All these severe measures quite alienated the people from the Khalifa; wives were furious with their husbands for having so abjectly submitted to his yoke, and it was now quite plain that they feared him greatly. One word from him was sufficient to make them pull down their houses, pack up their goods, load them on camels, donkeys, and mules, and transport them to hated and dreaded Omdurman. How they longed for the Government they had so bitterly abused. "Alf turba wala rial tulba" ("Thousands of graves are better than a dollar tax") had been their watchword in the beginning of the revolt; it had proved true with a vengeance, and how bitterly they repented of their folly when it was too late! Khalifa Abdullah now gripped them in the palm of his hand, and the utter disunion and discord which he created between tribes and nationalities, made all hope of future liberty and freedom quite out of the question. Those who detested Mahdiism prior to 1888 had much greater cause to do so in 1889 and 1890; the first of these years brought a terrible famine on the land, and in 1890, though the actual period of want had passed away, everything was excessively dear. The 1888 harvest had turned out badly; during the summer of that year the Khalifa had issued stringent orders that no one should keep more than one ardeb of dhurra in his own house, under penalty of severe punishment; all over and above that amount was ordered to be brought to the landing-stage at Omdurman; and as there were but few transport animals to carry the dhurra into the town, their owners charged exorbitant rates for its carriage, consequently large stores of it lay on the bank, and quantities were stolen. Soon the price per ardeb rose from twelve to twenty dollars, and latterly to sixty dollars. Even the most aged people, in the whole course of their existence, had never seen such a famine as now fell on the land. Continual wars had prevented cultivation, and want of rain into the bargain were the main causes of this terrible calamity. In 1878, when there was a scarcity of rain, the price of dhurra never exceeded sixteen dollars the ardeb, now the price was almost four times as great. The supplies of corn received from Fashoda alone saved Omdurman from absolute starvation. The supplies from the Blue Nile were quite exhausted. Up to 1889, Fashoda continued the supply mart; the native cultivators receiving in exchange glass beads, pieces of copper, iron, cowries, and old Medjidie dollars; and in return for all this, the Khalifa despatched Zeki Tummal and an army from Galabat, who treacherously murdered their king, and fought these people who had actually saved him and his capital from the jaws of death!