ds "Mahdi Nur Ainana"
(the Mahdi is the light of our eyes), or "El Mahdi kammal et Turk fi
Kana" (the Mahdi conquered--lit. gave their full to--the Turks at Kana).

The Arabs delight in poetry, and during the night generally collected in
parties, and seated on the sand sang the Mahdi's praises, the two
principal singers keeping time by beating the ground with their sticks,
while the rest joined in the chorus at the end of each verse. Inspired
sometimes by their theme, they would stand up and flourish their swords
in the air as if combating the Turks, shouting "Fi Shan Allah" (for
God's cause). Thus the adulation of the Mahdi extended from the highest
emir to the lowest slave, and woe to him who was ever heard to utter one
word in deprecation or blame of the new Prophet, he would at once be
pounced upon and beaten to death with sticks.

Sometimes the Mahdi was called "Khalifat er Rasul" (the successor of the
Prophet), and sometimes even they dignified him with the sacred title of
Nebbi (Prophet). In truth the Prophet Mohammed occupied in the people's
minds quite a secondary position, and the celebration of his birthday
was forbidden by the Mahdi.

On one occasion a dispute occurred between two men; one argued that the
Mahdi would have a higher seat in heaven than the Prophet, while the
other maintained that "God was higher than the Mahdi." The dispute waxed
hot, and the case was referred to the judge, who settled the matter by
saying that "the living was better than the dead," but at the same time
the man who advocated the Prophet's claims was relegated to prison, not
so much for asserting what was perfectly true, that "God was higher than
the Mahdi," but that the tone in which he had said it was tantamount to
an insult to the Mahdi. Naturally those Moslems who still had some sense
of the orthodox creed were much annoyed at this decision.

Early in April a messenger arrived from Khartum with a letter from the
Austrian Consul Hansal. Now as we were perfect strangers in El Obeid,
people did not dare to associate with us; the messenger therefore
handed over the letter to George Stambuli, who was then a man well known
to every one. Stambuli, who supplied us with all the necessaries of
life, now came to us in a state of great excitement, bringing the letter
in which he hoped to find some news of the outside world. We opened the
letter, which was long and well-written, and found that it was directed
to the Mahdi. We read it