14 HISTORY.

brigade of four thousand five hundred infantr}' and

cavalry, attended by eight hundred Bedouins and

eight pieces of artillery, to subject this country to

his power. The people, apprized of his intention,

prepared themselves to the utmost of thfeir power

for defence. The Melek Moosalem marched out

with his troops to meet the Defturdar at Bara,—

a

march of twelve hours from Lobeid. His numerous

but irregular army was well provided with every

species of warlike weapons, excepting fire-arms, which

were little or not at all known in the country. The

cavalry, like the old Numidian equestrian troops,

wore a shirt of mail, and pointed helmet without

a vizor on their heads, and bore a double-edged

sword thirty-six inches in length. The horses were

caparisoned with plates of copper. The infantry were

nearly naked ; armed simply with a shield and spear,

and but a small party of them with two-edged

swords, {turbatsh,) and a species of tomahawk. The

battle was fierce and bloody. The men of Kordo-

fan rushed with fury upon the foe, and defended

their freedom with a total disregard of death ; even women participated in the fray. Hundreds of the

combatants fell struck by the balls of the enemy ; the wounded placed their fingers in their wounds, un-

able to understand how they could have been hurt,

without having been touched by a weapon ; so igno-

rant were they of the use of fire-arms. Infuriated

they flung their spears at the cannons ; and, having

succeeded in capturing a gun for a short time, sought

to revenge themselves on it for the destruction it