emselves in long regular lines behind him. When
prayers were concluded, it was his custom to make religious discourses,
in which he explained various passages in the sacred books, arguing that
they referred to the divine message concerning his mission, and the
destruction of the Turks and unbelievers. The people whom he addressed
were so ignorant and uneducated that they believed implicitly every word
he uttered; these were the guileless, simple folk, and they were
entirely deceived by the Mahdi; but there were others who well knew that
every word he uttered was a falsehood; nevertheless they listened, and,
to flatter him, showed an apparent interest in his new doctrine.

Thus the Mahdi, having prepared himself, as we have seen, and having
already been three times victorious over the Egyptian troops, now
quitted his place of refuge, Gedir, and set off for Kordofan, which he
intended to reduce to entire submission. In order to cover his retreat
in case of failure, he left his uncle, Sherif Mahmud, with some troops
at Gedir, where he also left the guns, as transport at that time of the
year was very difficult, owing to the rain having flooded the khors and
valleys; he also left behind the arms captured from the Turks. Hitherto
he had not collected any large amount of treasure, and had suffered
considerable privations at Gedir.

When the Mahdi announced his departure from Gedir, he wrote letters to
the tribes, and soon they flocked to his standards in great numbers and
from all directions; Baggara from the plains of Dar Nuba, Miserieh, Dar
Abu Dali, and Hawazma Arabs. These hordes assembled, according to the
Mahdi's orders, at Birket, and to this place also came the Bederieh,
Ghodiat, and Dar Homr Arabs, whilst on the further side of El Obeid,
cruel fiki Minneh was gathering the Gowameh, Asaker Abu Kalam and Dar
Giumeh Arabs, with whom he intended to assault El Obeid from the north,
simultaneously with the Mahdi's attack from the south. The rumours of
the enormous quantities of treasure stored in El Obeid misled the Arab
hordes, and there is no doubt that the town would not have fallen had
the inhabitants remained loyal to the Government. Mohammed Said Pasha
had dug a ditch and raised a high parapet round the whole city; but this
line of defence was so extensive, that it would have required at least
20,000 men to hold it; besides, the ditch was neither sufficiently deep
nor broad, and did not present a very serious obstacl