ge
retinue to meet Adam, who had a great reputation throughout Kordofan,
and greeted him most cordially. A salute was fired, and every one
rejoiced at the Mahdi's bloodless victory. King Adam was warmly welcomed
by the Mahdi, given a special place to live in, and treated with the
greatest respect. To gain still more favour in the Mahdi's eyes, Adam
sent him six of his prettiest young girls as concubines. After a short
time, however, the mountain king seemed to tire of residence in El Obeid
and began to suffer from melancholia. In his mountains he was absolute
master, here in El Obeid he was nothing but a slave. At first he thought
he would be permitted to return to his mountains, but soon he had to
give up all hope of this; and before long he realised that one of the
first principles of Mahdiism was that those who were fortunate enough to
behold its light would never be permitted to wander back into darkness.
Now he bitterly repented that he had not accepted his Kadi's advice,
while the spies by whom he was surrounded soon let the Mahdi know what
the Kadi's opinions were; and when Khalifa Abdullah learnt that he
meditated flight, he at once had him seized and beheaded. Thus was the
unfortunate Adam intimidated; then his horses were taken from him, and
last of all, to save his life, he had to sell his wives.

Almost all the inhabitants of Jebel Nuba sent messengers to say that
they were the Mahdi's subjects. Even in Khartum already numbers were
inclined to him. In proof of this statement, the case of the Sub-Mudir
of the town, Wad Gesuli, may be quoted. When this individual heard of
Gordon's arrival at Berber, he at once fled from Khartum and came to El
Obeid, where he threw himself at the Mahdi's feet and assured him that
the inhabitants of Khartum to a man were on his side.

All hope of release now seemed at an end. Our pitiful condition was
somewhat lightened through the kind offices of our Syrian friend, George
Stambuli, who was both the Mahdi's favourite and our benefactor at the
same time, and he supplied us with the necessaries of life. The sisters
made jibbehs (Dervish coats), which Stambuli sold and gave us the
proceeds. We obtained the material chiefly from the clothes of the
soldiers who had been killed, and from the officers' tunics. O'Donovan's
mackintosh and some other articles of clothing which Klootz recognised
came into our hands and were soon cut up. Most of the clothing was
stained with blood, which w