best, and greater part of the food sent in, was eaten by the guardians.
At sunrise each morning the door of the common cell was opened, and the prisoners were allowed to shuffle down to the banks of the Nile, a few yards distant, for their ablutions and for water for drinking. After this, we assembled for the first prayer of the day, in which all had to join. When not working, we had to read the Mahdi's "ratib," a description of prayerbook, containing extracts from the Quoran with interpolations of the Mahdi. All the faithful were ordered to learn this "ratib" off by heart,[1] and for this purpose each one had either to purchase a copy or write one out. At noon the second prayer was held, followed by another mid-time between noon and sunset, and a fourth at sunset. We should have repeated the night prayer when the night had set in, but as we were driven into the "Umm Hagar" at sunset, the time which should have been given to this prayer was fully taken up with brawls, fights, and those comprehensive curses of the Arabs, commencing with the second person's father, going back for generations, and including all the female ancestors.
It has been found impossible, even in the most guarded and disguised language, to insert here a real word-picture of a night in the Saier. The scenes
- ↑ The "Ratib" occupied about three-quarters of an hour in recitation, and, by the Mahdi's orders had to be repeated daily by every one after the morning and afternoon prayer; it ranked in importance with the five obligatory daily prayers ordained by the Quoran. It was also looked upon as a sort of talisman, and it was given out, after such fights as "Toski, Ginniss, and the Atbara, that those killed were those who had either not learned the Ratib or had not a copy with them. The book was carried in a small leather case suspended from the neck. A number of copies were printed on the old Government press, but it was considered more meritorious to write out a copy rather than to purchase one, and the Mahdi had hoped that this Ratib would eventually become a sort of Quoran accompanied by its volumes of "traditions," hence his anxiety that every one should learn to write.
