Since the occasion on which the Mahdi had interviewed Klootz, I had not seen him. I now saw a considerable change in him; he had grown much stouter, but he still wore the same clothes of rough damur, consisting of drawers, jibbeh, girth, and turban. His conversation soon turned on religion, and he asked me if we Christians used the "Hamdu" (a form used by the Moslems as they bow in prayer) in our prayers. I replied that not only had we one but several, and at his request I repeated the Lord's Prayer in Arabic.
This created much surprise amongst the ignorant listeners, who believe that Christians do not know how to pray, and I was thought quite "fasich" (i.e. educated). After a long conversation on the Psalms of David, the Mahdi said, "I know that you Christians are very good people, and that you feed the hungry." He then told me about "deeds of mercy," and added that all such acts were useless, as anyone who did not believe in the Mahdi was but "wood for the fire." Our conversation was interrupted by the Aser or afternoon prayers, after which the Mahdi again held a reception. Amongst others a small dwarf appeared, and the Mahdi spoke to him about his tribe and asked if he were married. The dwarf replied that he had come to ask for a wife, and explained that the possession of one was the desire of his heart, whereupon the Mahdi gave orders that he should at once be provided with one. He then rose up to leave, and I was permitted to go home.
On the following day I was again summoned before him, and he explained that through the noonday prayers he knew he should win over the whole world. He said that God had given him a period of forty years (as a matter of fact he only lived four years, but a cypher more or less is of no consequence) during which he should make all people believe on him and acknowledge that he was the Mahdi. He added that after the subjugation of the Sudan he would take Egypt, which would only offer a weak resistance, and that afterwards he would attack Mecca, where the most bloody battle which the world had ever seen would take place; from Mecca he should proceed to Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ should descend from heaven. "Of course," I said, "Christ will possess all the characteristics which the Gospel attributes to Him;" but the Mahdi continued, "Would Christ not fight with anti-Christ? If I do not believe in Him He will kill me."
The Mahdi then asked me if I ever had dreams, and I replied that even if I did have dreams I did not believe in them. Then the Mahdi turned round to those who were near and said, "Assuredly the Turks do not believe in dreams, or they would have admitted that I am the Mahdi." It is said that Mahmud Bey Ahmedani, Mudir of Khartum, who had accompanied Hicks and had fallen near Shekan, had seen the Mahdi's shadow on the wall surrounded with a halo of light, but in his obstinacy he still refused to acknowledge him.
Just then a Sherif of Syria came in, and, making obeisance to the Mahdi, said, "Sire, you are my relation!" (By this he meant that as he belonged to the Prophet's tribe, and as the Mahdi had sprung from the Prophet, that therefore they were connected.) The Mahdi was much gratified by this flattery, and ordered Wad Suleiman to give him fifty dollars and a concubine. The conversation was then turned on Gordon. The Mahdi remarked he was full of pity for him, for he said that he was convinced it was the Ulema's arguments which had made Gordon believe that he was not the true Mahdi. He then asked me what was the object of the wires with which Gordon had surrounded Khartum. I replied that I knew nothing of the art of war, but others said that this was telegraph wire, which Gordon had put down so that in case of attack the horses would stumble over it. The Mahdi smiled, and remarked that God was more mighty than all the tricks and artifices of Gordon.
It was now evening, and the Mahdi got up to go, so I went home, and when I returned to Sheikh Idris, several came up and congratulated me for having had the good fortune to talk with the Mahdi. For my own part I would gladly have dispensed with this good fortune. When I was summoned the next day I sent word that I was very ill, and by this means secured some rest.
Whilst at Rahad, the Mahdi's eyes were continually directed on Jebel Dair, and when Abu Anga and the emirs who were sent to subjugate these districts, returned, defeated in their attempts to scale the mountain, the Mahdi then despatched every man fit for war to reinforce him. He excused himself for this unusual measure by saying that all persons should be exercised in war, and that, moreover, this was penance to those who had only recently joined him, to purify them from the sin of not having joined him earlier. As a matter of fact, these Arabs were a source of great trouble and annoyance to the Mahdi, for they did nothing but wander about the market-place begging, and it was no small difficulty to keep such vast crowds in order.
The war against the Nubas was waged in the most cruel manner; the proud Dervishes were incensed at the stubborn resistance of these poor black slaves, as they used to call the Nubas. On one occasion, when the Dervishes, led by Abu Anga and followed by the Gellabas, attempted to ascend the mountain, the Nubas allowed them to advance some way and then pounced down upon the Gellabas in the narrowest pass; these men were badly armed, and four hundred of them were killed. Abu Anga seeing this beat a rapid retreat, and on coming into the pass was implored by the wretched wounded Gellabas to carry them away, but Abu Anga's men jeeringly replied that they must die "in God's cause," and left them to the tender mercies of the Nuba lances.
I may here remark that there was great ill-feeling between the blacks and the Dervishes, for the black soldiers complained that they were always placed in the forefront of the battle. In another attack the Dervishes succeeded in reaching the Nuba village, burning the huts, killing a large number of them and carrying off their wives and children as captives to Rahad, where they were sold as slaves. On this occasion Nur Angar cut off the heads of three Nubas who had already submitted, while Abu Anga's men seized the little children by the feet and dashed their brains to pieces on the rocks. At Rahad a special zariba was built for the Nuba captives, who were driven like cattle into a pen to be sold. These poor creatures, without covering from the sun or rain, suffered terribly from hunger and thirst; each evening they were given a handful of dhurra and some water, but that was quite insufficient, and in a few days mothers had to see their children slowly starving to death, while the little suckling babes gathered round their mothers in the vain search for food. Each morning the guards looked in to inquire if there were any dead or dying, and then ordered the wretched survivors, who had scarcely the strength to get up, to drag out their dead and dying friends and relations.
It would take a long time to tell of all the horrible atrocities and cruelties which these poor Nubas suffered at the hands of the Dervishes—and why? because they tried to retain their freedom and defend their fatherland, refusing to follow that base liar who called himself the Mahdi, to the siege of Khartum. Amongst the captives in the zariba was a man and his wife and two small children. The sight of his starving children was breaking the father's heart; the view of his native mountain so affected him that he became desperate, and knowing that he would probably be separated from his wife and children and sold the next day, he took a terrible resolution: in the middle of the night he embraced his wife, kissed his little children, and then plunged his knife into each of them, preferring rather that they should die than become slaves; he then broke out of the zariba and fled, the guards fired and missed him; thus the wretched man succeeded in reaching his beloved hills.