ARAB REGIMENT. 165 with the Epryptians ; but they are far better soldiers. Many ot' the Franks who have made the campaigns in Hedjas and Yemen with them have highly praised their courage, and the battle of Konieh has also proved it. In the Morea and at Crete, under Ibrahim Pascha, they were as brave as cruel. As a general rule, the courage of the Egyptian population is nothing to boast of.

Shouts, cries, and gesticulations are their chief strength ; but two or three good right and left whip cuts will usually put to flight a whole crowd of these mouth-tighters, and the coward curs are very careful how they resist the Franks, the more so as tlieir bodily powers are far less than those of Puropeans. But the Arab may yet gain more courage as a soldier, or the fear of tlie nabut (stick) may force him, with an " Allah kerim," to rush into all dangers, not to mention that desperation as to his fate, may also lead him to end his misery with his life. It is gradually beginning to enter the heads of these Arab soldiers, who have made the campaign of Hedjas and Syria against and with the Turks, that they are somebody, and they begin to feel and observe that they have been the means by which all Ali's conquests and victories have been gained. They see, at least a part of them, that by holding together they form a mass, whicli, at a titting time, may overpower the Turks, and that in future it may depend on their being united, whether or not, they may not regain their native country from the Turks ; and this daily increasing feeling of self-dependence may perchance become dangerous to the Turks in Egypt, supposing no other power should interfere.

One regiment of Arab soldiei's has already given a warning example ; these were in Hedjas, and had there made themselves a terror to the natives by their fierce courage. Their leader, a stupid, self-conceited fellow, did not treat his soldiery as they, proud of their proved bravery, deserved, and withheld from them, perhaps to tame their pride in some measure, or to be better able to restrain them, a sum of money granted them as a reward, although most of them were much in want. Infuriated by this, they murdered this Bey on the spot, and swore death to any one who should bury him ; chose a captain of the regiment as their commander, paid him as such, after they had laid their hands upon the K 4