rst instance he commanded from 2,000 to 4,000 men, and secondly, these
men received a regular rate of pay, which in reality found its way into
the emirs' pockets; but latterly many of the emirs command only fifty
men. Each emir is assisted by several mukuddums, or under officers, and
each mukuddum also has his assistant.

Thus did the Mahdi organise the force which was to conquer the Sudan. He
had absolutely no knowledge or system of drill, but he had men in
abundance; and taking the proverb, "Nekhrib ed Dunia wa nammir el Akher"
(_i.e._ "We shall destroy this and create the next world") as his motto,
he thought not of sparing the lives of his men, but rather urged that by
dying they should go direct to paradise. His plan, therefore, was to
attack in overwhelming numbers with wild shouts, and to be regardless of
all loss. Later on, at Abu Kru in the Bayuda desert, they yelled so
furiously in the hope that they would alarm the English, that their
commander, Nur Angara, tried to make them desist, by telling them that
if they continued shouting much longer, the English would laugh at them.
In spite, however, of his bold tactics, the Mahdi did not hesitate to
practise every possible deception and falsehood--indeed, most of his
early successes were secured by these means. At the commencement of the
revolt the use of firearms was forbidden; sticks and lances formed the
only arms, as it was the Mahdi's intention in this instance also to
follow directly in the footsteps of the Prophet who had gained all his
victories without firearms.

The Mahdi, however, whilst thus preparing for war, did not relax in any
degree his religious fervour. His primary object was to be a religious
reformer, and to preach that to him was confided the task of bringing
back the religion now polluted by the Turks, to its original purity. He
therefore formulated many severe orders. The use of alcoholic drinks, to
which the Sudanese are much addicted, was entirely forbidden, and any
infringement of this order was punished by sixty blows with the kurbash.
Smoking and chewing tobacco, a custom much in vogue amongst the
Sudanese, was also strictly forbidden; and the use of hashish, to which
the Turks and Egyptians were addicted, was entirely prohibited;
disobedience to this order was punishable by eighty lashes. Death often
ensued before the punishment could be completed, but the full number of
lashes was always given. If any one lived through his punishment