THE ARABS IN BATTLE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1203, 20 March 1885, Page 3

THE ARABS IN BATTLE.

Mr Tyndhall, a young gentleman who was with the eighteenth hu>sars at the E! Teh and lamai engagements, is now in Melbourne, a id in the course of an interview wiih a representative of the Bern.d he thus described the enenir ; They have no fear of death. The Mahdi teaches them that Rnglish bullets before striking them will nirn into water and that, if hey are killed in this war th y will be tranaoorted to the ''cairns ■ f bliss. They believe him a d fi>*lit like the fanatic> they are. They hj ve no definite order of attack ; they iton’t, -mne into action in columns and batallions, but they swarm down ou heir fes ike bees in one headlong charge It was with an assault f this kind that they broke the equate at Taniai It was a calm s'il morning, and th“re was not. a breath of ail. The snmke from oar rifles lay like a thick impenetrable cloud between the rebels a .d ns, and the beggars keeping close to the gronm rushed up u der the srnokey cover and accomplished a feat which would have been more creditable for more civ lised warriors Most of them are arm'd with spears, having a Jade about seven inches long, and a handle measuring some 12 feet Round the butt of th hj m tie there is a piece of iron coiled fc > balance the w apm, and I hue been told they can hurl tlii'spear some 50 vards. Th 'dade is a flit one, and the wo md* inflicted (uiil"S? some vital part is struck) are not usually very serious—not nearly so bad as the stab of a triang lar bayonet. Thev hi ve dso “ ham stringing .knives.” Some of them are armed with Reminoton rifles, which they have taken from the Kgyp'ams ; they’re no good and the rebels got the rifles and tour field pieces which 'hey used gainst us. You may he sure they never miss an oppu'tunity of securing arms and atnuuioion fwiu the slam ”