eople would gladly
surrender, so the sooner the Sirdar marched in and took possession the
better. True, the Khalifa with several hundreds of followers, or
mayhap a thousand or more, was yet within the central part of
Omdurman. Most of his Jehadieh, it was urged, would give in at once if
an opportunity were afforded them, and Abdullah could be caught. With
Maxwell's brigade, Major Williams' battery and several Maxims, the
Sirdar and headquarters staff pushed along the wide thoroughfare that
leads from the north past the west end of the great rectangular wall,
towards the Mosque inclosure and Mahdi's tomb. The infantry, guns, and
Maxims preceded but a few paces in front. Vile beyond description was
Omdurman, its dwellings, streets, lanes, and spaces. Beasts pay more
regard to sanitation than dervishes. Pools of slush and stagnant water
abounded. Dead animals in all stages of decomposition lay there in
hundreds and thousands. There were besides littering the place camels,
horses, donkeys, dead and wounded fresh from the battle-field. And
there were many other ghastly sights. Dead and wounded dervishes lay
in pools of blood in the roadway. Several of the dying enemy grimly
saluted the staff as we passed. An Emir who, horribly mauled by a
shell, lay pinned under his dead horse waved his hand and fell back a
corpse. Our guns and Maxims had opened once or twice to turn the armed
fugitives from the town. The compounds and huts were full of wounded
and unwounded dervishes, most of the latter having Remingtons and
waist-belts full of cartridges, besides carrying spears and swords.
In the open thoroughfares there were many bodies of women and children
lying stark and stiff. The majority of these victims were young girls.
Many of the poor creatures had evidently been running towards the
river to try and escape when caught and killed by jealous and cruel
masters or husbands. The scenes were shocking, the smells abominable
and quite overpowering to many who sought to ride in with the General.

There was something like a reception for the Sirdar on his entering
the town. The women and children, mostly slaves, filled the
thoroughfares, and in their peculiar guinea-fowl cackling fashion
cheered the troops. Notables in jibbehs, which they had not yet had
time to turn inside out, as nearly every native did afterwards, came
and salaamed, smote their breasts, and kissed the hands and even the
garments' hem of the Sirdar and his staff. In tr