nd was
killed.

So the problem of the village of Kheiban was solved, and if in the
history of the crimes that have blackened the earth with wanton cruelty
and made God to hide His face, there is any so atrocious a tale, I do
not know it. But if among the annals of heroism and of mother-love we
want to find a nobler record than that of this woman of Kheiban, equally
am I at a loss as to where we should look for it. Among the true and
golden legends of the world shall that which she did be inscribed for a
memorial of her.

Northward from Mush, and Bitlis lies the province of Erzerum, with the
town of the same name, that contained in the autumn of 1914 some 20,000
Armenians. Here the first hint of coming trouble was the order that all
Armenian soldiers serving in Turkish ranks should be disarmed. This was
followed in June by another order that all the inhabitants of the
hundred villages in the district should leave their homes at two hours'
notice. They numbered between 10,000 and 15,000 persons. Of these a few
took refuge with friendly Kurds, but of the remainder a few only lived
to reach Erzinjan, where they were again deported, and the rest were
murdered as they marched. In Erzerum itself orders were received by
Tahsin Bey, the Vali of the town, that all Armenians were to be killed
without distinction of age or sex. He refused to carry this order out,
but his unwillingness was overruled.[1] Simultaneously, the German
Consul telegraphed protests to his Ambassador at Constantinople, and
was told that Germany could not interfere in the internal affairs of
Turkey.

[Footnote 1: At Angora a similar refusal on the part of the Governor
resulted in his dismissal, and the same thing happened at Konia and at
Kutaia.]

Here the method employed was deportation: the victims were murdered, not
in the town itself, but were given orders to leave their homes, and
under guard march (for no conveyances were given them) to other
districts. The first company was to go to Diarbekr. All these, with the
exception of one man and forty women, were murdered on the first day's
march. The remainder reached Kharput, which was another station or
collecting place for the deported. A German eye-witness tells us what
fate waited them. 'They have had their eyebrows plucked out, their
breasts cut off, their nails torn off; their torturers hew off their
feet, or else hammer nails into them as they do in shoeing horses. This
is all done at night-time,