and
identified many of the slain Emirs. At 4.20 p.m., with two batteries,
several Maxims and Colonel Maxwell's brigade leading, the Sirdar rode
down the great north thoroughfare towards the central part of the
squalid town. The houses, or more accurately huts, were full of
dervishes, hundreds of whom were severely wounded. Women and children
flocked into the streets, raising cries of welcome to us. Of all the
vile, dirty places on earth, Omdurman must rank first. There was no
effort at sanitary observances, and dead animals, camels, horses,
donkeys, dogs, goats, sheep, cattle, in all stages of putrefaction,
lay about the streets and lanes. There were dead men, women, and
children, too, lying in the open.

[Illustration: CHIEF THOROUGHFARE, OMDURMAN.

(MULAZIM WALL, LEFT. OSMAN DIGNA'S HOUSE, RIGHT.)]

[Illustration: EFFECT OF SHELL FIRE UPON WALL (MULAZIM ENCLOSURE).]

We passed the big rectangular stone wall enclosing the Khalifa's
special quarters. Within its area were his Mulazimin or body-guards'
quarters, his granaries, treasuries, arsenal, the Mahdi's tomb, and
the great praying square, misnamed the Mosque. Except the tomb, the
Khalifa's and his sons' houses, the town was void of buildings of any
style or finish. I admit the great stone wall was of good masonry, and
so was the well-finished praying-square wall. The Sirdar and party
were frequently shot at, particularly on nearing the Khalifa's
quarters. Abdullah slipped out with his treasures as the Sirdar
arrived at his gate. It was long after sunset and dark when, with
difficulty, the prison was reached, and Charles Neufeld brought out
of his loathsome den, where he had spent eleven years in chains. He
looked well, notwithstanding his long and irksome captivity, feeling,
as he said, like a man drunk with new wine, on account of his release.
That night I helped to relieve him from his fetters, freeing the limbs
from the heavy bar and chains. Tired, worn out, without water or food,
the Sirdar and his staff, as well as many more of us, were glad to
escape out of Omdurman back to where the British camp was pitched in
the northern outskirts. There I and others lay down and fell asleep on
the bare desert, hoping to wake and find that our servants and
baggage had turned up. Two of my colleagues had fared worse than I
that day. Colonel F. Rhodes, of the _Times_, had been shot in the
shoulder within the zereba early in the fight, and the Hon. Hubert
Howard, of the