Maybe, with a European, chloroform might have been necessary for the extraction of the bullet in the arm, but with a Soudanese—have I not already said that a dervish can continue leaping and stabbing with half a dozen severe wounds in his body? A dervish can and will kill at the moment when the ventricles of his heart make their last contraction. Bodily pain, as we understand it, is unknown to them. Many a time have I applied, and seen applied, red-hot charcoal to sores, with the patients calmly looking on. With my present patients, after dabbing a little carbolic acid over the wounds, I asked what news they had brought. Yacoub, they said, was killed; almost all the faithful were killed or wounded; the Khaleefa himself was running back to town, but they had outstripped him. While still questioning them, Idris es Saier told me that the Muslimanieh who had been |273| taken out to fight had made their way back to town, and were rummaging for European clothes in which to array themselves to receive the troops when they arrived.
THE FLAG OF KHALEEFA SHEREEF.
Line 1. “In the Name of God, the most Compassionate and Merciful.”
Line 2. “Thou Living, Thou Existing and most Glorious Source of generosity.”
Line 3. “There is no God but God. Mohammad is the messenger of God.”
Line 4. “Mohammad El Mahdi is the Khaleefa of the messenger of God.”
I should here take up the tales of those who were fighting in the dervish lines in order to present a complete narrative. At sunrise on September 2, Sheikh ed Din determined on attacking with his army of riflemen and cavalry, leaving Yacoub, with whom was his father, the Khaleefa, as a reserve. The shells which fell amongst his men did not knock them over or mow them down in lanes, they “blew a hundred men and horses high into the air”; then, when the rifle fire struck them, it “rolled them about like little stones.” The carnage was so frightful that Sheikh ed Din himself led the way to the shelter in a khor to the west of Surgham hill.
And now, to understand clearly what followed next, and in a measure to explain the post of honour being given to Sheikh ed Din, I must refer to an incident occurring at the last moment before the army left Omdurman. Khaleefa Shereef, since his insurrection against Abdullahi, had not been allowed to exhibit the white flag made specially for the family of the Mahdi. It was believed that Abdullahi intended to nominate his son to succeed him, but this was against the expressed order of the Mahdi that Wad Helu and then Shereef should do so. While Sheikh ed Din was given the principal command, Shereef was not allowed any command at all, nor was the white flag of Mahdieh brought out of the Beit-el-Amana. Discontent was |274| openly expressed at this, and some of the more religious or fanatic of the Mahdists demanded to know whether it was Abdullahi or Mahdieh they were to fight for. Abdullahi was advised to bring out the white flag, and it was carried at the extreme left of his army, but Sheikh ed Din Abdullahi had hoped would return as the victor of Kerreri, and thus his succession could be assured with the aid of a vision.
Seeing the repulse of Sheikh ed Din, the Khaleefa ordered the advance of Yacoub’s army, and, as they were advancing, Sheikh ed Din collected his men and joined it. Then it was that the determined attack was made on MacDonald’s brigade. The Khaleefa had dismounted, and, sitting on his prayer-skin, surrounded by his Mulazameen six deep, he held communion again with the Prophet and the Mahdi, while his army was being thinned by the thousands. Yacoub, with his Emirs and bodyguard of horsemen, rode in front of the troops and did his best to incite them to a final rush on the brigade. The white flag of Mahdieh was pushed close to where the 2nd Egyptian battalion, under Colonel Pink, was posted, and five standard-bearers in succession were shot down; others ran to raise it only to be shot down in turn, until the flag was buried under the slain.