chemes, etc. These cleverly worded little tracts came
showering down out of the sky, and at first they were eagerly picked up.
The Turkish commanders, however, soon announced that any one found
carrying them would pay the death penalty. After that, when the little
bundles dropped near them, the natives would, run as if from high
explosive bombs.

All things considered, it is wonderful that the Turkish demonstration
against the Canal came as near to fulfillment as it did. Twenty thousand
soldiers actually crossed the desert in six days on scant rations, and
with them they took two big guns, which they dragged by hand when the
mules dropped from thirst and exhaustion. They also carried pontoons to
be used in crossing the Canal. Guns and pontoons are now at rest in the
Museum at Cairo.

Just what took place in the attack is known to very few. The English
have not seen fit to make public the details, and there was little to be
got from the demoralized soldiers who returned to Beersheba. Piece by
piece, however, I gathered that the attacking party had come up to the
Canal at dawn. Finding everything quiet, they set about getting across,
and had even launched a pontoon, when the British, who were lying in
wait, opened a terrific fire from the farther bank, backed by armored
locomotives and aeroplanes. "It was as if the gates of Jehannum were
opened and its fires turned loose upon us," one soldier told me.

The Turks succeeded in getting their guns into action for a very short
while. One of the men-of-war in the Canal was hit; several houses in
Ismailia suffered damage; but the invaders were soon driven away in
confusion, leaving perhaps two thousand prisoners in the hands of the
English. If the latter had chosen to do so, they could have annihilated
the Turkish forces then and there. The ticklish state of mind of the
Mohammedan population in Egypt, however, has led them to adopt a policy
of leniency and of keeping to the defensive, which subsequent
developments have more than justified. It is characteristic of England's
faculty for holding her colonies that batteries manned by Egyptians did
the finest work in defense of the Canal.

The reaction in Palestine after the defeat at Suez was tremendous. Just
before the attack, Djemal Pasha had sent out a telegram announcing the
overwhelming defeat of the British vanguard, which had caused wild
enthusiasm. Another later telegram proclaimed that the Canal had been
reached, Britis