Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-08-25
The ArriUaI of Cruel
MHsa Beg and His SaUage Men

mat afternoon company Of horsemen rode
past our house. We to the window and saw
they were Aghja Daghi Kurds, the cruelcst Of
an the tribes. At their head rode the famous
s slusa bey the chleftaln who few years before
had waylaid party of American missionaries on
the road to Bitlis and had robbed and massacred
them ~
;. me 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
me hurds permission to rob, and perhaps steal,
us when we were outside the city Many women
would have killed themselves had they known
1usT"hat that visit of Musa Bey did mean
All 'hat night the women sat up in their homes.
IN our house mother went from room to room
looking at the little things OH the walls and in
the cuPboardS that had been hers since she was
little girl. She sat long time over fathers
clothes got ont my playthings and cried over
them Some of them had been my grandmoth-
ers toys lausanne 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 slipped
out of our home to visit Juluka, my PLAYMATE.
VINO lived few doors away. .Julukas family
was not very rich. and mother had said might
give her twenty liras from money, that she
But Juluka was not there.
During the night the yezdccs had entered her
mousse and taken her out Of her bed with Just her
nightdress on, and had carried her away. The
soldiers said Rchim Boy 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
the road, for, they said 1.-THE Kurds might get
ahead of them Juluka s mother and a little
brother were kneelng beside her empty bed when
| md fhnro T a.
mother.
On my way back to our house Turk stopped
me. He asked me to go along with him. He
said might as WELL .'al the pretty Christian
girls would have to go with Turks or be killed
anyway broke away and ran home as fast
as could could not forget the look on that
Turks face he asked me to go with him 1t
was the first time had ever seen such look in
man s face. 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 many of their things as they could
hcaD 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 thought again
of tho look in that Turks 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. had heard Of the Christian girls
forced into haremks of these houses, but had
never really understood lausanne was older
She knew than I. saw her putting long
knife under her dress, and I knew what she would
do when the time came. 1T is what Andranik
would want me to do, she said simply:
Then it was that mother thought Of plan that
she hoped might save lausanne and from the
harems or 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 made us put on feradjeh, Turkish