One of our captured soldiers from Obeyed came in from Waled a Goun, and four others with a woman came in from Faki Mustapha (two of the last were men slaves of the unfortunate Hassan Pasha Ibrahim, who was executed); they report food scarce in the Arab camp, and that many are striving to run away, owing to the way they are bullied.
Ulemas are writing letters to Arab chiefs, protesting against their acts, as being contrary to Muslim religion.
The Greeks and other prisoners in Obeyed, &c., complain bitterly of their privations and ill-treatment by the Arabs, in the letters they sent in here to other Greeks.
I was awakened this morning by a woman crying out, “My son has been murdered, and I demand justice.” Her little only boy had, it appears, been in one of the Arab water-wheels, which are moved by oxen, and a man had pushed him off; his skull was partially fractured, but he had been in hospital for some days, and we hoped for his recovery, when inflammation set in, and he died. He was a nice little bright-eyed, chocolate-coloured child of eight years old—the mother is a widow. One is drawn towards the children of this country, both browns and blacks—the former are of a perfect bronze colour.
The browns and blacks bear their wounds without a murmur; the poor fellaheen soldiers yell upon the slightest touch to their wounds.
One of the Arab chiefs came to the Shoboloha defile, and tried to raise the people to occupy the passage; the people refused, and the Arab chief went off.
There is a negro soldier in hospital with a cut on the nose from a sword; the cut has entered the nostrils, giving him four openings instead of two—it is on the bridge of the nose (if a negro nose can be said to have a bridge), and the man’s cheeks are untouched.
One man received a wound in the chest; he lived eleven days, and died. The doctor found a bullet lodged in the centre of his heart, in wall of ventricle. The doctor has this heart in spirits. It was a ball weighing the same as our Martini-Henri bullet.