Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-22
SOUDANESE SOLDIER

ordination; fair haired Albanians. proud
of the land of their birth. and protesting
u certain skill in arms descendants or
the Mamelukes: burly Turks; subtle.
town bred Egyptians, as well as their
heavier Fellaheen brethren: black Sou-
danese, who had risen from the ranks;
Circassians; and admiXtuies of most OF
these races. The men We're either Fella-
heen or black Soudanese. who many of
them had been formerly Dervish rifle
men. and had fought against us time and
again, had seen the fall of khartoun,
the destruction of Hicks Inflated army,
the debacle at Bakers Teb. and many
other stricken fields.
The Fellaheen, patient, enduring, OK
like men, do not call for much comment;
though capable of being worked up to a
high state of efficiency and discipline,
and though second to none as workers..
they are not by nature soldiers. Their
hearts are in their native villages on the
banks of the Nile; they look onward
longingly to the day of their release
from military service, when they may re-
turn to their tillage, tend their cattle and
their date trees, look to their water
wheels, and slurnber through the heat OF
the day in some shady corner.
With the black it is far different. HE'S
by nature a fighting man and a soldier,
and loves fighting for fighting's sake. We
bal tribes, Nyum-nyum ana Fertile, ana
ranks, all with their tribal characteris-
tics. Trusty Shillooks, long. 1.-THE DIM
kas, rugged Nubas, Furs, of whom it is
said that every man is d thief (no pun is
intended on the Latin equivalent and
every woman no better than she need be.
Then there We're members of the cannl-
bal tribes, Nyum, nyum and Fertile. ana
men from far Bagirma and from the
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 to work the guns at Alexandria,
and they had almost to a man led lives
ueeming with adventure and of the deep
est interest. There was one old black
officer in a regiment with which 1 served,
by name of Ali Gifoon, of the Shillook
tribe He had been captured by
the Calaba slave traders as a
boy, had been enlisted in the Khedivial
army. had gone with the contingent sent
to help the French arms in Mexico, and
now wears on his breast, in addition to
his numerous other decorations. the Mex
lean medal and a gold medal given by the
Emperor Of the French for valor.' An-
other officer in the same BATTALION, named
Omar. had accompanied Stanley through
darkest Africa. and for his services he
was promoted from the ranks. Poor
Omar! He was an BILE savage,
with a hopeless liking for strong liquors,
and | am afraid he was of little use as
an officer; among his belongings were two
rygmies. With reference to these pyg
mics | remember once or twice IN the
Soudan coming across slaves who, from
their d!minutive stature and physique,
must rave been very nearly related 10
those strange dwarfed inhabitants OF the
Central African forests.
Our blacks were full of curious super
%stitions, with, TRANCE to say, an implicit
belief in their white officers powers as
averters of the evil effects of magic. Of
ten nave / known a StalWart Nafar Cprl-
vateo come before his commanding 9th
Ger in the orderly room with the com
plant that he had been beWltched, anu
go away quite happy with a letter to the
Hakeem to give him some medicine to
break the charm. Often was one told or
the rifle range by a man that his rifle
was bewitched, and one broke the sup
posed spell by loading it for him, or by
firing a round or two.
was always curious to find out exact.
" how the inhabitants of the Soudan re-
garded the Mahdi. whether he was look,
ed on as an imposter or as a prophet Whf
had had bad luck; but it was difficult K
get a decided expression of opinion. "Wht
knows?' was the general answer MY
black bugler ~Faragalla, an ex-DerVlsh
was the most expansive. "Wallahi," he
would say; The was a great man. III
knew how to direct his own mems bullet:
straight, and how to turn his enemies
bullets to harmless rain. If he had lived
Things WDuIu Iol iEiNC DcSi oo lhCy a.
now" What about .Abu kica?" l said
Gle was not present; he never saw de
feat" was the reply. This was so tru'
that | changed the subject, and aske'
him what he thought of Osman Digna
"Ottoman Digna?' he said. "Ottomal
Digna? He works by magic; he write
i'm the sand; and if the letters spell vic
tory he remains, but il they spell defea
he goes"
The black is an extremely uxoriou
man, and in the Egyptian army the,
were allowed to marry, and a certal
percentage We're placed on the Marie
strength and received an allowance 70
the maintenance of their wives and fami
lies. With his wife and family near hin
the black is absolutely happy. The WON
an waits upon him, cooks for him tn
savory messes his soul loves, and min
listers generally to his comfort; the chill
dren are his hearts delight, and he neve
seems so happy as when he is playin
with them. The sureSt way to a blac
mans heart is through his family, ant
with judicious allowance for his feeling
in this direction. he is the easiest crea
IRE in the world to manage and contro
1t is to be hoped that in the BLACK En-
pire' of the future no man will thin
himself strong enough to arbitrarily seve
the black troops from their families.
At Wadi Halfa. Assouan and Suaki
the black regiments had their MARIE
lines outside their cantonments and 6
soon as parade was over they were to I
seen hurrying off to them. A certai
number in each pa were allowed
sleep there every night, and on Friday
the Mussulman's Sunday, the "Harem
Lines" held high carnival. The tomton
banged INCREASINGLY; the men sat on Il
shady sides of their hOuseS, clad in snow
shirt and drawers, with their famili,
round them, and in the evening there w;
nearly ALWAYS held a "Dileuka' or dan