aps that was sufficient, for
the troops always plundered the villages for their food as they went
along. Yunis marched direct to Abu Haraz, on the Blue Nile, and thence
followed the Khor Rahad up to Galabat, which he found quite empty and
deserted. He now settled down, and, to his credit, he occasionally made
raids into Abyssinia, destroyed a few villages and churches, and sent
the ornaments he took to Omdurman. This so delighted the Khalifa that he
dubbed him "Mismar ed Din" (or the "Nail of Religion"), and had special
poems about his deeds sung in his presence.

But soon Yunis abandoned hostilities, and guaranteed free passes to
merchants travelling in the country; the Abyssinians believed in these
assurances of peace, and descended into the Galabat plain at various
times in the year, bringing with them for sale thousands of mules,
donkeys, and horses, also quantities of coffee, garlic, lentils, beans,
wax, and honey. Things went on quite peaceably for some time; but one
day Yunis suddenly fell on all the merchants collected within their
zariba, killed numbers of them, seized their goods, and sent off about
1,000 of them as prisoners to Omdurman. Several died of starvation on
the journey, and on their arrival in Omdurman the remainder were
released, but had to go about the markets begging their bread. It
frequently happened that they would take shelter for the night in the
merchants' empty stalls; and on the latter arriving with their goods in
the morning, they would find their shops full of dead and dying
Abyssinians; afterwards, slaves were left by the merchants to guard the
shops and prevent these miserable creatures from making use of them.
These wretched, gaunt, half-starved people used sometimes to come to us
to beg for food; they knew no Arabic, but knowing that we were
Christians, they would repeat that word, or sometimes "Wad Maryam"
("Mary's child") to excite our pity. Their wretched condition at length
reached the Khalifa's ears, and he ordered the beit el mal to take
charge of them; the emin beit el mal now sent a crier to the market to
warn all Abyssinians that if they came to the beit el mal they would
receive assistance. The poor starving creatures dragged themselves
there, but were still kept two or three days without food; numbers of
them died, and their bodies were thrown into the river, whilst the
remainder were at last given a miserable pittance of dhurra, which
served to keep body and soul togethe