By the time the sun had well risen, the Dervishes were assembled in endless lines under their various flags. Khalifa Abdullah left his residence accompanied by his bodyguard; he was mounted on a magnificent camel, and advanced to the sound of the great onbeïa trumpet. Abu Anga, mounted on a pony and clad in a casque and coat-of-mail, now advanced to meet him, and his magnificent figure created no small impression on the assembled multitudes. His bodyguard, consisting of his very best soldiers, accompanied him, as well as a number of mukuddums. On approaching the Khalifa he adroitly dismounted and kissed his hands; he was warmly greeted, and ordered to mount again.
Then the march past began. Upwards of 31,000 black troops, armed with Remingtons and formed up in long lines, went by to the sound of drums and trumpets; but the latter, on which the players attempted to produce some specially Dervish music, raised the most discordant sounds, which gave an intensely comic aspect to the whole proceeding. Each emir, with his flag, rode at the head of his division; the chief emirs were Ibrahim Wad Abdullah, Nur Angara, Zeki Tummal, and Ibrahim Wad Abu Tagalla. When the Jehadieh had passed, the sword-and spearmen followed, some 20,000 in number; then came the inhabitants of Omdurman in countless numbers. There could not have been less than 60,000.
After the march past all were formed up again, and then the Khalifa, dismounting from his camel, stood on his sheepskin and conducted prayers. The shout of "Allahu Akbar" from over 100,000 throats was impressive in the extreme, and, as the sound rolled down the immense lines, it was echoed again and again through the hills, lasting for over a minute after each shout.
On the conclusion of prayers the guns pealed forth salutes, and such wild fanaticism and enthusiasm prevailed that several men dashed up to the very muzzles of the guns and were blown to pieces. Of course the Khalifa announced that the souls of these stupid people had gone straight to paradise. The salutes over, the lines were once more inspected, and then all the flags were collected in one place, in the centre of which stood the Khalifa; this was the signal for the whole force to gather around and vie with one another in their shouts of loyalty that they would die a hundred times over for him and his cause. Khalifa Abdullah became so wildly impressed by the enthusiasm of these savage hordes that he could scarcely contain himself, and it was as much as his bodyguard could do to keep the impetuous crowds from crushing him to death. Numbers were bruised and kicked by the horses; but they were left quite unnoticed—a mere remark, "Umru Khalas" ("It is the end of his life"), was all the sympathy these heartless men ever offered.
From that day to this I do not think the Khalifa has ever had such an ovation. At that time Omdurman was unusually full, trade was brisk, and it was thought that he would now undertake the invasion of Egypt. But, as it soon transpired, he had still a good deal of work to do in the Sudan itself. One enemy he undoubtedly had—this was El Merhdi Abu Rof, a descendant of the ancient Kings of Sennar and sheikh of the great Gehena tribe, which, amongst the mass of Arabs allied to the Mahdi, had persistently held aloof. This tribe possessed a large number of camels of a curious dark-coloured breed, and also quantities of gray-coloured cows.
El Merhdi had instigated a purely local movement of his own against the Government, and had once besieged and set fire to Sennar; long before Abu Anga's arrival he had shown hostility to the Khalifa, and had annihilated a number of small Dervish garrisons; his power extended as far as Karkoj, and he levied taxes on all boats going north. For a long time the Khalifa had let him alone, but now finding himself in possession of such an enormous force, he decided to attack El Merhdi, more especially as at this time his audacity considerably endangered the navigation of the Blue Nile, from whence Omdurman drew its main supplies of corn. He therefore despatched Ismail Wad el Andok up the Blue Nile, while Abdullah Wad Ibrahim was sent up the White Nile.
El Merhdi, attacked thus on both sides, was powerless; he was unable to withstand the advance of the victorious black troops, and he and almost all his Arabs were killed. El Merhdi's head was sent to Omdurman, where it was exposed for a long time on the gallows, and was at last thrown into the pit in which lay the heads of Bishir and those who had been slain with him.
Thus one by one did the Khalifa's enemies become subdued. The vengeance wreaked on the unfortunate Gehena tribe by the Dervishes is almost beyond description. The property of the survivors was seized, men, women, and children were dragged off to Omdurman, and there, naked and helpless, they were left to starve on the river bank. One would see wretched mothers of three or four children, who looked just like skeletons, miserably abandoned in a place utterly unknown, and subject to the insults and indignities of the proud and cruel Dervishes. Numbers of them, especially children, died of starvation, whilst those who still had sufficient strength would wander about begging their bread; if any one had money enough he would buy a waterskin, and would go half a mile to the river, fill it, carry it back and sell it in the market for a quarter of a piastre; thus they eked out a miserable existence. Men who but lately had ridden on good horses and had owned hundreds of camels were reduced to this mode of gaining their livelihood, whilst poor women could be seen, with babies at their breasts, toiling under the heavy weight of a filled waterskin towards the market-place; then they had no rest, for in the evening they had to grind the dhurra and make a sort of pap which the poor little mouths of their infants could hardly masticate; they had but one meal in the twenty-four hours.
It was impossible not to be struck by the mother's love of these poor people for their offspring, and at the same time to feel bitterly incensed against the Khalifa and his cruel followers who could thus intentionally inflict on people of their own race such untold cruelties. Thousands of Gehena camels were brought to Omdurman and sold at low prices; thus was the wealth of their country utterly destroyed, and now the terrible famine, which was so soon to fall upon the land, was close at hand.
In the meantime Abdullah was considering with his advisers the desirability of permitting war to break out with Abyssinia. The great power of which he now felt himself possessed inclined him to war, and of course the majority of his emirs, whose sole desire was to pander to his will, agreed with him. Then news reached Yunis that Ras Adal was making gigantic preparations; this finally decided Abdullah to wage war, and with this object in view, he despatched his faithful Abu Anga to conduct the operations.