310 SAVAGE SUDAN 



hundreds not dissimilar scattered throughout the deserts. 

 Twice we have encamped on its plutonic slopes at the 

 precise spot whereat, on that (to them) fatal First of 

 September 1898, the Dervish hosts spent their last 

 bivouac. At dawn, from the rock-ridge above, where 

 the Kalipha's "Black Flag" flew on the decisive day, 

 it was easy to "reconstitute" the whole tragic scene 

 with its stirring incidents and once critical moments. 

 Three miles northward, low and dark, lies the Kerreri 

 range, and it was upon the interposed plain that the 

 Kalipha, greatly daring, challenged British power. 

 The result is visible to-day. For miles in all direc- 

 tions, the desert is scored and punctuated by long lines 

 of head-stones, each denoting a dead Dervish fanatics ; 

 yet brave men who faced death for the faith that was 

 in them. As such we must respect them ; none the 

 less is it true that the only good Dervish is a dead 

 Dervish. To-day (1919), after more than twenty years, 

 the graves of the fallen Emirs, Osman Azrak, Yakub, 

 Bishara, and other mighty men of war, are still marked 

 by white stones and adorned by white flags fluttering 

 from bamboos still renewed, still venerated. But the 

 only animate objects within sight are the big, plover-like 

 desert-larks (Certkilauda) and perhaps, away to the 

 southward, a troop of gazelles. 



The ravine where the 2ist Lancers were ambushed 

 by Osman Digna and his Hadendowas lies behind, 

 towards the river a dry torrent-bed, shallow, and sur- 

 prisingly insignificant. Nowhere does the exposed rock- 

 formation exceed a yard in vertical height ; nor does its 

 breadth average a dozen yards. That 3000 armed men 

 could find concealment in so puny a ditch bespeaks the 

 fieldcraft of that wily Arab chieftain. On the other 

 hand, one realises at a glance how easy it was for the 

 charging Lancers to overlook the danger. From 200 

 yards' distance, the paltry khor is practically invisible, its 

 lip hidden by bent-grass and dwarf mimosa-scrub. 



