left the future Mahdi, still a child, to the mercies of the world.  Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong; and a boy deprived of a father’s care often develops, if he escape the perils of youth, an independence and vigour of thought which may restore in after life the heavy loss of early days.  It was so with Mohammed Ahmed.  He looked around for an occupation and subsistence.  A large proportion of the population of religious countries pass their lives at leisure, supported by the patient labour of the devout.  The young man determined to follow the profession for which he felt his talents suited, and which would afford him the widest scope.  He became a priest.  Many of the religious teachers of heathen and other countries are devoid of enthusiasm and turn their attention to the next world because doing so affords them an easy living in this.  Happily this is not true of all.  It was not true of Mohammed.  Even at an early age he manifested a zeal for God’s service, and displayed a peculiar aptitude for learning the tenets and dogmas of the Mohammedan belief.  So promising a pupil did not long lack a master in a country where intelligence and enthusiasm were scarce.  His aspirations growing with his years and knowledge, he journeyed to Khartoum as soon as his religious education was completed, and became a disciple of the renowned and holy Sheikh, Mohammed Sherif.

His devotion to his superior, to his studies and to the practice of austerities, and a strange personal influence he was already beginning to show, won him by degrees a few disciples of his own:  and with them he retired to the island of Abba.  Here by the waters of the White Nile Mohammed Ahmed lived for several years.  His two brothers, who were boat-builders in the neighbourhood, supported him by their industry.  But it must have been an easy burden, for we read that he ’hollowed out for himself a cave in the mud bank, and lived in almost entire seclusion, fasting often for days, and occasionally paying a visit to the head of the order to assure him of his devotion and obedience.’ [I take this passage from fire and sword in the Soudan, by Slatin.  His account is the most graphic and trustworthy of all known records of the Mahdi.  He had terrible opportunities of collecting information.  I have followed his version (chapter iv.) very closely on this subject.] Meanwhile his sanctity increased, and the labour and charity of the brothers were assisted by the alms of godly travellers on the river.

This virtuous and frugal existence was disturbed and terminated by an untoward event.  The renowned and holy Sheikh made a feast to celebrate the circumcision of his sons.  That the merriment of the auspicious occasion and the entertainment of the guests might be increased, Sherif, according to the lax practice of the time, granted a dispensation from any sins committed during the festivities, and proclaimed in God’s name the suspension of the rules against