The revolt of the Batahin tribe--Revolt suppressed with appalling cruelty--Wholesale executions--Method of hanging--Punishment by mutilation--The execution of Abdel Nur--Trade with Egypt--Wad Adlan the emin beit el mal--His imprisonment and death 315 CHAPTER XIX. SOCIAL LIFE AT OMDURMAN. System of public security and justice in Omdurman--The court of small causes--Bribery and corruption--The story of the slave and her mistress--How the Khalifa deals with quarrelsome persons--Thieves and pickpockets-- The story of Zogheir--Usurers and their trade--The chief of police--Brigandage--Disproportion of males to females in Omdurman--How the Khalifa overcame the difficulty-- Immorality--The marriage ceremony 328 CHAPTER XX. THE KHALIFA'S TREATMENT OF THE WHITE CAPTIVES. Description of the prison, or "Saier"--The "Abu Haggar" --The imprisonment of Charles Neufeld--Terrible sufferings of the prisoners--Domenico Polinari--The danger of corresponding with the European prisoners-- Neufeld threatened with death--He is given charge of the saltpetre pits--The fate of Sheikh Khalil, the Egyptian envoy--The Khalifa's treatment of the "Whites"--Exile to the White Nile 344 CHAPTER XXI. LUPTON BEY AND THE AMMUNITION. The Khalifa's powder and ammunition begin to fail--Lupton Bey makes fulminate--Unsuccessful attempts to make powder --Yusef Pertekachi at last succeeds--The explosion in the powder factory 366 CHAPTER XXII. AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE IN THE MAHDI'S KINGDOM. Remarks on the agriculture and commerce of the Mahdiist kingdom--A sandstorm in Omdurman--The paucity of cattle-- System of taxation on imports--Provincial beit el mals-- Local manufactures--Slavery and the slave-markets--Torture of slaves 376 CHAPTER XXIII. THE BAGGARA MASTERS OF THE SUDAN. Relations between Abdullah and the rival Khalifas-- Mahdiism practically dead--The Khalifa's son Osman--His marriage to Yakub's daughter--His intentions regarding the succession--The Baggara and the Aulad-Belad--The Baggara masters of the Sudan--Examples of their tyranny --Emigration of the Rizighat tribe--Hostility between the Khalifa's and the late Mahdi's households--The Ashraf conspiracy--Witchcraft--The dispute between the Khalifas--Riots in Omdurman--The Mahdi's widows 387 CHAPTER XXIV. PREPARATIONS FOR THE FLIGHT. Ohrwalder forms plans for escape--The fate of other Europeans attempting to fly--Stricter surveillance-- Ohrwalder's means of livelihood--Letters from Cairo-- The faithful Ahmed Hassan discloses his plan--Archbishop Sogaro--Miseries of captivity in Omdurman--Death of Sister Concetta Corsi--Preparations for flight 408