fact, little else but skin and bone; he greeted us kindly, and invited
us to become Moslems. From his bombastic conversation, we soon saw that
he was a man of no education whatever, and he ended up by saying that if
we refused to obey we had only death to expect. We were then marched
off.

On the evening of the 27th of September, when George Stambuli came to
tell us that if we did not embrace Islam, we should most certainly die,
we gave him no hope that we should change our minds. The Mahdi
frequently sent people to teach us the truths of religion, but we soon
tired of their nonsensical chattering, and Father Bonomi used to send
them away with strong words. Shortly afterwards Abdullah came again,
bringing a water-melon with him, and in default of a knife he broke it
on the ground; but we refused to take any. Greatly annoyed at this, he
went off in a rage, saying that we should be beheaded the following
morning.

At midnight Stambuli came to us again, to say that he had offered a
considerable sum for our ransom, but that the Mahdi had refused to
accept it. We therefore gave him the few dollars we had left, and asked
him to come and see us the following morning, which he promised to do.
We employed our few remaining hours in preparation for death. The
terrors and alarms which we had undergone for the last five months were
over at last; in the midst of our sufferings the thought of death, which
should soon take us out of the hands of these barbarians, was a comfort
to us. A deep quiet had now settled down over the camp, which was only
occasionally broken by the clank of the prisoners' chains.

Just before dawn a wonderful comet appeared in the east; its golden tail
seemed to project about ten feet into the blue firmament, and was a most
striking sight. It brought back to our minds the star in the east which
stood over the manger at Bethlehem. The Arabs called it "Nigmet el
Mahdi" (the Mahdi's star).

According to Sudan superstition, the appearance of a comet is supposed
to forebode evil, and, indeed, what catastrophe could have been greater
than that which was now impending over the Sudan? The sudden clang of
the war-drum startled me from the meditations which the appearance of
that strange comet had produced. The beating of the drums and the blast
of the great ivory horn (onbeia) was the signal for the "Ardeh-Kebir,"
or grand review, and I now had to bethink me of my own affairs and let
the star pursue its way in the