Chapter 11
Savage Warfare
Breaking the silence of night, two hours before the dawn, a rolling of drums made itself heard, getting louder and louder till the sound was like thunder. Perched on a platform in front of the noble facade of the Palace, two strong-armed slaves were beating rhythmically on the great war-drum of the Khalif Abdullahi, known as "El Mansoura,"-The Victorious. Soon its deep, slow note was answered by the more lively voices of smaller instruments, answering from the four corners of the city, though the solemn, sonorous roar of El Mansoura, the enormous kettle-drum with sides of solid copper, still dominated all other sounds. The people came trooping up at the summons in high spirits, accompanying the roll of the drums with a monotonous chant of defiance to the foe, "Nakel-koum,"-You will be eaten up, "Naktoulkoum,"-You will be cut to pieces!
The great black banner of the Khalif floated on the wind, surrounded by the other flags, while every man of the Ansar ran to take up his appointed place. Presently the four enormous kettle-drums, the daughters as they were called of El Mansoura, huge war drums of copper, were hoisted on the backs of camels to head the march. Next came the four ombeya players, blowing with might and main into the great elephant, tusks. Soon the Khalif himself appeared, perched on a magnificent camel with white coat as soft as silk and led by Ouad Beschir, the gigantic Arab
Abdullahi had chosen for his squire. His body-guards, the muzalemin, followed him, mounted and all wearing coats of mail and polished helmets wrapped round with a red turban. Then came the regular cavalry, and then the infantry, thirty thousand muskets, the bayonets flashing in the beams of the rising sun. Last of all a countless host of irregulars, armed with pikes and cutlasses, brought up the rear.
The regular Friday review of all arms on the Parade ground had been countermanded, and to take its place, Abdullahi was to march out at the head of his troops to meet Abu-Anga, who was returning victorious after triumphing over Khaled, the rebel, and the negro soldiers of El-Obayd. These had mutinied, cut to pieces an army of Dervishes and killed the Emir in command. But what most especially roused the Khalif's gratitude was the fact that Abu-Anga had brought Zogal to his knees. What terrible anxiety and trouble he had occasioned, this redoubtable Zogal! With his band of marauders, all brave and tried soldiers, he had sacked Bara, and established his camp on its ruins. He mocked openly at the Malidi and his law; his followers drank like fishes,-marissa, or palm-wine, and even mastik and arrak, smoked, snuffed and chewed as much as ever they chose. The abuse of tobacco was held no crime, and his men danced publicly with women. He was a jovial man, Zogal, and often said that when the Prophet promised a Paradise of sensual delights, he obviously had not intended this world to be a hell of self-denial. Tall and stout, with a flowing silver beard, he would promenade his camp from end to end, urging his fellows to enjoy themselves and regretting that with the weight of his sixty years upon him, he found women less easy to tackle. Now Abu-Anga had taken his camp, and enrolled his soldiers under his own banner, while Zogal himself had been led in irons to the prison of El-Obayd. From end to end the Sudan was coming under the yoke of Malidism and acknowledging the sovereignty of Abdullahi.
The army set forward across the plain, which was tufted with alpha grass, towards the hills of Herreri, where, so said tradition, the Djinns,-or Evil Spirits,-dwell in caverns. The Ansar venerated these genii, for every man was firmly convinced they fought for him and his. On the sandy level, among the scanty clumps of mimosa, the cavalry deployed, the horsemen dashing forward with loud shouts, prancing and caracoling, and playing with their muskets. With a whirl of dust, a glimpse of half-seen forms and a flash of steel, the fantasia dashed past. Presently a distant blare of trumpets, coming nearer and nearer,-and Abu-Anga was seen approaching at full gallop to meet the Khalif. His accoutrement brought out his gallant bearing and length of limb; he wore a coat of mail of close and pliant texture, and round his copper helm was knotted a red turban in which nodded a plume of ostrich feathers held in place by a great diamond. Behind him galloped his Mukkudum and his escort, the pick of his troops. He leapt from his courser in full career and ran to kiss the Khalifs hand, who bade him remount and ride beside him.
The crowd surrounding the army made its way back to Omdurman amid salvos of artillery, and were presently filling the streets with noisy acclamations and shouts of triumph. The Khalif publicly declared it was to his trusty Abu-Anga he owed all this success. He conversed with him smilingly, sketching out mighty deeds to come,-first and foremost the humiliation of Abyssinia, then the conquest of Egypt, later on the invasion of Syria; for it was at Damascus he longed to establish the Khalifate and restore the great days of Islam.
Grace, who was listening eagerly, heard the cheers of the populace, and her heart swelled and beat high with enthusiasm. Abu-Anga's victory made her proud and glad, and she thought herself a happy woman to be loved by such a hero. Presently she fell to questioning herself, asking if she too loved him in return; but to her surprise, pride and sensual satisfaction were the only genuine feelings she could discover. Yet she quivered deliciously in her lover's arms; her nerves trembled and her pleasure almost verged in ecstasy. When finally Abu-Anga appeared in the harem, she threw herself into his arms, and resting her head on the negro's bosom, burst into a torrent of tears. He held her pressed against him, long and silently, plaiting her golden curls between his fingers, then clearing them from her brow and kissing her fondly.
After a while he informed her he was going to take command against the Abyssinians and that he meant to take her with him on the expedition. The Khalif realized to the full the difficulties of the enterprise, deeming Abyssinia a stronger and more formidable power than Egypt, and eagerly hurried on his preparations.
Indeed the utmost haste was necessary to anticipate the enemy. Spies reported that the Negus, King John, was already mobilizing his army, which the Ras Adal was to lead to the invasion of the Sudan. The best course was evidently to take the offensive, and be the first to strike a decisive blow. Already, soon after his accession, the Khalif had written a letter to King John, in which he had urged him to abjure Christianity, "he and his subjects, and embrace the Mussulman Faith, the only true religion. Besides which, he must perform homage, and recognize him as his Overlord, as being the true successor of the Prophet, the Malidi." This haughty epistle had not been deemed worthy of an answer by the Abyssinian King; but he had summoned his Ras, his Viceroys of Provinces, to his capital, where all had sworn abhorrence to the Khalif, war to the Dervishes, and fidelity to the Negus.
Meantime the Abyssinians continued their trade relations with the Dervishes. Numbers crossed the frontier and penetrated into the Sudan as far as the market of Galabat, to which they were in the habit of bringing slaves, mules, large supplies of the little Abyssinian horses, besides ostriches, coffee, honey, wax and tomatoes, taking in exchange cotton fabrics and money. Among these Abyssinian traders were both "Guebertas," who are Moslems, and "Makadas," who are Christians. The latter however, for all their love of gain, were afraid to come alone, and counted on the Guebertas to help them keep the peace with the Dervishes.
One day there arrived a rich caravan, loaded with large quantities of merchandise, which seemed so valuable to Yunis, the Emir commanding at Galabat on behalf of the Khalif, that he could not resist the dictates of greed. Inventing a pretext, that the traders had come to Galaban from the Ras Adal and were his spies, he seized the goods, and had the Abyssinians thrown into irons, Moslems and Christian alike. Then without losing a moment he dispatched horsemen, who crossing the frontier, sacked the nearest Abyssinian villages and carried off any young girls they could lay hands on. The prettiest of these Yunis sent as a present to the Khalif, urging him to declare war against the Abyssinians. The Khalif consented, being still angry at the insulting silence preserved by King John. After many prayers in the Great Mosque of Omdurman, Abdullahi proclaimed Yunis "Afrit el Mush rikinn," The Demon of the idolatrous Christians, and "Mismar ed Din," The Nail of the True Faith. Yet in spite of these sounding titles, Yunis was disgracefully beaten, and left the enemies' country quicker than he had entered it. Meantime the Ras Adal had begun great preparations against Galabat.
Abdullahi counted on Abu-Anga's gallantry to avenge the disaster and stay the threatened invasion, though at the same time he advised him to be cautious. As far as Abu Haraz, the spot where the Khor Rahad mingles its clear waters with the muddy ones of the Nile, Abu-Anga accompanied the advance of his troops on a steamer. Sitting in her cabin, Grace could still close her eyes to the realities of the war, surrounded as she was by all the refinements of English comfort. At intervals she would mount on deck, and watch the flying banks as they sped past. High above the slender, sloping date-palms, relieved against the deep blue of the sky, hung a flock of flamingoes dressed out in white and scarlet, while giraffes, then-long necks extended, tried to race the boat.
At Galabat the levies raised in the Ghezireh awaited the General, bringing up the total of Abu-Anga's forces to eighty-one thousand men,-nearly all negroes. The new recruits were armed with pikes and assegais. The Messalit were in the habit of flaying the enemies they had killed, and tanning the skin to make water-bottles. But the Negroes were cannibals; from the game-bag they carried always dangled some human fragment, a foot with contracted toes or a flaccid hand. An angareb was hoisted on a camel's beak, on which Grace sat in state. Soon, leaving Galabat behind, Abu-Anga boldly entered at the head of his army the "mihtok," the gorge or vast depression which pierces the mountain barrier separating the Sudan from Abyssinia and offering a hollow, rock-strewn way to an invader. The army advanced by forced marches, the ground continually getting more and more difficult, bristling with boulders between which grew rough brushwood and cactus with sharp-edged leaves. The horses' legs had to be specially protected, while the camels suffered even more pitiably. At one time the line would be winding along the mountain side, on the right hand the rock, sloping sheets of basalt on which the sun beat fiercely, on the left a blue abyss where the gorge lay far below their feet. Then would come miles of forest, dark, humid and treacherous, where they had to fight with long, trailing creepers and use the axe to cut a passage. A wealth of life lurked in the heaps of dead leaves, under the bark of the trees, in the smallest twig. Reptiles slipped past with a faint rustling, and myriads of insects scuttled underfoot, buzzing and humming. High up among the leaves birds flew terrified from their perches, while monkeys hung grinning or ran to hide among the topmost boughs. From the jungle could be heard the heavy tramp of a herd of elephants or the light scurry of antelopes; sometimes, its long neck stretched forward and head erect, a giraffe would shoot past like a flash of lightning. Then there would be a roar like thunder, and all nature hushed at the lion's voice. The air was full of strange, heavy scents, and strange flowers with monstrous animal shapes displayed their blossoms in the shade. In every clearing clouds of mosquitos buzzed and eddied in the sunbeams.
One night, after a halt had been called and the great camp-fires kindled, Grace awoke with a start and saw a huge, shadowy form standing motionless beside her angar-eb. The crackling wood darted a momentary flame, and she recognized Aisha, the tall Donga negress.
Next morning the army resumed its march as usual, and suddenly entered upon a fertile land with wide clearings richly cultivated and well stocked with cattle. Moreover on these high table-lands the climate was more temperate, and the sun's rays had lost their ardent fierceness. But the villages were deserted, the peasants flying at the approach of the Dervishes, with such precipitation they had left the cattle in the fields, the poultry in the farmyard, and the wheat in the barn.
About the middle of the sixth day's march however the Dervishes found themselves unexpectedly face to face with the Abyssinian army. The Ras Adal with all his troops was quietly waiting for the enemy in the great plain of Dabra-Sin, at the foot of the mountains. So confident was he of victory, so certain of advance, that he had actually taken up his position with a torrent immediately in his rear. Just as the recruits, forming the left wing, debouched from the pass, the Abyssinians delivered their attack. Helter-skelter their cavalry dashed forward. Up they came on their sturdy little beasts at full gallop, stopped an instant to fire their muskets, then pointing their lances and lying low on their horses' necks, they charged with horrible yells. The poor raw recruits suffered terribly, and began to fall back.
But at this moment Abu-Anga hurried to the front, and drew up his Djedediah in battle order under the fire of the enemy. Straight and upright in the saddle, he sat there stem and impassive amid the uproar, giving orders in stentorian tones that were audible above the rattling of musketry and the yells of the Abyssinians. Instantly things began to wear a different complexion. The Abyssinians fought with desperate valour, their war-like ardour raised to fever heat in a struggle with the hated Moslem, the treacherous invader of their fatherland. But perfectly calm and rigidly disciplined, the Dervishes fired all together as one man, their serried ranks forming a compact mass, that little by little pushed back the Abyssinians and finally hurled them into the torrent, the Khof, that was al their backs. It was nothing more nor less than a massacre, men and horses in inextricable confusion rolling over and over in the foaming waves, soon to be carried away by the swift current and drowned.
The army of the Ras Adal was annihilated. At the same time the Dervishes had suffered considerable losses, the Ghezireh levies in particular having been almost cut to pieces. The Abyssinian troops opposed to them already deemed victory to be theirs, and instead of hurrying to reinforce their comrades engaged with the black soldiers of Abu-Anga, they had amused themselves with mutilating the prisoners they had made. They sliced off noses and ears and put out eyes. With shouts of brutal laughter, curious to see how a Mussulman was made, they would point out to each other the marks of circumcision on the members they had amputated with their sabres. When the battalion of Abu-Anga fell upon their rear, they were so panic-stricken they never so much as thought of defending themselves.
The camp of the Ras fell bodily into the hands of the Dervishes. In it they found tents in plenty, munitions of war, and even two big guns, besides a considerable number of beasts of burden, asses and mules. There were women too, among them the wife of the Ras Adal and the Princess his daughter,-both so ugly not a soldier in all the army would look at them. All this booty pleased Abu-An greatly, and he immediately decided to push on and carry the war into the Amhara, and so attack the Negus in the very heart of his Empire. From the plain where he now was, only thirty miles divided him from Gondar, the ancient capital of Abyssinia, where no doubt an accumulation of treasure would be found to compensate the victor for all his toils.
The only difficulty was the beasts, the asses and mules; these would only be an embarrassment to the troops on the march. So the massacre of men was succeeded by the butchery of animals, and they fell on them, cutting their throats and felling them with pole-axes. But so great was the number that the Dervishes, already wearied with fighting, could do no more. Then they drove the remaining animals into a wood of acacias, where they hobbled them and tied them to the trees, and the grass being dry and the wood inflammable, they set the place on fire. Soon it was a roaring furnace, showers of sparks billowing upward and the flames shooting far aloft. The kicks and struggles of the poor beasts could be heard, as they fought to break away .while the asses brayed long and loud, to express their pain and terror. But the cruel negroes only laughed, a shrill, cackling laugh of enjoyment.