An escaped soldier came in from the Arabs—no news. He was so dreadfully itchy, I could not keep my patience, or keep him in my room. He saw himself in the mirror, and asked who it was; said he did not know! and really he did not seem to know. It stands to reason that in countries where there are no mirrors, every one must be a complete stranger to himself, and would need an introduction.
I wrote to Waled a Goun, Arab commander-in-chief, as follows:—“I went to Halfeyeh to see Shaggyeh, found five men there; they wanted me to kill them, for being of your family, who had gone back to you after pretending to join me. I questioned these five men; they said they could not bear the smell of you, and that the Shaggyehs had wanted their things, and so had invented the accusation. I have no scales to weigh the truth—perhaps Mahomet Achmet Mahdi has—so, as you have sent me many soldiers of late, I send you these men. I have taken the body of your Peacock” (alluding to the man who came in with the wonderful Dervish dress), “but I send you the plumage of your bird on another body.” I have put the dress on one of the men I sent out.
“Why did you run away so swiftly to-day? was Abou Gugliz there? It could not be you, for you said so much about your desire to die at the fortifications.”
“As for knowing the truth in the Soudan it is impossible, for the devils of lying and robbery are riding all over the country.”
I gave them a dollar each; they leave to-morrow. I have also given them a captured Arab flag and a captured Dervish cap each, so they will go out a grand procession, and as it is their Sunday (Friday), they will arrive at church parade.
Thousands of cranes, with their curious cry, are passing over every day (“The cranes of Ibycus.” Few ever read Schiller’s poems. I only know Bulwer’s translation, but they have grand things in them. “The Veiled Image of Truth at Sais,” “The Ring of Polycrates,” for who can bear plain truth? Who can bear success?)
The notables were in a regular state about my going to Halfeyeh to-day. A deputation came to prevent it, but it was of no use. The Mudir threw himself down and embraced my feet, begging me not to go; but, as I thought his solicitude was actuated more by the wish to prevent me going to where he has, I expect, been robbing right and left, than my security, I did not attend much to him. I should break the hearts of our F.O., for I say openly, “As your Government is bad, and will give you nothing when you are decrepit, rob away gaily, but with wisdom, and do not let me hear of it.”
The Arabs will be in an awful rage to-morrow with the procession of the five Dervishes with captured flags, &c. You can scarcely imagine the state (well known to Stewart, Power, and Herbin) one gets in, when one is constantly hearing explosions; what with the guns, mines, and musketry, one’s nerves get strained, and nothing can drop without one thinking it is an explosion. What the Russians underwent at Sevastopol must have been terrible. As Hansall, the Austrian Consul, says, it is abrutissant. It has slackened off now, but still any loud noise, in this clear air, makes me jump (i.e., be, for a moment, afraid) like any man who rides knows, when his horse, as it were, sinks completely beneath him, on a sudden start.
I look forward to the advent of some of the Royal Navy more than anything. There are such a lot of splendid cutting-outs and surprises to be made by the steamers, and the steamers are first-rate in every respect. Each steamer is worth two thousand men, if well handled, and they have all on board grub and ammunition, and want no commissariat officers.
If I were Earle, I would leave all the principal medical officers at Dongola, and only take on the lowest ranks of the Army Medical Department.