to reconcile such conduct with the character for sagacity and intelligence which Abdullah has deserved.  There is no doubt that he wanted to conquer Egypt.  Possibly by some extraordinary chance Wad-el-Nejumi might succeed, even with his small force.  If so, then the glory of God and the power of the Khalifa would advance together.  If not—­and herein lies the true reason for the venture—­the riverain tribes would have received a crippling blow.

The terrible slaughter of the Abyssinian war had fallen mainly on the Jehadia and the eastern Arabs.  The jealous tribes in the north had not suffered.  The balance of power was in need of re-adjustment.  The Jaalin and Barabra were fast becoming dangerous.  Nejumi’s army was recruited almost entirely from these sources.  The reinforcements sent from Omdurman consisted of men selected from the flag of the Khalifa Sherif, who was growing too powerful, and of the Batahin tribe, who had shown a mutinous spirit [Ohrwalder, ten years’ captivity.] The success of such an army in Egypt would be glorious.  Its destruction anywhere would be convenient.  Whatever Abdullah’s motives may have been, his advantage was certain.  But the life of the empire thus compelled to prey upon itself must necessarily be short.

Other forces were soon added to the work of exhaustion.  The year following the end of the Abyssinian war was marked by a fearful famine.  Slatin and Ohrwalder vie with each other in relating its horrors—­men eating the raw entrails of donkeys; mothers devouring their babies; scores dying in the streets, all the more ghastly in the bright sunlight; hundreds of corpses floating down the Nile—­these are among the hideous features, The depopulation caused by the scarcity was even greater than that produced by the fighting.  The famine area extended over the whole Soudan and ran along the banks of the river as far as Lower Egypt.  The effects of the famine were everywhere appalling.  Entire districts between Omdurman and Berber became wholly depopulated.  In the salt regions near Shendi almost all the inhabitants died of hunger.  The camel-breeding tribes ate their she-camels.  The riverain peoples devoured their seed-corn.  The population of Gallabat, Gedaref, and Kassala was reduced by nine-tenths, and these once considerable towns shrank to the size of hamlets.  Everywhere the deserted mud houses crumbled back into the plain.  The frightful mortality, general throughout the whole country, may be gauged by the fact that Zeki Tummal’s army, which before the famine numbered not fewer than 87,000, could scarcely muster 10,000 men in the spring of 1890.