The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-10-11

numerous wives. He has grown fat and
is dis:nclined for outdoor work, but is
more cruel and Shrewder than ever. Out
wardly he is not pleasant to look upon
His face shows the ravageS Of smallpox,
his eyes are bullying and the eyelids droop.
He Is almost as dark as a negro, and is
unable to read or write.
AN ABLE GENERAL.
Osman Digna is as shrewd as his master,
but not as cruel. He is now about 60
His remote ancestors on one side We're
Turks, who came into Upper Egypt from
Constantinople $50 years ago, but through
inter-marriageS with natives Of the half
savage region in the eastern SouGan the
Turkish strain has been almost lost in
that of the Hadendowas. a tribe neither
Arabic nor Abyssinian, but having some
of the characteristics of both. The name
of the tribe means 'sthe chief people,
and it is one of the ruling tribes in the
country lying between the Nubian desert
on the north and Abyssinia on the south,
the eastern boundary being the Red sea,
the western the Blue Nile.
Osman was born in Tokar town
about 100 miles south of Suakin. He is
tall. gaunt, rather inclined to stoop, and
lacking the erect, graceful bearing of the
Arabs. His skin is chocolate COLOR his
forehead is full and high, and his nose
prominent His hair is shaggy and
crimpy and his beard long and now quite
gray. He has firm lips, not too thick,
=
expression.
He began life as a dealer in fruits,
feathers and other merchandise of an
ordinary sort. He managed to put money
by, and little by little made ventures, I'M
til he had arrived at the dignity of an
influential Arab trader. Thereafter his
fortunes rapidly increased, thanks to his
enterprises in kidnapping slaves in the
region around Albert NyanZa. In the
rising of the Mahdi he saw his oppor-
tunity. In 1888, while buying merchandise
in the Soudan, he visited the prophet,
professed conversion to his cause and re-
ceived a commission TO rouse the faithful
in the eastern Soudan to join in the holy
war.
Returning to his own country, he soon
attracted thousands to the standard of the
Mahdi. His eloquent appeals and his
piety reused his followers to fanatical
frenzy which made them utterly reckless
Of life and a terribly formidable foe to the
English and Egyptian troops that did bat
tie with them. Nothing daunted them.
Nothing ever drove them from the Held.
Death alone vanquished them. Before a
fight Osma2 used TO appear before his
troops arrayed in she1kh'S loose robe,
on which were braided, in yellow and
green, words from the Koran, and as they
rushed upon the enemy he prayed aloud
to Allah to send the souls 'of the infidels
to perdition.
He was the most formidable general in
the war of 1888. and the successes Of the
Madhi's forces were due to him more than
to any other leader. He is a. good deal of
a sham. but in carrying on war, or
crushing rebellion, he is not to be
Sneezed at. He has practically lived in
the saddle for fourteen years. He is an
lmpassioned orator, and just before a
battle he addresses his soldiers working
them up to the point of frenzy.
From now on the Egyptian campaign
should be full Of interest. and if the Eng
lish succeed in crushing Abdullah and Os-
man, the whole world will be the gamer.