Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-04-09
Ell MAHDI.
How He Looks and Acts-His Fame as .
SANITY Man.

y
Imagine man about 40 years of
age, of medium height. as lean as the
saying is-as shotten herring, with a
mahogany complexion, coal-black
beard and eyes. and three vertical
slashes on his pallid cheeks; add to
this long cotton shirt as garment.
narrow turban as head-dress, a pair
OF wooden sandals, and in the hands
dry as those of mummy--a string of
ninety beads, corresponding to an
equal number of divine attributes, and
you have the Mahdi Those who have
seen him say that Northumberland
plays to perfection the part of a vision
airy deryish, waving his head when
walking and murmuring constant pray
ers, his eyes fixed on Heaven. His
father was carpenter on Matt Island,
in the Nubian Province of Dongola,
aud about 1852 came, with his four
children, to Chindi, a small city on the
banks of the Nile. south of Berber.
When still very young he was placed
as an apprentice under the care of one
OF his uncles, shipbuilder of Chaba-
KAN, opposite SEMINAR. 1t seems that
the future prophet was not without his
failings, for one day his uncle thought
well of hogging him in a regular
French style. The proceeding was not
appreciated, and the child ran away
until he arrived at Khartoum, where he
entered sort of school or convent of
begging deryishes who were in charge
OF the monument erected over the ven
Grated remains of Check Hoghall, pat
ron of the city. There his life was a
remarkable one for piety. As to edu-
cation, he was never taught how to
write or even how to read fluently.
Later he went to similar institution
IN Berber. then to one in Aradup, on
the south of kena. In the latter city
he became in 1870 the favorite disciple
of an eminent fakir, Cheick Nur-el-
Dalm, and finally was ordained by him
and went to Abbas Island. White Nile.
His fame as a sanity man was every
year on the increase. He lived in
kind Of pit or subterranean repository
for grain, called silo, which he had dug
up with his own hands; and there he
passed his life, fasting and praying,
burning incense day and night, and re-
peating the name of Allah for hours at
time, until he would fall to the
ground painting and exhausted. If
anybody spoke to him he gave back no
answer, except sentences from the
sacred books of Islam. Earthly things
seemed to inspire him with disgust and
pity. He had made vow to absorb
himself in the contemplation of divine
PROJECTIONS and to weep all his life for
the sins OF mankind. But his tears did
not destroy his power of vision, and he
kept his best eye wide opento business,
and, the faithful coming by thousands
and depositing rich offerings at the
mouth of his silo, he never failed to
see the gifts nor to stow them away
carefully for stormy days. In 1878 he
had become SO wealthy that he felt the
necessity to declare that Allah had
ordered him to leave his silo and to
take unto himself a large collection of
wives, whom, as truly practical man,
he chose among the most influential
families of the country, especially that
OF the Bagaras, the most opulent slave
traders on the White Nile.
Every one has still fresh in his men,
DRY the appalling determination Of
Hicks Pasha's LOO men. surrounded
the 9th of November, 1S63--the first
day OF the fourteenth century of the
Hegira!-at kashgil, while marching
on FL Obeid. This horrible butchery,
happening on the threshold of the GEN.
tury announced as the one of the last
prophet, gave a bloody conservation to
Mohammed-Ahmed, who, after the
three days battle, went all over the
battlefield, piercing with his spear the
CHASTITY corpSes of his enemies and ex-
claiming; at is l, /, the prophet, who
destroyed the heriticsr' Compared to
him, Mohammed was no more, in his
mind, than small prophet. He alone
was the only great and powerful Mes
siah announced by Mohammed himself.
The Sultan of Constantinople was no
more the supreme Caliph, the Chief of
lslamism; it was he. Mohammed-Ah-
med, and he ordered his own name to
be invoked in public worship in the
place OF Mohammed's right after the
name of Allah. d. NJ Cote, in
h. IL.