heir heads were hung up in the market-place at El Obeid
as a warning to others.

The Mahdi and his emirs now began to live a life of ease; the latter
occupied the various buildings around the Mudirieh and made themselves
comfortable: they placed no restrictions on themselves in the way of
food and drink; there was money in abundance and supplies were
plentiful, consequently sensuality and luxurious living were substituted
for the abstemious life which the Mahdi doctrine had at first
inculcated. The principal emirs delighted in extensive harems and a show
of splendour. Jibbehs were still worn, but their ragged condition, which
was essential in the early days, gave way to as much embellishment as
such a garment would admit of. The emirs vied with one another in their
wealth of slaves, cattle, horses and donkeys; their sword-hilts were now
embellished with silver. In place of lying on the dirty ground, their
clothes full of vermin, they assumed the luxurious and comfortable mode
of life of the Turks and Egyptians. So shocked, indeed, was the Mahdi's
uncle, Sherif Mahmud, when he arrived from Gedir to see the drunken and
debauched lives led by the emirs, more especially by Wad en Nejumi, that
he induced the Mahdi to order the latter to reduce his harem by twenty
wives, who were subsequently sold in the beit el mal as slaves. At the
same time the Mahdi issued the strictest orders against luxurious
living, and insisted that no gold and silver ornaments should be worn.
He further ordained that in future the dress should consist of a takia
(or skull cap) made of the leaves of the dwarf-palm, round which a
turban should be worn with end hanging down; the jibbeh (or coat); a
pair of drawers; and a girdle made of straw. This made rather a becoming
uniform to these swarthy warriors.

The rules regarding smoking and drinking were reiterated with greater
severity. It was next to impossible to induce the Sudanese to give up
smoking and chewing tobacco: a man would willingly give all the money he
had to secure even a small quantity. Then the blacks, and especially the
emirs, are much addicted to marissa drinking, which it was found still
more difficult to stop; if men or women were caught in the act of
smoking or drinking, they were obliged to walk through the market with
the drinking bowl or tobacco on their heads, followed by an insulting
and hooting crowd. It was sometimes the custom to break the bowl on the
marissa drinker's head