28 SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



of the last of Kitchener's "lions" was going. Of 

 course, there were numerous banquets. Cold meats, 

 drunken Levantines, speeches, and, best of all, the 

 marvellous dancing of local geishas. One of these 

 danced round the table, kneeling to the Governor, 

 who placed a pile of shillings on her head ; she danced 

 round again till she balanced about 30s. there, when 

 her pride in her skill overcame her greed and she 

 stopped, for it would never have done to allow the 

 coins to fall. 



Mahon Pasha was barely out of El Obeid before 

 the news arrived that a Mahdi had arisen in the Nuba 

 hills. Mahdis and Eisas (Christs) are hardy annuals 

 in the Sudan and of little account, but this one had 

 moved warily and deserved attention. He had come 

 from Mecca, where he had secured many of the 

 picture scrolls describing the hardships of the pil- 

 grimage, the possession of which stamps one as a 

 holy man for ever. He gave out that the Prophet 

 had commissioned him to grant the privileges of the 

 pilgrimage to all for money down and adherence to 

 his (the Mahdi's) cause. His was a very widespread 

 movement, and came to naught over a candlestick. 

 He arrived at the foot of a Nuba hill, and there was 

 visited by the Mek, who, half converted, left behind 

 his qadi's candlestick instead of his own. The Nuba 

 qadis are former fetish men, as their flocks now boast 

 a bastard Islamism. When, on their return to the 

 top of their hill, the qadi wished to take the remaining 

 candlestick, a row ensued, taunts were exchanged, with 

 the result that the infuriated holy man dashed into the 



