sinia had been
humbled, the Khalifa turned his attention more earnestly than ever to
the invasion of Egypt. He despatched Yunis ed Dekeim to Dongola, and on
his arrival, Nejumi was to begin his advance north.

Nejumi was now nominated Commander-in-chief, and being one of the
Mahdi's most determined and fanatical emirs, he had given him the title
of "Emir el Umara" ("The Emir of emirs"). He had under his command
several brave emirs, such as Abdel Halim, Makin en Nur, Wad Gubara,
Sheikh Idris, Osman Azrak, and several others. But the fighting
conditions of these Dervishes had considerably changed during the last
few years. The Ansar no longer fought for Mahdieh. All those promises
of joys in paradise were no longer believed in, for by dying the Mahdi
had proved himself to be false, and so were all his prophecies. They did
not fight to obtain booty, for long experience had shown them that the
booty was exclusively appropriated by the Khalifa and his emirs. It was
now fear of the Khalifa's anger which drove them to fight, and numbers
of them deserted when a favourable opportunity occurred for them to do
so.

Not only were all these feelings at work in Nejumi's force, but also the
conditions of the country in which he was operating were very different
from those in which he had won all his early victories. Then he knew
every path, almost every tree. It was his own country; the inhabitants
were of his own race; volunteers flocked to his standards. He always
largely exceeded his enemies in point of numbers; but now it was all
entirely different. He knew nothing of the country through which he had
to march; enormous difficulties blocked his every movement. Even had the
population of Upper Egypt been desirous of joining him, they were much
too carefully looked after by the troops and the Government to be able
to do so. An enormous desert separated him from the position he desired
to reach, and the result was that his force--just as Hicks's force had
done--suffered greatly from want of water. As usual he was accompanied
by numbers of women and children, and sometimes even five dollars would
not purchase a drink of water.

Abdullah showed his mistrust of the men by permitting their wives and
families to accompany them, for he thought that they could not well run
away, leaving their wives and children behind, and therefore they would
have to fight; but this great crowd of women and children hampered
Nejumi's movements enormously