The British Campaign in the Soudan. 149 saneeyehs, Kababeesh, and Baggdras, on the west. All the tribes wear the same costume, which for the common people consists of a few yards of coarse white cotton cloth wound around the waist and legs to the knees, with sandals for their feet. The upper part of the body is exposed to the burning rays of the sun, mitigated only by the abundant grease with which they plaster their hair, and which melts and flows upon their breasts and shoulders. They all go bare-headed at all times, even when on the march the thermometer registers 150° or 160°, with the fierce African sun vertical over their heads and the burning sand under their feet. Stranger than all, while some of the tribes arrange their hair in thick cushions, six or eight inches high, others shave their heads and seem to suffer no inconvenience from an exposure which would kill a European, or even an Egyptian in fifteen minutes. -All the Bedouins go armed at all times, their equipment consisting of shields of hippopotamus or giraffe hide, lances, and the broad, straight, double-edged, two-handed swords with which they make their headlong charges. Feuds are frequent among the sub-tribes, and their internal quarrels, of which the Egyptian government took no notice, always kept alive their warlike spirit. It is from these tribes that the Madhi and Osman Digma obtained the great mass of their best and bravest soldiers.

With such elements it is evident that the Soudan was like a train of powder which a single spark might fire at any moment. Yet no general rebellion would have been attempted so long as the Khedive’s government retained its power and prestige. But just at that time occurred a remarkable combination of circumstances.