Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-08-28
POSSIBILITIES IN EGYPT.
The Camp or the Egyptian and Brit
ish Armies-The BedOuIn as a
Soldier.
Pan Mall Gazette.

Face to face are the armies of the
Egyptians and the British, aud an action
is impending. The Egyptians, should
they be defeated, have Cairo and the
Lybian Desert to fly to. The British,
with Alexandria at their back-and an
Alexandra, moreover, which is covered
by the guns of one of the strongest fleets
that ever went forth to do battle with an
antagOnIst-have tOlerably secure place
of retreat in the event of any disaster
Detailing their arms. The routine of
the British soldiers life in the time of
warfare is similar to that of the Ameri-
can. In the morning he must fall into
the ranks at bugle call and answer to his
name. Later he has to take his turn at
guard or picket duty. He may
have to fall into a patroling party or
take part in a reconnaissance; then when
he has nothing more to do, he may lounge
about among the tents, smoking his clay
pipe or chatting with a comrade The
scene differs strangely in the camp of the
Egyptians. There the majority of the
soldiers are dressed in a mongrel Euro
pean fashion, with the tarboosh or fez as
the most conspicuous national character
istic of their uniform, but there is a mi
nOrity whose picturesque costumes are
distinctly Oriental The Bedouin. with
his gaudily colored kerchief wrapped
about his head, leaving ends that float
upon his shoulders, his long white, man
tel like garments, ard his sandaled
feet; the So1danese, with white
turbans, flowing raiment and baggy
trousers; the Abyssinian adventurer. who
dresses as he p'e1ses. much as his
brother, the Nubian, dces-all form a
Singular contrast with the quietly uni
formed soldiers of the regular force.
On the eye of battle these soldiers show
a different scene in camp from that
which their antagonists present Sitting
cross legged in front of their tents. which
are but pieces of thin canvas stretched
on cross-sticks and are so low that their
occupants nave to enter them by crawl
ing, they assemble in groups and pass
around the chibOuque or narghileh, the
bubbling sound of which, as the smoke
passes through the water, is almost the
only sound that is heard except the
neighing or the stamping of the horses
that are picketed by the heels behind the
camps irregular lines.
An officer gallops along and warns
them to be ready. They rise hastily to
their feet, crawl into their tents for their
weapons and hustle up together before
they finally fall into line. But they do
it all with very little noise 1t is posi-
bic to find not noisy, but hilarious
group; but this is generally where a
chosen few of the black faced and laugh.
ter loving faithful from the Soudan have
surrounded story teller, whose nara
tons of the deeds of genii or the merry
tricks among mortals or lesser superna-
tural worthless alternately excite their
deep voiced wonder or their spontaneous,
childlike mirth. A British soldier, see
ing an Arab or Egyptian camp, and
noting the recumbent position and
stoical manner of the majority of its
occupants, might imagine that such peo-
pie as these had no energy for fighting,
but he would be egregiOusly mistaken.
A French traveller. who recently closely
observed the Egyptian army and
all it's incongruous elements of pure
fallaheen-COpts, Berbers, Nubians,
Western Christians, Turks, Abys-
sinians and Soudanese-came to this con-
clusiOn; They are admirably trained,
drilled and disciplined under the super
vision of an exceedingly able staff of
American and other foreign officers, and
the result IS that ga finer looking soldier
than an Egyptian soldier can be seen no
where" Such is brief sketch of the
troops that are now waiting" Arabs
men are strongly posted in the vicinity
of Ramleh; but his strongest position is
on the narrow neck of land which
stretches from the Aboukir lake to the
northern verge of Lake Moreotis With
a broad country behind him, railroad
and plenty of water in the Mahmoudleh
canal. Arbar Bey ought to be able to
make stubborn resistance to any Brit
ish force attempting to move along the
neck and drive him from his position.
A conspicuous feature of that neck of
land is that it is filed with marshy
ground, which viii seriously interfere
with the free movements both of the
British cavalry and artillery. The ground
Arab has chosen is, on the contrary,
firm enough to permit of very effective