GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 26

MAHOMED AHMED, THE MAHDI.

of completinghisreligious education. Thencehe went to thevillageof Aradup,southof Kana,and becamea disciple ofSheikhNur-el-Daim,by whomhe was ordaineda fakir. Other accounts say that, his father being dead, his two elderbrothers,boat-builderson the White Nile, thinking there was the stuff for a great scholar in their brother, found him the means to study under two learned pro- fessors nearKhartoum, Abdel Dagim, and ElGourachi.

The teaching of the schools in which the young Mahomed Ahmed graduated is mainly confinedto read-

ing and writing, to getting by heart as many sentences of the Koran as possible, and, in the case of the more

advanced students, to expoundingthat volume. As this contains not only thereligious but also the civil law of Islam, the influence of its expounder extends through all grades of the populationwith which he is brought into contact, although dependent,in a great measure, on the fakir's shrewdness andthe degreeof favour withGodthat is attributedto himby thepeople. Onequalification it is essential for afakir to possess,namely7,to be able to write

verses of the Koran onscraps of leather, which are worn as amulets, and are considered to be a protection against

sickness, spears, and bullets, and also to insure the

wearer a favourable reception from the fair sex. The power of the amuletis in proportion to the sanctity of

the writer, and the Nubians further believe that a good and learned fakir can control rain and fine weather. Hence nothing will induce atrue believer to be hostile

to these holy men, whose mysterious power he greatly fears, and who keep up their reputation by avoid- ing all excesses, at any rate openly7, abstaining from drink and tobacco, and passing most of their time in reading andreciting the Koran.

MahomedAhmed onhisordinationtookuphis abodeon the Island of Aba, nearKana onthe WhiteNile and four days' journey7 south of Khartoum. Here he began by making a khaliva, or subterranean excavation,to which he was wont to retire in order to repeat for hours to- gether one of the names of the Deity,accompaniedby prayers, fasting,and incenseburning. Fifteen years are said to have been thus spent, corresponding with the fifteen years which the Prophet passed in meditating on his mission near Mount Harsa. Mahomed Ahmed's reputation for sanctity spread far and wide, and be-