But on the whole "la Légion" depends on its legs. These brilliant professional soldiers march….
I will give you, naturally translated, my company's weekly programme as it was hung up on the blackboard every Saturday:
| Monday | 6-7 Boxing. | |
| 7.30-10 Company drill. | ||
| 12 Military march. | ||
| Tuesday | 6-7 Gymnastics. | |
| 7.30-10 Skirmishing. | ||
| 11-12 Instruction in hygienic rules in the field. | ||
| 1 Work under the quartermaster's direction. | ||
| Wednesday | 5.30-6.30 Boxing. | |
| 7 Company musters for bathing. | ||
| 8-11 Mending uniforms, preparation for inspection by the colonel. | ||
| Thursday | 5.30 March to the shooting-range. | |
| 12-1 Instruction in first-aid to wounded. | ||
| 1.15 Work under the quartermaster's orders. | ||
| Friday | 5 Military march. | |
| 1-2 Instruction in taking cover in flat ground. | ||
| 2.30 Work under the quartermaster's orders. | ||
| Saturday | 5.30 Run over six kilometres. | |
| 8-11 Company drill. | ||
| 12 Cleaning of barracks and quarters. | ||
| 4 Inspection of the barracks by the colonel. The men stand beside their beds in duck suit. | ||
N.B.—At the 11 o'clock muster each morning a part of the uniform, to be named each day by the adjutant, has to be presented for inspection.
Inseparable from the Legion's military value is the Legion's work.
Not so very long ago Sidi-bel-Abbès was a sand-heap, on which only a "marabout" stood, the tomb of a pious saint, to which the Arab hordes of the Beni Amer made pilgrimages. At that time strange men came, gathered round the brand new flag of the Legion and convinced the sons of Amer in bloody battles that it would be good for their health to move farther south. These strange men built roads and burned bricks. They built solid fortification walls, drained that horrid little rivulet Mekerra, which flowed so sluggishly through the sand, and which smelt so badly; they laid out gardens and planted olive-trees. The barracks, the public buildings, most of the dwelling-houses arose under the hands of these industrious mercenaries.
The légionnaire was always and is always still a workman. The heaviest work of the Foreign Legion is done on the smallest military stations in Algeria, down in the south, on the borders of the Sahara, where every day's bodily work means loss of health to a European. There the working column turns out day by day with pick and spade to build roads, whilst perhaps in an Arab village a few hours distant the civil authorities are distributing "relief" in the form of natural products to loafing Arabs. Eighty per cent. of Algeria's brilliant roads have been built by the Legion.
The trowel is thrust into the légionnaire's hand. There, now you are a mason. He builds barracks for the troops and offices for the civil administration. He breaks the stones with which the roads are repaired. He performs the pioneer work of Northern Africa at a wage which a coolie would scoff at.