y several hundredweight of the new powder in
the course of a month.

But soon people began to talk of him as being a cheat and a deceiver; a
month passed and the powder was not delivered; the head of the beit el
mal became anxious, and reported the matter to the Khalifa, who at once
sent his brother Yakub and Wad Adlan to make inquiries on the spot; they
went, and it was very evident that the Indian had been duping them all
the time. He was brought before the Khalifa, and, strange to say, was
not punished. Abdullah merely remarked that he was a poor foreigner,
and, of course, had to do his best to make a living. It is a curious
thing that Abdullah has a much greater insight into the ways of
foreigners than most natives.

A certain mukuddum, however, of the Jaalin tribe did not get off so
easily. In the days of the Government he had practised an extensive
fraud in Khartum, and also in Sennar as an alchemist, and now he came
forward to offer his services for the manufacture of lead. At first he
had been occupied in making gold, but now to the Khalifa lead was even
more precious than gold, and the want of it was causing him grave
apprehension.

The mukuddum's offer was accepted, he received presents from the beit el
mal, where he was given a special place in which to carry on his work,
and numbers of slaves were placed at his disposal; he was given all the
money he required to purchase various things in connection with the
manufacture, and which he asserted were absolutely essential. Four
slaves were told off to keep up an enormous furnace, whilst the
mukuddum, his head and shoulders swathed in a great mantle, beat the
ground madly with a long whip in order to call the Jinns to his
assistance. His curious antics greatly astonished the people, and he
soon became the principal topic of conversation in Omdurman. After
fourteen days an enormous lump of lead was drawn out from the furnace,
and his reputation was made.

The Sudanese are great believers in alchemy; and it was thought that the
preparation of one of the ingredients required the greatest secrecy. The
mukuddum, therefore, worked fully on the superstitious nature of the
people, and a thick cloud of foul-smelling smoke was seen continually
issuing from his mysterious and dark laboratory. The lead was at once
sent to the Khalifa, who appeared thoroughly convinced of the miraculous
power of the maker, and indeed had the piece brought into the mosque to
expose it pub