Page:Martyred Armenia - El-Ghusein.djvu/43

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Martyred Armenia
41

me joyfully, put herself between her father and mother, who were at the last gasp, and she was killed there.” And he added: “If such was the behaviour of the children, what was that of their elders?”

Price of Armenian Women.—A reliable informant from Deir-el-Zûr told me that one of the officials of that place had bought from the gendarmes three girls for a quarter of a medjidie dollar each. Another man told me that he had bought a very beautiful girl for one lira, and I heard that among the tribes Armenian women were sold like pieces of old furniture, at low prices, varying from one to ten liras, or from one to five sheep.[1] . . .

The Mutesarrif and the Armenian Girl.—On the arrival of a batch of Armenians at Deir-el-Zûr from Ras-el-Ain, the Mutesarrif desired to choose a servant-girl from amongst the women. His eye fell on a handsome girl, and he went up to her, but on his approach she turned white and was about to fall. He told her not to be afraid, and ordered his servant to take her to his house. On returning thither he asked the reason for her terror of him, and she told him that she and her mother had been sent from Ras-el-Ain in charge of a Circassian gendarme, many other Armenian women being with them. On the way, the gendarme called her mother, and told her to give him her money, or he would kill her; she said she had none, so he tortured her till she gave him six liras.[2] . . . He said to her: “You liar! You [Armenians] never cease lying. You


  1. An unimportant anecdote omitted.—Translator.
  2. Unfit for reproduction.—Translator.