694 
THE SUDAN PAST AND PRESENT. 
man to Tuti Island; but the powder when made is stored in barrels 
and placed in a special store near the Beit-el-Mal. 
Lupton Bey was forced to teach some dervishes how to manufacture 
fulminate, and, after his death, this work was carried on by a certain 
Ahmed Zeki. 
Neufeld, who is heavily chained, is working* at the manufacture of 
saltpetre, which is carried on in the old Austrian mission church in 
Khartum. There are also saltpetre pits worked by Takruris at Kalakla 
and at Halfiyeh. 
Powder is made at the rate of about eight kantars a-day, and there 
is in consequence plenty of it, but the great difficulty is lead, of which 
the supply in the Sudan is entirely exhausted. An attempt was made 
to make bullets with a mixture of copper and iron, but these were 
found to be useless, and up to the time Father Ohrwalder left, the 
difficulty had not been overcome. 
Cartridge cases are made near the Beit El Amana by a certain Suli- 
man Abdullah ; caps are made by the jewellers. 
The old dockyard in Khartum is still used for the repair of the 
steamers, manufacture of iron work and general repairs. The work¬ 
men are mostly old Egyptians and black apprentices, the general 
direction being under Abd El Sayid, late clerk of El Obeid. 
Spears and swords are made in large quantities in the bazaar in 
Omdurman by the Tama blacks from Darfur; the long spear (kibbis) 
varies from two to 15 dollars, the tayara (bundle of small spears) from 
three to five dollars. 
[Battles and Sieges, &c. 
