10 SEPTEMBER 1898, Page 15

THE BATTLE OF OMDURMAN.

To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR,'] SIE,—The telegraphic despatch conveying the news of the battle of Omdurman contained an interesting illustration of a verse of the Sixty-eighth Psalm, which has caused some 'difficulty to commentators. The Prayer-book version reads (verse 14) : "When the Almighty scattered kings for their sake : then were they as white as snow in Salmon,"—i.e., as generally explained, the flashing of the armour of the slain warriors resembled the snow shining on the dark boughs of the forest. Unconsciously, perhaps, the writer of the tele- graphic despatch has used the same simile. His words are : -" After the dense mass of the Dervishes had melted to corn- ,panies and the companies to driblets, *hey broke and fled, leaving the field white with jibba-clad corpses like a meadow

dotted with snowdrifts."—I am, Sir, &c., A. C.