Armenia and its sorrows

THE WORK OF EXTERMINATION 91
sudden appearance of a Russian warship in the
harbour brought the officials to their senses.
One example of the horrors perpetrated on this
occasion may be given. An Armenian, coming out of
a baker's shop where he had been purchasing bread
for his sick wife, was seized by the Turks and dashed
to the ground. First they cut off one of his hands,
and placed it between his quivering lips. Soon afterwards
they chopped off the other hand, and asked
him if he wanted a pen to write to his wife. Some
invited him to make the sign of the cross with his
stumps, and others urged him to shout louder so that
his God might hear. Next his ears were torn off and
thrust into his mouth. " This Effendi's mouth
deserves to be punished for refusing such a choice
morsel," shouted one ruffian, who proceeded to knock
out some of his teeth, and then cut out his tongue,
with the remark, " He will never blaspheme again."
After gouging out his
eyes and cutting off his feet,
they indulged in a few indescribable tortures, before
cutting their victim's throat and sending his soul to
damnation, as they expressed it. And all this was
done by Moslem fanatics " in the Name of Allah, the
Com]3assionate, the Merciful " !
Side by side with enormities such as these, the
work of forced conversion has gone merrily on. The
reports of Vice - Consul Fitzmaurice, published as
lately as June 1896, have proved that the terrible
alternative of Islam or death has been continually
placed before the Armenian Christians. In many
cases hundreds have been forced at the point of the
sword to yield a nominal assent to the formula of
Mohammedanism, to be circumcised, to adopt Turkish
names, to turn their churches into mosques, and to
outwardly practise the rites of Islam.
" Yet there arc many," writes the Constantinople
correspondent of the Daily News, " who elect to die