THE FIRST MAHDISTS. 83 of a faint light burning far off on the plains. After half-an-hour's absence they returned with several natives, a string of camels, and several loads of dates. They had found a number of natives and camels bivouacked for the night, surprised them, captured as much loot as possible, and bolted the rest. The caravan turned out to be one loaded with stores from the Lower Nile for the Mahdi's troops ; the provisions consisted chiefly of dates, so what the Hussars could not carry away they carefully pitched into holes, and strewed about in the grass. At 3.15 a.m. we crossed the track leading to the Abu Haifa wells, which lay three or four miles N.E. of our route. A party of Mounted Infantry was accordingly sent thither to explore, whilst the rest of the column pushed on to Gakdul. The Mounted Infantry found some twenty men in the Mahdi's uniform* round the wells, took four prisoners, * This uniform was simply a long white night-shirt, covered with scraps of blue and red cloth, and a coloured straw skull-cap ; the higher the rank, the more decorated they were.

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