A Fellah (peasant) owed the government forty maamle,[9] the sheikh of his village had his last ox seized, the fellah declaring himself incapable of paying. The beast was slaughtered and divided into forty parts: the butcher received the head and skin for his trouble, and the remaining forty parts were sold at one maamle each, to the inhabitants of the village promiscuously. The meat, as may be supposed, was quickly sold at this low price. The poor peasant now appeared with a complaint before the Defturdar, assuring him that the ox was worth more than forty maamle. The Defturdar proceeded with all speed to the village, to investigate the matter on the spot. Having convinced himself of the truth, he ordered the sheikh, the butcher, and all those persons who had bought a portion of the confiscated ox, to be called together, and reproached the sheikh, in presence of all for his unlawful conduct. The butcher now received the order to slaughter the sheikh and to divide his body into forty parts. Every former purchaser was obliged to buy a part at a price of one maamle, and to carry the flesh home with him. The money was handed over to the Fellah as an indemnification for the ox which had been taken from him. At the feast of the Baëram[10] all the servants and seyss, eighteen in number, went before the Defturdar to offer their congratulations according to custom, and begged at the same time for a pair of new shoes. “You shall have them,” said he. He now had the farrier called, and commanded him to make eighteen pairs of horse-shoes to fit the feet of his servants; these were ready on the next day, whereupon he ordered two shoes to be nailed to the soles of the feet of each of the eighteen servants without mercy. Nine of them died in a short time of mortification; he then had the survivers unshod, and consigned them to the care of a medical man. But, enough of the atrocities perpetrated by this tiger in human shape, cruelties which are neither to be justified nor excused. Volumes might be filled with instances of tyranny of which this barbarian was guilty in the conquered country of Kordofan, in Sennaar, and Egypt. No single day passed without its tribute to his blood-thirsty cruelty. His power of invention of tortures for his unfortunate victims was extraordinary, and he was always capable of lighting upon some new mode of gratifying his revengeful disposition. His name will remain unforgotten for ages in Kordofan, Sennaar, and Egypt, and is yet an object of terror to all who hear it. Mehemed Ali, wearied of the complaints which daily reached him against this tyrant, at last had a bowl of poison presented to him. I myself saw several of the victims of his cruelty who had been fortunate enough to escape with their lives, but wandered about the country as cripples, begging their daily bread from their neighbours, deprived of their noses, ears, or tongues, or with their eyes put out.