e. Many
a man was saved from collapse by a timely mug of hot tea, and if there was
a rum ration to go with it, so much the better.

But, alas, one of the essentials for making tea was often lacking; the
farther we advanced the scarcer did water become, and now there were no
pumps to draw it from the wells. Horses went three days and more without
drinking, and hundreds died from thirst and exhaustion. Infantry, starting
with empty water-bottles, marched thirty miles across country, with a
bayonet-charge thrown in, and found perhaps a pint of water per man at the
end of the day.

Then the rain came. Roads, at best no more than a travesty of the name and
already battered by Turkish transport, became quagmires of mud through
which artillery-horses, weakened by thirst and meagre rations, could
scarcely draw the guns. The transport, toiling along in the rear, had the
utmost difficulty in bringing up supplies, and as for the men, they were
unwashed, unshaven, and covered with mud from head to foot.

Through all the strongholds of the Philistines, through villages with
historic names the army passed as the line of pursuit swung north-westwards
across the plain of Philistia. Past ruined Ascalon on the coast; Mejdel,
farther inland, one of the largest native towns on the plain, with many
ancient industries established there; Esdud, the ancient Ashdod, where
later a station on the military railway was built; Gath, where the Turks
made a most desperate attempt to delay our advance; Akron, the once great
frontier fortress of the Philistines; these were among the chief. In
addition there were modern Jewish colonies, depleted of their male
inhabitants but otherwise untouched, where a kind of coarse red wine was
obtained which helped greatly to ward off ill-effects from cold and wet.

At last, after five days of hot pursuit, the Turks made a last great stand
in defence of the junction between the Jerusalem railway and the main line,
and also of Et Tineh, which connected the Gaza and Beersheba railway. The
Yeomanry, acting with the Scotch infantry, distinguished themselves in the
action for possession of the former, taking the main Turkish position after
a wild gallop for a couple of miles under heavy fire all the way.

The Light Horse captured Et Tineh and a host of prisoners besides.
Everywhere the Turks were forced back. Their army was cut in two, one half
retiring on Jerusalem, the other going north towards Jaffa. In their
effor