Lake Victoria to Khartoum 



some one or two feet high, shows where a habita- 

 tion used to be ten years ago. The masses of 

 people that were collected here shortly before the 

 final trial of strength under the Kerreri Hills, 

 sounds incredible at the present day, and one 

 wonders how such a population could possibly 

 have been fed and kept together even for a short 

 time. 



The chief place of interest, I take it, is the 

 ruin of the Mahdi's tomb, which, as everyone 

 knows, was used as a shrine by the pilgrims from 

 far and wide, till finally demolished by shells from 

 the British guns at the closing scenes of the 

 battle. It stood in a small courtyard, and its 

 great white dome shone up imposingly over the 

 bare extent of sandy plain surrounding Omdur- 

 man to the west. Over the road just opposite is 

 the Khalifa's house — a very ordinary looking 

 abode, built of sun-dried bricks. It has a bath- 

 room inside with a large tiled bath, lighted by 

 means of skylights, in order that no one might 

 see the holy man at his ablutions. The house is 

 now inhabited by the civil officer in charge of 

 Omdurman. 



Outside is a vast square walled in with stone, 

 where the whole of the populace were forced to 

 collect regularly at a certain hour daily to listen 

 to the Khalifa's exhortations, and his expounding 

 of the Koran. The story goes that he, being 

 anxious to consolidate his power in the city, had 



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