178 TRIBES BORDERING ON KORDOFAN, some time before his departure, which he wore all the time he passed at Lobeid ; but on the day of his departure he brought it back to me, begging me to keep it for him until he returned, as he dare not wear it in Takele, because his brother, the sultan, had none.

At the head of the irregular troops is a general, or seraskeer, as the Turks call him, who is, indeed, chosen by the sultan, but obliged to distinguish himself, in accordance with the custom of the country, by some feat of bravery, to prove himself worthy of the dignity of that office. This feat is generally an incursion into one or the other of the neighbouring states, or some other proof of personal valour and intrepidity. The ordeal, however, does not always turn out to the advantage of the aspirant, for, in the year 1838, the commander-in-chief of the troops of Takele, who was already elected, fell a victim to his feat of heroism. He crossed the borders with about a hundred men armed with spears, and attacked the nearest Bakkara tribe, and was to put his heroism to the test on a Mogghrebeen who happened to be present. The general, armed with a broadsword, charged the Mogghrebeen on horseback, waved his sabre in the air, and thought, with one single blow, to put an end to the poor native of the desert ; but the latter, although on foot and armed merely with a pistol, cleverly avoided the impending blow, and laid the valorous general prostrate