Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/213

Rh "At Galigozan many young men were tied hand and foot, laid in a row, covered with brush-wood and burned alive. On the last day of August (1894), the anniversary of the Sultan's accession to the throne, the soldiers were especially urged to distinguish themselves, and they made it a day of the greatest slaughter."

"At another village a priest and several leading men were captured, and all but the priest were killed. A chain was put around the priest's neck and pulled until he was choked, after which several bayonets were planted upright, and he was raised in the air and let fall upon them."

"A man who protested against the degradation of his household was taken to a lonely place in the mountains, and buried up to his neck in the ground. He was left there until wolves came and tore his head to pieces. Four bride-grooms were murdered at one time while vainly attempting to protect their brides against a party of Kurds."

"A missionary and a British vice-consul stayed at the house of an Armenian priest for a few hours. After they had left the village Turks seized the priest, skinned him alive, and stuffed his skin with hay, and hung it in the village street as a warning of worse things to come if the Christians dared to complain of persecution and oppression; and many others."

5. That the Last Armenian Massacres were Premeditated, planned and ordered by the Sultan, is evident from the fact that almost all of them took place