New-York tribune., 1899-07-16
SOUDANESE SOLDIERS.
STORIES OF THE BLACK WARRIORS OF
THE BRITISH ARMY OF OCCUPATION.
From The Cornhill Magazine.

tie land of their birth and protesting a certain
s. i'll in arms; descendants Of the Mamelukes'
EUry Turks; subtle, town bred Egyptians a
well as their heavier Fellahcen brethren; black
:,Judanesc, who had risen from the ranks, CIR
clssans: and admixtures Of most Of these races.
The men We're either Feaheen or black Soudan-
eIc who many of them had been formerly
Hcrvish Riiemen, and had fought against us
me and again, had seen the fall Of khartoum'
the destruction of Hickss ill-fated army. the
GHEacle at Bakers Teb, and many other stricken
fields.
The Fellaheen. patient enduring. oxike men,
do not call for much comment; though capable
Of being worked up to a high state Of efficiency
ard discipline and though second To none as
workers. they not by nature soldiers. Their
hearts are in their native villages on the banks
Of the Nile. they look forward longingly to the
day Of their release from military service when
they may return to their tiilage, tend their cat
tie and their date trees, look TO their water
Wheels and slumber through the heat OF the
day in some shady corner.
With the black it is far different He is by
nature a fighting and soldier. and loves
fighting for fghtings sake. We had repre-
scntatives Of many tribes in our ranks all with
their tribal char lcteristics: Trusty ShilloOks,
lcng 1.-THE Dinkas. rugged Nubas Furs, OF
whom it is said that every man is thief mo
Iun is intended on the Latin equiValenO ana
every woman no better than she need be. Then
there were members Of the cannibal tribes.
Nyum- nyum and Fertile. and men from far
Gagirma ard from the hea 'waters of the Congo
Some of these men had been In the old Khedivial
army. and had even fought against us in the
ranks Of Arabi's army at Tel-el-Kebir and had
lnlped to work the guns at Alexandra. and
they had almost To man led lives teeming with
adventure and Of the deepest interest There
vas one old black officer in a regiment with
which | served. by name Ali Gifoon. of the
ShilloOk tribe. He had been captured by the
Calaba slave traders a boy. had been en-
listed in the Khedivial army. had gone with the
contingent sent to help the French arms in
NcxicO, and now wears on his breast in ad
6ition to his numerous other decorations. the
ldexican medal and a gold medal given by the
Emperor OF the French for valor Another
IfCer in the same battalion named Omar had
accompanied Stanley through darkest Africa,
a nd for his services he was promoted from the
ranks Poor Omar, He was an untamable saw
age. with a hopeless liking for strong liquors.
and afraid he was Of little use az On Off
cor: among his belongings were two pygmies.
With reference to these pygmies | remember
once or twice in the Soudan coming across
slaves who from their diminutiVe stature and
physique, must have been very nearly related
so those strange dwarfed inhabitants Of the
Central African forests.
our blacks were full of curious superstitions.
with. strange to say, an implicit belief in their
white officers powers as averters Of the evil
effects Cf magic. often have | known stall
,-art Nafar (private) come before his
Inandng officer in the orderly room with the
complaint that he had been bewitChed. and go
away quite happy with letter to the Hakeem
to give him some medicine to break the charm.
Cftcn was told on the rife range by man
tiat his rife was bewtched. and one broke the
supposed spell by loading 1t for him. or by firing
a, round or two
THEIR VIEWS OF THE MAFDI.
was always curious to find out exactly how
the inhabitants Of the Soudan regarded the
Eahdi. whether he was ,OOked on as an i'm
pOstor or as a prophet who had had bad luck,
bat IT very difficult to get a decided EXPIRES
sion OF opinion. "WhO knows was the gen
eral answer My black bugler Faragala. an ex-
Eervish the most expansive. "Wallahi,"
H. would say; "he was a great man He knew
how to direct his own mems bullets straight
and hnt to N n
rain If he had lived things would not have
been they are now" What about Abu
Klea?' / said. He not present; he never
saw defeat" the reply. This was so true
that changed the subject and asked him what
lie thought Of Osman Dgna. "Ottman Digna?"
he said "Ottman Digna? He works by magic
he writes in the sand and if the letters spell
victory he remains, but if hey spell defeat he
goes"
The black is an extremely uxorous man, and
in the Egyptian Army they were all allowed 10
marry and certain percentage were placed on
the married strength and received an allowance
for the maintenance Of their wives and fami-
lies With his wife and family near him. the
black Is absolutely happy. The woman waits
upon him cooks for him the savory messes his
sOu lOveth and ministers generally to his com
fort the children are his hearts delight and
he never seems SO happy as when he is playing
With them. The surest way To "A black mans
heart is through his family. and. with judcious
allowance for his feelings in this direction. he
IS the easiest creature in the world to manage
end control 1t is to be hoped that in the BLACK
Empire" Of the future no man will think himself
strong enough to arbitrarily sever the black
troops from their fani les
At Wadi Halfa. Assouan and Suakin the black
regiments had their married lines outside their
cantOnmcnts. and soon as parade was over
they were to be seen hurrying off to them.
certain number in each company were allowed
to sleep there every night. and on Fridays the
Mussulman's Sunday the "Haremat Lines" held
high carnival The tomtOms banged unccas-
ingly; the men sat on the shady sides of the
houses clad in snowy shirt and drawers, with
their families round them. and in the evening
there was nearly always held "Dileuka" or