River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-07-02
The BedOuin Style of Warfare.

This great heather and full-blown
prophet was once poor boy, without
a dollar in his pocket. Years ago,
when little Mehdi used to snare suck
ers along the White Nile, no one
thought that to-day he would be the
champion heavyweight prophet of
be done by brave, courageous little
boy, even in foreign land.
In appearance ne is brunette of
about the style of the successful
meerschaum pipe. He does not dress
as we do, but wears white turban
that looks some like an Etruscan hens
nest. On chilly days he adds other
articles of apparel to this turban.
though during the summer months
that is sufficient for evening dress. In
the morning he puts on his turban,
buckles q six-shooter around his
waist, and he is dressed. 1t doesn't
take Mehdi long to make his toilet.
Years ago he decided that he would
retire to lonely island in the Nile and
put himself in training for prophet,
so he crawled into a cave and soon
the people began to hear Of El Mehdi,
and he had all the prophesl ing he
could do, and had to hire an amaneun-
sis or assistant prophet to help him
out. During the holidays, when trade
was brisk, the mehdi had to sit up and
prophesy till 10 or II o'clock at night.
His real name is Mohammed Ach-
med and he was the son OF i petty
sheik, whose name | have forgotten.
This man was very inferior person
and a very ordinary sheik, am told
lust sucn sheik as YOU could go in
and find on the 10-cent counters of the
Soudan anywhere.
BY and by Mohammed Achmed got
a call to rise up William Reilly, and
gather the clans of the Soudan togeth.
er. He went to them and told them
in confidence that he was the only
genuine. all-wool prophet on the Nile.
and if they wanted some fun to get
their double-barr shotguns and join
the gang. They did so. None of them
ever did anything at home to obtqin
livelihood, so they could be on the
war-path all summer, and their bust
ness wouldn't suffer at all.
They then proceeded to murder the
kings English, who had come there to
conquer and acquire their sand pile.
The Arabian style of warfare is pc
culiar. 1t consists largely in drinking
alkali water on their part and in re-
curing their enemies to do the same
for ninety days So it becomes simply
a question of who has the firmest and
most dura bic Bessemer steel bowels.
No one but a Bedouin would have
thought of such style of warfare. 1t
is not. therefore, a question ofcourage
or everlasting justice, IT Is question
of who can drink concentrated I've all
summer and take his stomach home
with him in the fall.
In battle, the Arab charge is peculiar
in the extreme The Arab does not
stand up in line of battle for an hour
while the commanding officer gallops
up and down the line on heavy
horse. and the enemy pours CALLING
fire into his ranks. He sails mp toward
the enemy, waves his Oriental night
shirt in the Egyptian night air, shoots
some one, and goes away. When the
battle-ground is examined on the fol-
lowing day, it is discovered that eight
hundred brave and handsome English
soldiers are killed and one old moth
eaten Arab has stepped on his dothic
shirt tail and sprained his ankle.
Ell Mehdi is not a bad looking man
at all, and the report that he has lost
his teeth, so that when he gives his
orders he has to gum Arabic, IS not
true.-BM Nye, IN Burlington HACK
eye