, who
has by this time noticed the presence of two strangers, says, "Oh, my
son, only the Turks wear such ornaments, because they love the things of
this world; but it is not becoming in us to wear such ornaments, which
are perishable; we strive to obtain things imperishable. Give the ring
back to your mother." The little hypocrite well understands what his
father means, and obeys.

Aisha then clothes the Mahdi in his Dervish jibbeh, girdle, and turban,
and in this godly raiment he marches off to the mosque. As he quits the
palace, his bodyguard surround him and keep off the crowd. On reaching
the mihrab he is received with a shout by the assembled multitude. After
prayers he gives a short sermon, and then returns to his wives.

Thus did the Mahdi enjoy the sweets of victory indoors, whilst outside
he practised the most abominable hypocrisy. Most of his principal emirs
(with the exception of his uncle, Sayid Abdel Karim, who had been sent
to reduce Sennar) followed in their divine master's footsteps, and led a
life of pleasure and debauchery. Sometimes the Mahdi used to cross over
to Khartum and disport himself in Gordon's palace, whither he ordered a
portion of his harem to be transferred.

But all this good living and unbridled sensuality were to be the cause
of his speedy dissolution. He grew enormously fat. The two visitors,
whom I mentioned above, saw him only eight days before his death, and
told me that they believed then he could not live much longer. Early in
Ramadan he fell sick, and soon became dangerously ill. The hand of God's
justice fell heavily upon him; and it was decreed that he should no
longer enjoy the empire which he had raised on the dead bodies of
thousands of the victims to his wretched hypocrisy and deceit.

It is, indeed, terrible to think of the awful misery and distress
brought upon his own country by this one man. His disease grew rapidly
worse; he complained of pain in the heart, and died, on the 22nd of
June, 1885, of fatty degeneration of the heart. Some say that he was a
victim to the vengeance of a woman who had lost husband and children in
the fall of Khartum, and who repaid the Mahdi's outrage on her own
person by giving him poison in his food. This may be so; and it is true,
poison is generally used in the Sudan to put people out of the way; but
I am rather inclined to think that it was outraged nature that took
vengeance on its victim; and that it was the Mahdi's debauched and