The Girl with Braided Hair by Rasha Adly

Author:Rasha Adly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press
Published: 2020-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Alexandria: July 1798

We were ordered to start moving again. The army separated into three directions: west, straight on to Damanhur, and the third along the coastline to Rosetta. I walked with one of the three divisions under the heat of the burning sun. We suffered terribly from heat, thirst, and lack of supplies. Many died. We lost one soldier after another. Finally, we arrived at Rosetta, and drank all the cold drinks we could lay our hands on, buying poor and overpriced wine from the Jewish distillers there. We rested and stored enough supplies to last us a while, then resumed our journey. And so it went, from place to place and battle to battle. We were not facing a single enemy, but three all at once: the Mamluks, the Bedouin, and the heat, the last of which was the cruelest.

We were forced to march over burning sands under the broiling sun, in addition to the privations of lack of food and water. Many soldiers despaired and fell ill, unable to bear it; suicide took several forms, and appeared to spread like a contagion. Many shot themselves. I saw with my own eyes two brothers taking hold of one another and casting themselves into the Nile. Everyone wished their suffering to end. Death, to them, was more merciful than fulfilling the orders of a mad general. One night, exhausted by heat and relentless fatigue, we threw ourselves down upon our packs, but no sooner had we fallen into sleep than we heard the familiar call, “To arms! To arms!” It was a massacre, a battle between us and the Mamluks. It ended quickly in our favor. Then we went on to Wardan, a region filled with watermelon patches, to which I owe my life along with the Nile, indeed, my life and that of the soldiers. This beautiful, moist, and delicious fruit quenched our thirst and made up for the weakness and frailty that had afflicted us. We not only ate our fill of it, but threw it at each other like cannonballs, laughing hysterically, for we had been close to death or insanity, and if not for this fruit, so like a ball, we would have perished for certain and been only bodies dead upon the road.

I sat upon a high rock, carving a piece of wood with a knife in the shape of an exhausted soldier. The news spread that the general had arrived to inspect the troops. I glimpsed him from afar, walking among the ranks of the exhausted soldiers overcome with despair. He could see it as well, and realized that he would not be able to accomplish his goal with things as they were. He walked among their ranks, speaking to them and conversing with each in turn, encouraging them with phrases such as, “Just a few more days and you shall find much of everything in the capital of Egypt! White bread, tender meats, and fine wines!” Napoleon’s words worked like magic on the poor soldiers: no sooner had he spoken than they were filled with renewed life.

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