Berber police, succeeded in
making himself feared by the thieves. He openly told the Khalifa that it
would never do to treat thieves according to the law, and that only the
strongest and most energetic measures would effect the breaking up of
the band.

The Khalifa agreed; and at once the new chief of police seized all the
well-known thieves and put them in chains. They were then bastinadoed,
and forced to confess what they had stolen, to whom the goods had been
sold, and their value. And thus they got to know the names of almost all
the thieves in the town.

These measures created a great sensation in Omdurman, for it was found
that several people in high places were implicated, and they were
convicted. The thieves, too, seized this opportunity for extorting
hush-money; but Wad er Reis soon re-established public security. To
increase the supervision, he divided the market into quarters, over
which he appointed sub-sheikhs (known as sheikh el hara), who were
responsible, with the assistance of the inhabitants of the quarter, for
preserving security at night. Numbers of marissa-drinkers were
apprehended, and a large quantity of confiscated tobacco was publicly
burnt in the market-place. All the principal thieves were transported to
the convict-station at Regaf, a course which the Khalifa thought
preferable to mutilation of the hand and foot.

Just about this time an Egyptian convict, who had escaped from Sawakin,
arrived in Omdurman. He had been convicted of false coining in Egypt,
and had been sentenced to ten years penal servitude at Sawakin. While in
the prison there, he and a companion had come to an agreement with the
soldier guarding them, and all three had escaped and set off for Berber.
The soldier and the other man had died on the journey, and the survivor,
having reached Omdurman, begged to be presented to the Khalifa; but
Abdullah thought it beneath his dignity to interview an escaped convict.
He was therefore transferred at once to the steamer bound for Regaf with
all the thieves and other exiles, whilst the Khalifa was heard to remark
that anyone who came from Egypt was invariably a criminal or dishonest
man.

The new posts of sheikh el hara were unpaid, and as the holders had to
live, they were forced to make money by unfair means. This led to the
old tobacco and marissa abuse, so that matters soon drifted back into
much the same condition as before.

The caravan roads into the interior are fairly saf