The war correspondent of the Daily Chronicle gives some interesting
notes of a conversation between the Emir Mahmoud, captured at Atbara, and an English officer. Mahmoud, who is evidently an excellent " subject " for the interviewer, declared that he was taken by surprise at Atbara, that his forces were disunited and disorganised, in short, that it was "no fight at all," adding: "You wait and see what yot will get at Omdurman !" After insisting on the Dervishes disregard of death, he replied to the question whether the Khalifa's men would fly, " Fly ! Whither can they fly? They will have no homes. Where can they rest ?" Asked how many men the Khalifa had with him, Mahmoud was not content with a bald enumeration, but picturesquely answered: "In the great Mosque at Omdurman at prayers there are forty-seven rows of fighting men, and in each row there is fifteen hundred." The comment of his interlocutor, who seems to have forgotten Cromwell's Ironsides, not to mention General Gordon, that those who prayed much were not always great fighters, appears to have annoyed Mahmoud, for the correspondent adds that "although possessed of the most vicious passions, and acting fre- quently as a ferocious beast, Mahmoud can bear no dis- respectful allusion to his religion. Nearly the whole of his life has been spent at Omdurman, where he used to attend the Mosque daily five times." The value of Mahmond's information is 'somewhat impaired by the circumstances in which he 'was taken prisoner. Still, there is no reason for doubting the accuracy of his prediction as to the fighting at Omdurman.
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