In Desert and Wilderness/Part 1/Chapter 16
XVI
They stopped at the city's limits in a house which formerly was the property of a rich Italian merchant, and after his murder during the assault upon the city, had fallen to Tadhil at the division of the spoils. The wives of the emir in quite a humane manner took charge of Nell who was barely alive after the rough treatment, and, though in all Khartûm could be felt a want of provisions, they found for the little "jan"[1] a few dried dates and a little rice with honey; after which they led her upstairs and put her to bed. Stas, who passed the night among the camels and horses in the courtyard, had to be content with one biscuit; on the other hand, he did not lack water, for the fountain in the garden, by a strange chance, was not wrecked. Notwithstanding great weariness, he could not sleep; first on account of scorpions creeping incessantly over the saddle-cloth on which he lay, and again on account of a mortal dread that they would separate him from Nell, and that he would not be able to watch over her personally. This uneasiness was evidently shared by Saba, who scented about and from time to time howled, all of which enraged the soldiers. Stas quieted him as well as he could from fear that some injury might be done to him. Fortunately the giant mastiff aroused such admiration in the emir himself and in all 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 his delusions, and gazed at the future as though through a thick veil. He was glad that on the morrow they would be transported to Omdurmân, which was separated from Khartûm only by the width of the White Nile; he had a hope that he would find Smain there, but what further? During the journey everything had presented itself to him somewhat more distinctly and far more splendidly. He sincerely believed in the prophet and his heart was drawn all the more to him because both came from the same tribe. But in addition he was, like almost every Arab, covetous and ambitious. He had dreamed that he would be loaded with gold and made an emir at least; he had dreamed of military expeditions against the "Turks," of captured cities and spoils. Now, after what he had heard from el-Tadhil, he began to fear whether in the presence of far greater events, all his acts would not fade into insignificance, just as a drop of rain disappears in the sea. "Perhaps," he thought with bitterness, "nobody will pay attention to what I have accomplished, and Smain will not even be pleased that I have brought those children to him;" and he was gnawed by this thought. The morrow was 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 the journey. He declared at the same time that they would go to the ferry on foot, beside his horse. To Stas' great joy, Dinah led Nell from an upper floor; after which they proceeded on the rampart, skirting the whole city, as far as the place at which the ferry boats stopped. Nur el-Tadhil rode ahead on horseback. Stas escorted Nell by the hand; after them came Idris, Gebhr, and Chamis, with Dinah and Saba, as well as thirty of the emir's soldiers. The rest of the caravan remained in Khartûm.
Stas, gazing around, could not understand how a city so strongly fortified, and lying in a fork formed by the White and Blue Niles, and therefore surrounded on three sides by water and accessible only from the south, could fall. Only later did he learn from a Christian slave that the river at that time had subsided and left a wide sandy strip, which facilitated access to the ramparts. The garrison, losing hope of relief and reduced by hunger, could not repel the assault of the infuriated savages, and the city was captured; after which a massacre of the inhabitants took place. Traces of the battle, though a month had already elapsed since the assault, could everywhere be seen along the ramparts; on the inside protruded the ruins of razed buildings against which the first impetus of the victors had been directed and on the outside the moat was full of corpses, which no one thought of burying. Before they reached the ferry Stas counted over four hundred. They did not, however, infect the air as the Sudânese sun dried them up like mummies; all had the hue of gray parchment, and were so much alike that the bodies of the Europeans, Egyptians, and negroes could not be distinguished from each other. Amid the corpses swarmed small gray lizards, which, at the approach of men, quickly hid under those human remains and often in the mouths or between the dried-up ribs.
Stas walked with Nell in such a manner as to hide this horrible sight from her, and told her to look in the direction of the city.
But from the side of the city many things transpired which struck the eyes and soul of the little girl with terror. The sight of the "English" children, taken into captivity, and of Saba led with a leash by Chamis attracted a throng, which as the procession proceeded to the ferry increased with each moment. The throng after a certain time became so great that it was necessary to halt. From all sides came threatening outcries. Frightfully tattooed faces leaned over Stas and over Nell. Some of the savages burst out into laughter at the sight of them and from joy slapped their hips with the palms of their hands; others cursed them; some roared like wild beasts, displaying their white teeth and rolling their eyes; finally they began to threaten and reach out towards them with knives. Nell, partly unconscious from fright, clung to Stas, while he shielded her as well as he knew how, in the conviction that their last hour was approaching. Fortunately this persistent molestation of the brutal swarm at last disgusted even Nur el-Tadhil. By his command between ten and twenty soldiers surrounded the children, while the others began, without mercy, to scourge the howling mob with courbashes. The concourse dispersed hurriedly, but on the other hand a mob began to gather behind the detachment and amid wild 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 became accustomed to the sight of them they would cease their threats, and he assured her that Smain would protect and defend both of them, and particularly her, for if any evil should befall them he would not have any one to exchange for his children. This was the truth, but the little girl was so terror-stricken by the previous assaults that, having seized Stas' hand, she did not want to let go of it for a moment, repeating continually, as if in a fever: "I am afraid! I am afraid!" He with his whole soul wished to get as soon as possible into the hands of Smain, who knew them of old, and who in Port Said had displayed great friendship towards them, or at least had pretended to display it. At any rate he was not so wild as the other Dongolese of the Sudân, and captivity in his house would be more endurable.
The only concern now was whether they would find him in Omdurmân. Of this Idris spoke with Nur el-Tadhil, who at last recollected that a year before, while tarrying by the order of the caliph Abdullahi in Kordofân, far from Khartûm, he had heard of a certain Smain, who taught the dervishes how to fire from the cannons captured from the Egyptians, and afterwards became a slave hunter. Nur suggested to Idris the following method of finding him:
"At noon, when you hear the sounds of the umbajas,[2] be with the children at the place of prayer, to which the Mahdi repairs daily to edify the faithful with an example of piety and to fortify them in the faith. There besides the sacred person of the Mahdi you will behold all the 'Nobles' and also the three caliphs as well as the pashas and emirs; among the emirs you may find Smain."
"But what am I to do and where shall I stay until the time of the afternoon 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 of the commanders have reached my ears, nevertheless you may instruct me more 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 only the grating of the oars on the boat's edges and once in a while a splash of water by a crocodile struck in the tail. Many of these ugly reptiles had swam down from the south to Khartûm, where they found an abundance of food, for the river teemed with corpses, not only of the people who were slaughtered after the capture of the city, but also of those who died of diseases which raged amidst the Mahdists and particularly among the slaves. The commands of the caliphs prohibited, indeed, "the contamination of the water," but they were not heeded, and the 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 we can hold out from hunger until the hour of prayer, and who will feed us later?"
"You are not a slave," replied Tadhil, "and can go to the market-place where merchants display their supplies. There you can obtain dried meat and sometimes dochnu (millet), but for a high price; as I told you, famine reigns in Omdurmân."
"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 of them, he will willingly go for provisions."
This advice did not please Idris who had a greater desire to take money than to give it to any one, but before he was able to make reply the boat touched the bank.
To the children Omdurmân appeared different from Khartûm. In the latter place there were houses of several stories built of brick and stone; there was a "mudirya," that is, a Governor's palace in which the heroic Gordon had perished; there were a church, a hospital, missionary buildings, an arsenal, great barracks for the troops and a large number of greater and smaller gardens with magnificent tropical plants. Omdurmân, on the other hand, seemed rather a great encampment of savages. The fort which stood on the northern side of the settlement had been razed by command of Gordon. As a whole, as far as the eye could reach the city consisted of circular conical huts of dochnu straw. Narrow, thorny little fences separated these huts from each other and from the streets. Here and there could be seen tents, evidently captured from the Egyptians. Elsewhere a few palm mats under a piece of dirty linen stretched upon bamboo constituted the entire residence. The population sought shelter under the roofs during rain or exceptional heat; for the rest they passed their time, built fires, cooked food, lived, and died out-of-doors. So the streets were so crowded that in places the detachment with difficulty forced its way through the multitude. Formerly Omdurmân was a wretched village; at present, counting the slaves, over two hundred thousand people were huddled in it. Even the Mahdi and his caliphs were perturbed by this vast concourse, which was threatened with famine and disease. They continually despatched to the north expeditions to subjugate localities and cities, loyal yet to the Egyptian Government.
At the sight of the white children here also resounded unfriendly cries, but at least the rabble did not threaten with death. It may be that they did not dare to, being so close to the prophet's side, and perhaps because they were more accustomed to the sight of prisoners who were all transported to Omdurmân immediately after the capture of Khartûm. Stas and Nell, however, saw hell on earth. They saw Europeans and Egyptians lashed with courbashes until they bled; hungry, thirsty, bending under burdens which they were commanded to carry or under buckets of water. They saw European women and children, who were reared in affluence, at present begging for a handful of durra or a shred of meat; covered with rags, emaciated, resembling specters, with faces swarthy from want, on which dismay and despair had settled, and with a bewildered stare. They saw how the savages burst into laughter at the sight of these unfortunates; how they pushed and beat them. On all the streets and alleyways there were not lacking sights from which the eyes turned away with horror and aversion. In Omdurmân, dysentery and typhoid fever, and, above all, small-pox raged in a virulent form. The sick, covered with sores, lay at the entrances of the hovels, infecting the air. The prisoners carried, wrapped in linen, the bodies of the newly dead to bury them in the sand beyond the city, where the real charge of the funeral was assumed by hyenas. Above the city hovered flocks of vultures from whose wings fell melancholy shadows upon the illuminated sand. Stas, witnessing all this, thought that the best for him and Nell would be to die as soon as possible.
Nevertheless, in this sea of human wretchedness and malice there bloomed at times compassion, as a pale flower blooms in a putrid marsh. In Omdurmân there were a few Greeks and Copts whom the Mahdi had spared because he needed them. These not only walked about freely, but engaged in trade and various affairs, and some, especially those who pretended to change their faith, were even officers of the Mahdi, and this gave them considerable importance among the wild dervishes. One of these Greeks stopped the detachment and began to question the children as to how they happened to be there. Learning with amazement that they had just arrived, and that they had been kidnapped from far-away Fayûm, he promised to speak about them to the Mahdi and to inquire about them in the future. In the meantime he nodded his head compassionately at Nell and gave to each a few handfuls of dried wild figs and a silver dollar with an image of Maria Theresa. After which he admonished the soldiers not to dare to do any harm to the little girl, and he left, repeating in English: "Poor little bird!"