The Washington times., 1918-08-25
The ArriDnL of Cruel
Musd Bey and His Savage Men

InaC afternoon q company OF h0rSemen rode
past our house. We ran to the window and saw
they were Aghja Daghi Kurds, the cruelest of
all the tribes. At their head rode the famous
Musa Bey, the chieftain who few years before
had waylaid party of American missionaries on
the road to Bitlis and had robbed and massacred
them
The Kurds rode to the palace of Passelt Pacha
In little while they rode away again, and some
of the Pacha s soldiers rode with them. That
meant we knew, that the Governor had given
the KurdS permission to rob- and perhaps steal,
us when we were outside the city. Many women
would have killed themselves had they known
just what that visit of Musa Bey did mean.
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 long time over fathers
clothes. / got out my playthngs and cried over
them. Some of them had been my grandmoth-
er's toys. Lusanne did not cry. She thought
only of Andranik and the loss of her bridal veil,
and her tears had dried like mothers. Little
Hovan and Mardiros, our brothers, and Sarah
and Arucia, our sisters, cried very hard when we
told them they must say good-by to their dolls
and little express wagons.
When morning of the last day came l slipped
out of our home to visit Juluka, my playmate,
who lived few doors away. Jdluka's family
give her twenty liraS from our money that she
might have it to bribe soldiers to let her alone
But Juluka was not there.
During the night the yezideeS had entered her
house and taken her out 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 Juluka to his house
for his harem. The soldiers were afraid to wait
to take her until the women were sent out onto
al. r Al. az Al. L -
ahead of them Juluka s mother and little
brother were kneelng beside her empty bed when
/ found them. ] gave the twenty liras to her
mother
On my way back to our house a Turk stopped
me He asked me to go along with him He
said l might as WELL as "al the pretty Christian
girls would have to go with Turks or be killed
anyway / broke away and ran home as fast
as | could. l could not forget the look on that
Turks face as he asked me to go with him 1t
was the first time | had ever seen such look in
man 8 face. l 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 ar
irving there, with horse, donkey and COW carts,
some with as many of their things as they could
heap on their carts others with just blankets and
comforts, favorite rug and cans of fruits. In
Armenia every family keeps years supply of
canned things. The women had to leave behind
all they could not carry.
When it came time for us to go 1 thought again
of the look in that Turk s face. For the first
time l realized just what it would mean to be
captive in one of the harems of the rich Turks
whose big houses look down from the hills all
about the city. had heard of the Christian girls
forced into haremliks of these houses, but had
never really understood. LuSanne was older.
She knew more than /. | saw her putting long
knife under her dress, and knew what she would
do when the time came ut is what Andranlk
would want me to do, she said simply.
Then it was that mother thought of plan that
she hoped might save Lusanne and from the
1arems or a worse fate among the Kurds and
soldiers She brought out two yashmaks. or
wells, such as Turkish women wear on the street,
and made us put them on, hiding our faces. Over
these she made us put on feradjeh, Turkish
woman s cloak. We looked as if we were Turk