Author: Henryk Sienkiewicz
Category: Nonfiction
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might be done to him. Fortunatelythe giant mastiff aroused such admiration in the emir himself and inall the dervishes that no one lifted a hand against him.
Idris also did not sleep. From the previous day he had felt unwell and,besides, after the conversation with Nur el-Tadhil he lost many of hisdelusions, and gazed at the future as though through a thick veil. Hewas glad that on the morrow they would be transported to Omdurman,which was separated from Khartum only by the width of the White Nile;he had a hope that he would find Smain there, but what further? Duringthe journey everything had presented itself to him somewhat moredistinctly and far more splendidly. He sincerely believed in theprophet and his heart was drawn all the more to him because both camefrom the same tribe. But in addition he was, like almost every Arab,covetous and ambitious. He had dreamed that he would be loaded withgold and made an emir at least; he had dreamed of military expeditionsagainst the "Turks," of captured cities and spoils. Now, after what hehad heard from el-Tadhil, he began to fear whether in the presence offar greater events, all his acts would not fade into insignificance,just as a drop of rain disappears in the sea. "Perhaps," he thoughtwith bitterness, "nobody will pay attention to what I haveaccomplished, and Smain will not even be pleased that I have broughtthose children to him;" and he was gnawed by this thought. The morrowwas to dispel or confirm those fears; so he awaited it with impatience.
The sun rose at six o'clock, and the bustle among the dervishes began.Nur el-Tadhil soon appeared and ordered them to prepare for thejourney. He declared at the same time that they would go to the ferryon foot, beside his horse. To Stas' great joy, Dinah led Nell from anupper floor; after which they proceeded on the rampart, skirting thewhole city, as far as the place at which the ferry boats stopped. Nurel-Tadhil rode ahead on horseback. Stas escorted Nell by the hand;after them came Idris, Gebhr, and Chamis, with Dinah and Saba, as wellas thirty of the emir's soldiers. The rest of the caravan remained inKhartum.
Stas, gazing around, could not understand how a city so stronglyfortified, and lying in a fork formed by the White and Blue Niles, andtherefore surrounded on three sides by water and accessible only fromthe south, could fall. Only later did he learn from a Christian slavethat the river at that time had subsided and left a wide sandy strip,which facilitated access to the ramparts. The garrison, losing hope ofrelief and reduced by hunger, could not repel the assault of theinfuriated savages, and the city was captured; after which a massacreof the inhabitants took place. Traces of the battle, though a month hadalready elapsed since the assault, could everywhere be seen along theramparts; on the inside protruded the ruins of razed buildings againstwhich the first impetus of the victors had been directed and on theoutside the moat was full of corpses, which no one thought of burying.Before they reached the ferry Stas counted over four hundred. They didnot, however, infect the air as the Sudanese sun dried them up likemummies; all had the hue of gray parchment, and were so much alike thatthe bodies of the Europeans, Egyptians, and negroes could not bedistinguished from each other. Amid the corpses swarmed small graylizards, which, at the approach of men, quickly hid under those humanremains and often in the mouths or between the dried-up ribs.
Stas walked with Nell in such a manner as to hide this horrible sightfrom her, and told her to look in the direction of the city.
But from the side of the city many things transpired which struck theeyes and soul of the little girl with terror. The sight of the"English" children, taken into captivity, and of Saba led with a leashby Chamis attracted a throng, which as the procession proceeded to theferry increased with each moment. The throng after a certain timebecame so great that it was necessary to halt. From all sides camethreatening outcries. Frightfully tattooed faces leaned over Stas andover Nell. Some of the savages burst out into laughter at the sight ofthem and from joy slapped their hips with the palms of their hands;others cursed them; some roared like wild beasts, displaying theirwhite teeth and rolling their eyes; finally they began to threaten andreach out towards them with knives. Nell, partly unconscious fromfright, clung to Stas, while he shielded her as well as he knew how, inthe conviction that their last hour was approaching. Fortunately thispersistent molestation of the brutal swarm at last disgusted even Nurel-Tadhil. By his command between ten and twenty soldiers surroundedthe children, while the others began, without mercy, to scourge thehowling mob with courbashes. The concourse dispersed hurriedly, but onthe other hand a mob began to gather behind the detachment and amidwild shrieks accompanied it to the boat.
The children breathed more freely during the passage over the river.Stas comforted Nell with the statement that when the dervishes becameaccustomed to the sight of them they would cease their threats, and heassured her that Smain would protect and defend both of them, andparticularly her, for if any evil should befall them he would not haveany one to exchange for his children. This was the truth, but thelittle girl was so terror-stricken by the previous assaults that,having seized Stas' hand, she did not want to let go of it for amoment, repeating continually, as if in a fever: "I am afraid! I amafraid!" He with his whole soul wished to get as soon as possible intothe hands of Smain, who knew them of old, and who in Port Said haddisplayed great friendship towards them, or at least had pretended todisplay it. At any rate he was not so wild as the other Dongolese ofthe Sudan, and captivity in his house would be more endurable.
The only concern now was whether they would find him in Omdurman. Ofthis Idris spoke with Nur el-Tadhil, who at last recollected that ayear before, while tarrying by the order of the caliph Abdullahi inKordofan, far from Khartum, he had heard of a certain Smain, who taughtthe dervishes how to fire from the cannons captured from the Egyptians,and afterwards became a slave hunter. Nur suggested to Idris thefollowing method of finding him:
"At noon, when you hear the sounds of the umbajas,* [* Umbajas--bigtrumpets of ivory tusk.] be with the children at the place of prayer,to which the Mahdi repairs daily to edify the faithful with an exampleof piety and to fortify them in the faith. There besides the sacredperson of the Mahdi you will behold all the 'Nobles' and also the threecaliphs as well as the pashas and emirs; among the emirs you may findSmain."
"But what am I to do and where shall I stay until the time of theafternoon prayer?"
"You will remain with my soldiers."
"And will you, Nur el-Tadhil, leave us?"
"I am going for orders to the caliph Abdullahi."
"Is he the greatest of caliphs? I come from far and though the names ofthe commanders have reached my ears, nevertheless you may instruct memore definitely about them."
"Abdullahi my commander is the Mahdi's sword."
"May Allah make him the son of victory."
For some time the boat floated in silence. There could be heard onlythe grating of the oars on the boat's edges and once in a while asplash of water by a crocodile struck in the tail. Many of these uglyreptiles had swam down from the south to Khartum, where they found anabundance of food, for the river teemed with corpses, not only of thepeople who were slaughtered after the capture of the city, but also ofthose who died of diseases which raged amidst the Mahdists andparticularly among the slaves. The commands of the caliphs prohibited,indeed, "the contamination of the water," but they were not heeded, andthe bodies which the crocodiles did not devour floated with the water,face downward, to the Sixth Cataract and even as far as Beber.
But Idris thought of something else, and after a while said:
"This morning we did not get anything to eat. I do not know whether wecan hold out from hunger until the hour of prayer, and who will feed uslater?"
"You are not a slave," replied Tadhil, "and can go to the market-placewhere merchants display their supplies. There you can obtain dried meatand sometimes dochnu (millet), but for a high price; as I told you,famine reigns in Omdurman."
"But in the meantime wicked people will seize and kill those children."
"The soldiers will protect them, and if you give money to any one ofthem, he will willingly go for provisions.
"
This advice did not please Idris who had a greater desire to take moneythan to give it to any one, but before he was able to make reply theboat touched the bank.
To the children Omdurman appeared different from Khartum. In the latterplace there were houses of several stories built of brick and stone;there was a "mudirya," that is, a Governor's palace in which the heroicGordon had perished; there were a church, a hospital, missionarybuildings, an arsenal, great barracks for the troops and a large numberof greater and smaller gardens with magnificent tropical plants.Omdurman, on the other hand, seemed rather a great encampment ofsavages. The fort which stood on the northern side of the settlementhad been razed by command of Gordon. As a whole, as far as the eyecould reach the city consisted of circular conical huts of dochnustraw. Narrow,