ry him along.

The fanatics now completely surrounded us, and kept on threatening us
with their lances, clubs, and sticks. Naser himself, seeing some of the
very excited Dervishes pointing their lances at our breasts, greatly
feared for our safety, and it seemed to us that there was now not the
slightest doubt that they intended to kill us. He therefore ordered our
escort to draw their swords and form a square, in the centre of which we
walked. The exertions of the last few days, the heat, the yelling of the
crowd, the monotonous chants of the Dervishes, and finally the din of
this enormous camp of over 100,000 men, exclusive of women and children,
reacted on us to such an extent that we were well-nigh speechless.
Slowly we made our way towards the centre of the camp where the great
Dervish, Mohammed Ahmed, had pitched his tent.

We were taken, in the first instance, to the hut of the Khalifa Sherif.
Here we found a lad of twelve or thirteen years of age, lying half-naked
on a bedstead, who invited us to come into the shade and rest ourselves,
at the same time he drove off with his whip the inquisitive crowd that
kept pressing in to look at us. He gave us some water to drink, but we
were so utterly weary and exhausted that we could not swallow it for
some time, and the heat and dust had literally glued our tongues, so
that we were unable to articulate. We were allowed to rest for a short
time, as the Mahdi had not risen from his noonday sleep, and this brief
respite enabled us to collect our thoughts, which the events of the
last few days and the uproar of the camp had caused to wander sadly.

At length an order came that the Mahdi was up and wished to see us. We
were then taken to a small hut, which had two sides open, through which
a cool breeze blew in; close to the hut one of the tents captured from
Yusef Pasha Shellali had been pitched, and as we arrived the Mahdi came
out of the tent and seated himself, in Arabic fashion, on a straw mat
spread on the floor of the hut. He greeted us kindly, and asked us about
our nationality and our object in coming to the Sudan, also whether we
had ever heard anything about the Mahdi, he then briefly explained to us
the nature of his divine message, and recounted his great victories over
"the enemies of God and His Prophet," by which name he designated the
Turks.

Seeing that we were utterly exhausted, he offered us some kamar-ed-din
(dried apricots) mixed with water, but almos