to save you. We shall take good care of you, and -all Russians will be your friends.” - -When he had gone they told me who he was--the Grand Duke, in command of -the armies in the Caucasus. The officer who had visited me first was -General Trokin, the Grand Duke’s chief of staff. - -When I was well and strong, General Andranik allowed me to help care -for hundreds of Armenian children who had been found in the hands of -the Turks and Armenian refugees who had succeeded in hiding in the -hills and mountains and who now crept in to ask protection of the -Russians. I helped, too, to comfort the girls who had been bought out -of the harems. - -When General Andranik moved on with the advancing Russians the Grand -Duke ordered that I be escorted safely to Sari Kamish, where the -railroad begins, and sent from there to Tiflis, the capital of the -Russian Caucasus. When General Andranik bade me good-by he said: - -“The Grand Duke has indorsed arrangements for you to be sent to -America, where our poor Armenians have many friends. When you reach -that beloved land tell its people that Armenia is prostrate, torn -and bleeding, but that it will rise again--if America will only help -us--send food for the starving, and money to take them back to their -homes when the war is over.” - -As I started away with the escort, toward Sari Kamish, General Andranik -took from his finger a beautiful ring, which, he said, had been his -father’s and his grandfather’s, and put it on my finger. It is the -ring I wear now--all that is left to me of my country. - -From Sari Kamish the Grand Duke’s soldiers sent me to Tiflis. There I -was received by representatives of the American Committee for Armenian -and Syrian Relief, and supplied with funds sufficient to take me, with -the Grand Duke’s passport, to Petrograd, Sweden and America. - -But when I reached Petrograd all was not well within the city. Already -the Czar had been removed and the government of Minister Kerensky was -losing control of the populace. Rioting in the streets had begun, and -the authorities to whom the Grand Duke and the American representatives -at Tiflis had sent me had been removed or executed. - -Again I was friendless and without shelter. I had a great deal of -money, but I could buy hardly any food. For fifty rubles I could -purchase only a loaf of bread. When I became so hungry I stopped kind -looking persons in the street to ask them if they could help me obtain -something to eat, they would look at me sorrowfully, offer me handsful -of paper money, and say they could give me that, but not food. Every -one seemed to have a great deal of money, but things to eat were very -scarce. - -No one dared take me in. I found an Armenian church, empty now and -deserted. All the Armenians who had lived in Petrograd had been -frightened away. They had been the first, because of their experiences -in their own country, to scent the coming of trouble, and had -disappeared. I remained in the deserted church for many days, afraid to -go out in the streets, where there was much killing and robbery. Only -in the early morning, when the streets were more quiet, would I venture -to look for food. - -At last I saw an American passing the church. I ran out and begged -him, in French, to help me. I showed him my passport and he took me -in a droschky to the American Embassy. Here every one was kind to -me. My passports were changed and the next day I was started toward -Christiania. - -The train on which I traveled was stopped many times by bands of -soldiers, who demanded the passports of every one. Although they took -several persons from the train at one stop, my passport was honored and -I went on. The farther we went from Petrograd the quieter the country -became. Then we left all trouble behind and the train speeded on in -what seemed a peaceful and happy land. - -At last we reached Christiania and there I found kind friends. They -gave me the first really satisfying food I had had in many days. In -addition they gave me kindness and the quiet of their home. While -awaiting word from the United States, I rested and won back some -measure of my strength. - -More funds reached me at Christiania, and I soon found myself aboard -an ocean liner bound for Halifax, on my way to the land of freedom. -From Halifax I came direct to New York. As the Statue of Liberty was -pointed out to me as we entered the harbor, I rejoiced not merely -because I, myself, was safe at last, but because I had at last reached -the country where I was to deliver the message that would bring help to -my suffering people. - -Here I found good friends--kindly Americans who have made me as happy -as ever I can be. And, best of all, they are not being kind merely to -one unfortunate girl--they are sending help to those I left behind--to -those who are still alive and lost in the sandy deserts. They have made -it possible for me to tell in this, my book, what General Andranik said -to me: - -“Armenia is trusting to her friends--the people of the United States.” - - THE END - - - - - SUBSCRIBER’S PLEDGE FOR - ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF - - 400,000 ORPHANS ARE STARVING - 4 MILLION PEOPLE ARE DESTITUTE - - M ...................................................... - - Street ................................................. - - City ................................................... - - Date ........................ State .................... - - To provide food for the starving Armenians, Syrians and Greeks - in western Asia, I will give EACH MONTH the amount indicated by - my (X) mark, so long as the need lasts or until canceled by me. - - +--+-------------------------------+ - | | $ | - +--+-------------------------------+ - | | $ per month ( orphans) | - +--+-------------------------------+ - | | $1000 per month (200 orphans) | - +--+-------------------------------+ - | | $ 500 per month (100 orphans) | - +--+-------------------------------+ - | | $ 250 per month ( 50 orphans) | - +--+-------------------------------+ - | | $ 100 per month ( 20 orphans) | - +--+-------------------------------+ - | | $ 50 per month ( 10 orphans) | - +--+-------------------------------+ - | | $ 25 per month ( 5 orphans) | - +--+-------------------------------+ - | | $ 10 per month ( 2 orphans) | - +--+-------------------------------+ - | | $ 5 per month ( 1 orphan) | - +--+-------------------------------+ - | | $ per month | - +--+-------------------------------+ - - I herewith pay $.......... on the above pledge - - Make checks or money orders payable to - Cleveland H. Dodge, Treasurer, and mail to - - AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND - SYRIAN RELIEF - - 1 Madison Avenue New York City - - - - -Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story - -By Henry Morgenthau - - -The one man in the civilized world who can tell of what the Near East -suffered during the Great War is Henry Morgenthau. For Mr. Morgenthau -was United States Ambassador in Constantinople when Germany was forcing -Turkey to act as her tool. His narrative is a story of unexampled -political intrigue and unbelievable absence of honor. And the authority -of his statements is unquestioned. - -As a record of what Turkey did to wipe out Armenia from among the -nations, Mr. Morgenthau’s story not only verifies the facts related -by Aurora Mardiganian, but it tells of the cold-blooded plotting of -the statesmen who ordered the crime attempted. For Mr. Morgenthau was -the representative of the United States, and he strove in every way he -could to prevent the tragedy. In these efforts the steps that led up to -the ravishing of Armenia were made plain to him. - -“Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story” is a revelation of events that preceded -the breaking off of diplomatic relations with Turkey previous to our -entrance into the war. It tells of events of which Aurora Mardiganian -knew nothing. It makes clear why she and millions of other Armenians -were made to suffer as she has told you in her pitiful story. - - Obtainable at any book-store or from the publishers - Doubleday, Page & Co. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ravished Armenia, by H. L. Gates - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAVISHED ARMENIA *** - -***** This file should be named 53046-0.txt or 53046-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/0/4/53046/ - -Produced by Cindy Horton and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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