ARAB EEGIMENT. 165 with the Egyptians ; 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 lias 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 i)Ut to flight a whole crowd of these mouth-fighters, and tiie coward curs are very careful how they resist the Franks, the more so as their bodily powers are far less than those of Europeans. But the Arab may yet gain more courage as a soldier, or the fear of the 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 All's conquests and victories have been gained. Tiiey see, at least a part of them, that by holding together tliey form a mass, wiiich, at a fitting 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-dej)endence may perchance become dangerous to the Turks in Egypt, supposing no other power should interfere.

One regiment of Arab soldiers has already given a warning example ; these Avere 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 jiride in some measure, or to be better able to restrain them, a sum of money granted them as a reward, altiiough 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 comnuuider, paid him as such, after they had laid their hands upon the SJ 4