676 
THE SUDAN PAST AND PEESENT. 
of Northern, Eastern, and Central Africa. I will also add a few 
remarks on the existing situation, concluding with a brief sketch of the 
military power and organisation of the forces of the present ruler, and 
a description of his capital of Omdurman, which has taken the place of 
Khartum—now merely a heap of mud ruins over which a mass of 
prickly thorn bushes have sprung up, and which, in Father Ohrwalder's 
words, “ cover as with a veil the sad remnants of the once thriving 
and populous metropolis of the Sudan.” 
A word here regarding Joseph Ohrwalder, whose observations I 
have just quoted. It will, doubtless, be remembered that he, with 
several other members of the Austrian Mission, were among the first 
to fall into the hands of the Maihdi, in whose camp he, for upwards of 
ten years, endured the most appalling hardships, and from which he 
only recently escaped after a series of hair-breadth escapes. The 
account of his life, which it has been my pleasing occupation to render 
into English, is now, as I write, on the point of publication. 1 
Father Ohrwalder has thrown a flood of light on many dark episodes 
which hitherto have never been fully explained, and in the following 
remarks I have made a generalised use of the information which has 
been supplied by him and which, therefore, bears the additional 
impress of unquestionable accuracy. 
There is yet one other point which, at the risk of tedious repetition, 
must be here inserted. I refer to the ethnographical sub-division of 
the Sudan, a brief summary of which is absolutely essential to a correct 
understanding of the military aspect of the revolt. 
For present purposes we may consider the Sudan as divided into 
five main classes. (See Map.) It will be observed that the 13th 
parallel of latitude forms the division between efficient rain and scanty 
rain ; between cattle Arabs and camel Arabs. South of this parallel 
camels are not usually bred, while north of it cattle are not found. 
To the north of this parallel dwell the great camel-owning tribes, such 
as the Kababish, Ababdeh, Shukrieh, and Hadendoa, whose instincts 
are naturally peaceful because their property brings them profit in pro¬ 
portion as it is employed in the transport of goods. These Arabs may 
be designated the first class. 
The second class comprise the negroid tribes, who live in Darfur 
and in the mountainous country to the south of Kordofan ; these races 
no doubt formed one of the ancient kingdoms which stretch across 
Africa, and may be numbered from the west as follows :—Senegambia, 
Bambara, Massina, Gando, Sokoto, Bornu, Bagirmi, Wadai, Darfur, 
Sennar, and Abyssinia; they are a contented and domestic race who 
have little in common with the Arabs, and with whom they are con¬ 
stantly at war. 
The third class are the dwellers in towns and villages; these are a 
mixture of almost every Eastern race ; by intermarriage with Bashi- 
Bazuks, Egyptians, and the foreign traders, they form a population 
which may not inaptly be compared to that of a Levantine seaport— 
idle, dissolute, drunken, demoralised, they are superstitious to the 
i *' e Ten Years’ Captivity in the Mahdi’s Camp.”—Messrs. Sampson, Marston, Low and Co., 
Limited. London, 1892. 
