"The first few weeks were bitterly cold, and existence was terrible. All outside communication was cut off. The Turks suspected that other villages would give us food, and so they plundered the neighboring villages. The villagers resisted and hundreds of them were killed. Of the three hundred and twenty-five houses which made up the village of Varteniss only thirty-five were left standing. "When the news of this massacre reached Sassoun our people were excited beyond all thought of personal safety, and we attacked the soldiers and succeeded in killing twelve of them. Then more ammunition and soldiers were sent there, and a devilish work was begun. "The Chiefs of the tribes of the Kurds, with Celo Bey and his staff, together with the regular soldiers, came to the village of Samal. Many of the inhabitants, after suffering atrocious cruelties, were put to death. They brought the minister of the village from his house, and after putting the sacred chalice into his hands, bound him to a donkey and then shot him and the animal together. In all, the number killed in the village was forty-five. "This deviltry was by no means the worse perpetrated. The greatest horror was at the village of Gely Guse. Celo Bey and his men entered the village before daybreak, and while the inhabitants were peacefully sleeping in their homes set fire to the whole village, and not one escaped. The village of Shenig met with almost a similar fate, all the people of prominence being killed. "The tribe of Kurds known as Gebran, headed by the Chief Ebo and accompanied by Turkish soldiers, entered the village of Konk. There they gathered all the women in the church. After defiling them in the most revolting manner, they slew them. The soldiers spent the night in the village in revelry and debauchery. "Two other tribes, those of Pakran and Khisan, came against the village of Alpak. They collected all the herds and flocks, and drove them off. Then they returned and burned the whole village. "We who have escaped thank God for our safety and are prayerfully exchanging the helpful sympathy of the civilized world." Another letter from a Sassoun fugitive, gave the saddening story of the experience of one family. It is typical of the experience of thousands of others. He wrote: "Our family was composed of ten members, and were natives of Semal, a village in Sassoun. We fought the Kurds to protect our lives and property; but when the Turkish soldiers united with the Kurds, we fled. I was with my father. He could not run away because he was very weak, having eaten nothing for many days. I entered, with the rest of my family, into a thick forest. The soldiers overtook my father and struck him with their swords, disemboweling him; they filled his body with gunpowder and set fire to him. Afterwards I went with others and gathered up what remained of my poor father and buried him.