The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-10-16
Oriental Notions of Honor on the
Battlefield.


The late kilograms report dreadful mutila-
lions by the Egyptian soldiers on the wounded
ct the last engagement which took place The
bodies Of two Life Guardsmen were found in
such a disfgared condition that they were
quite unacceptable. ''Their faces were hor-
ribly gashed about One body had one of .hc
hands completely severed from the arm, whil
the other was nearly so. One OF the eyes had
been scooped out of the socket A wounded
Guardsman relates that after he fell with his
thigh broken, and while lying on the battle
feld, he saw soldier in Egyptian uniform
riding by, and called on him for help, "when
the brute rode up, and with cut of his sabre
laid the troopers cheek open from the temple
20 the chin"
Such are the details we have resulting from
eompa atively small battlefield, and we can i'm
sgins what they might be if it was heavy
struggle, and more particularly if the ground
OF the battle had to be LETT in the occupation of
the enemy. The Oriental soldier of the pres
snt day is not Saladin. He has no notion of
mercy to a fallen foe 1t matters not in what
part of the East we seek examples, the battle-
dsld witnesses the same brutalities. In Al
xhanistsn, as we had many experiences, who
ever fell into the hands of the enemy was
eyimped all over, like piece of pork ready
for the spit, with the long charra which each
Afghan carries in his kummerband; men MUIR
dersd on the road, were they oatives or Euro
peens, it mattered nothing-this was the con-
eition in which the bodies were found. he
AbYtsinians, who are in very primitive con-
9ition, as well as their neighbors the CALAIS
practise a very rude kind of mutilation, to
which reference will be found in the Scripture,
and 1t seems to have been common act on
battlehelds at an early period in the East.
When we 60 back to the more savage condi-
Ions OF civilization the victorious warrior cuts
of noses, ears and fingers from his fallen enc
my, snd wears them on his person as trophies
OF prowess. This is still done by the Indian
tribes of North America, with some OF whom
ths scalp is not the only evidence of victory
that Is carried off.
In the account of the battle which took place
between the Turkish troops under Mustapha
Pscha and Napoleon at Aboukir, the Turks
not only lost the day, but their whole army, and
shat, too, after they had all but won the fight,
from this most reprehensibe practice. When
the French began TO retreat the Turkish sol
di6rs rushed out of their intrenchments to mu-
tilate the wounded bodies left ON the field, and
from the disorder this produced in their ranks
she French we're able to renew the attack, and
finally annihilated the Turkish army on that
occasion. The Russian army, which is sup
posed CO be completely European in its organi-
cation and sentiments, has shown at no far
back date that it had still left some of the ORR
sntAl instincts SO peculiar to its origin. At the
battle Of InkermaDn accounts were current of
bsfbarities committed on our wounded men,
and q Russian major who was made prisoner
was accused of some of these acts. A CORE
spondeDee was said TO have taken place be-
tween Lord Raglan and the authorities in Sc
bastopol as to his conduct, and the major was
nnderstood to have made narrow escape from
hanging, as shooting would have been too good
for such crimes. Russian officers as body are
no doubt educated above this type, but their
men at the time of the ca mean War we've not
tres from the weakness. At the siege of Kars
both Russians and Turks are said to have been
guilty of this mutilation on the field Of battle.
Colonel Lake, in his account of the defence of
ksrs in 1855, in describing the ground after
one Of the Russian attacks, says that, 81 ut few
wounded remained, for, unhappily, little guar
tsH was given on either side.h In Furopean
battles there is q certain proportion II killed
and wounded hieh ia well understood. but in
battles fought by Oriental soldiers this proper
tion is never found. The number CT dead is
enormously increased in comparison to that of
European battlefelds