Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1889-10-04
THE WARLIKE DERVISHES.
MEN WHOM THEY ENSLAvED NOW
MEET THEM IN BATTLE.
Whata Dervish Really Is-EGyptian
Soldiers Not Natives-Moslcm Ia
naticiSm of the Arabs.

papers see accounts OF contests Waged on
the hot sands Of Egypt between General
Grenfell's forces and the dervishes. Just
what dervish may be perhaps very few
can tell. A writer in the .Sdturd0y Recieao
gives some interesting facts in regard to
England's African foes:
cit has been more than once pointed
out here" he says, ''that the so-callcd
dervishcs are no more, or little more der
wishes than any other African Moslcms
AS fact every follower of Mohammcd is
a 'dervish' in some sense or other of the
word. Your donkey boy in Cairo, or at
Girgeh or at Zagazig, or, in short, any
where throughout the length Of the land,
is a dervish, belongs, that is, to some
sect or section more or less fanatical of
orthodox Mussulman faith. Some of
these sects are more popular in one place
than in another. The Rufayeh, for cx-
ample, are the most common in Lower
Egypt, but others are almost equally nu-
merOus. An immense multitude of the
Sadieh order used to PROSTATE themselves
under the hoofs of their Sheykhs horse,
at the annual DCseh, or treading now
abolished. Many of these men are wait
lies The great Ahmedieh order
which especially affects the cult of Byu-
meh, is perhaps the most numerous in
all Africa; but new cults, and with them
new orders, are constantly invading the
old, both in Arabia and Egypt. We hear
less now than formerly of the Wahabees,
who at one time threatened to overrun
not only Arabia, but Persia and even
India.
"The present Mahdist movement is
somewhat of the same kind in the tenets
of it's vOtaries, but differs essentially from
any of the sectarian divisions of Lower
Egypt The Mahdist dervish belongs to
a wholly different class from the Saidieh
or Rufayeh Egyptian who makes your
bed, or minds your horse, or rows your
boat. He is an Arab of pure blood,
whittier than the average European, hand
some to high degree, with pronounced
features, and an air of pride and probity,
coupled with politeness and general SUI
periority at first sight most engaging and
deceptive He is known among the
dwellers in the Nile Valley, not as der
wish, but as ajellab-pronOunced in Egypt
eoailab'-a term which means a mer-
chant, and, for reasons only too good, has
of late years denoted a merchant Of one
commodity only, namely, slaves. The
SLAYER on the Nile received sad blows and
discouragement during the reins Of such
Viceroys as Baker Pasha and Gordon, and
took to honest merchandise, such as
ivory, feathers, henna, SIENNA and the hides
of antelopes and leopards. During the
short but prosperous period indicated the
iellabs might have been seen in Nubla or
at Assouan with their cargOes, and it was
difficult to connect these noble looking
fellows, with their regal manners, their
exquisite robes of white cashmere, and
their scarfs of priceless needle work, with
the stories YOU heard from the people
around, who still dreaded and hated
them-stories of craft, oppression, IA
pine, and cruelty for its own sake, such as
would make both a hearers ears to tingle.
These are the men whom the present turn
of affairs has rendered desperate. BY
they own doing they have closed the le
ultimate market they once enjoyed, and
their fanaticism has grown as their wealth
has shrunk, while the countless negroes
whom under Ismael Pasha they were en-
abIed to carry into Egypt are now at
mature age able to retaliate on their old
oppressors and to revenge the woes of
slaughtered fathers and mothers upon the
remnants of the hated jellabs.
'"To speak of these black troops as
natives is somewhat incorrect. A few,
a mere handful, are of a second genera
ton from those originally imported; but
the bulk of the 'Soudanese regiments
are slaves imported by these very Arab
traders, and remember personally, or by
tradition of their elders, how they came
into the Egyptian house of bondage, what
horrors of torture they underwent at the
hands of these lordly jellabs, and how,
finally, after undergoing and surviving,
while thousands persisted beside them,
these horrors, they were seized by con-
nivance OF the Egyptian Government, and,
under the name of liberated slaves, were
put into training for the army. The
supply of these soldiers is not, as some
authorities seem to think, inexhaustible.
Mr.. Stanley took away with him goodly
contingent; another contingent has
persisted at Suakin and on the Nile; but
of those that remain it may safely be said
that for war in so hot region, and
especially against the slave dealers (whom
we dignity as 'dervishes' above all other
dervishes), they are most useful, and
may eventually be of further use as show
ing an example to the fellah soldier
THE great drawback to their employ
ment is their inherent savagery. They
are reckless of the lives they have with
such difficulty preserved; and when they