320 History of the Mahdi's Head [jSo/) 



They are not in the best style of decoration, but the over brilliancy of 

 the mosaics will soon blacken in the London smoke and tone down 

 to the rest. 



" On my way back from London in the evening we travelled by 



accident with D , who as usual was full of interesting talk. He 



told us, with a little pressing and on promise not to give him away, 

 the true history of the Mahdi's head. The mutilation of the body seems 

 all to have come of a mere bit of rowdy nonsense on the part of 

 certain young English officers. He says it has long been a custom with 

 the members of White's Club who are in the Army to bring back 

 trophies from any wars they may be engaged in and present them to 



the club. He, D , had jokingly proposed to E W to 



bring back the Mahdi's toe-nails from the coming campaign. Kitch- 

 ener, on this hint, seems to have fancied having the Mahdi's head for 

 himself to make an inkstand of, and gave Gordon the order to dig 

 the body up and keep the head for him. This accordingly was done, 

 and at the same time finger-nails were taken by some of the young 

 officers, but they got talking about it at Cairo and hence the trouble. 



He says he had the whole account of the thing in detail from W , 



and that Kitchener received the head from Gordon, who was charged 

 with the destruction of the tomb, and he actually had it (he, Kitchener) 

 as an inkstand until Cromer wrote about it, when he ' put it behind the 



fire.' D was quite incredulous about its having been buried at 



Wady Haifa, or anywhere else. It was just put ' behind the fire.' 



' He gave an interesting account of Kitchener, whom he had known, 

 he said, ever since they were both together at Woolwich, before the 

 French war. He, D , was at a preparatory military school, read- 

 ing for the military college, but Kitchener had passed in. Kitchener 

 was ' a rough young devil,' and he and another cadet got into a row, 

 partly about a woman, partly about money, and Kitchener's father, 

 who was poor, refused to pay up for his son. The son, consequently, 

 ran away with the other boy, and was tried by court-martial as a 

 deserter. The two went to France and enlisted in the French army and 

 fought in the war in the Army of the North, and Kitchener got some 

 credit for his handling of a mitrailleuse on one occasion, and eventually, 

 when the war was over, came back to England and got old Linthorn 

 Simmons, then the head of Woolwich School, to forgive and take him 



back, and he got his commission. ' But,' said D , ' he always was 



what I have said, and did not know how to behave.' His conduct 

 afterwards to the Khedive proved this. He was, however, a wonder- 

 ful organizer, though a bad general. He had very nearly lost a battle 

 at Atbara by his clumsy handling of the troops, and again at Omdur- 

 man, when he had wheeled the Egyptian army in such a manner as to 

 place it between the Dervishes and the English contingent, so that 



