Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1893-02-17
FIGHTING FURIES.
Fearlessness and Ferocity of the
African Dervishes.
YDdaunted by Superior Numbers They
Charge Their English Foes and Fight
as Long the Breath of Life
Remains in Them.

as Long the Breath of Life |
Remains in Them. |
at is easier to turn hungry tiger |
asids from his prey than a thoroughly |
excited Dervish from his swoop on an
enemy" says the military correspond |
ent of the London Telegraph. His |
half brother in fanaticism and creed, |
the Indian or Afghan ghazi, is terrible,
but the African and Arab dervish is
superlatively awful, with an incurable
delirium for his opponents gore. Howl
ing and whirling dervishes, such as
travellers are specially conducted to
see when visiting the east are q COM
paratively harmless sort of lunatics
compared with those types of the Afri-
can bigOtS who, converted to Mahd-
ism, burn to run amuck with the rest of
unbelieving humanity. Once fairly
bitten with the tarantula of MOslem
sectarian zeal, the proselyte is con-
sumed with the belief that the delights
of the seventh or any number of heav-
ems awaits HIM if he can only engage
in sturdy, steady butchery with inf
dels,' of his own or any race. 1t is a
matter of Indifference to him, if, in the
operation, while he SheatheS his sword
in his and his Prophets enemy, the lat
ter is doing the same to him. Quick
and happy translation he holds as his
sure reward.
THE stiff fight the other day be-
tween the Egyptian troops south of
Wady Halfa and Mahdists recalls to me
many a bygone incident and fierce
struggle between British and Egyptian
troops and forces largely composed of
derviskes. Ambigol cataract, where the
sklrmish took place, is about sixty
miles south of Wady Halfa. There is
an Egyptian outpost at GENIAL, where
the great Second cataract proper be-
gins, and another at SarrasS. The one
station is fifteen miles and the other
thirty-three miles farther up the stream,
and the railroad and ironclad train still
run through to both posts. No doubt
when the dervish raiders. numbering
four hundred strong, were repulsed
from the forts, they fell back from the
| river towards the easier going tracks in
| land, along which they must have sped
on their camels. The Egyptian cavalry
which, under careful English train
| ing, has learned to trust their weapons
| and their own physical strength in
| contest with the probably
not numbering more than two squad
| rons, overlook the raiders at the pleas
| ant aforetime camp of Ambigol There,
! no doubt, under the palm trees
Tgrateful shade, hard by the rush and
| roar of the mighty river, the Egyptian
| troops at once opened fire upon them.
| Although the whole of the enemy were
unlikely to have been dervishes-for
| these gentry never run away, but, when
necessary, walk sGdately out of fight
| merely to assume a fresh coign of van
| tage-a sharp engagement seems to
| have enSued. The MahdiStS, nothing
| 10th, swarmed, mounted and foot, up
| the rocky hills, which their purSucrs
| had, with sound, tactical judgment,
crowned and whence they had opened
| fire.
81 think it was at the battle of Ell
| reb l first made the acquaintance of
| the Mahdist dcrviShcs. The Fuzzy-Wuz-
zy IIadendowah tribcsman is the BRAY
est of the day, but the dcrvish is hero
| ism run crazy. These so-callcd holy
I beggars,' sclf-sworn to devote them
selves to the Prophets cause, came at
Gen. Grahams square of marines, High
landmen and stout linesmcn as if we
| had been children to be frightened by u
cry. Clad in their patchwork rags,
with shaved, barred heads, many armed
1 with no better weapons than sticks,
they charged full in front of the fire
walled square. Down they went by
scores and hundreds, but others quickly
took up the running toward us. l saw
them that day - more than one
of them - pierced through and
through with Martini-uenry bull
let wounds, come fiercely on, reeling
like drunken men, their teeth cleaning
and eyes aflame with hatred Happy
were they if they could but cross weap-
ons with our bayonets. When exhaust
ed nature failed them, their last act
was generally to hurl the weapon they
carried, stick, lance or sword, toward
our ranks and shout an Arab impreca-
ton against us. 'Nosrani' (Nazaruno!)
An old gray-haired sheilz actually
charged the square, reading the Koran
aloud, which he held in his hands.
Later on, when Sir Herbert (then
coloneD Stewart charged the worsted
Arab footmen with his two regiments
of cavalry, their mounted dervishes
faced his whole force and boldly
charged them in return. Again, al
Tamai, when the Arabs broke into Gen
Davis square, where l was, and having
temporarily captured our six machine
guns, on which they danced in fendisE
glee, the dervishes were in the fore
front of the attack. A big marine, who
had bayoneted one of them, found his
rifle caught and clutched by the fanatic
savage, who strove to reach his foemar
with his sword 1t was at the moment
we were being driven back, and while
the marine tugged and swore to get hi.
weapon free, the Keeling dcrvish es
sayed with his parting strength to Stay
or wound our Tommy Atkins In The
desperate battle of Abu-Klea similar
scenes occurred. 1 state it as fact, O.
which I took personal note at the time
that during the melee in which Col
Burnaby fell, a dervish, who hat
struck that officer and was promptly
bayoneted through the back, TWISTED
about while the steel was protrudine
and tried to thrust his lance into tn,
soldier. Even the crippled and wound
ed dervishes on the field of battle lay
in wait to stab the chance-passins
4 l Acly 20