me?"

"Do what you please. I gave you a night's lodging in my house and a few
words of good advice, and now I do not want to know anything more about
you."

"That is well, but where shall I find shelter?"

"It is all the same to me."

Saying this he took the soldiers and went away. With great difficulty
Idris prevailed upon him to send to the market-place the camels and the
rest of the caravan, including those Arabs who had joined it between
Assuan and Wadi Haifa. These people did not come until the afternoon,
and it appeared that none of them knew what they were going to do. The
two Bedouins began to quarrel with Idris and Gebhr, claiming that they
had promised them an entirely different reception and that they had
cheated them. After a long dispute and much deliberation they finally
decided to erect at the outskirts of the city huts of dochnu boughs and
reeds as shelter during the night, and for the rest to depend upon the
will of providence, and wait.

After the erection of the huts, which employment does not require much
time from Sudanese and negroes, all, excepting Chamis, who was to
prepare the supper, repaired to the place of public prayer. It was easy
for them to find it, as the swarm of all Omdurman was bound thither.
The place was spacious, encircled partly by a thorny fence and partly
by a clay enclosure which was being built. In the center stood a wooden
platform. The prophet ascended it whenever he desired to instruct the
people. In front of the platform were spread upon the ground sheep
hides for the Mahdi, the caliphs, and eminent sheiks. Planted at the
sides were the flags of emirs, which fluttered in the air, displaying
all colors and looking like great flowers. The four sides were
surrounded by the compact ranks of dervishes. Around could be seen a
bold, numberless forest of spears, with which almost all the warriors
were armed.

It was real good fortune for Idris and Gebhr, and for the other members
of the caravan, that they were taken for a retinue of one of the emirs.
For that reason they could press forward to the first rows of the
assembled throng. The arrival of the Mahdi was announced by the
beautiful and solemn notes of umbajas, but when he appeared there
resounded the shrill notes of fifes, the beating of drums, the rattle
of stones shaken in empty gourds, and whistling on elephants' teeth,
all of which combined created an infernal din. The swarm was swept by
an indescribable fervor.