WITH THE TURKS. 
501 
tramped along cheerfully for long distances under a hot sun, carrying 
heavy loads of ammunition in two bandoliers, one round the waist and 
the other over the shoulder, which contained, I should think, nearly 
200 rounds, besides their great-coats, water-bottles, &C. 1 Some of the 
Nizam regiments were armed at Dhomokos with the small-bore Mauser 
rifle and the rest with the *37 Mauser. The Redifs and volunteers 
were, for the most part, armed with the Martini-Henry; I was 
told that about 3000 of the latter were issued with Gras rifles 
captured from the Greeks. I was unable to comprehend the 
{C new organisation 93 talked about at the Head-Quarters; it appeared 
to consist of the mixture of Nizams, Redifs and volunteers in one 
battalion, but I could gather no details. 
Possibly it was devised with a view to keeping the Albanian 
volunteers more under control, but it did not apparently meet with 
great success. 
It is unnecessary for me to refer again at length to the fighting 
qualities of the Turkish soldier; I cannot imagine that he would ever 
run away, though he might sit down and wait for a long time during 
the attack of a position. 
There seemed to be no attempt at a formation in the attack on 
Dhomokos and there can have been little or no control over the fire, 
every man sitting down and firing or moving on, as the spirit moved 
him, until all gradually accumulated at a point 400 or 500 yards from 
the Greek trenches, from whence they kept up a tolerably heavy, 
though intermittent, fire. 
With regard to the artillery (to which some reference has already 
been made)" it was unfortunate that I was unable to make any notes of 
interest with regard to the fire discipline (if any existed) or working 
of the Turkish batteries in action at Dhomokos. I had unluckily lost 
my field-glasses a few days before and was obliged to depend on the 
hospitality of my friends for the occasional use of a pair. So far as I 
could see, batteries came into action independently, though there were 
at one time seven or eight, more or less, in line; no battery moved 
faster than at a walk across country, indeed I suspect that the attempt 
to do so might have resulted in more delay for the repair of harness; 
I once or twice saw batteries trotting for a short distance on the road. 
The fire was very slow, probably never more than a round a minute 
on the average; with three wagons only, I do not suppose that the 
ammunition would have admitted of a higher rate. I on one occasion 
noticed some wagons going^to the rear, presumably to refill their 
trays. 
Once or twice salvos were fired by batteries, I do not know whether 
with any particular object. 
No doubt some system for the communication of range and fuze 
1 Their uniforms were generally of a rough description, but serviceable, being made up, for the 
most part, of a coarse brown frieze; the lower part of the leg and foot were enveloped in woollen 
bandages and a rough sandal consisting merely of a piece of hide worn laced over the foot. This 
gave excellent results and the men were able to improvise a new pair of boots in a few minutes 
from the hide of a dead horse. The fez is not an equally comfortable head-dress, giving no pro¬ 
tection to the eyes from the sun, but is, at all events, simple and portable, 
Art illery 
