uilders, and shoemakers.

The women have their own separate divisions, and for the last few years
men have been forbidden to have any dealings with them. For the
settlement of quarrels and disputes which frequently occur in the
market, there is a special market court, presided over by a judge, and
all delinquents are interned in a large zariba quite open to the sun's
burning rays. Close to the zariba are three sets of gallows, besides two
others in different parts of the town. The gallows are erected close to
the market, in the hope that if the executions are seen by the masses,
it will have a deterrent effect on crime.

The inhabitants of Omdurman are a conglomeration of every race and
nationality in the Sudan: Fellata, Takruris, natives of Bornu, Wadai,
Borgo, and Darfur; Sudanese from the Sawakin districts, and from
Massawah; niggers as black as ebony, down to a light chocolate colour,
Niam Niam and Mombuttu cannibals, Bazeh, Dinka, Shilluk, Kara, Janghe,
Nuba, Berta, and Masalit; Arabs of every tribe--Baggara, Rizeghat,
Taisha, Homr, Howazma, Miserieh, Kababish, Habbanieh, Degheim, Kenana,
Gowameh, Bederieh, Beni Jerrar, Gehena, inhabitants of Beni Shangul, and
of Gezireh, Shukrieh, Batahin, Hadarba, Hadendoa, Barabra, Jaalin,
Danagla, Egyptians, Abyssinians, Turks, Mecca Arabs, Syrians, Indians,
Europeans, Jews; and all these various nationalities have their own
quarters, and marry into their own tribes and sections. Arabic is the
universal language, and all free inhabitants of the Sudan speak it or
corrupt dialects of it.

The Danagla, Barabra, and Hadendoa have their own special languages; but
being derived from Arabic, they are called "rotan," as if Arabic were
the only original language in the world--the language of Adam and Eve,
and the language of paradise. Arabic is not compulsory, so the blacks
still talk in their local dialects.

The population of Omdurman amounts to about one hundred and fifty
thousand persons; but it is by no means fixed, for during the winter
numbers quit the town and go off into the Kordofan or Gezireh districts
to cultivate. But when the Khalifa orders a general assembly, the
numbers of course increase considerably. In 1888 the city was perhaps
larger than at any other time, for in that year the Khalifa ordered all
the inhabitants of the Gezireh to come and live in Omdurman. The reason
for this was never exactly known, but it was thought he feared a revolt
on the part of the Ashra