IV. D7.CCLXXX. OF THE SUDAN 397

than on the previous day : this too lasted from the time of the evening prayer until the sunset.

CCLXXIV In the same year occurred a serious drought, and corn of any kind was unobtainable; but His Excellency the Hakimdar issued a hundred ardebs of dhurra at his own expense to the poor and needy, and ordered a hundred ardebs from the Government store to be sold in the market to help the people. He also ordered prayers to be made for rain and attended them in person.

CCLXXV And in this year too the people were visited by cholera,

which was known as "The yellow wind" [el rih el as far], and so great was the mortality that in el Khartoum itself more than twenty corpses were taken out [for burial] daily.

CCLXXVI And when the epidemic was at its height the Hakimdar went to Shendi and stayed there for some time. And from there he sent Ragab walad Bashir to el Khartoum, where he was put to death by being impaled.

CCLXXVII Now the notables who perished by this novelty were the feki el Senussi ibn el feki Bakadi, and the feki el Nakhl, the reader

of the holy Kuran at the village of Bakadi, and the feki Muhammad ibn el Hag el Taib, the Imam of the mosque at el Khartoum, and the

feki Muhammad 'Ali walad el 'Abbas, and Sheikh el Terayfi ibn el Sheikh Yusef, and Sheikh Muhammad ibn el Sheikh Hasan walad

Ban el Nuka, and Sheikh Sa'ad 'Abd el Fattah el 'Abadi, and Sheikh Mustafa, the khalifa of Sheikh Dafa'alla el 'Araki. CCLXXVIII This same year His Excellence pulled down the mosque

which he had begun to build in '45^, because it was too small: so, when el Khartoum increased in size as a settlement and the popula-

tion multiplied, he demolished it down to its foundations, and began building on its site the present mosque, which is much more spacious.

CCLXXIX In Ramadan of this year Ahmad Kashif, the ruler of

el Kedaref, made an expedition in the direction of the lands of Ma- KADA, and slew many of them, and sent the captives to el Khartoum.

CCLXXX The same year appeared a great star in the middle of the day and sparks flew from it. Also an epidemic of fever broke out,

which the people called " Um Saba'a" ("Mother of Seven"), and caused great mortality ; and among the notables who died was el 'Awag el Darb el feki Muhammad Barakat, a man well known for his

generosity, descended from Sheikh Idri's. The fever was called "Mother of Seven" because most of those who were stricken by it died on the seventh day, and if one survived the seventh day he was saved.

1 1830 A.D.