AFTER THE BATTLE — 233 be purchased for about twenty-five shillings each; but they were very heavy and awkward things to carry about. Everybody brought back a Dervish sword or ‘two, which were often very interesting. Some blades had the famous Ferrara stamp, others were marked by the mail-clad figure which is said to belong to the period of the Crusades, from which, at anyrate, the general pattern of Dervish swords—a straight blade with a plain cross hilt — seems to date. The pretty gzbdehs, too, were brought home in large numbers ; there were nearly eleven thousand of them available for selection on the sandy plain three miles away! The history of the Dervish gzdéeh is rather a quaint one. The original garment was, of course, the plain white cotton coat of the Arab; but the Mahdi, who was somewhat ascetic—in theory, at anyrate, if not in practice —ordered his followers to sew black patches, upon their nice white coats, as tokens of -humility. But alas for human frailty, what was intended to curb the spiritual pride of the faithful became a direct incentive to the vainglorious adornment of their persons! The ladies of Omdurman were strongly opposed