of
committing suicide. The blood gushed out freely; he got to the door of
the police-office and there fainted. They poured water on his face and
he recovered consciousness; he was brought before the officer and the
interrogatory was renewed.[B] ... The Chief of Police was confounded at
this proceeding and sent him to the hospital until he was cured. I saw
the wounds on his hands, and they were completely healed. This was the
story as he told it to me himself. He desired me to publish it in an
Armenian newspaper called _Haeyrenik_ (Fatherland), which appears in
America, in order that it may be read by his brother Garabet, now in
that country, who had been convinced that the Government would leave
none of them alive.

I associated freely with the young Armenians who were imprisoned, and we
talked much of these acts, the like of which, as happening to a nation
such as theirs, have never been heard of, nor recorded in the history of
past ages. These youths were sent for trial by the court-martial at
Kharpout, and I heard that they arrived there safely and asked
permission to embrace the Moslem faith. This was to escape from
contemptuous treatment by the Kurds, and not from the fear of death, as
their conversion would not save them from the penalty if they were shown
to deserve it. Before their departure they asked me what I had heard
about them, and whether the authorities purposed to kill them on the
way or not. After enquiring about this, and ascertaining that they would
not be killed in this way, I informed them accordingly; they were
rejoiced, saying that all they desired was to remain alive to see the
results of the war. They said that the Armenians deserved the treatment
which they had received, as they would never see the necessity for
taking precautions against the Turks, believing that the constitutional
Turkish Government would never proceed to measures of this kind without
valid reason. The Government has perpetrated these deeds although no
official, Kurd, Turk, or Moslem, has been killed by an Armenian, and we
know not what the weighty reasons may have been which impelled them to
so unprecedented a measure. And if the Armenians should not be
reproached with a negligence for which they have paid dearly, yet a
people who do not take full precautions are liable to be taxed justly
with blameworthy carelessness.

[Footnote B: Episodes in the original are here omitted.--TRANSLATOR.]

MY TRAVELLING-COMPANIONS.--Fro