INTRODUCTORY.—REVIEW OF FIELD. 5

account of the salt tax, there are revenue defaulters along the borders of the Nile as well as by the

Mediterranean and Red Sea. They are dressed like soldiers and are armed with Remingtons.

Mohammed Achmed, who called himself the Mahdi, or the last of the prophets, whose mission was to convert the world to Islamism, was a native of Dongola. He was born near El Ordeh, or New Dongola, in 1848, and was the son of a carpenter. In person, he was above the medium height, robust, and with a rather handsome Arab cast of features.

During 1884 I saw his brother and two of his nephews in a village south of Fl Ordeh. All of them were tall stalwart men, light of complexion for Dongolese, courteous and hospitable to strangers. Mohammed Achmed, from his youth, evinced a taste for religious studies coupled with the ascetic extravagances of a too emotional nature. From Khartoum to Fashoda he acquired a great reputation for sanctity. Religious devotees gathered around him and followed him to his retreat upon the island of Abba. There he, in May 1881, first announced his claims as the true Mahdi. His barefaced assertions of special divine command and yuidance found credulous believers. With the wisdom of the serpent he had added to his influence and security as a prophet by marrying daughters of

Baggara sheiks, z.e. chiefs. Mohammed Achmed was

a vigorous and captivating preacher, learned in all the literature of the Koran, ever ready with apt and telling quotations. His early teaching was_ decidedly

socialistic, including a command for the overthrow of