ngs--The plague of locusts.

In this chapter I propose to give a description of the great Mahdi
capital of the Sudan. I have already given a brief account of the place
as I found it on my arrival from Kordofan in 1886, but now the city is
vastly increased in size.

When Khalifa Abdullah had quite consolidated his authority within the
Sudan, and was contemplating the invasion of Egypt, it also occurred to
him to define the limits of his kingdom, and establish an hereditary
succession in his family. Indeed his only reason for carrying on his
rule under the guise of Mahdiism was his fear that a change of name
might involve him in difficulties, but nevertheless he adhered strictly
to his intentions, with the result that now nothing of Mahdiism remains
but the name. He has adopted many of the old Government systems of
administration, and were it not that he feared he might lose his new
kingdom, I believe that he would not be averse to substituting the
Sultan's for the Mahdi's name.

It is now thoroughly understood that the Khalifa's authority is no
longer based entirely on religious principles as in the case of the
Mahdi: he has substituted for it--if not in name, at any rate in
fact--the system of "molk," or temporary authority. He has abolished
almost all the Mahdi's decrees. His predecessor had substituted for the
gallows the system of decapitation for death-sentences, but the Khalifa
has reinstituted the gallows, his reason for doing this was to make the
mode of execution more alarming to the Sudanese, for whom he considers
decapitation a too painless death.

He has changed the name of his followers. The Mahdi had decreed that the
Foggara (or "poor" as the Dervishes first called themselves) should take
the name of Asyad (_i.e._ masters), and this system of nomenclature was
partially adhered to up to the date of his death; but the Khalifa
thought the name Foggara very derogatory to the spirit of his rule, and
therefore ordered that this name should be abolished and substituted by
"Ansar ed Din" (_i.e._ auxiliaries or helpers in the cause of religion);
it was also permitted to be called the Habib or Sahib el Mahdi (_i.e._
the friend or disciple of the Mahdi), consequently the women are known
as Habiba--a play on words which has given rise to much joking on the
part of the men. It took only a few days to cause the name of Fakir to
be completely forgotten, and now Ansar for the men and Ansariat for the
women have been