The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-08-27
HE FOUGHT IN ABYssINIA.
Giovanni Tells of the Horrors of His
Captivity


word to Private Giovanni dc Lucca, of
Casarza, that should feel thankful if
he would come and tell me about the
war. 1.-The African heron' said, as he
was ushered in--for the "paese' had
been ringing with stories of him and
four other soldiers, whose relations had
worn mourning for them,
fear my voice spoke to him of sur
prise and disappointment; for Giovanni
rushed into comical explanations about
'tenue.' - he said. <'My linen uniform
is in the wash, and had to put on my
old regimentals." But it was the man,
not the dress, that took my breath away
a little body, shrunk away from the
tunic, and standing scarcely five feet
high; eyes dim and dull, like sleep
walkers, and scarcely the flicker of a
smile possible to his poor face. Every
ether Italian can beam upon a friendly
greeting, and has flashing eye when
listening in conversation. Poor. Clio
vanni.
$50 you fought at Aburkarimay'
A name would send him off from any
point in the campaign. He best liked to
reel off his story in rapid Italian patois,
but he sometimes spoke very Originally
French-having worked in Paris before
he was recalled to his military service.
''Yes, indeed he said. eve had
| marched, and marched, twelve hours at
| a stretch, | think. Then we lay down.
But at midnight we are aroused. TO
Abnkarima--eight hours march, and we
| started.
1--WE had a beautiful position. The
| Gala cavalry was on our left. We were
posted along the ridge of hill; on the
right was what we thought an empty ra-
vine. Very. very. soon we knew that
some bad thing had happened. How
could that be? But we knew it. We
said to each other: Never mind; the
! tide may turn again -
But by 10 a. m he and 109 others were
down in the ravine; and sit was as full
of Abyssinians as an ant hill is of
ueltS.n
ss"The word came: Fix bayonets,
And we went. to the charge. We were
surrounded, however. Ny officer said:
There's nothing to be done. We're
prisoners And so we were-prisoners
of Ras Mangascia: and remained so for
forty-one days. But some of tn COM
rades, not far off, wounded and unwound-
ed, lay among the dead and dying, firing,
firing, till they could not hold a gun
from fatigue. Then they piled up the
corpses of our fellow soldiers-three bod
les one over another-to make a gun rest.
They took cartridges from the dead
around about, and leaned against their
dead gun rests, firing for twelve consec-
utive hours. But we were marched off
to Abyssinian huts-dog kennels, half
underground, three feet square of an en-
trance TO creep through-tep prisoners
together Some of us were chained close
to the ground by the wrist-chained to a
stake in the floor. l was never chained
that way.
at was four in the afternoon. and we
had hal no food for--twenty four hours
told or guards that we must eat
They brought us a double handful of I'M
ground barley and raw lentils, and the
same of dried peas; and between every
three of us one little bowl of water. We
ground the barley between stones and
made that -four into paste with the VA
Ter, and ate 1T raw. Lentils and peas we
put into our pockets, and munched at
them now and then as the hunger drove
us. Those We're the rations every day for
forty-one days.
I'VE were told that Ras Mangascia
had sent word TO General Baldisserra
that as he was burning Abyssinian huts
at Adgrat, the Ras would burn us Italian
prisoners. After we knew that we lived
in dread, and some of us wept. The en-
envy staked the captain of my company.
lit fire.about him, I'D roasted him on
his stake. My general, Brimonte, was
killed at Abukarima, bus he was shot in
fair fight
WAS it true I asked. that they
nantilated the wounded?''
"Ah! true, indeed said Giovanni, in
his even, hollow tones. They cut off
theiY hands and feet, and burned the
poor fellows afterward. And in one hos
pital-a small hospital-there were 800
without the left leg and the right arm.
After "A battle the enemy's cavalry
would gallop over the field and thrust
again and again at the helpless wound.
ed" sssAgKssg
And he told these horrors without any
show of special emotion. What curdled
his blood and nearly stopped his speech
was, strange to say, 1.-The long teeth
long and white-of the Abyssinians.
They are as long as this murmured
Giovanni, marking off two joints Sof his
thumb.
why did they not tryssto ransom your
asked
Yes, ransom Ras Mangascia would
have taken $4,000 lire per head for his
prisoners. But who could give that? Not
the government. And certainly not our
relations. At last we were exchanged
for soldiers of the Ras that Baldissera
had made prisoners
One of 1.-THE misfortunes that befell
young Italian soldiers was to he struck
with idiocy when they found themselves
under fire. Giovanni said sit happened
to many" There was one of them here
few days ago. He was being taken by
another soldier to a famous place of pill
grimage, and he was utterly bereft of
sense-not mad, but a jabbering idiot.
Another danger that they all ran
was from the poisonous wafer