406 HISTORY OF ARMENIA.
unfortunate Armenians in their descent, killed a great number and made many prisoners. These they bound with ropes and dragged into the presence of the governor. Bulah, according to his instructions, selected the most comely, and put them in confinement, with a view to their being prevailed upon to renounce their religion; the remainder he ordered to be butchered be- fore his eyes. A similar scene occurred more than once in the other provinces of that country. A. D. 851. The news of these horrors having reached the mm ears of Ashot the celebrated chief of the Arzru- nians, he meditated resistance: but the other chiefs, without whose assistance he could effect little, were averse to the plan.
Ashot having no other alternative, then went to meet Bulah, under the persuasion that he might mollify him by gifts. He was deceived, for on coming into the presence of the governor he was ordered to be shackled, and sent with his wife and the whole of his family to Bagdad. Bulah then marched to the province of Vaspurakan, and spread his troops all over the land, with orders to seize and bind all who were able to carry arms. As in Taron, he separated the finest men from the rest, and put them in confinement ; the others were inexorably consigned to death. The slaughter was im- mense, and, as the records state, human blood
�� �
