The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-17

I them, and the mud stores face streets paved only with mud. The vast inclosures of the khalifa are made of mud bricks. and the houses inside. which now form the quarters of the Anglo Egyptian sol diers and officers, are of sunbalIed dirt. Standing on the khalifa's palace one can follow many of the streets with his eyes Some of them are of great width, but the majority are narrow and winding. The whole city. in fact. is a labyrinth cut up by the new avenues laid. out by the British, with the holy build
 ngs and the khalifa's government struc- lures in the center
 Guided By the Governor.
 l was shown through the city by the mamour. All the townslzo the Sudan have a British official who rules them; but under each such governor is q sub governor, who must be a native Egyp- tan. This man is the real executive, as far as carrying out the orders of the gov ernment is concerned. He represents the natives. and understands all about them and their ways. The mamour with whom l went through Omdurman, is an eX- cavalry officer of the army of the khe- dive. His name is Capt Ahmed Handy and he fought with the British in their wars against the khalifa. He speaks English well. and, as he understands both
 
 me all about the city went through.
 I came down the Blue Nile from khar- tum in a sllih. The distance is about five miles, but we had to tack bacK and forth all the way, and the trip took over two hours. The mamour met me on land ing. He had Q good donkey for me; and we spent the whole day in going through one part of the city after another making the notes and taking the photographs which now lie before me.
 Queer People, These.
 I wish could show you the Omdur- man natives. They are stranger than any l have seen in my African travels. They come from all parts of the Sudan and represent 40 or 50 odd tribes. Some of the faces are as black as stove, some are dark brown and others have the color of rich Jersey cream. One of the queer est men I met during my journey was an African with a complexion as rosy as that of tow-headed American baby and hair quite as white. He was q water carrier, dressed in a red cap and long gown. He had two. great cans on the ends of a pole which rested on his shoul- der. and he was trotting through the streets carrying water from one of the wells to his black Sudanese customers. His feet and hands were bare and they were as white my own. l stopped him and made him lift his red fez cap to see whether his hair was white by age. It was iaxen. however, rather than silver, and he told me that his years numbered only 20. The mamour talked with him in Arabic. and learned that he was a pure Sudanese, coming from one of the prov inces near the watershed of the Kongo. He said that his parents were jet black, but that many men of his color lived in the region from whence he came. l stood him up against the mud wall in the street, and had two Sudanese women. each black CT than the ink with which this paper is printed stand beside him and then made their photographs. The man did not like this at first, but when at the close I gave him a coin worth about 25 cents he sa- laamed to the ground and went away happy.
 Tribal Marks.
 am surprised at how many of these people have scars on their faces. Nearly every other man 1 meet has the marks of great gashes his cheeks, forehead or breast, and some of the women are scared so as.to give the idea of terrible brutalities having been perpetrated upon them. AS a rule however, these scars have been voluntarily made. They are to mark the tribe and family to which