tenants that they might administer it until he should require it; and
now no stone is left unturned to enforce his theory of the true
ownership. The Khalifa directs his special attention to the merchants,
who, he supposes, make large profits out of commerce and trade.

Hitherto the Baggaras have had nothing to do with external commerce,
they never go to Sawakin or to Egypt. All trade with the outside world
is conducted by Hadarba, Jaalin, Danagla, and Barabra merchants, also
on the southern frontier of Egypt by Ababdeh and Kenuz people; but in
Omdurman itself the Baggaras, and especially the women, take a large
share in the retail business. Although they have scarcely ever owned a
piastre in their lives, the shining dollar has excited the most
inordinate cupidity amongst them. They are very quick to learn, and
already surpass the Aulad-belad in many branches of trade; this fact has
delighted the Khalifa, and he encourages it to the fullest extent.

The continuous support which the Khalifa gives to his own compatriots at
the expense of the rest of his subjects not unnaturally irritates the
latter, and out of their oppression a species of courage has sprung. The
Khalifa Sherif bitterly resents being debarred from all share in the
government of the country. He is highly favoured amongst the late
Mahdi's widows, and the Ashraf look to him as their head.

Abdullah, however, employs every means to lower his position and
diminish the respect in which he is held by the Ashraf, whose loose mode
of life he never loses an opportunity of exposing. For instance, Ahmed
Sharfi's second son had a concubine to whom he was much devoted, and who
used to saddle his horse for him herself; but in secret she was not
always faithful to her master, and when one day he returned to find her
absent, he revenged himself on her return by hanging her with his own
hands. When this outrage came to the Khalifa's ears, he ordered the
perpetrator to be imprisoned and all his property confiscated, whereas,
according to Mahdi law, a master has complete power to deal as he likes
with his own slaves. Another of Ahmed Sharfi's sons was discovered to be
leading a very immoral life, and he was exiled up the White Nile.

Another similar and even worse discovery, of which the principal agent
was one of the Mahdi's near relatives, gave Abdullah an opportunity of
openly accusing the Ashraf of leading lives which did not entitle them
to the smallest respect; and h