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The Kia ora coo-ee : the magazine for the ANZACS in the Middle East, 1918

Indifferent to Danger

Indifferent to Danger

When our cavalry swarmed over the Esdraelon Plain and in a few hours captured great dumps at Nazareth, Jenin, and Afule, the Bedouin revelled in his conception of Armageddon. He came from every camp and village within twenty miles or more, and with him came his women and children and parents and grandparents, and camels and horses and asses. To his credit it should be said that he was not shy of risks. At Jenin I watched hundreds of these people cramb-ling around a huge burning dump fired by the Germans. They went boldly on to the edge of the flames, careless of the frequent explosions and showers of debris as the fire reached shells and bombs. The temptation there was a great supply of German tinned fresh beef, and they laughed and shouted as they ventured their lives for it. They are strangely indifferent to physical suffering. At Nablus they were looting a railway building when a bomb burst on contact and killed some of them and wounded many others. The multitude momentarily fled, but quickly returned to their happy task, quite unconcerned about their dead and wounded Every track for many miles round the Esdraelon Plain was for days congested by Bedouins with their heavy burdens: as a rule the men drove the overloaded animals, and their women paced alongside with incredible weights poised easily upon their heads. And of all they bore one article or fragment out of ten could never be of the least use to them.