Another most interesting case is related by the Legal Adviser as having recently occurred in Dongola Province. Taha Ali and Ahmed Hamad carried on business in partnership as butchers, and Taha kept the purse. One day Taha told his partner that ten and a half dollars belonging to the partnership had been stolen. But Ahmed did not believe him, and roundly accused him of stealing the money himself. A violent dispute arose, but at last they agreed to refer the matter to a holy man then residing in the neighbourhood. This holy man was a fakir belonging to Timbuctoo, who had made the pilgrimage to Mecca, and was now returning. At first he was very reluctant to interfere; it was no business of his, he said; they should go before the mamur. But the more he refused the more eagerly they insisted. They even said that if he would not, it was because he could not. It was a poor sort of fakir that could not find out a little thing like that, and they would lose no time in proclaiming the fact. At last he consented to act. First he copied out some passages from some religious books which he had with him on a native writing-board with European copying-ink. Then he washed off the writing into a bowl with bread and water, and divided the bread and water between the two, telling them that the one in the wrong would shortly become very ill. Each man consumed his portion of the mess and went away. An hour or two later Taha Ali was seized with violent pains in the stomach, and, returning to the fakir, confessed that it was he who had stolen the money. But in spite of his confession the pains grew worse, and he died the same day. The authorities stepped in, and the fakir was put on his trial for poisoning. The facts of the case were undisputed, and the fakir himself gave evidence on his own behalf. He pointed out that he had only undertaken to investigate the affair very reluctantly, as he was well aware that it was not his business, but he could not damage his reputation as a holy man. He had adopted the best method of discovering the truth. The man’s death was the act of God, not his. As for the suggestion that the copying-ink was poisonous, he was willing on the spot to drink up the remainder of it, the bottle being still about half full. The medical examination revealed no sign of poisoning, and the case was referred to Khartoum.