Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1889-05-20

An experienced savage warrior, In an
emergency, can conceal his dusky limbs
In tiny bush that hardly seems large
enough to hide q rabbit, and If no bush
should be at hand few stones wi i serve
the same purpose. In such warfare a
rifle which will kill at range of 1000
yards is useless against foe who may be
near enough to be touched but persist
emily keeps out OF sight. Moreover at
the distance OF few yards, the asssgai is
the most deadly of weapons. Even when
lying on the ground kallr, with sort
of underhand jerk, can propel his weapon
with certain aim and with deadly force.
There 10 no report, and no smoke betrays
the position of the thrower, who as soon
as he has struck his foe, glldts of like q
snake and seeks new ambush. In the
late Ashantee war the chief difficulty lay
in the fact that 1t was scarcely ever pos
tible to obtain more than passing
glimpses of the black-skinned enemy
who was firing at the English soldiers
from the dark shadows of the bush The
Ashantee warriors knew better than to
venture into open ground. They hung
on the fianks of the advancing army and
kept up a close and CALLING fire from a
distance of only a few feet, their dark
bodies being quite invisible in the bush.
Even when surprised in the open coun
try the dark savage is at no loss for
modes of concealment. For example,
the Australian "black fellow" will sud.
denly squat on the ground, cover his
crouching body with his mat, and hold
ono of his long spears upright. In this
position he looks SO exactly like the
''black boy" bush that the enemy when
in pursuit might pass within few yards
without detecting the imposture. In
Africa and India there are certain tribes
which employ still more ingenious
mode of concealment or, rather, Of de-
ceptlon, their dark color being an indls-
pensable adjunct to the stratagem. When
they go on their maraudlng expeditions
they dispense entirely with clothing and
carry nothing but their simple weapons.
| Mansfield Parkyns, who lived for a
long time in Abyssinia, was on one oc-
casion completely deceived by some ma
rauding Barea, tribe which is q very
thorn in the side of the more civilized
Ahyssinians. lie was travelling over a
p ain which had shortly before been de.
yastatcd by bush fire, when his guide
suddenly warned him of the presence oil
the Barea. "All l saw was the charred
stump of a tree and a few blackened
stones lying at its foo'. The hunter de-
clared that neither the tree nor the ston,
were there the last time that he passed
and that they were sinply naked Barea
who had placed themselves in that posi-
ton to observe us, having, no doubt
seen us for some time and prepared them
selves" Not believing the guide Mr.
Parkyns ordered his party to move on
slowly VALE he dropped into the long
grass with his rifle and crept towart
them. When he was within long range
he fred shot at the disputed object ant
was considerably startled at the result
| The tree came to pieces and ran away
while the logs and stones jumped up
took to themselves legs, and made after
their comrades. 81 was never more sur
| prised ia my life, for so complete was
the deception that even up to the time
that fired could have declared that
the objects before me were vegetable or
miueral-anYlhlng but animal. The fact
was that the cunning rascals who repre-
sented stones were lying fiat, with their
little round shields placed be ore them as
screens."
A still more ludicrous instance of de-
ception took place In India. An officer
was surveying the country and finding
his helmet uncomfortably heavy no hung
1t on branch of a tree stump close to
where he was standing. To his unutter-
able surprise the tree turned somer-
sault and shrieking with laughter went
of with the helmet. The fact was that
the eming branch was the leg of saw
age marauder. The man was standing GU
his head and had disposed his legs In
such a manner that aided by his spears,
which did duty Tor the smaller boughs,
he had completely metamorphosed his
dusky body ana limbs into the semblaIcG
of dead tree trunk.