The age-herald., 1898-09-20
HORRORS OR
 SOUDAN WARFARE

From the London Saturday Review. T77zi Now, there is no braver, kinder man in the world than the army doctor In his ex- temporized field hospital, often under a heavy fire, with a hastily thrown up screen of commissarat cases, pack-saddles, water- tanks, or whatever came handy. he per- formed miracles: he was ready to minister to the wants of all wounded men. He was anxious to tend the wounded Dervish when ever one might be brought in. But no wounded Dervish ever was. It was as much as anyones life was worth to go near wounded Dervish. He would lie on the ground, glarng about him like wild beast. Approach him, and out came his curved ham-stringing knife. With it he would make vicious sweeps, any one of which would maim you for life.
 It is not possible in the terrific stress of Soudan warfare to detail fatigue parties to overcome the resistance of wounded men and beat them to the feld-hospital. Hun dreds died of their wounds as they lay on the battlefield, and those that did not die of their wounds had to be put out of their misery. Terrible stories are told of this dire necessity. Those know best who have been engaged in battle with the Dervish what happened after the fighting was over, and how the problem of dealing with the ene- my's wounded was solved. In the campaign of 1885, parties of English soldiers, con- manded by English officers, used to go out to kill the wounded. One private prodded the helpless body between his shoulders with his bayonet. If there was no move ment the party went on; if the Dervish ali iva nd ad bar mi tp instantly blew his brains out.
 In one case, remarkable for it's inevitable cold-blooded horror, it is said, the troops inside zereba, the night after one of the most desperate of battles, were driven to madness by the voice of a wounded warrior who lay outside amidst heaps of slain All night a grooming cry of "Allah!' Allah!' rose into the silent night. Not the fierce. sharp ring of the word when it is the war cry for headlong charge, but an imploring. despairing moan. "For Gods sake silence that man"-that was the feeling of all. Council was held as to how it could be done. Soon three men were told off to get upon the sand-bags of the little redoubt at the corner of the zereba, and when the moon came out from behind the clouds, to fire volleys in the direction from which the
 
 cry went on. Finally it ceased. Whether the man was thus silenced or not was not ascertained, but in the morning there were only dead men in that part of the field. There were others, however, still alive. These could not be tended Another story was current in those terrible days of how an officer going up to a group of surgeons, rounded a wounded Dervish, and inquring what was the matter was told that noth- ing could be done with him-no one could approach him. He lay there with his knife out, ready with one of those sweeping, ham, stringing cuts for anyone who dared to come near. Whereupon the officer, still un- der the blood-madness of the fight, and "seeing red" whipped out his own knife, avoided the rapid sweep of the wounded mans weapon, and drove his to his heart.
 Such are some of the incidents of Soudan warfare. As said above, the Dervish have learned to know us better, and have become tanner; but the problem of dealing With ms wounded must still remain. Was there any mention of Dervish wounded after the bat tie of the Atbara this year? And are there many of them in the hospitals in the rear! The correspondents have always remained strangely silent upon this subject. It has been denied in parliament, we believe, that such things as we have described ever took place? Well, ministers are not less hypo- critical than the rest of us, and possibly some of them knew that these things did happen. Whether they knew 1t or not there are dozens of men, like the writer of this article, who know that they happened-ne- cause we were there and saw them. They do not make pleasant reading. But our military commanders in Egypt cannot be blamed for them; they are the cost or so- ing to war with such people, ,.s
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