The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1885-12-30
CONVOY WORK m rhe eoUoAM.
How Fanatical Arabs Throw Themselves
Upon tho British Square.

How Fanatical Arabs Throw Themselves
Upon tho British Square.
tCor. London Telegraph
As for the fourth feature of these
militant ~promenades ~ this scientific
Lushwh lcking-namely: the presence of
suicidal Soudanese, there is much to be
said. These men, it appears to me,
fight to die. they do not fight to con.
quer. AS we march, immense numben
are reported by Telegraph to be mass
ing on this Tank Or that, in front or il.
ear lut they do not attack. us
minority comes on, u volleys rapidly
reduce their numbers till they dwindle
away to threes, and twos, and single in
dividuals. But these 70 on to the bit
ter end, and when the last pool fanatic
has been knocked oyer Ly the concen-
trated fire of a company the fighting
for the day is over.
There is no information available to
explain this reckless sacrifice of life; but
an explanation suggests itself. It is
this: that with every force of the the
enemy there is a proportion of profess
sional fanatics, African "Gha is in
fact; that these, whether drugged or not
for the occasion like their Afghan
equivalents, devote themselves to death
to encourage the others-that it is these
who rush upon u squares, and that
according to the result of the onset, the
rest either come on or hold back |
have seen two conveys attacked, and
the c rcumstances of the two were SO
identical that venture to infer that if
| were to see 200 the procedure would
be the same. A multitude Of HadendO-
was assemble on the line Of our advance,
await the convoy, select n face for at
tack, and then withdraw out OF fire.
We knew they were there. The Hasheen
redoubt is flashing the news to us from
our right; the waterfront mirror is
twinkling the same news from the rear. |
But the enemy do not rush upon us
en- masse. They do not even fire a shot. l
They lie by to see the result of the onset
Of their fanatical vanguard. These creep
up as we'll as they AN within charging |
distance, and then, with gesticulations
suggestive of a war dance rather than
real conflict, come straight on, crying
Upon Allah, "the compassionate, the
nerciful Healer of wounds" If not
stretched out on the ground before
hey reach the square they fling them
upon our bayonets with a daunt-
ess intrepidity that only voluntary mar
or madness can explain. Single
men, swapping their fingers, hopping
md skipping, barking and granting,
would sometimes manage to come up
within spear length, but only to receive
It the rifles muzzle that death which
hey seem with such light hearts to
eek. 1t is an amazing variety of war.
are, and we have only to put ourselves
n imagination in the place of the Ea-
lendowas to confess that it is one call
ng for the most reckless form of: cour-
&c.
Everybody knows that the fanaticism
f Islam has, all through the history of
fOhammedanism, made heroes of her
oldiers when they thought themselves
for the Faith. Rut it is none
he less astonishing and perplexing to
nd these barbarous Arabs fiinging
he selves on the level lines of British
ayonets fixed or ri es which are roar
lg out their messages of death all down
nc steal y rank. That they should
'ovc up in a dense mass, and, by sheer
,ress of numbers, trust to breaking
our S uares and getting to close
u~arters, is comprehensive. Such are
he tactics of savages everywhere. On
and impetus they relyf for victory.
ut it is quite another thing when they
,me on in triHing numbers, scatter |
lemselves round a large force, and de-
berately die. |!