en the Khalifa kept Neufeld shut up
in, and the manner in which he loaded him with heavy leg-irons. During
his captivity, Neufeld had with him an Abyssinian girl, or rather
woman. She was taken prisoner with him. Thereafter she devotedly
ministered to his wants, fetched water and food, and made, under his
tuition, really eatable bread. Neufeld, who said he met me in 1884-85,
up the Nile, when he was attached to the army, gave me a piece of this
bread, and I found it quite palatable. Yeast is easily made in the
Soudan with sour dough and sugar.

As arsenals mayhap date back to the eras of Tubal Cain and Vulcan, it
was to be expected the Khalifa would also have his modern smithy. He
made his own gunpowder, shells, and bullets, and the metallic cases
for his troops' Remington rifles. The country was laid under
contribution to supply copper for that purpose, and he essayed the
filling of percussion caps with fulminate, not over successfully I
hope. He had his cartridge manufactory, and a very well equipped
engineer shop as well. Yea, the potentate was setting up a Zoo,
wherein I saw three young lions chained to posts by neck collars, as
though those savage beasts were watch-dogs. As for the engineer shop,
with foundry and smithy attached, the Beit el Mauna, it was part of a
cleverly planned square of buildings with a river frontage and a
spacious yard. The designer was one El Osta Abdullah, a former
employee of General Gordon's in Khartoum Arsenal. There were several
steam engines; the principal one driving the main shafting was of 28
horse-power. The fly-wheel was 4 feet in diameter. There were five
lathes, one cat-head lathe--36 inch, three drills, and other tools
including a slotting machine, all in perfect going order. The
machinery had formed part of the dismantled Khartoum Arsenal, and had
been removed into Omdurman to be nearer the watchful eyes of Yacoub,
who superintended the workshops, though destitute of mechanical
knowledge. El Osta was the foreman and had numbers of natives, free
and prisoners, under him. There were plenty of crucibles for iron as
well as brass smelting. The blasts of furnaces and smithy fires were
served from fanners driven by machinery. There were paint shops and
stores, the floors of which were laid in bricks. In truth, the arsenal
was in process of extension. Two more engines for the shop were in
course of completion. The steamers disabled or wrecked in the 1885
campaign had all been recov