I still suffered threats and insults here as in other places, and many a time did I intentionally put my head in danger in the hope that death would release me from these savages. Sheikh Idris was annoyed at my ill-treatment, but what could one man do with these hordes of fanatics? One day after a review I was asked by Idris to have breakfast with him in his hut; after breakfast he began to talk confidentially with me, and said that the Prophet Mohammed had expressly forbidden the ill-treatment of priests and hermits. He then said that Egypt had lost the Sudan, and that Gordon would not be able to withstand the Mahdi; most of the fikis and sheikhs had already submitted to the Mahdi, and the Sudan was in their hands. When I pointed out the great difficulties he would have in traversing the deserts to Wadi Halfa, he remarked that the Mahdi's undertaking was not likely to be hindered by the death of a few thousand men? I then argued that it was most unlikely that the white Moslems would ever accept a black Mahdi; and that, moreover, according to the traditions, the Mahdi would appear in Mecca. He replied, "God is the Lord of all," by which he meant to say that God can make a black Mahdi. We had a long conversation about the Mahdi, and it seemed to me that Sheikh Idris did not believe in him, but had merely joined him in the hope of gain and rewards. Idris also added, "By what right should we be ruled by the Turks? can we not govern ourselves?" If there had been many more sensible and enlightened men like Sheikh Idris, it is probable that Mahdiism would have taken a very different form; but Idris was an exception--most of the principal emirs were uneducated and ignorant savages. It was God's will that this Idris should fall later on in the battle of Argin in 1889, fighting against Wodehouse Pasha. A few days after this conversation, my original master, Abdullah Wad en Nur, arrived from Jebel Dair to obtain the Mahdi's instructions as to the future conduct of the war. The Mahdi presented him with a very good horse. Khalifa Abdullah asked him what he intended to do with me, and advised him that when he again went to the Nuba country he should take me with him and put me in the front so that the Nubas might kill me. Sheikh Idris told me this, and Khalil Hassanein, Roversi's old clerk, who had obtained a good place in the beit el mal, brought me three dollars for the journey. I was delighted with the idea of a change, for I could not have been worse off than I was at Rahad.