THE BREAKING OF THE SQUARE.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Issue 25, 12 November 1898, Page 5

THE BREAKING OF THE SQUARE.

; AjSTpEY OF THE SOUDAN., „ > Amaro Awelr, half -Nubian, half- Arab - by- birth, r ser,ved the; Government (&&1 sergeant of " A Company "imthe'Soiidanese v regiment ;• '. HHre r stood* six' fe,etjiri,iieiglit, Ifrorn the solesrof lus^bwvn .feet- to;the • tassel of-hiserinisonffez,-'and',what'(he did '< not f know > bfjiguefiUa 1 v wjarfa^ei).was "not ; ''t worth learning, jf of. there;is t always; fight,l ing .in-- ,'the 4 4 r Soudan.* Ther^ei were'j4wo l' ; "thnigs.which.Serg'e'antjAwjst.rheldJin high respect : the first was the, wasted British ? who i once stood/O^vei'liim.when.'helayiOTounded

aud gasping, in thq hot sand, and held off a spear-armb'd^Wwith spitting revolver until the, Maxims' came up f and the other w,as •a J gold '^Ju-Ju " * talisman,^ hung about his neck by v a lanyard of human Bkm. Now AweK, was> Moslem/ and prayed to Allan three, times a day ; but he also greatly 'feared the "Ju r Ju" devils of the heathen, ( and therefore reverenced the talisman ?yhich ensured him against sudden deauh^according to native belief. The '" Ju-Ju " superstition, taught in this Coast swamps, ipre&ds 'all over Northern Africa. ' - „. { f t, ,j „ r > ' Towards the close of the second r day, a detachment ,of th« f Soudanese regiment, and a handful of British infantry, dragged themselves wearily", through J the loose sand of the Soudan, .followed by- a train of lurching 'camels,' bearing' ammunition for the advanced coluinn v pushing on to/El Hamra. All , rouhjl" them stretched f a limitless reach of reel" dust, sprinkled^ here and there -with Jar own. 'scrub , rolling towards the ' Jar in low ridges like the waves of a sea. Lieutenant Charters, in 'command, "lay wearily batik in a crate-like a'ftair slung, across the -back of a heayy-fopted camel, l watching' the tired troops go past,^ camels and men standing out sharp and , black asfthough carved against a'lurid crimson "spleh'dbiir on the desert's ' western 'edge! ' 'He*was weak from intermittent fever and.'dysejl- ' tery ; "tne" wMrnug cloud of r stirred-up dust filleji^ his, smarting eyes,'~and 4C 'bB groaned as a lurch of* tfie camel galled his much- chafed* sider" '_ ,l, l "? T^' \ At last, at., the order ".Halt, 11 the men came to a standatiUf^their Kharki uniforms powdered thick' with dust, which had turned to mud on their perspiring faces, until it 'was hard to telLfrom-.tK* colour which 'were British and which SoudanesV. l i <„'>' ■ > > Leaning against his kneeling camel, the officer struck the' animal in the -face with a switch, as it 'reached out its long nebk ' with a* vicious snap "at his leg, after the manner of camels,' which" are by no' means the docile beasts written of in books. , " "Well," Sergeant, hoW are your men ?" he asked, aY a- dusty 'lrifantryman^raised his grmiy hand in salute. 1 - ' f *„ * .0 \ " Mostly dead lame, sir, and nearsbliM with ophthalmia; but wining to go on. Many of the 7 Soudanese*' crippled with - Ouinea worm,* \j&n&' trying Jvtoi "drawl the things out with* splitf matches." i& >,j £ The ; officer shuddered at the mention 'of thiß'pest, r which 'grows to a length ofit-v^o feet amid the rnuscles'of & man's leg,*jand dismissed the Sergeant^ asftAmarooAweb * stood ■befofe A? Kim,''lobking''^what fhe^was, every inch^'a' desert"soldier,' and his.speech , was the Tmixed 'Arabic -idiom qf »Egyptrafid '>the"Soudan^t /*\?n.*(r <«,a,^-. h \n' ;^tn . " The-way is yery?far*and the.meni are " weary," 3 heVsaid^ >1 -"; Beingi i foolish l |th^y < drank of tfle* polluted wellsj and l onpwj[tha evil worm gnaws upon, them I ."a>"Alsb'jthere are signs that s the?fo J e "are near." '- "