The inhabitants of Omdurman are a conglomeration of every race and nationality in the Sudan: Fellata, Takruris, natives of Bornu, Wadai, Borgo, and Darfur; Sudanese from the Sawakin districts, and from Massawah; niggers as black as ebony, down to a light chocolate colour, Niam Niam and Mombuttu cannibals, Bazeh, Dinka, Shilluk, Kara, Janghé, Nuba, Berta, and Masalit; Arabs of every tribe--Baggara, Rizeghat, Taisha, Homr, Howazma, Miserieh, Kababish, Habbanieh, Degheim, Kenana, Gowameh, Bederieh, Beni Jerrar, Gehena, inhabitants of Beni Shangul, and of Gezireh, Shukrieh, Batahin, Hadarba, Hadendoa, Barabra, Jaalin, Danagla, Egyptians, Abyssinians, Turks, Mecca Arabs, Syrians, Indians, Europeans, Jews; and all these various nationalities have their own quarters, and marry into their own tribes and sections. Arabic is the universal language, and all free inhabitants of the Sudan speak it or corrupt dialects of it. The Danagla, Barabra, and Hadendoa have their own special languages; but being derived from Arabic, they are called "rotan," as if Arabic were the only original language in the world--the language of Adam and Eve, and the language of paradise. Arabic is not compulsory, so the blacks still talk in their local dialects. The population of Omdurman amounts to about one hundred and fifty thousand persons; but it is by no means fixed, for during the winter numbers quit the town and go off into the Kordofan or Gezireh districts to cultivate. But when the Khalifa orders a general assembly, the numbers of course increase considerably. In 1888 the city was perhaps larger than at any other time, for in that year the Khalifa ordered all the inhabitants of the Gezireh to come and live in Omdurman. The reason for this was never exactly known, but it was thought he feared a revolt on the part of the Ashraf. All the principal towns and villages on the Blue Nile as far south as Karkoj have been destroyed, such as Kemlin, Messalamieh, Wad Medina, Abu Haraz, Wad el Abbas and Rufaa; the inhabitants of all these towns, men, women, and children, under great fatigue, had to come to Omdurman, where they settled in the north of the town near Khor Shambat.