The Paducah Daily Sun

THE FEROCIOUS BAGGARA.

A Tribe of Dervishes That Has Absolutely No Sense of Gratitude.

Men of tribes whose territories are still under the khalifa's sway must perforce still fight for him; for their wives and children are hostages in his merciless hands; he has collected all the grain of the country in his public stores, and those who do not fight must starve; in action, behind his ranks of black riflemen, stand the Baggara ready to put the wavering to the sword.

Whatever the Baggara may have been in former days, these last 15 years of indulgence in unbridled cruelty and rapine have made of them a race of men apart, more like wild beasts indeed, than men, the enemies of mankind. Sullenly ferocious, having no joy save in slaughter, they seem to have lost the attributes of human nature. They are devoid of all affection for their wives, who are to them of far less account than their cattle. As our surgeons who have tended their wounded in hospital can testify, the Baggara, unlike others of our Dervish foemen, have absolutely no sense of gratitude, and scowl with hatred on those who bring them succor. When lying maimed on the battlefield, they have often treacherously stabbed those who in pity have carried water to their parched lips.

They have never shown mercy, and they are now likely to receive little from the tribes which they have ground down with such unspeakable cruelty, and which are now rising one after the other all round the doomed Baggara hosts at Omdurman and Metemmeh.

It is not surprising to find that even the wives of the Baggara have little affection for their fierce lords, and are often glad to be rid of them, to take unto themselves husbands of a more amiable race. Several widows of slain Dervishes were brought in by Arab troops from Oscbri. among others the wife of the Emir Osman Duda, who was shot through the head as she stood beside him. Some of these women had their babies with them: they appeared to be not in the least affected by their bereavement, and as soon as they realized that they would be kindly treated they became quite cheerful and laughed and chatted together as if nothing out of the ordinary had been happening. Battle and bloodshed and marriage by capture are common experiences for the women of those disturbed regions. Many of them have been taken and retaken in successive razzias by friend and foe

These women soon made themselves quite at home in a house that had been set apart for their use, and expressed their willingness to be taken as wives by some of their captors. These marriages are celebrated with the orthodox Mussulman rites and with much feasting, so that the happy bridegroom is put to a considerable expenditure, and his nuptial banquet often costs the Arab soldier his pay for two or three months. There will probably be several such marriages shortly in the camp, and Aroada, a leader of the irregulars, has arranged to take as his wife the widow of Osman Duda.

I was a witness of a very pretty scene. So soon as the Dervish women had entered the house allotted to them a number of Soudanese women, wives of the victorious soldiery, came to call on them, bringing them presents of flour, sugar and other luxuries, soothing them with sympathetic words, and soon they were all on the best of terms, laughing, gossiping merrily, and admiring each other's babies. There is plenty of human nature in the Soudanese blacks.

Strange to behold are some of the ceremonies of these wives of savage warriors. On Monday I was a spectator of the fantasia of death - a weird rite in honor of one of our Arab soldiers who had fallen at Os. obri. For several hours, to the slow monotonous beating of tomtom, number of women, stripped to the waist in token of woe, danced in circle, chanting in melancholy chorus, swaying their supple forms, beating their breasts, and throwing dust over their heads. The chief mourner was the daughter of the slain man, who brandished over her head the naked sword of her father as she danced and chanted with the others.

Later in the day a much larger number of women collected to celebrate the fantasia of victory-a far more savage performance than the first. More rapidly beat the tomtoms; with quicker motion and more fierce gestures circled the dancers: in louder tones they sang their hymns of triumph, which had a cruel ring in them, bringing up memories of slaughter to those who listened. The women waved long Dervish swords during this ceremony, which terminated with a curious pantomime performed with great seriousness. Some of the women, simulating the enemy, were captured by the others: ropes were tied round their necks, and they were dragged off to a block of wood upon which each in turn was made to lay her head, while one of her captors went through the action of decapitating her with a sword.-Kassala Cor. London Times.