them.

"Away!" he had cried. "Away with your uncleanness and deception."

And the foulest babbler of them all, hot with the exercise of the
indecent gestures wherewith he illustrated his filthy tale, had slunk
off like a pariah dog.

As the Mahdi entered the town a number of mountaineers in the Feddan
were going through their feats of wonder-play before a multitude of
excited spectators. Two tribes, mounted on wild barbs, were charging in
line from opposite sides of the square, some seated, some kneeling, some
standing. Midway across the market-place they were charging, horses at
full gallop, firing their muskets, then reining in at a horse's length,
throwing their barbs on their haunches, wheeling round and galloping
back, amid deafening shouts of "Allah! Allah! Allah!"

"Allah indeed!" cried the Mahdi, striding into their midst without
fear. "That is all the part that God plays in this land of iniquity and
bloodshed. Away, away!"

The people separated, and the Mahdi turned towards the Kasbah. As he
approached it, the lanes leading to the Feddan were being cleared for
the mad antics of the Aissawa. Before they saw him the fanatics came out
in all the force of their acting brotherhood, a score of half-naked
men, and one other entirely naked, attended by their high-priests, the
Mukaddameen, three old patriarchs with long white beards, wearing dark
flowing robes and carrying torches. Then goats and dogs were riven alive
and eaten raw; while women and children; crouching in the gathering
darkness overhead looked down from the roofs and shuddered. And as the