Nebbi Khiddr would report it, and the Khaleefa, as he was full of grace, would soon order the chains to be removed again. All the principal prisoners, with the exception of myself, were then marched to the anvil, and had their chains hammered on. I was spared, as, after the first lecture, I had, on Abou Jinn's advice, sent word to the Saier to take fifteen of my dollars for his "starving children." We prisoners held a conference, and it was decided to present more moneys. It took us two days to scrape together the requisite sum — about fifty dollars — to which I added seventeen of mine. This had the happy result of not only removing the extra chains of the prisoners, but Hasseena's also. The Saier called us together, gave us a homily on repentance and good behaviour, and told us to continue in the same path, as it was evidently looked upon with approval by the Nebbi Khiddr.[1]
But this Nebbi Khiddr was never satisfied for long with our conduct. Every month he had something to report to the "Khaleefa," and just as regularly we were given extra chains, until a few dollars, entrusted to Idris for the poor, had sent him to the Khaleefa with a favourable report. All these ill-gotten moneys, as I have said, went to soothsayers, fortune-tellers, and talisman writers, in whose absolute power the
- ↑ The Nebbi Khiddr is a mythical character in Islam. Sects are divided as to whether he is a prophet or not. His name does not appear in the Quoran. By some of the old writers he is made the companion of Noah, Abraham, and Moses. Having drunk of the waters of the Fountain of Life, he is believed by some to be ever present at one of the holy places. His exact whereabouts and his attributes have never been defined. The Mahdi killed two birds with one stone by appropriating this unclaimed prophet to himself; first, his supposed presence made Omdurman a holy place, as the Nebbi only appeared at holy places, and then, by investing him with the ee as related by Idris es Saier, he was able to impress the more ignorant of his followers of his — the Khaleefa's — omniscience and omnipresence through the Nebbi Khiddr's agency. The Mahdi laying claim to this prophet and attributing to him the powers he did, raised in the minds of Hamad-el-Nil and others their first suspicions as to the Mahdi and his mission.
