The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-12-28
SAVAGE TOOLS
OF WARFARE

ceiling, the Royal United Service institute
ton has now added an interesting collec-
ton of dervish trophies, lent by officers
who have taken part in the Soudan expedi.
tions of the last three years-the loot of
Ferkeh, Hafir, Atbara and Omdurman.
Those who have followed the newspaper
narratives of these campaigns should avail
themselves of this opportunity of seeing the
jibbas, barbaric weapons, and quaint
armor, of which they have read so much,
before this collection is once more scatter
ed. On Saturday the Sirdars sword of
honor specimens of the medals struck by
Gordon and conferred as rewards during
the siege of Khartoum and some other
relics were still wanting to the exhibition,
but it is expected that these will arrive to-
day, and tomorrow the collection in it's en-
tirety will be on view to the public.
Close to the entrance of the hall are sew
eral captured banners, for the most part
white or of bright color. with prayers and
praises of the Mahdi inscribed on them in
Arabic characters. One great black stand
ard, riddled by bullets, is noticeable; 1t fell
into Colonel Macdonald's hands after the
battle of Omdurman, and was by him given
to Lieutenant Colonel H. Finn, of the
Twenty-first Lancers who has lent this,
together with several other trophies, to the
exhibition. The dervish uniforms are GER
tain to attract a good deal of attention.
Here are to be seen the white cotton jibbas,
with their patches of dark blue, brown, or
other colored cloth, some of them hand
somely embroidered, symbols of the rise
and fall of Mahdsm. For 1t will be remem-
bered that the Mahdi enjoined on his fol-
lowers a life of meekness and humility, of
strict asceticism; they were to own no
property and were to be clothed in rags and
patches in token of their sanity povertyj
but after rapine and license had demoral-
lied the dervishes and brought about a
ligious decadence the dirty patched rag
gradually developed into the luxurious
jabba, the symbolic patches becoming neat
and ornamental oblongs of colored cloth,
symmetrically arranged upon the snowy
robe, token of poverty and asceticism no
longer, but of the hypocritical spirit that
had taken the place of the former honest
fanacticsm.
There are good specimens here of the
wonderful uniform and equipment of the
dervish horsemen-their coats of chain
mail such were worn by the Crusaders
of old Con the breast of one of these
supposed to have been made in Abyssina
in the sixteenth century, will be observed
a large cross formed of brazen links, the
emblem of Christianity cleaning out like
dull gold against the white steeD; their
long padded or quilted coats, calculated
to deaden the force of a sword cut; their
iron helmets and casques fitted with chain
armor and quilted shoulder pads; their
quilted caps of various grotesque shapes
worn over the iron head pieces; and their
metal armlets 1t is difficult to under
stand how man and horse can support the
heat and weight of their full equipment
in such climate as that of the Soudan,
for it is not only the man who is thus cum
brously armed capable; the horse, too,
is protected by thickly padded quilts and
head-armor, so that the resemblance of
dervish emirs equipment to that of a
knight of old at a tournament is very strik-
ing; and, as Slatin Pasha says in his book
one might almost imagine that one was
gazing at one of those medieval displays
when present at Mahdist cavalry review.
There is a good specimen in this collection
of a horse head-guard of embossed brass,
which belonged to an emir slain at the At
bara fight, and has been lent by Captain
N. M. smyth. v. c.
In the collection are several oblong and
circular shields of stout hide, such as are
carried by the Hadendoa and Baggara,
and of dervish weapons there is a goodly
show-cavalry spears with shafts ten feet
in length and huge blades, the blade of
one Qoaned by Colonel Hatton c. b., Gren-
adler Guards, who has contributed num-
Der of the most interesting trophies)
I1As., ~1,x
than eight inches in breadth, so that If
properly employed it would almost cut a
man in two; the smaller infantry spears,
such as are used for fishing and hunting
by the Shilook and other negroid tribes,
with barbed or serrated heads, cruel look
ing weapons that infict dreadful wounds;
the heavy, straight-bladed, cross handled
Arab swords, like those of the Crusaders;
knives straight or curously curved, among
these very remarkable weapon from Kor-
dofan or Nyam-Nyam, with its blade bent
round and having a sharpened spur at
tached to 1t, an executioner's instrument,
possibly intended to half encircle the neck
of the one condemned to decapitation.
Among other noteworthy trophies are the
great war drums; handcuffS taken OF q
prisoner found in Omdurman; sings made
of cowrie shells from the west coast, en-
ployed to support stone water-cooers, and
a curiousy shaped embroidered cloak of an
Abyssinian chief, similar to one presented
by Menelek to Lord Salisbury. Few people
are aware that boomerangs are employed
by some South African tribes; but it seems
that one of these weapons found It's way
to Omdurman and has been LOANED to the
institution by the First Battalion of the
Grenadier Guards. Major Emslie and the
officers of the Thirty-seventh (howitzer)
Field Battery, Royal Artillery, secured
some valuable trophies, which now form
part of this collection Among these Is the
metal top of the now utterly destroyed
tomb of the Mahdi, bearing traces of the
damage inflicted by the fire of the above
mentioned battery, and brass field gun,
believed to have been taken by the der
wishes from Hicks Pasha's Inflated force,
and recaptured by us at Omdurman.
Some relics of our former campaigns in
Egypt, of the bombardment of Alexandria,
of Tamai Ell Teb, Toski, and other battles,
are also on view in the banqueting room
at Whitehall, and combine with these tro-
phies of more recent achievements to form
a display that should be of interest to