TOPOGRAPHY^ RACES^ RELIGIONS, LANGUAGES AND CUSTOMS. 67 



Christiau Europe was going to befriend the Armenians at 

 the cost of the Moslems. It must be borne in mind that 

 all the Mohammedans in Turkey always looked upon the 

 English as their friends and well-wishers, and a proper 

 representative from this country could have allayed the 

 strife without any difficulty, and the very people who have 

 now turned bitter enemies would have been the means of 

 rendering a great help in eliciting the real cause of the 

 Sassoon massacre and stopping further rising. 



Then we must not forget the religious aspect of the 

 Mohammedan fanaticism, when it is considered that they 

 believe that the end of the world is fast approaching on 

 account of the weakening power of Islam, which they assert 

 will be the beginning of the end, when Jooj-wa-Ma-jooj, i.e., 

 Gog and Magog, will be fightiug against the followers of 

 Mohammed, when Christ will descend from heaven at the 

 time of the world's disruption to succour the Moslems. In 

 that conflict they believe that any man who kills an infidel 

 will be rewarded with everlasting bliss, and those of .the true 

 believers who will meet with their death in defence of their 

 faith will be doubly rewarded in the Kingdom of Heaven. 



It has always been my regret that, in the different 

 meetings which have been held from time to time in London 

 and in the provinces with the view of creating sympathy 

 for the distressed Armenians, inflammatory language has 

 been used against the Sultan, the Turks, and Coords in 

 general, especially by ministers of the gospel, because the 

 Mohammedans in the interior of Turkey cannot discriminate 

 between philanthropic actions and religious crusade, particu- 

 larly when they hear that bishops, deans, canons, and other 

 dignitaries of the church take the lead in the abuse of the 

 Mohammedans. It is known that there are ill-disposed 

 people who are always ready to report everything and 

 anything to make matters worse for the Christian in Turkey. 

 Every time a sensational meeting took place I shuddered at 

 the thought that the unwise utterances of some speakers 

 might be the cause of further massacres.* 



* There is an interesting account of the savagery of the Coords 

 recorded by St. Chrysostom as far back as the fourth century, or about a 

 thousand years before the Ottoman power came into existence. He says 

 " like ferocious beasts, they (the Kurds) fell upon the unhappy inhab - 

 tants of Armenia and devoured them. Trouble and disorder are every- 

 where ; hundreds of men, women, and children have been massacred, 



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