The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-05-02
FL MAHDI.


 This great heather and iull-blown pro- phet was once poor boy, without a dol lar In his pocket. Years ago, when little Mahdi used to snare suckers along the White Nile, no ono thought that to-day he would be tha champion heavy weight prophet of the known world. it shows what can be done by brave, courageous little boy even In foreign land. h sppea.ance he ia brunette oi about the style of the successful meerschaum pipe. He does not dress as we do, bu, wears q white turban that looks some like an Euuscan hens nest. On chilly days he adds other articles of apparel to this turban, though during the summer months that is suffici for evening dress In the morning he puts on his tuTban, buckles . six.shooter around his waist and he is dressed. lt doesnt take Mahdi long to make his toilet.
 Years ago he decided that he would re- tire to lonely island In the Nile and pu, himself In training for a prophet, so he crawled into cave and lived there on whatever he could get hold of While others were down at khartoum. having . good time at the skating rink, Mahdi re- mained in his gloomy cave, setting up the pins to go into the prophet business and IT. urder the kings English. Soon people began to hear of Ei Mahdi. and as he put . card in all the morning papers of the Soudan, he al once had all the prophesying he could do and had to hire an amanuensis or assistant prophe, to help him out. Daring the holidays. when trade was brisk, the Mshdi hGd to sit up and prophecy till ten or eleven o'clock at night.
 | His real name Is Mohammed Achmed, and he was the son of petty shelk, whose name have forgotten. This man was an inferior person and Q very ordi- nary sheik, am told-juI such a sheik as you could go in and ind on the ten- cent counters ot the Soudan anywhere showed one of the prevailing charactesis- tics of a tramp, and so they bes an to cd ucate him as Akir. A fakiT Is man who has permission 10 ramble through the country, chiseling people out of money and groceries in the name Of re- ligion. He is sor of Onentai gospel bum, whose business Is id go around over the country weeping over the sins of people who are too busy to be bypo- crites. These fakiis are always devout, hungry and sad. They yearp for brigh, immortality, but they are in no great rush about acquiring it. They arc perfectly willing to wait till the Egyptian outlets run out. am glad that we have no ia. kirs in America.
 By and by Mohammed Achmed got call to rise up William Riley and gather the clans of the Soudan together. He went to them and told them in COL fl iencc that he was the only genuine, all.~ooi prophet on the Nile, and if they wanted some iun, to get their double barrel sho, guns and join the gang. They did SO. None of them ever did anything at home to obtain livelihood, so they could 70 away on the waIpaih ali summer and their business wouldn't suffer at all They then proceeded ,o murder the kings English, who had come there to conquer and acquire their sand pile.
 The Arabian style of warfare is pecu liar. It consists largely in drinking alkaIl water on their part and in requiring their enemies to do the same for ninety days. 50 1t becomes simply a question of who has the 6imest and most durable Besse. mer steel bowels.
 No one but Bedouip would have thought of such a style of warfare. It is not, therefore, a question of courage os everlasting justice, it is a question of who can drink concentrated lye all summer end take his aiimentAry canal home with him in the fail
 In battle, the Arab charge is peculiar in the extreme. The Arab does not stand ] up in line of battle for an hour while tbs ! commanding officer gallops np and do<n 1 the line On heavy" horse and the enemy pours galling fire into his ranks. | He rails up toward the enemy, waves his Oriental night shirt in the Egyptian air, shoots some ons and goes away. When l the battle-ground is examined on the fol- lowing day, 1t is discovered that eight hundred brave and handsome English soldiers are kiiled and one old moth~eaten Arab has stepped en his Gothic shirt tail asd spsained his ankie.
 Fl Mahdi is not bad looking man as ali, and the report that he has lost his teeth, Q that when he gives his orders he has to gam Arabic, is not true.
 
 A favorite dexfeYt vifh lawvers ig sue it l