It would take a long time to tell of all the horrible atrocities and cruelties which these poor Nubas suffered at the hands of the Dervishes--and why? because they tried to retain their freedom and defend their fatherland, refusing to follow that base liar who called himself the Mahdi, to the siege of Khartum. Amongst the captives in the zariba was a man and his wife and two small children. The sight of his starving children was breaking the father's heart; the view of his native mountain so affected him that he became desperate, and knowing that he would probably be separated from his wife and children and sold the next day, he took a terrible resolution: in the middle of the night he embraced his wife, kissed his little children, and then plunged his knife into each of them, preferring rather that they should die than become slaves; he then broke out of the zariba and fled, the guards fired and missed him; thus the wretched man succeeded in reaching his beloved hills. CHAPTER VII. FATHER OHRWALDER'S VIEWS OF GORDON'S MISSION. Ohrwalder describes his treatment at the hands of various masters--The Nubas surrender and afterwards desert--News from Khartum--The capture of the English mail--Its arrival at the Mahdi's camp--The Mahdi decides to advance on Khartum--Brief review of events in Khartum and Berber--Ohrwalder's views on Gordon's mission--The Mahdi sets out for Khartum--Mohammed Ali Pasha's defeat and death--Colonel Stewart, Mr. Power, and others leave Khartum in ss. "Abbas"--Description of their wreck and treacherous murder. The war with Jebel Dair dragged on a long time; the Nubas fought with desperate courage. I used to hear of their bravery from the Dervishes who frequented my master's house. After about a month my master was sent to Birket, where he was ordered to collect the Arabs and send them on to Rahad. At this place he practised unprecedented cruelty. A man found drinking marissa he ordered to be flogged with eighty lashes, until the poor victim's bowels fell out. During his absence I was sent back to my old master, Sheikh Idris, where I continued to lead a wretched existence, eating out of the horses' nose-bag and quenching my thirst from the share of water which was allotted to the animals. The ground was my bed, the sky my roof. Every morning when I got up I had to shake off the scorpions from my clothes, into which they had crept during the night. It is curious that the sting of these animals, which at other times was always most painful, caused me little trouble or irritation. The filth in the camp, owing to the entire absence of all sanitary rules, caused the flies to increase prodigiously; eating during the daytime was impossible, for one would have eaten as many flies as food.