The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-09
A PORTRAIT OF. THE MAHD1.
His Personal Appearance and His Keen Eye
for the Buttered Side of the Bread.

His Personal Appearance and His Keen Eye
for the Buttered Side of the Bread.
Alfred NJ. Cote, in Catholic World.
Imagine man about forty years of age, of
medium height as lean, as the saying is, as shot
ten herring with mahogany complexion, coal
black beard and eyes, and three vertical slashes
on his pallid cheeks add to this long cotton
shirt as garment, a narrow turban as a head
dress, pair of wooden sandals, and in the
hands-dry as those of a 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 Mohammed-
Ahmed plays to perfection the part of visionary
dervish, waving his head when walking, and
murmuring constant prayers, his eyes fixed on
heaven. His father was carpenter on Naft
island, in the Nubian province of Dongola, and
about 1852 came, with his four children, to
Chm :, 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, ship-builder
of Chs3ESah opposite SEMINAR 1t seems
that the future prophet was not without his fail
ings, for one day his uncle thought we'll of fog
ging him in regular French style The pro-
ceeding, was not appreciated, and the child ran
away until he arrived in khartoum, where he
dervshes, who were in charge of the monument
erected over the venerated remains of Check
HoghaG, patron of the city, There his life was
remarkable one for his piety; but as to educa-
ton. he never learned how to write or even how
to read fuently. Later he went to a similar insti-
tuition IL Berber, then to one in Aradup on the
south of Kena In the latter city he became in
1870, the favorite pie of an eminent fakir
Check Nur-elDaim, and finally was ordained
by him and went to Abbas island White Nile
a SaIDtIV m thn
increase. He lived in a kind of pit or subterra-
mean repository for grain, called silo which he
had dug up with his own hands; and there he
passed his life, fasting and praying, burning in
cense day and night, and repeating the name of
Allah for hours at a 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 only with
disgust and pity. He had made VOW to absorb
himself in the cotemplation of divine perfec.
tion and to weep all his life for the sins of man
kind But his tears did not destroy his power of
vision, and he kept his best eye wide open to
business: and the faithful coming by the thou
sands, 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 1873 he became SO wealthy that he felt the
necessity to declare that Allah had ordered him
to leave his silo, and to take unto himself large
collection of wives, whom, as a 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 memory the
appalling determination of Hicks Pashas eleven
thousand men, surrounded on the 9th of Novem-
Der, 1883-the first day of the fourteenth centu-
ry of the Hegira-at Khasghil, while marching
on Ell Obeid. This horrible butchery, happen
ing on the threshold of the century, announced
as the one of the Last Prophet, gave bloody con-
secration to Mohammed Ahmed, who, after the
three days battle, went all the battle field
piercing with his spear the CHASTITY corpses, and
exclaimlng ut is I, l, the Prophet, who de-
stroyed the heretics~ Compared to him Mo-
manned was no more, in his mind, than small
prophet He alone was the only great and pow
erful Messiah announced by Mohammed him
self. The Sultan at Constantinople was no more
the supreme Caliph the chief of Islamism; it was
he, Mohammed Ahmed, and he offered his own
name to be invoked in public worship in the
place of Mohammeds, right after the name of
Allah.
have said enough to show what kind of a man
is the Nubian Mahdi