AN ARMENIAN FAMILY OF VAN 



"Their appearance is definitely eastern ; swarthy, heavy-haired, black-eyed, with aquiline 

 features, they look more Oriental than Turk, Slav, or Greek. In general type they come 

 closer to the Jews than to any other people, sharing with them the strongly marked features, 

 prominent nose, and near-set e)^es, as well as some gestures we think of as characteristically 

 Jewish" (see text, page 334). 



hand, "I have always wanted to tell about 

 my cousin Mesrob, but I did not dare ; 

 now I can speak," and there followed a 

 horrible tale of persecution, torture, and 

 death inflicted on an innocent young man. 



"my country" 



Heigoohee was touc'hing in her ex- 

 pression of the joy that it gave her after 

 the revolution of 1908 to be able to say 

 "My country," for she had always felt 

 so lonely when among girls who had 

 countries of their own, such as the Eng- 

 lish and Turkish girls. 



One of the sweetest souls I ever knew 

 was Annitza. She was a Protestant from 

 one of the mission schools in Cilicia. 

 She was older than most of the girls, a 

 woman in character and suffering. She 

 was very delicate and unconsciously ap- 

 pealing, and absurdly grateful for any 

 little thing that was done for her. Her 

 appreciation of beauty was very great. 



Once I took her to see the wondrous 



mosque Sancta Sophia, in Constantinople, 

 with a class of girls. She wandered off 

 by herself, and when I found her she 

 was sitting quietly wiping the tears from 

 her eyes, because it was "so beautiful." 

 Annitza was one of three girls who came 

 from the district of Adana, where the 

 massacres took place in the spring of 

 1909. For several weeks we gave these 

 girls a separate place to eat and sit while 

 waiting for news of their loved ones. 

 One day I met Annitza in the corridor 

 and uttered a light word. Her face 

 stopped me, and I said quickly, "Bad 

 news, Annitza?" She made a pitiful ef- 

 fort at self-control, then said "Oh, 

 teacher, eleven of them !" and despite the 

 respect that keeps an Oriental girl from 

 familiarities with a teacher, threw her 

 arms around my neck and wept. And 

 that was not the whole tale. The next 

 week added four more to the list of vic- 

 tims in her family. Patient Annitza, 

 with her soft pathetic eyes, always 



339 



