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 9 [24]
The Government
and Fiscal Policy

by Tony Lima, California State University, East Bay, Hayward, CA

BRIEF CHAPTER OUTLINE

Government in the Economy p. 163 [483]
Discuss the influence of fiscal policies on the economy.

Fiscal Policy at Work: Multiplier Effects p. 167 [487]

Describe the effects of three fiscal policy multipliers.

The Federal Budget p. 173 [493]

Compare and contrast the federal budgets of three U.S. government administrations.

The Economy’s Influence on the Government Budget p. 177 [497]

Explain the influence of the economy on the federal government budget.

Looking Ahead p. 179 [499]

Appendix A: Deriving the Fiscal Policy Multipliers p. 182 [502]

Show that the government spending multiplier is 1 divided by 1 minus the MPC.

Appendix B: The Case in Which Tax Revenues Depend on Income p. 183 [503]
Explain why the multiplier falls when taxes depend on income.

Visit www.myeconlab.com for current examples, news articles, and teaching tips.

117
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
118 Case/Fair/Oster, Principles of Macroeconomics, 12th Edition

DETAILED CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. Introduction, page 162 [482]
A. There is much debate over the appropriate role government should play in the
economy. This controversy constantly shifts between positive and normative
arguments.
1. Keynesians believe that the macroeconomy is likely to fluctuate too much
if left on its own
2. Others (known by various names but whose antecedents are the classical
school) claim that fiscal and monetary policies are incapable of stabilizing
the economy and, even worse, may be destabilizing and harmful.
3. Most agree, however, that governments are important actors in the
economies of virtually all countries, like it or not.
B. The government can affect the macroeconomy through fiscal policy (its spending
and taxing behavior) and monetary policy (the behavior of the central bank
regarding the nation’s money supply). In the U.S. the central bank is the Federal
Reserve.
 TEACHING TIP: In the United States the central bank is not part of the government. Technically
the U.S. government only has control of fiscal policy.

II. Government in the Economy, pages 163–167 [483–487]

Learning Objectives: Discuss the influence of fiscal policies on the economy.
A. We need to distinguish between variables that the government controls directly
and those that are a consequence of government decisions. Neither can be
evaluated without taking the state of the economy into account.
1. For example, the government controls tax rates, but tax revenues are also
affected by the state of the economy.
2. Similarly, government spending also depends both on government
decisions and on the state of the economy. For example, when the
economy moves into a recession and unemployment rises, government
spends more on unemployment compensation.
3. Fiscal policy refers to the government’s spending and taxing policies.
Fiscal policy includes changes in government purchases of goods and
services (mainly labor services), taxes, and/or transfer payments to
households with the objective of changing the economy’s growth.
4. Monetary policy is the behavior of the Federal Reserve concerning interest
rates. Monetary policy is fundamentally changes in the quantity of money
in circulation with the objective of changing the economy’s growth. Often
monetary policy uses an interest rate target.
5. Discretionary fiscal policy refers to any changes in taxes or spending that
are the result of deliberate changes in government policy.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Chapter 9 [24]: The Government and Fiscal Policy 119

B. Government Purchases (G), Net Taxes (T), and Disposable Income (Yd)
1. Definitions
a. Net taxes (T) are taxes paid by firms and households to the
government minus transfer payments made to households by the
government. Net taxes equals tax revenue less transfer payments.
 TEACHING TIP: Students may be confused as to why transfer payments are deducted from tax
revenue. The logic is simple. The government drains tax revenue from the household sector.
Some of this tax revenue is returned to households in the form of transfer payments (welfare,
social security, unemployment insurance, etc.). These transfer payments are funds taken from
one household and given to another. It’s like the government never collected this revenue at all.
Subtracting transfer payments from tax revenue gives the government’s net drain of income from
households.
Another explanation that may help some students: transfer payments are negative taxes.

b. Disposable or after-tax income (Yd) is total income minus net

taxes: Y − T. Naturally, Y − T  C + S and Y  C + S + T.
c. Planned aggregate expenditure now includes government
purchases of goods and services (G): AE  C + I + G.
d. A budget deficit is the difference between what a government
spends and what it collects in taxes in a given period:
budget deficit = G − T.
e. When the government runs a budget deficit, part of household
savings is diverted from financing investment to loans to the
government.
f. If G is less thanT the government is running a budget surplus.
 TEACHING TIP: Today mentioning the possibility of a government budget surplus is rather like
believing in unicorns. Nevertheless, it’s worth pointing out that when the government runs a
budget surplus there is a net contribution to national saving.

2. Adding Taxes to the Consumption Function

Consumption spending now depends on disposable personal income rather
than on personal (before-tax) income: C = a + bYd so C = a + b(Y − T).
 TEACHING TIP: Point out that the above equation implicity assumes T does not depend on Y.

3. Planned Investment is affected by government tax policies, general

economic conditions, and interest rates. For now we continue to assume
that planned investment is fixed.
C. The Determination of Equilibrium Output (Income)
1. Equilibrium GDP is still the level of income that makes actual output
equal to planned spending.
 TEACHING TIP: This section begins with a lengthy example. You may be tempted to speed
through this. Avoid that temptation. Do the algebra on the board using the numbers in the text.
C = 100 + 0.75(Y − T), T = 100, Ip = 100, G = 100. Show that Ye = 900. Then increase G by 20 so
G = 120. Show that Ye rises to 980. These examples are included in the Excel workbook for this
chapter.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

120 Case/Fair/Oster, Principles of Macroeconomics, 12th Edition

2. The Saving/Investment Approach to Equilibrium

a. Taxes are an added leakage and government spending is an added
injection.
b. S + T = I + G must always be true as long as I is actual investment.
c. S + T = Ip + G will only be true in equilibrium (Ip is planned
investment spending).
 TEACHING TIP: Do the algebra on the board using the numbers in the text. C = 100 + 0.75(Y − T),
T = 100, Ip = 100, G = 100. Show that Ye = 900. Then increase G by 20 so G = 120. Show that Ye
rises to 980. These examples are included in the Excel workbook for this chapter.

Unique Economics in Practice

The relationship between the government budget deficit or surplus and the government debt is
often confused in the popular press (not to mention the halls of Congress). Here are some
basics.
The government debt is the stock of net borrowing by the government. In the U.S. the
government debt began when the government began, 1776. The government debt changes
when the government runs a budget deficit or a budget surplus.
If G exceeds T, the government is running a budget deficit and must borrow from the public to
finance the deficit. It does this by selling Treasury bonds and bills. When the government runs
a budget deficit, the new borrowing is added to the government debt. The stock of government
debt increases.
If G is less than T, the government is running a surplus (a negative deficit). The surplus buys
back a small part of the government debt from the public. The stock of government debt
decreases.
To make this point, ask students if their spending has ever exceeded their income during a
month. (If they need prodding, ask if there has ever been a month when they didn’t quite pay
all of a credit card bill.) Point out that they can impress their friends by saying they had to
“issue some debt” last month. Then make the point that if they continue to spend more than
their income month after month, the amount they owe will be the sum of their budget deficits.
The only way to pay down the debt is for them to run a budget surplus – to have several
months in which their income exceeds their spending.
Question: Suppose over a period of three months a student’s income and spending are as
follows:
Month Income Spending
Jan $750 $800
Feb $800 $850
Mar $600 $800

What will be their net stock of debt at the end of March?

Answer: ($800 - $750) + ($850 - $800) + ($800 - $600) = $300.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Chapter 9 [24]: The Government and Fiscal Policy 121

 TEACHING TIP: As in the previous chapter, there is a simple (and very visual) way to show
students the equivalence of the two equilibrium conditions Y = C + I + G and S + T = I + G.
Draw a rectangle representing some given level of output, and remind students that output and
income are equal, so the next rectangle representing total income in the economy should be the
same size. Ask: What happens to this income? With the government sector included, there are
only three things households can do with their income: spend it, pay it out in taxes, or save it.
Draw a third rectangle—smaller than the first or second—indicating the value of consumption
spending. Above this rectangle, show saving and taxes as leakages and investment and
government spending as injections. The last rectangle—aggregate expenditure or total spending—
shows the net result of subtracting saving and taxes from income and adding investment and
government spending.
Leakages Injections

T G
G
S I
I

C C

Output Income Aggregate

expenditure

Compare the first and fourth rectangles. The first indicates output; the fourth indicates
aggregate expenditure. Equilibrium requires these two rectangles to be the same size. When will
this occur? As can be seen in the diagram, only when total leakages equal total injections, or
S + T = I + G.

III. Fiscal Policy at Work: Multiplier Effects, pages 167–172 [487–492]

Learning Objectives: Describe the effects of three fiscal policy multipliers.
A. In this section we will review three multipliers:
1. Government Spending Multiplier
 TEACHING TIP: The same definition used in the previous chapter for the investment multiplier is
used again in this chapter, but now the autonomous variable is government spending rather than
planned investment.

2. The Tax Multiplier

3. The Balanced-Budget Multiplier
B. The Government Spending Multiplier
1. Increased government spending will lead to increased output, which leads
to increased income. More workers are employed, and they in turn act as
consumers and spend their incomes.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

122 Case/Fair/Oster, Principles of Macroeconomics, 12th Edition

2. Output will rise again and so will income, etc. This is the multiplier in
action. The government spending multiplier is the same as the investment
multiplier,
1 1
government spending multiplier = =
MPS 1- MPC
3. The government spending multiplier is the ratio of the change in the
equilibrium level of output to a change in government spending.
4. Suppose the economy is in equilibrium at Y = 900 (as in Fig. 9.2 [24.2].
a. To achieve full employment, the government wants to raise income
to 1,100. By how much should government spending change to
achieve this new equilibrium output?
b. The desired change in Y is 1,100 – 900 = 200. The income-
expenditure multiplier is 4. Therefore,
DY = +200
DY
=4
DG
DY
= DG
4
DG = 50
 TEACHING TIP: The data from Table 9.2 [24.2] is in the Excel workbook for this chapter.

C. The Tax Multiplier

1. To reduce unemployment without increasing government spending, taxes
must be cut. This increases disposable income, which is likely to add to
consumption, which will lead to an increase in output and employment,
and hence income, etc.
2. The tax multiplier is not the same as the government spending multiplier.
This is because government spending increases aggregate expenditures
dollar for dollar, while a tax cut leads to increased dollars of disposable
income and only part of those dollars are spent (the MPC). The rest is
increased saving.
3. The tax multiplier is the ratio of the change in the equilibrium level of
output to a change in taxes. In an economy with only autonomous taxes
the tax multiplier equals
MPC MPC
tax multiplier = - =-
MPS 1- MPC
 TEACHING TIP: The tax multiplier has a minus sign because a decrease (negative change) in taxes
causes an increase (positive change) in equilibrium income.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Chapter 9 [24]: The Government and Fiscal Policy 123

D. The Balanced Budget Multiplier

1. What happens if taxes and spending are increased by the same amount?
2. The balanced budget multiplier is the ratio of change in the equilibrium
level of output to a change in government spending where the change in
government spending is balanced by a change in taxes so as not to create
any deficit. The balanced-budget multiplier is equal to 1: The change in Y
resulting from the change in G and the equal change in T are exactly the
same size as the initial change in G or T.
 TEACHING TIP: The tax multiplier and balanced budget multiplier are in the Excel workbook for
this chapter.
 TEACHING TIP: Students are usually intrigued by the balanced budget multiplier. It’s also a
source of confusion. A multiplier of one does not mean no multiplier effect. A change in any
variable that had no impact on equilibrium GDP would have a multiplier of zero, not one.
The intuition for the balanced budget multiplier is pretty straightforward. When the government
taxes the public and spends the money, it is taking income from people who would not have
spent it all, and giving it to government agencies that will spend it all. The net increase in
spending is the amount of the tax revenue households would have saved. And, of course, the MPS
times the multiplier (1/MPS) is just 1.0.
If you decide to demonstrate the balanced budget multiplier with an example, make sure you
only use autonomous taxes and a simple model of the economy. Otherwise you’ll probably take
too much class time.

3. A Warning
a. The story about the multiplier is still incomplete and
oversimplified. One omission, income taxes, is discussed in
Appendix B to this chapter. The other omitted factor that reduces
the size of the multiplier, of course, is induced imports.
b. We are still assuming there are no assets markets or markets for
factors of production. The practical effect of omitting these
markets is to treat the price level and interest rate as constant.
Correcting those two omissions reduces the size of the multiplier
considerably.
 TEACHING TIP: Table 9.4 [24.4] is an excellent summary of the three multipliers.

IV. The Federal Budget, pages 173–179 [493–499]

Learning Objectives: Compare and contrast the federal budgets of three U.S. government
administrations.
A. The federal budget is the budget of the federal government.
B. The Budget in 2014
1. Reminder: fiscal policy is the manipulation of items in the federal budget
with the goal of changing the future course of the economy.
2. The budget includes both total receipts of the government as well as its
expenditures. Table 9.5 [24.5] shows a summary of the federal
government budget for 2014.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

124 Case/Fair/Oster, Principles of Macroeconomics, 12th Edition

 TEACHING TIP: Updated federal government budget data is available in the Excel workbook for
this chapter.

3. Personal income taxes were 41.6 percent of government receipts. But that
does not include the payroll tax (contributions for social insurance),
another 34.8 percent.
 TEACHING TIP: If you mention the payroll tax, be prepared for at least one student to state that
half the payroll tax is paid by employers. This merits a two-part response. First, self-employed
people pay the entire tax themselves. Second, economic research has consistently shown that
workers pay the entire payroll tax. The employer contribution just creates lower wage rates.

4. The federal surplus (+) or deficit (−) equals federal government receipts
minus expenditures. Also called federal government saving.
C. Fiscal Policy Since 1993: The Clinton, Bush, and Obama Administrations
1. Tax policy
a. The average tax rate rose significantly during the Clinton years
(from about 10 percent to 13 percent).
b.. The Bush tax cuts reduced this percentage to less than 9 percent in
2003.
c. The Obama administration kept the average tax rate low, although
the rate rose once the stimulus ended.
2. Government expenditure policy
a. As a percentage of GDP, government spending and transfers both
fell during the Clinton administrations, helped by the dot-com
boom of 1995 – 2000.
b. Both rose under the Bush administrations. Government
expenditures rose because of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The
increase in transfer payments was caused mainly by increased
Medicare spending. The new prescription drug benefit contributed
to the Medicare increase.
c. Spending continued to increase during the first five years of the
Obama administration. Transfer payments increased sharply, due
to the deep recession and the stimulus bill. Spending on the war in
Afghanistan was also a contributing factor.
3. From 1998–2001 the federal government ran a budget surplus. The
remaining years from 1993 – 2012 saw budget deficits. The federal
government budget deficit increased sharply during the Obama
administration, reaching 9.5 percent of U.S. GDP by the second quarter of
2009.
 TEACHING TIP: The data and graphs for Figures 9.4 [25.4], 9.5 [25.5] and 9.6 [25.6] are included
in the Excel workbook for this chapter. Data may not match the textbook exactly due to
revisions and the use of different data sources.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Chapter 9 [24]: The Government and Fiscal Policy 125

D. The Federal Government Debt

1. When the government runs a deficit it spends more than it collects in
revenue. The government must finance a deficit by borrowing. To do this
the government sells securities to the public.
2. The federal debt is the total amount owed by the federal government.
Privately held federal debt is the privately held (non-government-owned)
debt of the U.S. government. One way to add up any government’s debt is
by adding all deficits since the country was founded, then subtracting the
sum of all the surpluses. For example, the U.S. government debt is the
total of all accumulated deficits minus surpluses since 1776. (The starting
year will be different for other countries.)
 TEACHING TIP: Students are always captivated by the size of the government debt. Explain why
the debt decreased in 1997 to 2000, then began to increase again starting in 2002 as shown in
Fig. 9.7 [24.7].
 TEACHING TIP: See the Unique Economics in Practice on page 111 (Chapter 8) of this book for an
update on the fiscal stimulus package’s effect on the economy.

Economics in Practice: Long-Term Projections of

the Federal Government Debt, page 176 [496]

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the government debt will exceed 100 percent of
GDP by 2039. The main reason is the retirement and aging of the baby boom generation.
Retirement means they collect Social Security and enroll in Medicare. Aging means higher
medical care spending. If nothing changes, this is bad news.

V. The Economy’s Influence on the Government Budget, pages 177–179 [497–499]

A. Tax revenues depend on the state of the economy. And some government
expenditures (such as unemployment compensation) also depend on the state of
the economy.
B. Automatic Stabilizers and Destabilizers
1. Automatic stabilizers are revenue and expenditure items in the federal
budget that automatically change with the state of the economy in such a
way as to stabilize GDP. This affects the size of a deficit or surplus.
Unemployment compensation is an automatic stabilizer. So is the
automatic drop in tax revenue during a recession.
2. Automatic destabilizers are revenue and expenditure items in the federal
budget that automatically change with the state of the economy in such a
way as to destabilize GDP. Examples include government transfer
payments that adjust when inflation rises or falls.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

126 Case/Fair/Oster, Principles of Macroeconomics, 12th Edition

3. Fiscal drag is the negative effect on the economy that occurs when
average tax rates increase because taxpayers have moved into higher
income brackets during an expansion. Since federal tax brackets were
indexed for inflation in 1982, fiscal drag has been much less of a problem.
 TEACHING TIP: This is a good opportunity to talk about the interaction between the budget and
inflation. Before 1982, federal tax brackets were based on nominal incomes. When inflation was
high, people found themselves paying higher taxes even though their real incomes had not
changed. In 1982 federal tax brackets were indexed to inflation. In addition to being fairer to
taxpayers, indexing the brackets also means the government doesn’t gain from inflation.

C. The Full-Employment Budget is what the federal budget would be like if the
economy were producing at the full-employment level of output.
1. The full-employment budget is used as a benchmark to evaluate fiscal
policy. Most economists use it to compare fiscal policy in different years.
2. The structural deficit is the deficit that remains at full employment. A
structural deficit implies that the structure of tax and/or spending programs
is out of alignment.
3. The cyclical deficit is the deficit that occurs because of a downturn in the
business cycle.
4. Of the $582.3 billion U.S. government budget deficit in 2014, at least part
was cyclical deficit since the economy was not quite at full employment.
 TEACHING TIP: Explain to students that much of the budget surplus of the late 1990s was a
“windfall” caused by the prosperous economy. Point out that with more people working more
taxes are paid to and less transfers are received from the government.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Chapter 9 [24]: The Government and Fiscal Policy 127

Unique Economics in Practice

The U.S. Debt Clock has become a fixture on the internet (http://www.usdebtclock.org/). As of
22:20 GMT December 24, 2015 total debt was $18.8 trillion dollars.

Question: The debt clock shown above says the "U.S. National Debt" is $18.8 trillion dollars.
However, according to the Treasury Department's "Monthly Statement of the Public Debt" for
November 30, 2015, $13.59 trillion is debt held by the public. What's the difference?

Answer: The total debt on the debt clock includes state and local government debt as well as
intragovernmental holdings of debt. The Excel workbook for this chapter includes the public debt
statement as well as a worksheet that does the calculations shown below:

Sources: Statement of Public Debt from

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/mspd/mspd.htm accessed December 24, 2015.

VI. Looking Ahead, page 179 [499]

In the next two chapters we analyze monetary policy.
APPENDIX A: DERIVING THE FISCAL POLICY MULTIPLIERS, pages 182–183 [502–503]
Y = [1/(1 – b)] x [a + I + G – bT]
APPENDIX B: THE CASE IN WHICH TAX REVENUES DEPEND ON INCOME, pages 183-186 [503-506]
Y = [1/(1 – b + bt)] x [a + I + G – bT]
 TEACHING TIP: When you cover the material in the appendices, most students will understand it better if
you focus on numerical examples.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

128 Case/Fair/Oster, Principles of Macroeconomics, 12th Edition

Extended Application
Application 1: Fiscal Policy Choices

When it comes to numerical examples that show how multipliers are used, the more the
better. The following classroom presentation not only reinforces the material on the
various multipliers, but also adds some realistic constraints to fiscal choices.

Suppose the authorities wish to increase Y by $400 billion in an economy with an MPC of
0.75. The government spending multiplier is
1 (1 − MPC) = 4 ,
the tax multiplier is MPC (1 − MPC) = −3 , and the balanced-budget multiplier, as always,
is 1. This suggests three choices for increasing Y by the required amount as shown in the
following table:

Required Impact on
Policy Options Multiplier Change Deficit
1. Increase G 4 100 +100
2. Decrease T –3 –133 +133
3. Increase G and T by equal amounts 1 400 no change

Notice that all three policies increase output by the required $400 billion. But given the
results in the table, it looks like the preferred choice should always be option 3 because it
alone leaves the budget deficit unchanged. It is important to flag this result for students:
Fiscal expansion does not require an increase in the budget deficit.

But the table presents only part of the story. Output changes are composed of changes in
C, I, and G. The impact on C can be calculated as MPC (Y − T ) or, with lump sum taxes
only, MPC(Y − T ) . In this example, there is no change in I, so one needs to list only the
impacts on C and G:
Policy Options Impact on C Impact on G
1. Increase G +300 +100
2. Decrease T +400 0
3. Increase G and T by equal amounts 0 +400

Viewed from the perspective of the above table, these three policies look very different.
Although all three raise output by $400 billion, options 1 and 2 do so mostly by
increasing the output of consumption goods, whereas option 3 relies entirely on an
increase in government sector output. And here is the problem: Real-world economies—
unlike the economy of the simple mathematical model—have a productive infrastructure
(factories, capital equipment, human capital, retail outlets, etc.) suited to a particular mix
of output. To suddenly and radically change the actual mix of output can be dislocating to
the economy, causing shortages in the expanding sector without alleviating
unemployment in the depressed sectors. When the economy goes into recession, the
decrease in output occurs in the private sector. Thus the least dislocating policies would

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Chapter 9 [24]: The Government and Fiscal Policy 129

rely heavily on an expansion of private-sector output. In this way, not only would the
economy be restored to its previous output level, but also to its previous output mix.
Only options 1 and 2 rely on the expansion of private sector output, and both policies
increase the deficit. Hence, although fiscal expansion does not require deficit spending, a
smooth fiscal expansion might require a deficit.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

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my family. Naturally I did, and pen and paper being given me, I
commenced a letter in German to my manager at Assouan; but,
after a few lines had been written, the Khaleefa said the letter had
better be written in Arabic. The letter, when finished, was handed to
me to sign; but, not knowing the contents, I scrawled under the
signature, as a flourish, “All lies,” or something to this effect.
The letter was sent down by one of the Khaleefa’s spies, and was
delivered to the Commandant at Assouan. The word “Railway”
appearing as part of the address, it was sent to Mankarious Effendi,
the stationmaster, who, after taking a copy of it for reference,
returned it to the commandant, with the address of my manager.
Mankarious Effendi, having heard of my recent arrival in Cairo, has
come to me with the original copy of the letter taken in June, 1887.
The following is a literal translation of it:―
“In the name of the most merciful God, and prayers be unto our Lord
Mohammad and his submissive adherents.
“From the servant of his lord Abdallah el Muslimani the Prussian whose former
name was Charles Neufeld, to my manager Möller the Prussian in the Railway
Assouan.
“I inform you that after departing from you I have come to the Soudan with the
men of Saleh Fadlallah Salem el Kabbashi, who were carrying with them the arms
and ammunition and other articles sent to Saleh by the Government.
“On our march from Wadi Halfa, notwithstanding our |78| precautions and care
for the things in our charge, we arrived at the so-called Selima Wells, where we
took sufficient water, and proceeded on our journey. Suddenly we were met by six
of the adherents in the desert; they attacked us, and we fought against them. Our
number was fifty-five men. At the same time, a number of men from Abdel
Rahman Nejoumi came up; they reinforced the six men and fought us, and in the
space of half an hour we were subdued by them. Some were killed, and the rest
were captured with all the baggage we had. Myself, my servant Elias and my
maidservant Hasseena were among the captives. All of us were taken to Abdel
Rahman Nejoumi at Ordeh, and by him sent to the Khalifat el Mahdi, peace be
unto him, at Omdurman. On our arrival at Omdurman, we were taken to his
presence, where we were found guilty and sentenced to immediate death; but the
Khalifat el Mahdi, peace be unto him, had mercy upon us, and proposed unto us
to take the true religion, and we accepted El Islam, and pronounced the two
creeds in his presence: ‘I testify (bear witness) that there is none but God, and
Mohammad is his prophet’; and then, ‘I believe in God and his Prophet
Mohammad, upon whom God has prayed and greeted; and in the Mahdi, praise,
peace be upon him and upon his Khaleefa.’ I further requested the Mahdi to grant
me the ‘bai'a’ (oath of allegiance) which he was pleased to grant me, and
thereupon shook hands with me. He then named me Abdallah, after embracing
the true religion. Therefore I was pardoned by the Khalifat-el-Mahdi from the
execution which I have deserved. He pardoned me because he is gracious, and for
the sake of the religion of Mohammad which I now adhere to. So I thought it well
to inform you all about these events, and I inform you further that Dufa'allah
Hogal, although he deceived me, I cannot sufficiently thank him, because his
deceiving me has resulted in the great mercy and good which has come to me.
Saleh Fadlallah Salem is deserting and hiding in the desert, for fear of his life. All
that I have informed you is pure truth. I am still living, thanks be to God for this
and my health. 17th Shaaban, 1304 (May 10, 1887).”
It is only now, November 25, 1898, that Mankarious has placed
me in possession of the real details. My manager, who when he
returned to Egypt a few |79| weeks ago, on hearing of my release,
denied ever having received any communication from me, on August
6, 1887, addressed a letter to my father, written on my own business
paper, saying that he had received the above letter, had had it
translated, and communicated to the Egyptian Gazette , which paper
published the letter in its issue of August.
Slatin I saw but once again during my long captivity, and then it
was only in the distance on one occasion when he called at the
prison to give some orders to the head-gaoler. The Khaleefa I saw
twice again, on occasions to be referred to later.
 After signing the letter, I was taken back to the rukooba, where,
about sunset, a man carrying a long chain came to me and said he
had orders to remove my fetters. Passing the chain through one of
the anklets and round one of the posts, he took a short pole, and
used this as a lever to force the anklets open. Whilst still engaged in
removing the chains, the chief Kadi came in, and ordered the anklets
to be hammered back again, and the ends cold welded.
I remained in the rukooba for the night, and the following morning
was placed upon a donkey and taken to the prison. I was told that,
to save my life, Slatin had suggested this course being taken, using
as an argument that I could there be converted to the Mohammedan
religion, and devote all my time to my instructors.
 CHAPTER VII
T H R O W N I N TO P R I S O N

On entering the prison I found myself in the company of about a

hundred poor wretches, Soudanese and Egyptians, and all chained. I
was taken at once to an anvil sunk in the ground until the striking
surface was almost level with it; first one foot and then the other
had to be placed on the anvil, while more anklets with chains
connected, were fitted to me. I had now three sets of shackles, and
another ring and chain was fastened to my neck. During my twelve
years in chains, and amongst the hundreds who came directly under
my observation, I never saw, as has been illustrated in some papers,
any prisoner with chains from the neck connected with the wrists or
ankles. All prisoners were shackled in the manner as shown in my
photograph; the chain from the neck was allowed to hang loose over
the shoulder.
The shackling completed, I was taken to a room measuring about
thirty feet each way, but having a pillar about four feet wide to
support the roof, thus reducing the actual space to about twenty-six
feet between each face of the pillar and the walls. I was |81|
assigned a place at the wall furthest from the door, and between two
men—in chains—dying of small-pox. There were about thirty other
prisoners in the room, some lying down ill, to whom not the slightest
attention had been paid for days, as sickening visible evidences
proved. Near the roof were a few small apertures presumably for
ventilation, but the only air which could come into the place was
through the doorway when it was opened. The stench in the room
was sickening—overpowering. I had little hopes of surviving more
than a few days in such a hole, and must have swooned off soon
after entering, for I remember little or nothing until roused after the
sun had set, when in the dim light I could see what appeared to be
an endless stream of prisoners coming through the door, and no
sooner was the door closed when a terrific din and uproar ensued.
Mingled with the clanking of chains, the groans of the sick, the
moans of the dying, and their half-uttered prayers to Allah to relieve
them of their sufferings, were the most fearful imprecations and
curses as the prisoners fought and struggled for a place near the
walls or the pillar, against which they could rest their backs; no sleep
was to be had; this had to be snatched during the day, when
allowed out into the zareeba. It is out of the question to try to
describe my first night; it is a confused horrible dream to me.
On the opening of the cell door next morning, I swooned again,
and was carried into the open air to come round, and I had no
sooner partially done so, when I was carried back, in order, as I was
told, “to |82| get accustomed to the place.” My first three days
passed in fever and delirium; my legs were swelling with the weight
of the chains and anklets; my earliest clear recollection was on what
I knew later to be the fourth day, when an Egyptian, Hassan
Gammal, was sent to attend to me. Later on, the same day, my
servant Hasseena was sent to me to prepare food and bathe my
legs. Until now I had eaten nothing, and I have no recollection of
even taking a drink of water. Hasseena, on my being sent into
prison, had been sent into the Khaleefa’s hareem; but, on her telling
the women and eunuchs that she was with child, she was promptly
turned out. The money I had brought with me, and which had been
taken from me on my arrival, and sent to the Beit-el-Mal, was given
to Hasseena with which to purchase my food. On her entering the
prison enclosure, Idris-es-Saier, the head-gaoler, relieved her of the
money, saying he would take care of it, and shackling her with a
light chain, sent her into his hareem.
 I now received permission to sit outside during the day, and also
to converse with the other prisoners. On my first entering the prison
I had been warned, under threats of the lash, not to speak to any
one, and the other prisoners, under the same threat, had been
warned not to speak to me. They, as may be guessed, were most
anxious to talk to me, and get some news from the outer world, but
they were most guarded in their inquiries. There were many
prisoners in the place, who, to curry favour with the gaoler or the
Khaleefa, would have reported anything |83| in the way of a
complaint against their treatment—a wish on the part of any one to
escape, or an expressed hope that the Government would soon send
troops to release us. Knowing that the Government had, for the time
being, abandoned all thoughts of re-conquering the Soudan, I told
my fellow-captives, when they spoke to me about a probable
advance of the combined armies, that they must have patience until
the hot weather passed. Had I told them what I knew, their despair
could not have been concealed, and the truth would soon have
reached the Khaleefa’s ears. A number of the prisoners were old
soldiers of the Egyptian army, who had been taken at the fall of
Khartoum and elsewhere, and they waited day after day, week after
week, and year after year, still hoping that the Government for
whom they had fought would send troops to release them; but, with
the greater number, their release came only with death—at the
gallows, at the Khaleefa’s shambles, or by disease and starvation.
Imprisoned at one time with me was Mahmoud Wad Said, the
Sheikh of the Dabaanieh tribe, who for years had kept the
Abyssinians in check on the Egyptian frontier in the Eastern Soudan.
At one time he was powerful, rich in cattle, slaves, and lands, but
had been taken prisoner early in the Mahdist movement. When he
had been imprisoned about three years and four months, he became
paralyzed, and his release was ordered by the Khaleefa, who had so
far relented as to allow of his dying with his family, then at
Omdurman, patiently waiting for |84| his promised release. By their
careful nursing and attention, the old man recovered, only, when the
Khaleefa heard of it, to be thrown into prison again, where he
passed another thirteen months, at the end of which time he was
once more released, on condition that he would collect the remnants
of his tribe, and attack his old enemies the Abyssinians, whom the
Khaleefa was then fighting with. A few months later I heard that
Mahmoud was dead, one report saying that he had died of a broken
heart, and the other that he had been “removed” by order of the
Khaleefa, for failing to bring together again a tribe, which the
Khaleefa himself had almost exterminated.
Another of my companions in adversity was Ajjab Abou Jinn, of
the Hammadah tribe; he fought with the Government troops at
Sennar, and, when defeated by the dervishes, he retired to his
country with his men until, on the fall of Sennar, he was attacked
and defeated, his property confiscated, and he taken prisoner to
Omdurman, his wife being sent into the Khaleefa’s hareem. After
spending four years in prison, he was considered sufficiently
“educated,” and released, and in a few months was allowed to return
to his own country, when he set about making preparations to attack
the dervishes, and tried all means to get into communication with
the Government. Many of his people came to see me in prison, in
the hopes of learning news from me of a forward movement.
 Shereef. Zeigheir. Zeigheir’s father.
A GROUP OF PRISONERS.

The three sons of Awad el Kerim, Pasha of the Shukrieh tribe,

were also in prison with me; their |85| father had died in prison
shortly before my arrival. After keeping the three brothers—Abdalla,
Mohammad, and Ali—for nineteen months, the Khaleefa promised to
release them on condition that their tribe came to Omdurman and
tendered their submission, which they did; but, coming unprovided
with food, the tribe in the four or five months they were kept waiting
at Omdurman, was decimated by disease and starvation, and then,
and then only, the Khaleefa kept his promise, and released their
chiefs.
A man whom I almost struck up a real friendship with, was Sheikh
Hamad-el-Nil, a well-known religious teacher from the Blue Nile.
Having great influence over a large number of people, the Khaleefa,
fearing he might obtain a following, ordered him to Omdurman. Here
a difficulty arose as to what charge could be brought against him in
order to condemn him to imprisonment. Sheikh Hamad had taken
neither one side nor the other—Government nor Mahdieh, and had
devoted his whole time to a strict preaching of the Quoran, as he
had done for years. No Kadi dare condemn him on any charge made,
suborn “witnesses” as the Khaleefa would. But the Khaleefa was
determined to effect his condemnation by some means, more
especially as Sheikh Hamad was rich, and the Beit-el-Mal was short
of funds. Men were sent to the Sheikh’s house with orders to conceal
some tobacco in the ground—others were sent to discover it, and
tobacco being forbidden by the Mahdi, Sheikh Hamad, in spite of all
protestations, was sentenced by the Kadi to imprisonment and the
|86| confiscation of his property. His health broke down after about
eighteen months’ privations, and he was released; but recovering as
did Mahmoud, he was again imprisoned, and died a few weeks later.
Of all those in the prison, Sheikh Hamad was the only one who
dared say openly to those whom he trusted that both Mahdi and
Khaleefa were impostors. Two of my first four years were spent
mainly with the Sheikh learning to read and write Arabic, discussing
the tenets of the Christian and Mohammedan religions, and telling
him of our social life and customs in Europe.
There was one arrival at the prison which I was rather pleased to
see—Ahmed Abd-el-Maajid, of Berber, a great supporter of the
Mahdi and Khaleefa, and one of the bitterest enemies of Christians
and Europeans. He was, for the Soudan, well educated, and he was
also rich, and had much influence, but his vanity got the better of
him. He gave evidence of his wealth in the richness of his dress and
luxurious living, and this had been reported to the Khaleefa, but as
yet Maajid had not accepted any of the Khaleefa’s pressing
invitations to pay him a visit to Omdurman. Maajid made up his mind
to marry another wife—a young and pretty one; preparations for the
marriage ceremonies, and the feastings which accompany it, were
made on a large and lavish scale. The Mahdi had fixed ten dollars as
the sum to be paid to the parents of the virgin upon her marriage;
but Maajid paid one thousand, and this scouting of the Mahdi’s
orders coming to the ears of the Khaleefa, he sent off a party to
Berber with instructions to bring Maajid and his bride back with |87|
them. This party arrived at Berber while the festivities were still
going on, and Maajid could not refuse the Khaleefa’s invitation this
time. When he arrived at Omdurman, he was, with his bride, who
was reputed to be the most beautiful woman ever seen in the
Soudan, hurried before the Khaleefa and the Kadi. The latter, having
his brief ready, accused Maajid of having broken the rules as laid
down by the Mahdi, and also of having detained moneys which
should have been sent to the Beit-el-Mal, as was proved by his
having so much money when the coffers of the Beit-el-Mal were
empty. His property was confiscated and sent to the Beit-el-Mal; his
bride was taken possession of by the Khaleefa, and Maajid himself
sent to prison, where he spent six months, mainly occupied in
cursing the face of his bride, as it was this that had brought him to
grief. At the end of the six months, he was released and sent back to
Berber “educated,” with a strong recommendation from the Khaleefa
not to be so ostentatious with his wealth in future. The Khaleefa
kept Maajid’s money—and also his bride. It was this same Maajid,
who, after Slatin’s escape, ferreted out the people in Berber who had
assisted Slatin’s guides, and had them sent to the White Nile, where
those who did not die on the journey there died later.
Those I have mentioned above were what I might call the better
class of prisoners, with whom I mainly associated during my first
two years in prison; the remainder were slaves, thieves, ordinary
criminals, debtors, murderers, etc.
When I had recovered a little from my fever, I |88| was placed
upon a camel, and paraded past the huts, rukoobas, and zareebas,
which at that time constituted the town of Omdurman. A number of
Hadendowas had come in to tender their submission to the
Khaleefa; and he had seized the occasion to exhibit me to the
“faithful” as the great Pasha sent to conquer from him the Western
Soudan, and to impress the Hadendowas. A halt was made at the
hut of the Emir Said Mohammad Taher, a relative of the Mahdi, who,
after relating his version of the death of Hicks Pasha, and the
destruction of his army, both of which events had, according to him,
been brought about through the agency of angels sent by the
Prophet for the purpose, gave me a long lecture on Mahdieh, at the
end of which he asked me my opinion of it. I told him that if he
wished for a few lessons himself on religion, and as to how the God
I prayed to dealt with His faithful, and the means His teachers in
Europe employed for converting people and making them religious, I
should be pleased to give him a few. The reply angered him, and
another batch of prisoners were, by his orders, told off to lecture me
the whole day long on Mahdieh. While quite ready to talk to them
about the Mohammedan religion as propounded in the Quoran, I
would not believe in the mission of the Mahdi or his new religion.
When Taher asked what progress I had made in my “education,” he
was told that I would make none in Mahdieh, but was ready to
become a Mohammedan. I knew perfectly well what an out-and-out
acceptance of Mahdieh meant—my release, but only to be put in
charge of some troops, and, as I had |89| fought with the British
against the Mahdists, I had no wish to be caught in the dervish
ranks, fighting against them, or be found dead on the field, after the
fight, in the garb of a dervish, and pierced by a British bullet.
Taher was not pleased, and reported my insubordination to the
Khaleefa. It was probably on my fifteenth day that, accompanied by
the Hadendowas, who had come in to make their submission, I was
taken by steamer to Khartoum, in order that I might be “impressed”
with the power of the Khaleefa and the truth of Mahdieh. We were
first taken to Gordon’s old palace, where Khaleel Hassanein, acting
as the Mahdist governor of the town, and at the same time director
of the arsenal, received us, and gave us food. We were taken
through the rooms, then dismantled, and shown at the head of the
stairs what we were told were the bloodstains of Gordon. After this,
we were placed on donkeys, and taken round the fortifications, while
our “instructors” in Mahdieh, pointing to the skeletons and dried
bodies lying about, gave us word pictures in advance of how the
fortifications of Wadi Halfa and Cairo would look after the Khaleefa,
assisted by the angels, had attacked them. It was a melancholy
journey for me; and I am not ashamed to say that as my thoughts
flew back to that day at Kirbekan, when, full of hopes, we pictured
to ourselves the rescue of Gordon, fortifications and skeletons grew
dimmed and blurred, and finally were lost to view, as a hot tear fell
upon the back of my hand.
Taken back to prison, I became worse; the weight of the chains
and anklets dragging on me as I rode, |90| and the chafing of the
skin, set up an irritation, and the filth and dirt of the prison soon
contributed to the formation of large ulcers. It was while lying down
in the shade one morning, unable to move, at the time of the great
Bairam feast, that two camel men rode into the prison enclosure,
and, making one of the camels kneel down near me, ordered me at
once to mount, as the Khaleefa had sent for me. The other prisoners
crowded round and bade me good-bye, Mahmoud Wad Said telling
me to pull myself together, and to act as I did “when they tried to
burst your head with the ombeyehs.” There was a grand parade of
the troops that day, and no one but believed that I was to be
executed in front of them.
The two men could tell us nothing but that the Khaleefa had sent
for me, and, living or dead, they were bound to take me. I was lifted
on to the camel, and taken off to the parade-ground outside the
town. The long, swinging stride of the camel communicated its
motions to my chains, and by the time I reached the Khaleefa, I was
in a fainting condition, with the ulcers broken, and their contents
streaming down the flank of the camel. The Khaleefa, noticing this,
asked one of the Emirs what had happened; although close to him,
he would not address a word directly to me, though I could hear
what he said, and he could hear my reply. When he heard the
reason, he gave orders that the chains were to be removed that
night, and a lighter set fitted. The Khaleefa was surrounded by his
Emirs and bodyguard, and ranged on the plain in front of us was his
|91| great army of horse and camel men, and foot-soldiers. I should
have been marched past the whole army, but before reaching the
horsemen, the Khaleefa said to the Emir Ali Wad Saad, “Tell Abdalla
(myself) that he has only seen a quarter of the army, and let him be
brought for the parade to-morrow.”
The prisoners were astonished to see me return alive that
evening, and still more astonished at the orders given to Idris-es-
Saier to remove my chains at once, and put on a lighter set. For
once, the Khaleefa’s orders could not be carried out; the legs having
swollen so much, the anklets almost buried in flesh, could not be
brought near enough to the face of the anvil to allow of their being
struck at, and the following day I again attended parade in pretty
much the same state of collapse as the first. The Khaleefa was
furious at this; he had no wish to parade before his troops, as an
evidence of his power, a man who had to be held up on his camel.
My gaoler was sent to, and asked why he had disobeyed orders. He
gave as reasons, first, that he had no lighter chains, and secondly,
that my legs were so swollen that he was unable to get at the
anklets. The Khaleefa replied that they were to be removed that
night, and they were, but it was a terrible ordeal for me. Before
leaving the parade-ground, he sent to me Said Gumaa’s donkey and
Slatin’s horse, telling me that I might ride either of them back to
town, as their motion would be better for me than the camel, but I
elected to remain on the camel.
I had done my best to get near Slatin, to have a |92| few words
with him, but he was hardly for a moment near the Khaleefa’s side,
galloping from one part of the army to another with his orders. Ali
Wad Saad, on the part of the Khaleefa, asked me what I thought of
the army; to which I replied, “You have numbers, but not training”—
a reply which gave little satisfaction to the Khaleefa, who could
overhear it without having to wait for Saad to repeat it to him. This
was the last time upon which I saw the Khaleefa, but I live in hopes
of seeing him once again.
 CHAPTER VIII
PRISON LIFE

My first spell in prison was one of four years. After nine months the
rings and chains were removed from my neck, but the fetters I wore
continuously—with the exception of thirteen days—during the whole
of my captivity. A day-to-day record of my experiences is out of the
question, besides being unnecessary, even were it possible to give
them. I must content myself with a general description of the life
passed there, and give an idea of the day’s routine.
When I reached Omdurman, the prison proper consisted of the
common cell already mentioned (“Umm Hagar”—the house of
stone), surrounded by a large zareeba of thorn trees and branches,
and standing about six feet high. There were thirty guardians, each
armed with a “courbag” (rhinoceros-hide whip) with which to keep
their charges in order. There were no sanitary arrangements, not
even of the most primitive description. All prisoners had to be fed by
their friends or relatives; if they had neither they starved to death,
as the prisoners, charitable as they were to each other in the matter
of food, had barely enough to eat to keep body and soul together,
for the |94| best, and greater part of the food sent in, was eaten by
the guardians.
At sunrise each morning the door of the common cell was opened,
and the prisoners were allowed to shuffle down to the banks of the
Nile, a few yards distant, for their ablutions and for water for
drinking. After this, we assembled for the first prayer of the day, in
which all had to join. When not working, we had to read the Mahdi’s
“ratib,” a description of prayer-book, containing extracts from the
Quoran with interpolations of the Mahdi. All the faithful were ordered
to learn this “ratib” off by heart,* and for this purpose each one had
either to purchase a copy or write one out. At noon the second
prayer was held, followed by another mid-time between noon and
sunset, and a fourth at sunset. We should have repeated the night
prayer when the night had set in, but as we were driven into the
“Umm Hagar” at sunset, the time which should have been given to
this prayer was fully taken up with brawls, fights, and those
comprehensive curses of the Arabs, commencing with the second
person’s father, going back for generations, and including all the
female ancestors.
* The “Ratib” occupied about three-quarters of an hour in recitation, and, by
the Mahdi’s orders had to be repeated daily by every one after the morning
and afternoon prayer; it ranked in importance with the five obligatory daily
prayers ordained by the Quoran. It was also looked upon as a sort of
talisman, and it was given out, after such fights as Toski, Ginniss, and the
Atbara, that those killed were those who had either not learned the Ratib or
had not a copy with them. The book was carried in a small leather case
suspended from the neck. A number of copies were printed on the old
Government press, but it was considered more meritorious to write out a copy
rather than to purchase one, and the Mahdi had hoped that this Ratib would
eventually become a sort of Quoran accompanied by its volumes of
“traditions,” hence his anxiety that every one should learn to write.
 LEARNING THE MAHDI’S RATIB.

It has been found impossible, even in the most guarded and

disguised language, to insert here a real word-picture of a night in
the Saier. The scenes |95| of bestiality and filthiness, the means
employed for bringing the most powerful man to his knees with a
single blow, the nameless crimes committed night after night, and
year after year, may not be recorded in print. At times, and
sometimes for weeks in succession, from 250 to 280 prisoners were
driven into that small room; we were packed in; there was scarcely
room to move our arms; “jibbehs” swarmed with insects and
parasites which in themselves made sleep an impossibility and life a
misery. As the heat grew more oppressive, and the atmosphere—
always vile with the ever-present stench of the place—grew closer
with the perspiring bodies, and with other causes, all semblance of
human beings was lost. Filth was thrown from one side of the room
to the other by any one who could move his hand for the purpose of
doing so, and as soon as this disgusting element was introduced, the
mass, in its efforts to avoid being struck with it, swayed from side to
side, fought, bit, and struggled as far as their packed-in condition
would allow of, and kicked with their bars and chains the shins of
those next them, until the scene became one that only a Dante
might describe. Any prisoner who went down on such a night never
got up again alive; his cries would not be heard above the
pandemonium of clanking chains and bars, imprecations and
cursings, and for any one to attempt to bend down to assist, if he
did hear, only meant his going under also. In the morning, when we
were allowed to stream out, five and six bodies would be found on
the ground with the life crushed and trampled out of them. |96|
Occasionally, when the uproar was greater than usual, the guards
would open the door, and, standing in the doorway, lash at the
heads of the prisoners with their hide whips. Always when this
occurred death claimed its five or six victims, crushed and trampled
to death. I wish I might say that I had drawn upon my imagination
for what is given above; I can but assure you that it gives but the
very faintest idea of what really occurred.
Until we had been set to make bricks and build a wall round our
prison, our life, in comparison with what it was later, was I might say
endurable. By baksheeshing the guards, we were allowed to go
down to the river during the day almost as often as we pleased; and
these excursions, taken presumably for the purpose of ablution and
drinking, gave us many opportunities of conversing with the
townspeople. This life I enjoyed but for a few months. A large
number of prisoners succeeded in escaping. Consequently the
digging of a well for infiltration water to supply the prisoners, and
the building of a wall round the prison were ordered by the Khaleefa
to be completed as rapidly as possible.
The prisoners who escaped were mainly slaves, and as most
slaves were chained to prevent their running away from their owners
—hundreds going about the town fettered—they had little difficulty
in effecting their escape from prison, and also from Omdurman. On
being allowed to go to the river to wash, they would wade down the
bank until they came opposite some large crowd of people, and |97|
coming on the bank, their chains would excite no suspicion, for, as I
have already said, hundreds similarly fettered were going about the
town. Making their way to the nearest blacksmith, he would remove
their chains in a few moments for the sake of obtaining the iron,
which was valuable to him.
We were not at that time altogether without news; papers
published in Egypt were constantly arriving, brought by the
Khaleefa’s spies, who passed regularly backwards and forwards
between Omdurman and Cairo, keeping up communications between
the Khaleefa and some of the more fanatical Mohammedans resident
at the capital. Since my return I have inquired as to an incident
which happened on the frontier in connection with the army some
years ago. I shall only relate what we heard, and as given out by the
Khaleefa and his Emirs. All the English officers, according to the
report received, had been dismissed, and had left with the Sirdar.
The English soldiers had also been removed from Egypt; so the
Khaleefa was jubilant, and looked forward to the near future when
the Egyptian troops would attempt to attack him, and when not a
man of them was to be left alive. I was to have been a witness of
the great battles when the angels of Allah were to fight with the
believers, and assist the Ansar to utterly exterminate the Turks.
While this was still the topic of conversation, another messenger
arrived to say that the trouble had been arranged; the English
officers and troops were not leaving, and as the Khaleefa’s hopes
fell, ours rose. |98|
Of all the people whom the Mahdi himself appointed to posts, two,
and, I believe, two only, retained their positions up to the time of the
taking of Omdurman. One was Khaleel Hassanein, the director of the
arsenal, and the other Idris es Saier, the gaoler. Idris—for he is still
living—is a man of the Gawaamah tribe, a tribe that the first
missionary will have some little trouble with, unless he is prepared to
revise one of the Ten Commandments out of the Pentateuch
altogether, as the following story connected with my gaoler’s first
appearance in the world may indicate. Idris’s mother had a sister
who, tired of single blessedness, proposed to, and was accepted by,
a swain of the tribe who was a constant visitor to their hut. Idris’s
mother had also the intention of proposing to the same man, and
having told her sister this, the sister popped the question first, was
accepted, and then Idris’s mother upbraided her after the manner of
her tribe, which evidently consisted more of actions than of words.
When the happy swain put in his next appearance, Idris’s mother,
with Idris in her arms, asked him how he dare go against the custom
of her section of the tribe, and accept in marriage a girl who had
had no children, while she had already had two! “Saier” in the
Gawaamah language means “custom” and “customary,” and Idris
was named Idris es Saier when, in after years, a satisfactory
explanation could not be found for his not boasting a father. Idris’s
mother afterwards married and ruled, with her legitimate son, Saier’s
family. When appointed as gaoler by the Mahdi, his prison was |99|
called “El-Beit-es-Saier” (the house of Saier), which later was
contracted to “Saier,” and the name eventually replaced the proper
word for prison, all prisons being called the “Saier,” and the head-
gaoler, “Saier.”
Idris had been a famous robber and thief, and he was never tired
of relating his exploits, and then winding up by pointing out what
Mahdieh had done for him, for by his conversion he was now the
honoured guardian of all thieves, robbers, and murderers, and there
is little doubt but that he had a sneaking regard for all such, as a link
between himself and his earlier days.
He was superstitious to a degree, and although the Mahdi and
Khaleefa had strictly forbidden fortune-telling and the writing of
talismans, Idris followed the example of the Khaleefa himself, and
regularly consulted the fortune-tellers, most of his ill-gotten gains
going to them in fees. He had had made twenty-five to thirty boards
of hard wood, about eighteen to twenty inches square, and on these
he had written daily, a Sourah from the Quoran. The ink with which
the Sourahs were written was a mixture of wood-soot—or lamp-
black, when that could be obtained—gum arabic, some perfume, and
water. As soon as the writing was finished, Idris would, after
carefully washing his hands, take a small vessel holding about two
teacups of water, and carefully wash off the writing, allowing the
water to drip back into the vessel; not a drop was to be spilled on
the ground, otherwise the writing would have to be done over again,
for the name Allah, and many of His attributes, |100| were then in
the solution. Having washed the board clean, caught every drop of
water, and then drunk it, he would come to us, and deliver himself of
the following harangue, and as we heard it two or three times a
week for years, I have an almost verbatim recollection of it.
“I am a born thief and robber; my people killed many on the
roads, and robbed them of their property; I drank as no one else
could, and I did everything possible against rule and religion. The
Mahdi then came and taught me to pray and leave other people’s
property alone.” (This last always raised a bitter smile from his
hearers, as he used to torture us to deliver up for “the Khaleefa” any
small coin or article of value we might come into possession of.)
“How I have to thank the Mahdi for having made me a good, holy,
and new man, and he will at the Day of Judgment be my witness,
and take me with his ansars to heaven. Think what I have been, and
see what I am now! I have been worse than any of you. If you stole
anything, you stole when you were with the Government, and you
only did what the Government and every one else did, you had
authority to do so. I was worse than you, I had no authority. God
has pardoned me, and will also pardon you if you repent and give to
the Beit-el-Mal what you have taken from the poor, for there are
many poor now in the town crying for food, and there is no money
in the Beit-el-Mal to purchase any. I have given all my money in
charity, and my wives and children are crying for food. I have no
boats to bring me |101| merchandise, and I have no land to cultivate
to grow dourra” (Sorghum, a grain in the Soudan, which takes the
place of our wheat). “I am a prisoner as you are, and the pay I get
is not sufficient to feed my family. Yesterday there was no dourra in
my house to feed my children, they had to lie down hungry, and I
thank God for His grace in supporting me through these trials for
which I shall be rewarded in the next world. I am going to see my
starving children now, and then I shall pray to God, and ask him to
release you if you repent, and turn the Khaleefa’s heart to you. The
Khaleefa knows everything you do, and sees you all the day, for ‘El
Nebbi Khiddr’ is his eyes and ears, and El Nebbi Khiddr not only sees
and hears what you are doing and saying, but sees what your
thoughts are.”
After this, all but myself used to rise and kiss his hands; I never
did so. At the end of the first harangue he gave in my presence, and
at the end of his harangues for weeks later, he would continue:
—“And now you man from the bad world, you understand Arabic
well. The Khaleefa has told me to instruct you in the true religion;
your fellow-prisoners will tell you how Hicks Pasha was, with all his
army, killed by the angels; not a single shot was fired, or a spear
thrown, by the Ansar; the spears flew from their hands, and, guided
by the angels, pierced the breasts of the unbelievers, and burned up
their bodies. God is great. You will soon learn that you are mistaken,
and that all your world is wrong; there is no religion but that of the
Mahdi. How happy you |102| should be to have lived in his time and
entered into the company of the Ansar. God now loves you; it is He
who has brought you to us, and with the Khaleefa’s blessing you will
yet be numbered with the Ansar, and you will fight against the
unbelievers and Turks as other converts have done. You have a
strong mind, and the Khaleefa therefore has not a bad opinion of
you. Thank him for his mercy that he did not kill you. Be converted,
and I shall be pleased and proud of you, and be as your father. You
others, you have seen the Mahdi and the Khaleefa and their
dealings; tell him of them. You Hamad el Nil, you are a learned man,
and know more of religion than I do; make Abdalla know who God
is, and who is His prophet.”
 IDRIS-ES-SAIER.

At the end of my first lecture, Abou Jinn asked me how much

money I had. I inquired why. He replied, “Do you not understand?
The Saier wants some money from you.” I told him of the money
Hasseena had, and which the Saier was taking care of, on which he
smiled and told me that the Saier would not take the money himself,
but he would compel me to give it to him for his “starving children.”
A few days later I was sent for to hear the Saier hold forth again,
and on this occasion he finished up by saying that some of us must
have done something wrong. The Nebbi Khiddr had reported it to
the Khaleefa, who had in consequence ordered him to add more
chains to our feet, but that we were to submit to this without bad
feelings against the Khaleefa and him. If we repented, the |103|
Nebbi Khiddr would report it, and the Khaleefa, as he was full of
grace, would soon order the chains to be removed again. All the
principal prisoners, with the exception of myself, were then marched
to the anvil, and had their chains hammered on. I was spared, as,
after the first lecture, I had, on Abou Jinn’s advice, sent word to the
Saier to take fifteen of my dollars for his “starving children.” We
prisoners held a conference, and it was decided to present more
moneys. It took us two days to scrape together the requisite sum—
about fifty dollars—to which I added seventeen of mine. This had
the happy result of not only removing the extra chains of the
prisoners, but Hasseena’s also. The Saier called us together, gave us
a homily on repentance and good behaviour, and told us to continue
in the same path, as it was evidently looked upon with approval by
the Nebbi Khiddr.*
* The Nebbi Khiddr is a mythical character in Islam. Sects are divided as to
whether he is a prophet or not. His name does not appear in the Quoran. By
some of the old writers he is made the companion of Noah, Abraham, and
Moses. Having drunk of the waters of the Fountain of Life, he is believed by
some to be ever present at one of the holy places. His exact whereabouts and
his attributes have never been defined. The Mahdi killed two birds with one
stone by appropriating this unclaimed prophet to himself; first, his supposed
presence made Omdurman a holy place, as the Nebbi only appeared at holy
places, and then, by investing him with the powers as related by Idris es
Saier, he was able to impress the more ignorant of his followers of his—the
Khaleefa’s—omniscience and omnipresence through the Nebbi Khiddr’s
agency. The Mahdi laying claim to this prophet and attributing to him the
powers he did, raised in the minds of Hamad-el-Nil and others their first
suspicions as to the Mahdi and his mission.
 But this Nebbi Khiddr was never satisfied for long with our
conduct. Every month he had something to report to the “Khaleefa,”
and just as regularly we were given extra chains, until a few dollars,
entrusted to Idris for the poor, had sent him to the Khaleefa with a
favourable report. All these ill-gotten moneys, as I have said, went
to soothsayers, fortune-tellers, and talisman writers, in whose
absolute power the |104| Saier was, though part went in baksheesh
to the servants and counsellors of the Khaleefa, whom the Saier had
to keep in funds in order to retain his place.
The Saier knew very well that not a single one of us believed in
this Nebbi Khiddr business, but as on the outside of the circle of the
principal prisoners—and they were the only ones from whom money
could be squeezed—were always gathered a number of the ignorant
and, therefore, more fanatical of the Khaleefa’s adherents, he had
invented this tale, which he gave year after year without the
slightest variation in words, in order to hoodwink them and prevent
any tales reaching the Khaleefa as to the sums “presented” by the
prisoners.
 CHAPTER IX
MY FIRST CHANCE OF ESCAPE

It was during my first months in prison that Ahmed Nur ed Din of

the Kabbabish succeeded in getting into prison, in the hope of
effecting my escape. I had for some years had dealings with Nur ed
Din in connection with the Intelligence Department, and also the
caravan trade. When I left Wadi Halfa with Saleh’s caravan, Nur ed
Din was then at Saleh’s camp with messages to him from the
Government. On his return to Wadi Halfa, he heard of what had
happened, and coming at once to Omdurman, he sent a message by
my servant that he had come for me. All his applications to get into
the prison being refused by the guards, and fearing to make an
application to Idris es Saier or the Mehkemmeh, he arranged with a
friend to have a petty quarrel in the market-place; his friend hurried
him before the Kadi, and Nur ed Din was ordered into prison. On
seeing me walk towards him as he entered, as I did not know then
that he came as a prisoner, he gave me a “hooss,” the Soudan
equivalent for our “ssh” (silence), and walked off in another
direction. Later in the day, and when we were being |106| marshalled
to be driven into the common cell, he came next to me, and
whispered, “I have come for you; be careful; keep your eyes open;
try and obtain permission to sleep outside the Umm Hagar.” Two
weeks elapsed before we had another opportunity of exchanging a
few words, but in the interval Nur ed Din was ingratiating himself
with the prisoners who associated with me, and gradually allowing
his curiosity to speak to the “white kaffir” to be evident. It was
necessary for him to act in this cautious manner in order to avert
suspicion, and another week passed after his introduction to our
little circle, before he dare seize an opportunity to consult me about
his health and numerous ailments—which was his explanation when
questioned about our long conversation together.
It was a strange story he had to tell. On meeting Gabou, Gabou at
once commenced to talk to him about some double dealings which
he proposed with both dervishes and Government. Nur ed Din was
suspicious, and did not fall in with the proposals; this then left
Gabou at the mercy of Nur ed Din, and the former picked a quarrel,
during which Nur ed Din accused Gabou of the betrayal of the
caravan to Saleh. Others of the Kabbabish were already looking
askance at Gabou, and wondering whether, if the truth once came
out, they too would not be punished as conspirators. Gabou was,
they believed, then engaged upon some plot which would render
them harmless as regards himself should they make a report against
him to the Government, and in self-preservation they held a
conference with Nur ed Din. It was proposed that |107| some one,
for the honour of the tribe, should try and effect my release or
escape from Omdurman, while, as will have been seen, there was
also the element of self-interest in the matter. There was now a feud
between Gabou and Nur ed Din, and the latter volunteered to
undertake the risk of the journey to Omdurman.
His plan, when he saw that there was not the slightest hope of my
being released from prison, was a desperate one, and we ran every
chance of being killed in the attempt to escape, but this risk I was
quite willing to take. I knew Nur ed Din would make no mistakes. It
was not as if he was actuated by avarice in assisting me; but being
engaged in a death-feud, he sought every means to be the one left
alive, and he knew that if he could conduct me to Wadi Halfa, Gabou
would soon decorate a scaffold or be shot out of hand.
Nur ed Din, through the services of one of his party, a boy whom
he had brought with him, and who came into the prison daily as Nur
ed Din’s food servant, first arranged for relays of camels, then for
the purchase of rifles and ammunition, which were buried in the
desert a short distance from Omdurman. These preparations being
complete, six of the ten men at his first relay station were sent for to
cut a hole through the wall of the prison nearest the Nile, and this
they were to do on the night we sent a message to them or gave a
signal, one of the men being always near the bank, close to the
selected part of the wall. Final instructions were given on hearing
that the |108| camels were ready and well provided with water. After
creeping through the aperture, we were to make our way to the
river, dragging an old fishing-net behind us; rags were to be bound
round the chains to deaden their rattling; this part of the scheme
was to hide my chains, and prevent their clanging being heard. On
passing the last of the huts, we were to leave the river, and,
mounting the camels, we were to travel as fast as the camels would
go, for twelve hours direct west, where we would pick up the first
relay. We had sent the boy out with a message to our people to
procure three revolvers and ammunition. Nur ed Din and I were to
take one each for use in case necessity arose before we could reach
the buried rifles; the other one of the men was to take, and, if our
flight was at once discovered, he was to fire towards a boat which
had been taken to the opposite bank, and swear that we had
escaped by its means. This would put our pursuers on the wrong
scent for some time. One revolver and seventeen cartridges only
could be found then, and Nur ed Din decided on waiting a few days
until others could be obtained.
Whilst these were being searched for, Nur ed Din became feverish,
and to my horror I saw all the symptoms of typhus fever developing.
This fever had been named Umm Sabbah (seven), as it invariably
carried off its victims in seven days. It may be guessed how
anxiously and carefully I nursed Nur ed Din, and how Hasseena was
kept busy the whole day brewing from tamarinds, dates, and roots,
|109| cooling draughts to allay his fever. He might have recovered,
had he not kept himself excited over the fear of losing his vengeance
on Gabou, but he gradually sank and died.
I was locked up in the Umm Hagar on the night of his death, and
the fever was then taking hold of me; two days later I was
senseless, and of course helpless. Hasseena, with two boys, used to
carry me about from shade to shade as the sun travelled, but my
neck-chain dragged, and sometimes tripped one or the other up, and
then it was that orders were given to remove it. Hasseena had been
told that the best remedy for me was a description of vegetable
marrow soaked in salt water; the water was drunk and the marrow
eaten as the patient recovered. The purgative properties of this
medicine might suit Soudan constitutions, and it evidently suited
mine at the time, but I should warn any of my readers, should they
be so unfortunate as to contract this fever, against attempting the
remedy. When the decoction has acted sufficiently, the mouth is
crammed with butter, which to the throat, at this stage of the “cure,”
feels like boiling oil, and you experience all the sensations of internal
scalding. The next operation is to briskly rub the whole body, and
then anoint it with butter or oil—butter by preference. The patient
has nothing to say about his treatment—he is helpless; every bit of
strength and will has left him, and when he has been rolled up in old
camel-cloths and “sweated,” weakness hardly expresses the
condition he has arrived at. It was on the thirteenth day of my
attack that I reached |110| the final stage of my treatment, and then
I fell asleep, waking some hours later with a clear head and all my
faculties about me, though I was then but a living skeleton.
The Khaleefa, hearing of my condition, thought it a favourable
opportunity for me to receive a few more lessons in Mahdieh, and
my period of convalescence was much prolonged owing to the worry
and annoyance which these teachers of Mahdieh were to me. Kadi
Hanafi, one of Slatin’s old Kadis, then imprisoned with me owing to
his open avowal that the justice and the sentences given by the
Mehkemmeh (religious courts) were against the teachings of the
Quoran, told me that it was a mistake on my part so openly to defy
the Khaleefa, and that it would be more “politique” to submit as had
Slatin, who had now his house, wives, slaves, horses and donkeys,
and cultivated land outside the city. But in my then condition, a little
procession, for which my dead body would be the reason, was much
more to my liking, and I did not care in what shape death came,
provided that it did come.
Hanafi used up all his arguments in trying to persuade me to
become a good Muslim. Dilating on the power of the Khaleefa and
my impotence, he pointed to my chains, then weighing about forty
pounds, and said that the Khaleefa would certainly torture me with
them until I submitted to become a good Muslim. To this last
argument I replied that if I did say I would be converted, the
Khaleefa, as soon as he heard of it, would make me proclaim my
conversion publicly, |111| and just as certainly behead me
immediately afterwards, to prevent my slipping back into Christianity.
Hanafi believed that the Khaleefa would still let me live after
embracing the Mohammedan faith in the hope of my accepting the
Mahdieh; he failed though to convert me, and the Khaleefa, hearing
of the result, and not believing that Hanafi had done all that he
might have done with his arguments, for this and other reasons sent
him later as a convict to Gebel Ragaf, near Lado, the convict station
of the Soudan.
By the time I had gained sufficient strength to attempt the flight,
the men engaged had lost heart, and there was no one to lead
them. Nur ed Din was dead, and as they only came into the thing for
the money they were to receive, and the dollars were not then
forthcoming, they decided not to run any risk, disbanded the camel-
posts, and scattered to their various homes.
How many hundreds of times have I regretted since that I did not
take Nur ed Din’s advice and escape at the time, leaving him behind.
As he said, there was no reason to be afraid that he would lose his
head, as his being so ill and also his being left behind would prevent
suspicion being directed towards him. During my twelve years’
captivity, this, my first chance of escape, risky and desperate as it
was, was the only one which had in it a real element of success, for
my conductor in saving me was to save himself.
As is customary in all oriental prisons, the prisoners in the Saier
had either to purchase their own food, or their friends and relatives
had to send it into the |112| prison for them; failing money, friends
and relatives, the prisoners starved to death. I have already said
that the best and greater part of the food sent to the prison gates
was appropriated by the gaolers, that is to say, after Idris es Saier
had seen to the wants of his “starving children” and numerous
household first. Idris, even during the worst period of the famine,
did not lose flesh; he was always the same tall, stout, flat-nosed
black, both when I first saw him on May 10, 1887, and when I last
saw him in September, 1898. Nor was Idris quite so bad as he had
been painted; he would often—when the Nebbi Khiddr tale had had
the desired effect in repentance, or when he was in a good humour
after a bout of marrissa drinking—go out of his way to do his
prisoners small kindnesses, such as the removal of extra chains, and
giving permission to sleep in the open; but the Nebbi Khiddr
institution left him so much at the mercy of the Khaleefa’s immediate
attendants, that his periods of good humour were, in consequence,
of very short duration. Some day, if I return to the Soudan, or Idris
pays a visit to civilization, I may learn from him whom I have to
thank for a few of the unnecessary hardships inflicted upon me.
It might be asked why we, knowing that the guards would purloin
the greater part of the food sent in, did not arrange for a larger
quantity to be sent. There are two reasons, and the first is the least
of the two: the guards knew very well what was the minimum
amount of food to keep us alive, and just that quantity of food |113|
would be allowed to pass the portals of the Saier. The second reason
was, that the sight of more or better food being brought to a
prisoner proved one of two things: either the prisoner himself had
received some money, or his friends had, and the following day the
time-worn Nebbi Khiddr tale, properly translated, meant chains until
more dollars were forthcoming. Under such circumstances, the
unlucky offender against Saier politics would be called upon by the
other mulcted prisoners to make good the money they had been
bled of, for the Saier was most impartial in the matter of chains, and,
certain of always getting the proper victim in the end, invariably
loaded a dozen or so with extra chains, and ordered all into the
Umm Hagar. An attenuated and burned chicken, or pigeon, cost a
few dollars in repentance, and also the wearing of extra chains and
the horrors of the Umm Hagar for nights, for it was advisable to
keep Idris waiting some days for an evidence of repentance, so that
he should believe, and the Khaleefa’s attendants believe also, that
some little difficulty had been experienced in collecting the few
dollars you had to pay.
Our usual food was “Asseeda,” the Soudan dourra (sorghum),
roughly pounded moist, and mixed into a thick paste, feeling and
tasting to the palate like sawdust. It was not a very nourishing dish,
but it was a heavy one, and stayed the pangs and gnawings of
hunger. A flavour might be imparted by allowing a quantity to stand
for a day or two until fermentation set in. Occasionally, but only
occasionally, a sauce |114| made from the pounded seed of the
Baamia hybiscus, and called “Mulakh,” could be obtained, and this,
with the fermented asseeda, made a veritable banquet. Friends in
the town sent us, when they could either afford or obtain it, a little
wheaten bread, a bit of cheese or butter, or a few pinches of coffee.
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