'
Self-defense by Orthodox peasants was dangerous: 'The Government
makes its presence felt ... when a 'flying column' saunters out to
hunt an elusive rebel band, or ... to punish some flagrant act of
defiance ... The village may have ... resented the violence of the
tax-collector ... [or] harboured an armed band of insurgents ... or
... killed a neighbouring civilian Turk who had assaulted some girl
of the place ... At the very least all the men who can be caught
will be mercilessly beaten, at the worst the village will be burned
and some of its inhabitants massacred.'
It was not surprising that peasants hated their rulers. 'One enters
some hovel ... something ... stirs or groans in the gloomiest corner
on the floor beneath a filthy blanket. Is it fever, one asks, or
smallpox? ... the answer comes ..., 'He is ill with fear.' ...
Looking back ... , a procession of ruined minds comes before the
memory--an old priest lying beside a burning house speechless with
terror ... a woman who had barked like a dog since the day her
village was burned; a maiden who became an imbecile because her
mother buried her in a hole under the floor to save her from the
soldiers ... children who flee in terror at the sight of a stranger,
crying 'Turks! Turks!' These are the human wreckage of the hurricane
which usurps the functions of a Government.
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