Page:A Prisoner of the Khaleefa.djvu/136

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