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Algerian Reservist (2nd engineers)
Ben Chabira (from Bou Saoda)

With open face and bright eyes, he strides through life with the happy-go-lucky air of the career soldier. Sure, he is a reservist at the moment, but if he is no longer in the military that hasn’t stopped him from being a warrior. He has been on campaigns with our soldiers and has earned medals there, including the fine yellow and green ribbon he wears, the highest honour. He is sometimes boastful, often unscrupulous, always faithful and courageous. The folds in his cloak cover a lithe body, and his turban crowns a tough head. What more is needed to make a good trooper? The fatalism he has, certainly, permits him to live from day to day, to be indifferent to things which are not to do with the fighting, under the sun and in the long columns of the South, and in the quiet existence of the garrison. If there is any other wisdom but silence and the quiet wait for Paradise, if such exists for brave and cheerful souls, this is a wise man, without a doubt.