y on Saturday morning,
3rd September, to attend Howard's funeral, I found that within half an
hour after sunrise all the dead dervishes, with the murdered women and
children, had been removed to the native burial-grounds outside
Omdurman. In my rambles in the capital that day I visited the only two
passable dwellings in the place, Abdullah's and his son Osman's. Both
houses had a pretence of tidiness and comfort, particularly the Sheikh
Ed Din's. There were paved courtyards, doors, windows with shutters,
plastered walls, cupboards, benches, and ottomans. In each there were
several rooms furnished in a rude style with articles of European
manufacture. Of glass-ware, crockery, and large mirrors there was an
abundance. The Khalifa's favourite reception-room and a chamber in the
harem were almost covered with big looking-glasses. Angry Jaalin and
others who had forced an entrance on the previous day, or else mayhap
the Lyddite bombs, had smashed the mirrors and most of the domestic
ware into atoms. Spears and swords had been freely used to hack the
furniture and fittings about. A wealth of printed and manuscript books
and papers in Arabic characters were scattered, torn, and thrown into
a shed.

The kitchens, stables and outhouses were odorously barbaric in
squalor. They were in strange contrast to any of the rooms in the
rabbit warren of attached dwelling-places within the Khalifa's private
compound. Around the Mahdi's tomb were great splashes of human blood.
On the previous evening I had seen many dead dervishes lying in that
vicinity. In their credulous faith in Mohamed Achmed they had flocked
there for safety, only to be killed by our fire. Of 120 who were
praying around the tomb when a 50-lb. Lyddite shell burst, but
eighteen escaped alive, and these were sorely wounded. The tomb,
carefully stuccoed over inside and out, was built of stone and
well-burned bricks. The base of the square wall from which the
cone-shaped dome sprang was over six feet thick, the vaulted roof
tapering to about eighteen inches at the apex. Great holes had been
knocked in the north-east side, and the rubbish had tumbled in,
breaking the brass and iron grille round the catafalque. Beneath,
covered by two huge blocks of stone, lay Mohamed Achmed's remains.
Early that day violent hands were laid on the brass rails in the outer
windows and grille. The catafalque was stripped of its black and red
cloth covering, and the wood-work was totally destro