he steep Kerreri Hills, we saw in the distance a yellow-brown pointed
dome rising above the blurred horizon. It was the Mahdi's Tomb, standing
in the very heart of Omdurman. From the high ground the field-glass
disclosed rows and rows of mud houses, making a dark patch on the brown
of the plain. To the left the river, steel-grey in the morning light,
forked into two channels, and on the tongue of land between them the
gleam of a white building showed among the trees. Before us were the
ruins of Khartoum and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles.

A black, solitary hill rose between the Kerreri position and Omdurman.
A long, low ridge running from it concealed the ground beyond. For the
rest there was a wide-rolling, sandy plain of great extent, surrounded
on three sides by rocky hills and ridges, and patched with coarse,
starveling grass or occasional bushes. By the banks of the river which
framed the picture on the left stood a straggling mud village, and
this, though we did not know it, was to be the field of Omdurman. It was
deserted. Not a living creature could be seen. And now there were many
who said once and for all that there would be no fight; for here we were
arrived at the very walls of Omdurman, and never an enemy to bar our
path. Then, with four squadrons looking very tiny on the broad expanse
of ground, we moved steadily forward, and at the same time the Egyptian
cavalry and the Camel Corps entered the plain several miles further to
the west, and they too began to trot across it.

It was about three miles to the last ridge which lay between us and the
city. If there was a Dervish army, if there was to be a battle, if the
Khalifa would maintain his boast and accept the arbitrament of war, much
must be visible from that ridge. We looked over. At first nothing was
apparent except the walls and houses of Omdurman and the sandy plain
sloping up from the river to distant hills. Then four miles away on
our right front emerged a long black line with white spots. It was the
enemy. It seemed to us, as we looked, that there might be 3,000 men
behind a high dense zeriba of thorn-bushes. That, said the officers, was
better than nothing. It is scarcely necessary to describe our tortuous
movements towards the Dervish position. Looking at it now from one point
of view, now from another, but always edging nearer, the cavalry slowly
approached, and halted in the plain about three miles away--three great
serpents of men