he saw Mohammed Ahmed
rising to fame and displaying qualities of courage and energy, he
hastened to throw himself at his feet and assure him of his devotion.

No part of Slatin Pasha's fascinating account of his perils and
sufferings is so entertaining as that in which Abdullah, then become
Khalifa of the whole Soudan, describes his early struggles and
adversity:

'Indeed it was a very troublesome journey. At that time my entire
property consisted of one donkey, and he had a gall on his back, so
that I could not ride him. But I made him carry my water-skin and bag of
corn, over which I spread my rough cotton garment, and drove him along
in front of me. At that time I wore the white cotton shirt, like the
rest of my tribe. My clothes and my dialect at once marked me out as a
stranger wherever I went; and when I crossed the Nile I was frequently
greeted with "What do you want? Go back to your own country. There is
nothing to steal here."'

What a life of ups and downs! It was a long stride from the ownership of
one saddle-galled donkey to the undisputed rule of an empire. The weary
wayfarer may have dreamed of this, for ambition stirs imagination nearly
as much as imagination excites ambition. But further he could not expect
or wish to see. Nor could he anticipate as, in the complacency of a
man who had done with evil days, he told the story of his rise to the
submissive Slatin, that the day would come when he would lead an army
of more than fifty thousand men to destruction, and that the night would
follow when, almost alone, his empire shrunk again to the saddle-galled
donkey, he would seek his home in distant Kordofan, while this same
Slatin who knelt so humbly before him would lay the fierce pursuing
squadrons on the trail.

Mohammed Ahmed received his new adherent kindly, but without enthusiasm.
For some months Abdullah carried stones to build the tomb of the Sheikh
el Koreishi. Gradually they got to know each other. 'But long before he
entrusted me with his secret,' said Abdullah to Slatin, 'I knew that he
was "the expected Guide."' [Slatin, FIRE AND SWORD, p.131.] And though
the world might think that the 'Messenger of God' was sent to lead men
to happiness in heaven, Abdullah attached to the phrase a significance
of his own, and knew that he should lead him to power on earth. The
two formed a strong combination. The Mahdi--for such Mohammed Ahmed
had already in secret announced himself--brought the wild enthu