The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1898-12-10
HORRORS OF METEMMEH.
An Army of Dervishes Transform the
City Into n Modern
Golgotha.


The town of Metemmeh stands
about mile from the waterway, but
the intervening plain presented
most wonderful sight, one of the most
wonderful that has crossed my path in
four campaigns. The dervish army
had evidently remained, after the fall
of the Jaaiins at Metemmeh, encamped
for some time in this plain, behind
their chain of entertainments, and had
lived on the fat of the land; for this
place. and here l am not exaggerating.
over an area of not less than five
square miles was simply one mass of
the refuse of flesh meat--a modern
Golotha. Animals must have been
slaughtered in thousands with ruth
less waste, since even now the sand
driven plain is but mass Of animals
skulls and bones. The hides even
were not preserved, but are there to
this day, rotting in the sun.
We rode across this CHASTITY stretch
to the town itself. In its day Metem-
meh must have been one of the most
Hourishing Arab towns upon the Nile.
To-day it is ghostly catacomb, YER
liable city of death. AS we rode down
the deserted streets and passed
through the crumbling alleys feel
Ing of deep depression held us. How
could it have been otherwise, for here
we were in what few months ago had
been fourishing. busy town, with
its commercial interests, its family
and internal ties, its markets, its
homesteads and its byres. Now it is
a 5utted city, given over to desolation,
decay and the foul scayengers of the
desert.
Fire and sword had done their work.
There was not roof but bore evil
dence of the invaders fire brand, nor
courtyard but.held its complement
of dead. The Tery domestic animals
had been slaughtered at their tethers.
and the infants at their mothers
breasts. From the dry-brick mansion
Of the leading sheikh to the howell of
the meanest fisherman every dwelling
bore testimony to the ruthless trag-
edy which had overtaken them.
Bleached bones lay in heaps in every
corner, and sun-dried carcasses fouled
the air of every open space.
Is it to be wondered that the few
poor Jaalin warriors who remain have
girded UP their loins to be with us at
KhartouIn? Theirs is a greater feud
than ours: II is more recent, more
bloody and more direct. There was
every indication that the inhabitants
had thrown the place rapidly in
state of primitive defense.
Doorways and alleys showed how
they had rapidly been mudded up. and
ip all the scrub by her riverside house,
hold belongings showed how the
wretched Jaalin had tried to save their
simple penates by hurried flight.
But the bones around these caches
were only a detail of the one great
tragedy which was almost a success
full attempt tosblot out not a nomad
family but an agricultural race.
Frou the town we went into the
desert to the spot where the der
wishes had made their second camp.
The introduction was grewsome
enough, for upon a dry sandy knoll |
we came upon the conqueror's gallows.
It was but a crosstree of biackened |
logs. from which length of rope was
still lifting to the breeze. but at its |
base were evidences of its use in all |
their creepy details. counted IS |
human skulls TO the bleached jawbones
(which the boards of the victims were |
still adhering. while clean-cut shin
bone showed that mutilation had pre-
coded dsath.--Soudan Cor. London
News.